1. Communion et Missio
Borgjie Distura
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines declares the year of 2012 as
the “Year of the Pontifical Mission Societies.”
Through this celebration, the Catholic hierarchy in the Philippines has the vision
of enkindling the flame of missionary work especially here in the Philippines as it is also
in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the Pontifical Mission
Society (PMS).
The Church is optimistic that it is to be a grace-filled year, marked by renewed
enthusiasm for dedicated service among Filipinos as Christ’s evangelizing disciples.
Through a wide variety of activities, they are hoping to rekindle among Filipinos a
dynamic commitment to the effective evangelization.
It is not to be mistaken that it is not only the men of cloth and the religious men
and women who are called to missionary activities in the church. This call to mission is
universal. In this article, I will dwell more on the mission of the laity in this universal
call.
In treating the call of God to all people I wish to discuss two things – communion
and mission respectively. This treatment is based in post-synodal apostolic exhortation
Christifideles Laici of His Holiness John Paul II on the vocation and the mission of the
lay faithful in the church and in the world.
The analogy of the Blessed Pope John Paul II gives us the idea about laity as the
laborers in the vast vineyard of the Lord – this vast vineyard of the Lord is taken to
signify the world where there is so much work to be done and so much tasks to be
accomplished. The pope said in the opening words of his apostolic exhortation:
The lay members of Christ's Faithful
People…are those who form that part of the
People of God which might be likened to the
laborers in the vineyard mentioned in Matthew's
Gospel: "For the Kingdom of heaven is like a
householder who went out early in the morning
to hire labourers for his vineyard. After agreeing

2. with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent
them into his vineyard" (Mt 20:1-2).1
From here we can say already that all are called to be laborers of God in his
vineyard including the lay faithful. From here we can say further the call to communio
and the missio of the laity. First, the laity is in communio with all the laborers in the
vineyard and secondly, his missio is to labor.
THE CALL
From that distant day the call of the Lord Jesus "You go into my vineyard too"
never fails to resound in the course of history: it is addressed to every person who comes
into this world.2
The call is a concern not only of clergy and men and women religious. The call is
addressed to everyone: lay people as well are personally called by the Lord, from whom
they receive a mission on behalf of the Church and the world.
The laity, finding themselves in the very place where the interaction between the
Church and the world is most visible and concrete, are simultaneously being called upon
in a special way to accept their part in the Church’s mission.3
The Church becomes aware of the value of the laity by looking at the great
contribution that the laity has been giving to the Church. The Synod of Bishops reflecting
upon the mission and vocation of the laity in the church and in the world publicly
expressed its gratitude to the lay faithful. The Synod said: "We give thanks that during
the course of the Synod we have not only rejoiced in the participation of the lay faithful
(both men and women auditors), but even more so in that the progress of the Synodal
discussions has enabled us to listen to those whom we invited, representatives of the lay
faithful from all parts of the world, from different countries, and to profit from their
1
Christifideles Laici on the Vocation and Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the
World (John Paul II) no. 1. Henceforward CL.
2
CL 2.
3
Instrumentum Laboris on the Vocation and mission of the Laity in the Church and the World
Twenty Years after the Second Vatican Council (Synod of Bishops) 1.

3. experience, their advice and the suggestions they have offered out of love for the
common cause."
THEIR MISSIO IS TO BE IN COMMUNIO
The lay faithful today must be in communio with the life and mission of the
Church. Many lay faithful have to become aware of the Church’s responsibility to the
world. The faithful should also be formed about this responsibility. That is why in chapter
five of the apostolic exhortation the Holy Father teaches that the faithful must also be
formed that you bear much fruit. The Pontiff said that the gospel image of the vine and
the branches reveals to us another fundamental aspect of the lay faithful's life and
mission: the call to growth and a continual process of maturation, of always bearing
much fruit.
The lay must be in communio with the Church’s responsibility in the world
because through them the Church has the opportunity of making her present in the real
life situations of human existence. Their utmost response to this communio would mean a
maturation of the Church’s effectiveness in her mission.
What can their communio in the Church imply? Well, we can reflect from here
that by their communio they can bear witness to the timeliness of the Redemption of
Jesus Christ in building a more just world to live in. Their participation in the communio
can combat the mentality of secularism that is very much present in the world today
depriving human existence of its authentic meaning. Not only that, the laity in communio
can also lessen the serious phenomenon of disintegration brought by secularism in the
world. Further, their communio can lead the laity into a social awareness regarding the
problem in the world like hunger, poverty, moral corruption and a bunch of many other
serious problems. In being a communio, they cannot but be disturb with a creative
disturbance by giving and offering solutions to these problems and not just by being
indifferent towards those pressing problems.
To conclude, Christians are called by God to a personal relationship with Him in
love. And from this call also comes the personal dignity of the laity – the thought and the

4. fact that each one of them has been called by God himself and invited to a personal
relationship with Him. This communio of love must be manifested in concrete aspect on
the part of the one called. Hence, their mission is to participate in the communio as
concrete as it can be in the love and charity patterned before God and patterned according
to the mind of the Church.