By Sr. (Dr.) D.J. Margaret, FMA –
“Consecrated” are a people of a time and a place. They can have an influence and they can be influenced. The realities of today’s society, such as decline in human and Christian values, promotion of globalisation and commercial tourism, corruption in the civic life, casteism and the condition of Dalits, rise of religious fundamentalism and intolerance, oppression of the poor and the marginalised especially of women, ecological crisis and technological hazards… affect the lives of the consecrated people. As a consequence, consecrated life is facing vocational, moral, psychological, pastoral and spiritual crisis, which is affecting every area of their lives.
The ‘Year of Consecrated Life’ invites, not only the consecrated people, but also the entire covenanted people of God to become what they must become in this world of post modernity. It calls for a new life, new vision and mission. In this context, the ultimate questions struggling for expression are: “what newness can the year of consecrated life bring into the life of consecrated men and women? How can consecrated people make their lives more relevant and effective today? How can they live their life of consecration more meaningfully? How can the consecrated people be and become Christ – Like today challenging the anti-Gospel values of the society? …”
Following of Christ With A New Paradigm
The richness of consecrated life has found expression throughout history in a surprising variety of approaches and concrete experiences. Describing the fundamental characteristics of consecrated life, Vatican Council II repeatedly stresses the Sequela Christi, the following of Christ as its final norm. The Document Pefectae Caritatis underscores the purpose of consecrated life in the following verse: “Before all else, consecrated life is ordered to the following of Christ by its members and to their becoming united with God” (Pefectae Caritatis, no. 2). Therefore Consecrated Life is living publicly, professionally, institutionally the following of Christ as proposed by the Gospel (Lk 9: 57-62; Mk 9: 35-37). One cannot just talk about consecrated life without reference to the following of Christ Chaste, Poor and Obedient with paradigm of life, with newness of vision and mission today.
What does it mean to be a follower of Christ with a new paradigm? Certainly it does not mean simply living a life of faith and imitating his attitude toward universal values. It is more than that. According to Alejandro Cussianovich, “There are two elements involved in the following of Christ as consecrated. First, one must assume the life-style that Christ led. Second, one must assume responsibility for some specific area of missionary activity”.
The following of Christ with new paradigms involves various elements, namely, setting out in His footsteps, plunging more and more into the world, and identifying with Christ, by sharing his anguish over the plight of human beings and being ready to give one’s life for them. While affirming the concept of Consecrated Life as radical following of Christ, the Federation of Asian Bishops Conference goes one step further, when it asserts: “Radical following of Christ in Asia today “calls for a rediscovery of the sense of mission of Christ. It is nothing less than a following of Jesus-in-mission today”. Following Jesus is a call to become involved in the process of His mission among the poor and the marginalised (Lk 4: 16-21). It’s a call to be sent out (Mk 3:16) to the margins. This call of being sent to the peripheries to carry out the mission of Christ requires a total commitment, a dynamic involvement, and a conscious, free, and responsible response to God’s will.
Celibacy: A Genuine Way of Loving
Consecrated people have been able to give new expression to the values of vows in a changing world. Namely, the understanding of celibacy as a way of loving, rather than as simple renunciation of marriage and of family; obedience as being responsible in freedom; and poverty as sharing, self-giving and self-emptying. A strong commitment to ongoing renewal, empowering personal and communitarian prayer, living union with God and following Christ radically is the basis of consecrated life.
Thomas Merton wrote, “He/she who attempts to act and do for others, or for the world, without deepening his or her own self understanding, freedom, integrity, and capacity to love, will not have anything to give others. He/she will communicate to them nothing but the contagion of his/her own obsessions, aggressively, ego-centred ambition, delusions about ends and means.”
Love is more than attraction, even more than collaboration; love is total, free, unconditional self-gift to the Creator and to others. Here consecrated persons can choose to “lose” the focus of their being, or their existence, for another more prized one. “One who finds one’s life will lose it; and one who loses one’s life for My sake, will find it” (Mt.10: 39). Here they are opened up to personal unity, integration in Christ-life, Christ-love, Christ-goals, and Christ-mission. Authentic love is thus made possible and arrived at, by means of social needs.
- The vow of chastity finds meaning in consecrated options for a lifelong commitment in loving all especially the poor and the marginalised.
- The lifeless/loveless world needs consecrated people who live their humanity to the full with love and compassion.
- Consecrated celibate life stands as a counter-cultural witness, a reminder that true freedom and liberation in interpersonal relationships, marked by devotion and integrity is the need of the hour.
- A real sense of community flourishes upon the genuine brotherly/ sisterly love reciprocated by all the members.
