2015: year of consecrated life the prophecy of consecrated ... · 2015: year of consecrated life...

2015: Year of Consecrated Life

The prophecy of Consecrated Life today “Reawaken the world”

The task of the religious today, the disciple and missionary of Jesus Christ

By way of introduction

On 29 November 2013 Pope Francis received the Superiors General at the end of

their 82nd General Assembly at the Salesianum, in Rome. It was not a question of a short meeting as the USG had requested, but a whole morning at the request of

the Holy Father himself. There were no prepared speeches but a fraternal and cordial discussion with questions and answers which dealt with many aspects of religious life and of the problems that currently harass it, and in which he clearly defined the mission of Consecrated Life: “to reawaken the world”. In fact, to the

first set of questions which concerned the identity and the mission of consecrated

life, Pope Francis among other things said: «You really need to be witnesses to a different way of doing things and of acting. They are the incarnation of the values of the Kingdom». Called to follow the Lord in a special way religious «are men and women who can reawaken the world and enlighten the future. Consecrated life is prophecy. God is calling us to come out of the cosy nest we are in and to be sent to the frontiers of the world”.

Dear brothers and sisters, it would not be possible to express better our role in the Church today. Jesus’ way of life is not based on the demands of nature nor on the development of natural forces but directly on the values of the Kingdom

and consequently on going beyond those good things which on the ordinary level of creation help man to grow and develop himself. It is only by living this evangelical project of life with conviction, joy and radicality that one can

transform the world causing it to rise with the power of the Kingdom.

What sort of consecrated life are we expecting today? That of being a special kind of witness: « You really need to be witnesses to a different way of doing things and of acting. They are the incarnation of the values of the Kingdom». Radicality is

required of all Christians, Pope Francis declared, but religious are called to follow the Lord in a special way: «They are men and women who can reawaken the world

and enlighten the future. Consecrated life is prophecy. God is calling us to come out of the cosy nest we are in and to be sent to the frontiers of the world avoiding the temptation of being too much at home there». The Pope continued saying that

prophecy is to strengthen what is the formal aspect that is the charism in consecrated life and not to confuse this with various apostolic works. The first remains the second passes. The charism remains because it is strong. Sometimes

people confuse charism and the work. The charism is creative, it is always seeking new paths. Charismatic witness, the Pope continued, needs to be realistic

and also includes the fact of presenting ourselves as witnesses who are sinners: «We all make mistakes. We have to recognise our weakness. And admitting being sinners is good for everyone».

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«Pope Francis – one of those present asked – You have often strongly invited us to go to the peripheries. But how?» The Pope replied that the world was seen differently when viewed from the periphery rather than from the centre, and this

obliges us to constantly rethink our religious life. And here he recalled a letter of Fr. Arrupe to the social centres of the Society of Jesus in which he declared that

in order to make a genuine preferential option for the poor it was necessary to live with the poor. «It is necessary to look at everything starting from the periphery. It is necessary to go to the periphery in order to really know how

people live. Otherwise there is the risk of the fundamentalism of positions that are fixed and based on a view from the centre. This is not healthy. An example: someone working with the young cannot say things that are too formalised

because these go over the heads of youngsters. Today God asks us to come out of the cosy nest we are in. Even someone who is in an enclosed order through his

prayer is sent out so that the Gospel may grow in the world. I am convinced that the most important hermeneutical key and the corollary of the evangelical mandate is: «Go out! Go out!».

1. A jubilee for Consecrated Life

Pope Francis wanted to dedicate the year 2015 to Consecrated Life. His choice was inspired by the happy coincidence of the 500th anniversary of the birth of Saint Teresa of Avila and of Saint Philip Neri and of the bicentenary of the birth of

Saint John Bosco.

It wants therefore to be a jubilee year for the Church and in a special way for the Orders, Congregations and Institutes of consecrated people, called by vocation and mission to “reawaken the world” in the happy expression of Pope Francis

which is also a programme of life. Clearly it is not just a slogan, but a real programme with the specific task of being real witnesses to a different way of

doing things and of acting, incarnating the values of the Kingdom. If the Church nowadays is trying to recover the freshness of the Gospel and the

strength and credibility of the early Church this means that we are all called to that radical approach required of all Christians but in a special way of religious, «men and women who can rewaken the world and illuminate the future», since

thay have been chosen to follow Christ more closely. Everyone expects from us a joyful and happy witness, a beautiful and attractive witness, the witness of a life

that is credible and fruitful lived to the full. In this way they will see that it is a beautiful thing to live in friendship with Jesus; that it is possible to live the Gospel making it ‘the supreme rule of life’; that Jesus and his Gospel call fill life

with meaning, with light and with joy.

The year of Consecrated Life therefore is an opportunity to rediscover, witness to and present to the world and to the Church, especially to young believers the beauty of consecrated life, which has its origin as a precious gift of the Holy Spirit

to the Church. Men and women who experience the loving gaze of the Lord Who calls them by name to be with Him, to share the passion for the Kingdom and allow themselves to be guided by the Spirit’ (cf. Mk 3:14-15). When one has at

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heart only the welfare of people one overcomes the temptation of spiritual worldliness: one does not seek honours or the first places; one is not arrogant or self-centred, nor proud or conceited; instead one only desires the one thing

necessary: God and his Kingdom.

