The call to holiness represents an essential component of the identity of the laity. The Council declares: “It is therefore quite clear that all Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of love, and by this holiness a more human manner of life is fostered also in earthly society” (Lumen Gentium, no. 40).
Christian holiness is a gift of God and must primarily be accepted as a gift. The baptized participate in the divine nature thanks to the effusion of the Holy Spirit; already by virtue of this they are saints. In the New Testament the word “saint”, indeed, becomes even synonymous with “Christian”. The call to holiness is not a mere exhortation of a moral or moralistic order. Holiness is the deepest need of the Christian vocation, of our “being Christians”. And it must find expression in everyone’s action, in other words, in following and imitating Christ, in prayer, in the listening to the Word of God, in embracing the Beatitudes, in practising the commandment of love, in the sacramental life and especially in the sacraments of the Eucharist and of Penance. In short, holiness must be expressed in the unity between faith and life.
The holiness of the laity is not a division-two or second-class holiness, as in the past was thought by those who identified holiness with the so-called “state of perfection”. The Christian holiness of the laity is realized in the heart of the world and not through a flight from the world. Christian dedication in the world is thus ennobled and becomes one of the means of achieving holiness. Vatican Council II opened up to the laity fascinating horizons of Christian perfection lived in the light of the spirituality of the Incarnation. All this has borne and continues to bear precious fruit. Countless lay men and women have adopted the Council’s teachings as a programme for life, overcoming the temptation of mediocrity and indifference, and demonstrating great spiritual maturity and capacity for radical choices, inspired by the Gospel.
