A vida consagrada ainda seduz? | Aliança de Santa Maria

Is consecrated life still seductive?

Marta Mendes, asm
«Spiritan Mission in Portugal: Memory and Promise - 150 years»

Is consecrated life still seductive?

This question could be the springboard for a vocational appeal. I recently heard from an atheist that “God, God is a small thing”. I wouldn't call the God to whom I've given myself a ‘thing’, but it's not hard for me to think of God as small, very small, more like the Most Low, the “Most High who dares to be the Most Low in order to stoop so deeply”[1], because it is the nature of Love to lower itself. For this reason, I believe that the question “Does consecrated life still seduce?”, far beyond finding its place in an attractive pastoral plan, finds its answer in those who decide to “leave the path to enter the Way, leave their way to enter that which has no way, which is God” [2].

The life of a consecrated person will be seductive if he or she is willing to step out of himself or herself, if he or she decides to put himself or herself in an attitude of exodus, at an exit in return equivalent to emptying of himself: “Someone who is entirely full, whose happiness and fulfillment is complete, would have no room for God. The saint is not full of himself” [3]; the saint is close to God and to be close to God is to experience the kenosis. Only empty of self can consecrated people be “stories of God”, patches of light where God can look at man and where man can taste eternity. “Such was the dream of the Creator: to be able to contemplate himself in the creature and see all his perfections, all his beauty, shine forth in it” [4]. Is this not the dream of the Creator before those whom He Himself set aside for you?

Today, consecrated people have the task of being witnesses to God's transfiguring presence in a world that is increasingly bewildered and confused, a world in which shades have replaced well-defined and distinctive colors. We are asked to do a lot of work in the service of the Kingdom, but without questioning the undoubted generosity that is capable of total witness and self-giving, consecrated life currently faces the threat of mediocrity, gentrification and a consumerist mentality [5].

I remember being told at my perpetual vows retreat that sometimes “we are so preoccupied with announcing the Kingdom that we run the risk of forgetting the King”. At a time when various gods are perfumed, consecrated persons are called not to give in to the temptation to obscure the truth, not to let themselves be dragged down by the culture of relativism, of the fragment, not to let themselves be secularized in mind and heart, but rather to unequivocally proclaim the truth in the face of the seduction of false idols and “to be beacons, to be torches that accompany the journey of men and women in the dark night of time, to be sentinels of the morning announcing the rising of the sun” [6]. In the style of the world, we would invent marketing techniques, we would worry about the greatest number of people adhering to our advertising, we would worry about success, power and visibility. Christ had no success, no power and his visibility was born in a manger.

We often forget that “we preach Christ crucified” (1 Cor 2:23), the preaching of the open chest, of the outstretched arms that, in a gesture of embrace, heal and rescue every man.

I'm thinking here of two figures: the Samaritan and the Samaritan woman. The great risk of the consecrated life lies in the fact that we quickly pass from the Samaritan woman to the Samaritan. We are more active than contemplative. It is the encounter with Christ that leads the Samaritan woman to leave the pitcher, which is why, although both attitudes - action and contemplation - alternate, it is necessary to have the experience of the Samaritan woman - contemplation - in order to be the Samaritan - action - who puts the wounded man he finds on the side of the road on his mount. Love of neighbor springs from the beauty of the encounter with Jesus Christ, which becomes a contagious witness, capable of unsettling the hearts of men, capable of exciting and arousing the desire for others to want to meet Jesus Christ too: “Then many more believed in him because of his preaching, and said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe because of your words; we ourselves have heard and know that he is truly the Savior of the world. (Jn 4:41-42).

To paraphrase the theologian Karl Ranher: “tomorrow's consecrated person will either be a mystic, that is, a person who has experienced something, or they won't be consecrated”[7]. He who is dedicated exclusively to God, “He burns with zeal for his Lord” (cf. 1 Kings 19:14), and is transformed by the splendor of his beauty, because belonging to the Lord means always keeping a living flame of love burning in your heart, nourished by a strong faith that, even if you don't know it, you commit yourself to, because you know that your Lord will never distort you. “If you have the Lord of the World inside you, in your fireproof heart, keep him surrounded... God is dangerous. God is a fire that consumes... He starts with a little love, a little flame and, before you know it, he grabs you and you're trapped... He is God, accustomed to the infinite... and a seducer of hearts.”[8]. This is why the heart of one who has allowed himself to be consecrated “burns with zeal for my Lord” will answer the question “what are you doing here, you who are consecrated?” (cf. 1 Kings 19:13-14).

