By Sr. Mary Thadavanal MSMHC –
Religious life is a special call given to those whom God chooses. The initiative comes from God himself. “You did not choose me, no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and to bear much fruit, fruit that will last.” (Jn 15:16). When God chooses someone, he has clear and definite plans for the person chosen; it is not like the choices and plans human beings make. “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jer 29:11). “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Is 55:8).
God calls everyone to follow him, but selects a few to be in his inner circle to live as he lived – chaste, poor, obedient; even to them he gives freedom to accept or reject his call. “Do you also want to go away (Jn 6:67)? No compulsion. But those who stay on will certainly experience his care beyond measure if only their inner eyes are open to see them. His call is for a definite purpose. “He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons” Mk 3: 13-15).
To be with him and to be sent out on a mission. That this may happen he consecrates those he calls. Consecration is the basis of religious life. It is a divine action by which God gives the consecrated person the grace to respond in a free and profound self-surrender, to his action in her/his soul, leading to an intimate relationship between God and the consecrated person. There is communion and mission, aimed at God’s glory, the joy of the consecrated person and the salvation of the world.
Terms and conditions
Jesus, without mincing words, made it clear that those who accept his invitation to be within his inner circle, have to give up everything and everyone for his sake. “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:26). The following is not for nothing. An unthinkable reward is promised to those who leave everything for his sake. “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life” (Mt 19:29). The one who sets out thus to follow him is expected to cling to him with undivided heart and mind (1 Cor 7:34).
Jesus Christ must be the number one in the person’s life. It is not a heartless, selfish invitation to forget the parents, siblings, relatives and others completely, but an invitation to leave them to his care without being anxious. By doing so, he is pointing out to us the important aspect of ‘trust’, which is vital for Christian, and more importantly for consecrated life. Trust flows from knowledge; knowledge leads to greater attachment resulting in stronger trust. Can he who created our loved ones without consulting us, not look after them without our involvement? He has plans for their lives too, which he can bring to fulfillment if we don’t interfere with his plans.
Inseparable union
Religious vocation is a treasure, being able to live in communion with the Lord in inseparable union of hearts. “Deeply rooted in the example and teachings of Christ the Lord, it is a gift of God the Father to his Church through the Holy Spirit” (VC 1). Jesus makes it clear that the vine–branch relationship is to be lived by his disciples in all intensity – thinking of him and loving him without interruption – to ensure a continuous flow of the sap of his life into the consecrated person (the branch). Life thus flowing into the person makes her/him vibrant, radiant and full of energy. This reality can best be understood by those who have been in love with someone or something. No matter where you are, or what you do, your mind and heart are on the object of your love. You ponder over every word, gesture, experience or the image. With such intense love for God, whatever the consecrated person does, is done with immense love, in all perfection and beauty, without flaws.
Mary of Nazareth who grew up in the temple kept pondering of the promise of God, which made her see herself as a humble handmaid of the Lord. Her sense of unworthiness made her bow before God in total surrender when she was told of God’s need of her. This is the attitude God expects of the consecrated person to be able to realize his plan for the world through her/him. Hence her/his inseparable teacher and guide has to be the Holy Spirit speaking to her/him through God’s Word which she/he reads and ponders over daily and from which she/he draws light for her/his mind, love for her/his heart and strength for her will.
No one can remain alive if oxygen supply is cut off. All have become conscious of this truth since the outbreak of Covid 19. If the inner fire of love is not fanned into flame with the oxygen supply of unceasing communion (prayer) with the Lord, a consecrated person cannot possibly live a meaningful and happy life. Jumping out of bed and rushing to the Altar to perform the ritual of the Eucharist or going to speak to a family/village/gathering/meeting/conference/ about God without first spending time with him, pondering over his Word and consulting him, will have no effect on anyone. Daily spending time with God, listening to his Word, and discerning His will is crucial for a consecrated person. “If you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples” (Ex 19:5). Living her/his life being attuned to God and listening to His directions, she/he is able to dispossess all her/his ‘possessions’ and grow into a deeper spirit of self-giving. God becomes her/his “pearl of great prize”, the “treasured possession”.
Suffering, a privilege
Suffering is an inevitable factor in Christian life. The Lord trains his chosen ones in the crucible of suffering. It is here one learns of her/his emptiness, nothingness and utter need for God. The best of gold comes out when it is purified in the fire; so also, the inner beauty of a person springs forth in suffering borne with God. To be visited by suffering is a privilege to the one who has accepted Jesus Christ as her/his Lord and Master. He has taught us the undeniable truth that only those who can love genuinely has the power to suffer. “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Is 53:3).
Right from the first century onwards his saints – human beings like us – have taught us by what they have gone through joyfully that it is possible for humans too, to suffer if there is love in the heart. This is the answer to those who question, deny, and challenge God when they are faced with suffering. “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that our suffering produces endurance, and our endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” Rom 5:3-5).