Obedience: A Responsible Way of Being Free
Jesus Himself fulfils His part of the alliance through the most total form of obedience imaginable – with “an existence impregnated with the will of the Father” unto death. God reaches our hearts through the gift of grace and calls us to cooperate in His love-pact. Obedience is our response to God but it is at the same time, God’s Gift, enlightened by faith and directed to Him. How does this happen in obedience concretely?
Karl Rahner explains obedience as having two dimensions: functional and consecrated. Obedience is “functional” if it is a will to obey to maintain order, to facilitate interdependence, i.e., to make things to run smoothly. There is no ideology or value existent behind this. In consecrated obedience, however, all that is human is encompassed in faith. Every act of submission or acceptance is seen as oriented not merely toward humans, but toward God, in His providential design of love for the world. Functional obedience is a submission to events, especially for one’s own sake, consecrated obedience is a response to God’s love. Obedience is a responsible way of being free and committed.
- Obedience is the commitment of a life entirely gifted in authenticity to actualise not merely ourselves, but above all, the designs of God in saving the world and ourselves.
- Mature obedience requires a determined effort to find God and surrender to His will in whatever difficult circumstances arise.
- Obedience calls for single-mindedness and intense constancy of will, not merely in those situations which are exceptionally demanding or which lead in unusual directions, but also in the monotony of day-to-day and insignificant surrenders.
- Mary’s obedience is the concrete expression of the unqualified response that she made in love: a response that was so deep and total that it was eternally faithful.
Poverty: An Authentic Way of Gifting
Vow of poverty is a “share in the poverty of Christ, who became poor for our sake. “…Rich as He was, He made Himself poor for our sake”, that we might be enriched by his poverty” (2 Cor.8: 9; cf.Mt.8: 20). If we seek, then, to be authentic consecrated person, the counsel of poverty is indispensable. Poverty, Ladislas Orsy says, “Poverty is an intangible gift. It is an attitude, which grows out of a relationship between two persons who love each other. It is initiated by God through the gift of Himself to us. To accept this gift means that we allow ourselves to be led by Him and willingly gift ourselves for the well being of others”.
Poverty should be a witness to ones interior values: the faith, hope and love one has in Christ. Poverty becomes an interior attitude, springing from a deep value of which the vow is only a sign. Fr. Thomas Clarke calls poverty a creative symbol of the kind of commitment we have made to God and to each other: a distinctive way of being with God and with one’s fellow human beings.
- Poverty is not a deprivation of material goods, or possessions, persons or social interactions. It is integration, a liberation and revelation. It is a realisation of the given-ness of all things – that is- an acute awareness of all God has given.
- Poverty is a way of giving ones finiteness to the Giver of all good things so as to be completed and transformed in Him.
- It is availability as well as radical detachment in its broadest sense. The fact that the consecrated persons no longer belong to themselves, imply a rooting out of their possessiveness on all levels and at the same time a rootedness in Christ.
- Poverty is an invaluable means to proper discernment of values in consecrated calling and gifting themselves unreservedly with authenticity.
- Poverty prevents fragmentation of one’s being. It prevents from becoming enslaved by one’s personal needs, desires and interests. Seen in this way, the vow of poverty is liberating, directing, freeing, and enriching.
Conclusion
For women and men consecrated in today’s context, Jesus Christ the missionary of God is the model. By manifesting compassionate love, by gifting Himself unconditionally for others, even for the so called enemies, and by exercising power responsibly, Jesus continues to form consecrated persons and teach them to establish their relationships with God, the society, and the church. Jesus made it clear throughout His ministry that oppression, injustice, disempowerment and inequality are not of God. Consecrated persons experience themselves as called to be, not only agents of God’s spreading compassionate love to all they meet, but also as objects of that compassionate love to all they meet.
This year of consecrated life, is a special occasion to realise that the only thing that will really move the consecrated people into the future with relevance is a deep and essential conversion of life. It’s a call to take risks. It’s a call to choose to live differently and then to live authentically with new reality, with new vision and mission. The consecrated life cannot be a sign of the Kingdom of God, if it does not participate in the effort to transform society and the church. The consecrated life is not just the project of women and men consecrated. It is ultimately the project of God for humanity. In the book of Deuteronomy God says, “For you are a people holy to Yahweh your God: Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people. Know therefore that Yahweh…. the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love God in turn (Dt. 7: 6-9). He not only designs plans for its ongoing enterprise, but continues to work through its effective fulfilment in and through every consecrated and covenanted people of God with newness of life.
Dr D.J. Margaret, FMA holds a Post-Graduate Degree in Mathematics (Annamalai University, Chidambaram), a Master Degree in Theology (Vidya Jyothi College, Delhi) and a PhD (Department of Christian Studies, University of Madras). In addition to research articles in the field of women studies, she has authored ‘Women in Mission’ (Chennai: Arumbu Publication, 2006) and ‘Finding God in Illness and Care Giving’ (Chennai, Don Bosco Publication, 2017). Email: [email protected].