Who are you supposed to be and what are you supposed to do?

The answer is really the center of the entire document because it has the potential to change everything about our lives.

John Paul II does not mince words: You cannot be a Christian and live just like everyone else. If we find our way of living Christianity is mostly compatible with modern life, then we are doing it wrong. Baptism sets us apart and makes us different.

But we work, study, live, get married, have friends, and in many ways do the same sorts of things that everyone else does. We still live in the secular world.

But we are not of the world. The lay person lives a “radical newness of life.” And this fact—that we are to live in the world in an entirely different way—is what defines a lay Christian.

But it is not enough that baptism transforms our life. Our presence in the world transforms the secular too! Our “involvement and participation has as its purpose the spreading of the Gospel.”

Everything about our lives should transform the world around us to be more in line with the Gospel. 

John Paul II makes a bold claim: The Kingdom Christ promised comes primarily through the way you live your life. Jesus’ mission, the Church’s mission is YOU.