As many might know, Edward Spiteri, a locally renowned Catholic evangelist, and I are holding TV evangelisation programmes in a dialogical form on a local TV station.
We have opted for a new format: the priest, symbolising the Ecclesia docens (teaching Church), asks the opinion of the lay person, representing the Ecclesia discens (learning Church).
When it is appropriate, the priest recapitulates, guards and corrects what is being said. Certain persons have curiously asked me: "How come this is so?" The following reflections aim at discovering the ever evolving role of priests and laity within the novel transmission framework of the "new evangelisation".
The Vatican Council II's Decree "On the Ministry and life of Priests", Presbyterorum Ordinis, explicitly states that "priests must sincerely acknowledge and promote the dignity of the laity and the part proper to them in the mission of the Church... Priests should uncover with a sense of faith, acknowledge with joy and foster with diligence the various humble and exalted charisms of the laity.
Among the other gifts of God, which are found in abundance among the laity, those are worthy of special mention by which not a few of the laity are attracted to a higher spiritual life" (§ 9).
Pope John Paul II echoes this thought in his post-synodal apostolic exhortation "On the vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World", Christifideles Laici. "Priests and religious ought to assist the lay faithful in their formation. In this regard the Synod Fathers have invited priests and candidates for Orders to 'be prepared carefully so that they are ready to foster the vocation and mission of the lay faithful'. In turn, the lay faithful themselves can and should help priests and religious in the course of their spiritual and pastoral journey" (§ 61). Thus, an existential and a pastoral "awareness of the Church as 'communion'" (Pastores Dabo Vobis, 59) between the priest and the lay faithful in the transmission of God's Word makes evangelisation an extraordinary experience of communion.
From my TV experience with Edward I detect that God's Word is both the starting and the focal point of our dialogues.
The more I listen to what the Lord says to me through this brother the more I realise how listening to God's words consolidates my first and utmost commitment, that of living my baptismal consecration.
This insight was totally hammered in my heart by what the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, had said in his lecture in All Hallows College on February 9, 2003.
"There is nothing new or revolutionary in saying that one of the first characteristics of being a believer indeed is having the ability to listen to the word of God: the ability to hear, recognise and discern God's good news of love and what it means for us and for every human being."
Secondly, as a priest, I am realising how, in Archbishop Martin's words, "the (teaching) Church must first of all be a hearer, a servant of God's word. The word calls us to faith and generates faith within us when we listen to that word.
"The Lord, in the words of the Psalmist, does 'not ask for sacrifice and offering but an open ear'. We are made members of the Community through listening to the Word, as Jesus reminded his disciples that 'my mother and my brethren are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice'" (Luke, 8:21).
Thirdly, my openness and receptivity of God's Word as proclaimed to me, a priest, by a committed lay faithful, motivates me to exercise my role as "the guarantor of the authenticity of the apostolic tradition" within the TV programme context.
Furthermore, this reminds me of my concomitant priestly role of being a "strenuous assertor of the truth" of the Christian faith (Presbyterorum Ordinis, 9).
It is my prayer that this new style of evangelisation helps the audience to deepen their faith, as well as propagating an appreciation and promotion of a re-newed priestly and lay identity and mission within the Church.