Apostles for Today February 2023

 Apostles for Today

February 2023

 Monthly Reflection

The Gift of Consecrated Life

On the occasion of World Day of Consecrated Life, I would like to reflect with you about
“the gift of Consecrated Life”. 

 

Consecrated life is a gift to the Church, it is born of the Church, it grows in the Church, and it is entirely directed to the Church. The call to consecrated life is a gift to the human person to become a fellow traveler. It is a partnership of alliance made between God and the person in the virtue of love. The person who has responded to God’s grace of a vocation to the priesthood and religious life is to yield the best of themselves with all creativity. Pope Francis calls Consecrated Life a pilgrimage of faith lived with joy and watchfulness. It requires tremendous courage for renunciation: to renounce the vanities of this world. Time and again we have so many men and women who have joyfully come forward to embrace the gift of Consecrated life. It is admiring to listen to their mesmerizing experience of giving up their positions, power and glory for a higher calling to Consecrated Life. It is the personal touch of God (charisma) which can’t define or describe in words but to feel themselves alone. While speaking to a newly ordained priest from Kerala, India, the impression that remained with me is “God is so attractive” because such a charming personality has climbed the altar of God to offer the sacrifice and become the sacrifice of God, which is impossible in this modern era. A small introduction about this priest, ‘at the age of 24 having completed his post-graduation in commerce he had responded to God’s call. At that time his status in society was ‘a top singer who won many awards from the reality show, sang in many albums, and had developed a carrier in the film industry recording more than 50 songs. Well integrated and appreciated and got the title ‘God of Music (Gana Gandarvan)’. The beauty of this call is, ‘the choice is made by God, and which is made possible to man irrespective of his state of being’.

 

Dimensions of Consecrated Life in line with the Church and St Vincent Pallotti Late Pope Benedict XVI’s in his address to the religious on the World Day of Consecrated Life in the year 2008 said that “consecrated life calls us to refer constantly to the Gospel, to remain very much alive and fertile, bearing fruit for the salvation of souls. Further, he brought out different expressions of consecrated life from various founders of institutes, and then in his statement, he quoted from St. Vincent Pallotti in the following words: “Since the life of Jesus Christ is the fundamental rule of our small congregation...we must aim at what is most perfect always and in everything”. It was well quoted by His Holiness and it is also affirming that our Pallottine way of life is Christ-centered.

 

Christocentric Dimension: Consecrated life is a call to share this love of Christ by accepting the invitation to be in union with Him and to follow Him by living the evangelical councils for the Kingdom of God. There is a missionary aspect in following Jesus who was sent by God, to evangelize manifesting the infinite love of God. The Holy Spirit prompts us to imitate Christ the missionary, therefore the consecration of Jesus is the model for every consecrated person and love is the hallmark of every man and woman who has responded to his call, like St. Paul “the love of Christ impels us on” (2 Cor 5:14); “Woe to me if I do not proclaim the Gospel” (I Cor 9:16). It is through an authentic witnessing of Christ that one arrives at the new evangelization.

 

Prophetic Dimension: A prophet is the announcer of the Kingdom of God. Consecrated men and women by choosing to live the evangelical counsels give personal testimony to the Kingdom of God by the power of God’s grace. The prophetic dimension includes risking one’s life in proclaiming and living the evangelical counsels and in bearing witness with boldness. The consecrated persons profess the evangelical councils and live according to the Charism which is bestowed by God as a gift to their founders or foundresses. There has been a continuous reawakening in the past decades; it is also very much confirming Pope Francis’s declaration of 2014-2015 as the year of consecrated life, for reawakening in them the joy of evangelization and for challenging them to be a prophet to the nations.

 

Ecclesial Dimension: Consecrated life is a vital part of the Church and it is lived in the world. It is apt to say that consecrated life is at the heart of the Church because it is an “intimate part of her, her holiness and her mission”. Vatican II highlighted the concept of communion in and out of the Church in all walks of life. Both contemplative and apostolic style of life intends to work for the welfare of the Church and its people. It emphasizes the aspect of ‘Koinonia’, that is the life of communion which is the first message of consecrated life.

 

Apostolic Dimension: The apostolic exhortation Christifideles Laici, following the footsteps of the Vatican Council emphasizes the vocation of all the baptized faithful. The call is a concern not only of pastors, 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. According to Pallotti, every baptized person is an apostle. Therefore, let every catholic who lives in the Church of Jesus Christ be consoled; because whether Priest or lay person, whether with his talents, potentials, relationships, profession, words, possessions and material goods, and if with nothing else at least with his prayers and if he does all he can so that the faith of Jesus Christ is spread in the whole world, he will acquire the merit of the Apostolate, and much, much more accordingly as he commits himself to this goal. Pope John Paul II when he visited the church of San Salvatore at Onda in Rome on the 22nd of June, 1986, in his homily said: “Continue to increase your commitment so that which Vincent Pallotti prophetically announced, and which the Second Vatican Council authoritatively confirmed, may become a happy reality and that all Christians become authentic apostles of Christ in the Church and the world!”

 

As I conclude this reflection on Consecrated Life I would like to emphasize the words of Pallotti. Pallotti stressed the word ‘apostle’ because all Christians have been called to be apostles. The nature of the church is missionary; therefore, everyone has been called to the mission of the church to evangelize the gospel. The Church's mission of salvation in the world is realized not only by the ministers in virtue of the Sacrament of Orders but also by all the lay faithful; indeed, because of their Baptismal state and their specific vocation, in the measure proper to each person, the lay faithful participate in the priestly, prophetic and kingly mission of Christ.

 

Everyone can render their service to society and their fellow traveler in all possible ways in their state of life, be it priests or lay persons; rich or poor; educated or illiterate; an elite group of people or common; persons belonging to any profession under any status or any vocation and any race or nation. They can be effective in their field by doing well what they have been called to fulfill. Even if a person has no job, no talents, no health, no efficiency, or is aged or sick he can still perform an apostolate through their prayers. The Pastors, therefore, ought to acknowledge and foster the ministries, offices and roles of the lay faithful that find their foundation in the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, indeed, for a good many of them, in the Sacrament of Matrimony.

 

St. Vincent Pallotti had envisioned beautifully this universal call to the mission of the Church. The spirit of Pallotti echoes again and again when Pope Francis announced the theme of the 16th Synod of Bishops: “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission”. ‘Synod on Synodality’ is walking together and listening to one another but above all to the Holy Spirit.

Sr. Elizabeth Beena, CSAC