PRAYER

“Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thess 5:17-18). Paul reveals what should be the first act of a consecrated person's heart: prayer. The apostle doesn't say to pray well, he says to pray without ceasing and, in this sense, the rhythm of the life of prayer the one who is set apart for God, The consecrated person must be guided by fidelity. In prayer, the consecrated person “fills his gaze with Christ and shapes his existence in his own way”[9] and fidelity takes him on the road to an encounter with the wounded Heart of Christ. The center of Jesus' humanity is his wounded Heart. To know him is to allow oneself to be wounded by this love that gently embraces us. Love is the path of the wounded heart and only fidelity to prayer is capable of making us realize the beauty of this path, even in the midst of stones of discouragement, tiredness, dryness or distraction. Fidelity to prayer is the school of love made into a gesture, the school of humility made into truth, the school of faith made into freedom. It is this life of prayer that makes consecrated people what they really are: the oblation of the Father in the today of salvation. Faces that are joyful in their self-denial, free in their obedience and excellent in their hope, until, wherever they are, they can raise an altar to God with their thoughts and will. God is within them and they know it; God is outside them and they see it.

The prayer of the consecrated person is the resting of the heart in the meek and humble Heart, but it is also the unceasing supplication of the one who leaves everything for humanity. Let me use the beautiful image of the blessed land of Fatima: Pope Francis referred to Fatima as “a mantle of light that covers us”[10]. I see here a beautiful portrait of the prayer of consecrated people: a mantle of light that covers the shadows of humanity, just like the beauty of that enclosure, whose lights are small candles that, despite their smallness, illuminate the night. With what affection God looks at the prayer of those whom he wants to call to a path of choice; how loved is the prayer of those who give themselves for the Church and for humanity!

Pope Paul VI emphasized precisely the importance of prayer in the life of consecrated persons: “Be aware, therefore, of the importance of prayer in our life and learn to apply yourselves generously to it: fidelity to daily prayer always remains, for each and every one of you, a fundamental necessity and must occupy first place in your constitutions and in your life”[11].

In this regard, I believe that the great risk in the life of consecrated people is to make the essential secondary and to “essentialize” the secondary. Without a life of constant prayer, consecrated people run the risk of just being God's servants and not what they really are: consecrated. Without prayer, the consecrated person runs the risk of walking without a compass or a goal, loses their identity and begins to “be neither flesh nor fish”. They live with a heart divided between God and worldliness. They forget their first love[12].

“What has become of your first love?” asked St. Catherine of Siena. Are we living our consecration as lovers of God, or are we still stuck in our personal projects? Can we speak of God before we fill our gaze with him?

It's not enough to be a good priest or nun. The attitude of the consecrated person has to change from a moral obligation to an absolute passion: “Fall in love, stay in love and everything will be decided”[13]. It's vital to incarnate Christ himself and to attach your heart to his Heart and not admit alternatives: “If you've offered your heart to God, don't look for someone (or something) else's to put in its place. God doesn't want you to play at ‘heart transplants’.” [14]. The more work takes over the consecrated person's life, the more they need to fill it with prayer. Praying is the gesture of getting up to look for the One who inhabits him. To pray is to live with an awake heart, without letting routine, laziness or the disenchantment of first love shut out the beauty of having been called by God to give life.

JOY

Consecrated Life is made up of many concrete faces, faces that, in the eyes of the world, are not the faces of heroes, because they have achieved nothing but life in God: “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). They are faces that see themselves as weak, fragile and dependent on God, and for this reason they expect everything from him. Poor and therefore full of hope. If we rely only on ourselves, on our own strength, we will not be radically poor, we will not be able to practice true hope. Those who know themselves to be infinitely weak and fragile, who do not rely on themselves in any way, but who rely firmly on God and who expect everything from him - and only from him - are excellent in hope and are ready to sacrifice “their Isaacs” because they know that “God will provide” (cf. Gen 22:1-14). This is the joy that comes from that profound encounter which radically, effectively and affectively changes the life and being of the consecrated person. This is the joy that springs from simple and serene abandonment, like that of children who know they are safe in their father's arms and who, in an innocent way, commit their hearts. This is the joy that sings of the candor of someone who no longer needs defenses, because they live on trust: “Whatever it is / it will be good / that's all” [15].