When Paul and Silas were thrown into prison after heavy lashes they started praying and singing God’s praises… the doors were open and the chains fell from the prisoners … (Acts 16: 16-34). God takes good care of the people who suffer for him. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Cor 1:3-4). “When the Lord has given you the bread of suffering and the water of distress, he who is your teacher will hide no longer, and you will see your teacher with your own eyes” (Is 30:20). What greater happiness is there than seeing the Lord himself! “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing” (James 1:2-4). “After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish You” (1 Peter 5:10). It’s all about our souls being on fire. The time of suffering is the springtime of the soul. With life budding forth in the soul there is newness, freshness, abundance of energy, hopefulness, brightness, colourfulness, enthusiasm, joyfulness and a sense of gratitude within. In such a person there is no question of anxiety or worry messing her life, leaving her/him with her/his priorities mangled. Anyone who is not in touch with her/his soul does not know of this inner world that comes to fruitfulness in suffering.
To be sent out
Having been strengthened in faith and armed by Love, with the zeal of the Gospel blazing in the heart, the consecrated person is to go forth to give Jesus to the world. The command given to every Christian, more so to the religious, is to make all nations the disciples of Jesus (Mt 28:19-20) in order that all be liberated from the clutches of sin, enjoy God’s favour and gain eternal life. There is no human being without sin and so everyone needs a Saviour who has power over sin and death and that Saviour is Jesus Christ. He is the only Saviour of the world. He made a sacrificial offering of himself to atone for the sins of humanity through his passion, death and resurrection.
Sin blocks the entry into the presence of the holy God, leaves one in misery and constant warfare and no one can do anything about it except the holy God, the creator of heaven, earth and the entire universe. He has done this through His only Son Jesus Christ. We can avail the salvation he has obtained for us, primarily through the Sacraments living a life in imitation of Jesus and doing what he did. Since Jesus Christ has died for all and want everyone to be saved and enjoy eternal life every person on the earth has the right to come to know this truth and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Master.
The Lord gives to some the power to drive out demons. With firm trust in the Lord, believing that everything is possible with God’s help the religious can cast out every demon lying within and outside. Looking up to heaven and saying, ‘Father, I thank you for hearing my prayer, I know that you hear me, Jesus cast out demons of all types.
Self-mastery is essential for the religious whose daily goal is to grow into a woman/man of love and to become another Christ. What the religious receive in the Holy Eucharist is ‘love’ personified. With the continuous reception of the bread of love, the religious is to be transformed completely into a person full of love like the coal in the fire which turns into a blazing fire. Having become fire, the religious becomes a missionary, with the power to draw others to the fire and who in turn will become fire themselves drawing all those around them. This chain will go on when the ego dies and Love prevails, with the kingdom of God being established in many more hearts.
Community living
Community life is an important aspect of religious life. A religious community is formed by a number of broken, wounded persons living together, mostly in a safe and secure environment with everything provided for a comfortable living. The uniting factor is the person of Jesus Christ who calls each one by name, selects and places them in a community like the first community of Jesus himself. Jesus helped the disciples to look at themselves in the face; the religious need to come before the holy God to see their own vulnerabilities, their sinfulness, their nothingness and emptiness against the background of the holiness of God. Then Jesus gets a chance to look into their eyes, to pull them up and hold them close to him and say, it’s alright; “my grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor 12:9); “I have come into the world as light, to prevent anyone who believes in me from staying in the dark any more” (Jn 12:46); “I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail” (Lk 22:32); I want you to be where I am (Jn 17:24); “I lay down my life for my sheep” (Jn 10:15b); “abide in my love” (Jn 15:9b). In the process of this growth journey with Jesus, they will begin to look at the other with compassion, humanness, genuine concern, and charity and at the self as a highly favoured sinner in need of divine grace.
Listen to the golden words springing from the heart of Pastor Joel Sikha:
“You see my emotions can be low and my body can be sick
But I have a Saviour who saved my soul
And I have a Redeemer who’s redeemed my soul.
So even though I’m going through a hard time in my life
My soul is safe in his hands.Jesus, in the garden of Gethsemane
tells his disciples that his soul was sorrowful
Even to the point of death.
Because he was getting ready to pour out his life to save souls.
And still saves souls.That’s why Paul in 1 Thessalonians Chapter 5 verse 23 says:
“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely
And may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless
At the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.You might be going through various emotional changes of ups and downs.
But the condition of your soul is not dependent on your circumstance
If you’ve surrendered your life to the Saviour of your soul
It’s safe in the hands of Jesus.
He is the Saviour of your soul.
So, you can speak to your soul and say:
Bless the Lord O my soul.
And all that is within me bless his holy name (Psalm 103)
The apostles who wanted special seats and others who were jealous and angry with them and who argued about who is the greatest were brought to have just one focus with the Holy Spirit taking over their lives: ‘Jesus Christ and his Kingdom.’ Every religious person is given the power to reach that stage, but the power has to be activated by oneself with the assistance of the divine Spirit.