OBEDIENCE

For the world, the consecrated person may have lost the notion of what it means to live. For the world, the consecrated person is a poor wretch who has given up his most precious possession, autonomy and freedom, or else he is an unfortunate person who has never known love that is reciprocated. In a certain sense, he who courageously utters a word similar to the one uttered by the young woman from Nazareth - Fiat - has lost himself; not as one who despairs, but as one who is found in the immense Light that is God. And he does it in silence, without anyone knowing; he does it in order to be a hidden speck in the middle of the turmoil; he does it out of love, asking for nothing in return.

The consecrated person does not live for himself. Like the One he follows, Jesus Christ, he gives his life freely. No one takes it from him. He gives it away. The consecrated person disposes of himself, of his life, and spends it for others, agrees to tire himself out for faces he will never meet. And there is no greater freedom than that of someone who, like Christ, makes a loving oblation. “There is indeed great freedom in an obedient life, great fruitfulness in a virgin heart, great wealth in possessing nothing”[16].

“Behold, I come, Father, to do your will” (Heb 10:7). Perhaps nothing better than this refrain could define the beginning of a beautiful melody in the life of a consecrated person. By allowing themselves to be scrutinized and transformed by the Crucified, the person who consecrates themselves becomes a place of holocaust. Obedience, a scandal to the world, is the oblation of the will, the first place of holocaust in religious profession. However, precisely for this reason, it is the place of a constant Eucharist, in which the one who is set apart for God, In obedience, we can say, united to Christ: “Take and eat, this is my body given up for you; take and drink, this is my Blood poured out for you” (cf. Lk 22:19-20). Every act of obedience is a donation, an immolation, a Eucharist. What one reserves for oneself, in order to preserve a margin of freedom, opens a crack in the harmony that self-giving brings with it.

“For consecrated persons, progress means lowering oneself in service, lowering oneself, making oneself a servant in order to serve. This obedience and docility are not something theoretical, they are also under the regime of the incarnation of the Word: docility and obedience to a founder, docility and obedience to a concrete rule, docility and obedience to a superior, docility and obedience to the Church”[17]. The document Perfectae Caritatis, The Second Vatican Council, in No. 14, states that “religious, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, are subject in faith to their Superiors, the Vicars of God, and are led by them to serve all their brothers and sisters in Christ in the same way as Christ himself”.

Contrary to what it may seem, there is no freedom except in submission to God, in the “obedience of faith” (Rom 1:5) of which St. Paul speaks. Obedience is the path that the heart takes and that extends between its divisions until it reaches the solid and intelligent gesture of faith, through which we freely entrust ourselves to a God who loves us, similar to the humble and immaculate gesture of the woman of Nazareth. She, Mary, lived entirely from and in relationship with God; she placed herself in a position of listening; every gesture, every word was kept in her Heart. In her Heart, she freely submitted to the word received, to God's will in the obedience of faith. In her, the song has the name of faith, which sings of mercy and ends in love.

The misconception about freedom is that it is an external reality, dependent on circumstances. We have the impression - wrongly - that what limits our freedom are circumstances: setbacks, obligations, limitations. And when we feel a bit stifled by the circumstances we're in, we blame the institutions and people we consider to be the cause. There are undoubtedly hours of darkness and suffering, but how much resentment we harbor against everything that doesn't go our way or against what we don't understand! True freedom is not so much an achievement of ours (as is promoted in the propaganda of autonomy), but a gift from God, a fruit of the Holy Spirit, which we receive to the extent that we accept to live out of love, in dependence on our Creator. It is in the heart that we are compressed, and that is the source of our lack of freedom [18]. The highest and most fruitful act of human freedom consists of welcoming rather than dominating. In this regard, I recall the experience of Etty Hillesum, a Jewish woman, who, months before her death, asked us:

“The regions of the soul and spirit are so vast and endless that this little bit of physical discomfort and suffering doesn't really matter much, I don't feel deprived of my freedom and, in fact, no one can harm me either.” [19]

“... we are marked by suffering for life. And yet life, in its irrational depth, is so wonderfully good - I have to say it again.”. [20]

Benedict XVI says that “fidelity in time is the name of love; a coherent, true and profound love”[21], God's touch is characteristic of those who have allowed themselves to be found by the Lord Jesus and it is this that brings a deep and moving joy to those who know they are being supported by him. Whether it's night or day, whether it's pain or contentment, God's touch will always be sweet and tender. In the silence of a candid surrender, in the stripped and free smile, the light of a new day breaks through and the whole hope capable of seducing and attracting, pronounces itself on every man:

“Let your heart resist no longer; let the citadel of your soul surrender, for fire has been set everywhere” (St. Catherine of Siena).

[1] Cf. BOBIN, Christian, A God on the ground, Difel, Linda-a-velha, 1992, p. 54.

[2] JOÃO DA CRUZ, Complete Works, Ascent of Mount Carmel, 4, 5, Ed. Carmelo, Marco de Canaveses, 2005.

[3] Quoted in RADCLIFFE ,T., Why go to church?, 209.

[4] ISABEL DA TRINDADE, Complete Works, Carmelo Editions, 1989, p. 96.

[5] Cf. POPE BENEDICT XVI, Address to Superiors General of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life accessed 12/10/17, 12:22.

[6] Cf. POPE FRANCIS, Vultum Dei Quaerere, No. 6 accessed 12/10/2017, 12:30.

[7] KARL RAHNER, Christian Living Formerly and Today, Theological Investigations, vol. 7, translated by David Bourke (New York: Herder and Herder, 1971), p. 15.

[8] BALTHASAR, H. U. V., The heart of the world, in GALLAGHER, M., The surprising newness of Christ, A.O., Braga, 2012, 76.

[9] GOMES, P. V., “Do rosário oração cordial”, in My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the path that will lead you to God, Thematic Itinerary of the Centenary of the Apparitions of Fatima, 7th Cycle, Shrine of Fatima, 2016, p. 133.

[10] POPE FRANCIS, homily for the Holy Mass with the Rite of Canonization of Blessed Francisco Marto and Jacinta Marto accessed 27/11/2017, 10:05.

[11] POPE PAUL VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evagelica Testeficatio, 45 accessed 27/11/2017, 10:15.

[12] POPE FRANCIS, Prayer meeting with clergy, religious and seminarians accessed 12/10/2017, 14:36.

[13] ARRUPE P., Praying with Father Arrupe, Ed. A.O., Braga, 2007, p. 117.

[14] VAN THUAN, F. X. N., The Path of Hope, Paulinas, Prior Velho, 2007, 43.

[15] FARIA, D., Poesia, Assírio e Alvim, Porto, 2012, p. 442.

[16] POPE FRANCIS, Address to formators of consecrated life accessed on 13/10/2017, 22:30.

[17] POPE FRANCIS, Homily for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord accessed 27/11/2017, 10:10.

[18] JACQUES PHILIPPE, Inner freedom, paulus, lisbon, 2014,p. 17.

[19] HILLESUM, E, Letters, Assírio e Alvim, Lisbon, 2009, 143.

[20] Ditto, 234.

[21] POPE BENEDICT XVI to priests, religious, seminarians and deacons accessed on 14/10/2017, 00:14.

Science and God

Fatima in detail | October 13, 1917

OCTOBER 13, 1917FÁTIMA IN DETAIL Sr. Maria Benedita Costa, asmSister of the Covenant of St. Mary October 13, 1917 [1]After repeating the promise that the following month there would be "a miracle for all to believe" - news that, using the most effective method of...

Fatima in detail | September 13, 1917

SEPTEMBER 13, 1917FÁTIMA IN DETAIL Sr. Maria Benedita Costa, asmSister of the Covenant of St. Mary September 13, 1917 [1]Contrary to what many expected - both among the civil authorities and among the family of the Little Shepherds and the inhabitants of Aljustrel -...