It is above all necessary, therefore, to rediscover the true meaning of a vocation; it is more than a personal project, it is a gift of God. The decision regarding a vocation is to welcome the gift of being called; it is preceded by the discovery of

God’s design for one’s life. Only in this way can the faith of the people grow, the Church be renewed and the world transformed.

2. Walking with the God of history

We cannot give up our vocation as consecrated persons to be at the cutting edge

in the Kingdom of God, the sentinels of the world and the sensors of history. Our vocation as “signs and bearers of the love of God” (C. 2) urges us to be what the

Lord expects from all his disciples: “salt of the earth and light of the world” (cf. Mt 5, 14). These are the two images Jesus used to decribe and characterise his

disciples. Both are very eloquent and tell us that setting out to follow Christ is not so much a matter of “doing” as of “being”, that is to say it is more a question of identity than of efficiency, more an issue of a significant presence that of

grandiose schemes, more about loving people than of doing things, more about being pastors and educators than functionaries or managers.

What matters is not so much the renewal of religious life or its future but rather the passion for Jesus and the Kingdom of God. It is here that its vitality, its

credibility and its fruitfulness are to be found. In fact being open to the questioning, the provocations, the stimuli and the challenges of modern men and

women, and in a very special way to those of the young, frees us from every form of ossification, deafness, hesitancy, a bougeois life-style, and we start walking “in step with God”. Let us therefore avoid looking back and so becoming pillars of

salt, or else of deceiving ourselves with futile leaps ahead which are not in conformity with God’s will.

Every new form of religious life is born within the Church as a response to a practical need discovered by the founders under the guidance of the Spirit. God

continues to call us through the urgent needs and the poverties of our world 3. Building on the rock

Some time ago I spoke about a liberal kind of consecrated life whose time had run out and which no longer had a future.1 Efforts at renewal have been made and

attempts to grow, but not really according to the logic of a life that is consecrated

1 Cfr. Pascual Chávez, circular letter to the Salesians “You are my God, my happiness lies in you alone” (Psalm 16, 2), published in AGC 382.

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first of all to God. Many experiences confirm the suspicion that there was a desire

to build the house on sand and not on rock. Any attempt to re-found consecrated life that does not take us back to Jesus Christ, the foundation of our life (cf. 1Cor 3, 11), and does not make us more faithful to our own founder and more committed to building the Kingdom is destined to fail.

There is no doubt that Consecrated Life is passing through a time even more sensitive than that immediately after the Council, in spite of all the efforts made

for renewal, especially on the part of those Congregations which coming into being with a particular social aim are suffering from a sense of being anachronistic and are seeking a new way of living out their charism since their

specific service seems no longer relevant. The causes of this malaise are varied and often also depend on different contexts. In some parts of the world the

difficulties of Religious Life are linked to the decline in the birthrate, to an increase in material prosperity and to a cultural climate that is generally secularized; in other regions one finds a certain lack of identity, of visibility and of

credibility in a religious life that of it nature is charismatic and therefore ought to have a strong spiritual connotation, whereas often it is seen as an NGO the

provider of social services. Finally the damage caused by the scandals arising from accusations of the abuse of minors has been very serious. Without presuming to say the last word on these problems, this combination of causes

has resulted in the fact that the majority of Congregations have seen and continue to see a reduction in the number of members with the problem being particularly acute in Europe and in the western world.

Faced with this situation there could be the temptation of a simple return to the

past in order to find there security and tranquility at the price of closing our eyes to the new signs of the times which are urging us to respond with greater identity, visibility and credibility.

The solution does not lie in making choices for our restoration; one cannot in fact remove from consecrated life that prophetic force, which from its beginnings had

always distinguished it and which makes it dynamic and counter-cultural. As I have already said several times what is at stake for the coming years is not

survival but prophecy, the basic element of consecrated life. Therefore we must not cultivate a “obstinate institutional bitterness”, trying to prolong life at all cost; rather, with humility, constancy and joy we must seek to be signs of the presence

of God and of His love for the men and women of today. Only in this way can we be an attractive drawing force.

Well then, to be a prophetic presence in the Church and in the world, consecrated life needs to avoid the temptation of conforming itself to the secularized,

hedonistic and consumerist mentality of this world and let itself be guided by the Spirit, Who caused it to come into being as a privileged form of the following and the imitation of Christ. In this way, at this stage in history we will be able to

know and put into practice God’s will for us, and take it into our lives with joy, conviction and enthusiasm. «Do not model yourselves on the behaviour of the

world around you, but let your behaviour change, modelled by your new mind. This is the only way to discover the will of God and know what is good, what it is that God wants, what is the perfect thing to do.» (Rm 12, 2). We cannot forget that

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the Christian life, and even more so consecrated life, has no other vocation and

mission than to be «salt of the earth» and «light of the world».

We are salt of the earth when we live the spirit of the beatitudes, when we order our lives starting from the sermon on the mount, when we live an alternative style of life. It is a matter of being people who faced with a society that prizes success,

the ephemeral, the provisional, money, enjoyment, power, revenge, conflict, war opt for peace, forgiveness, mercy, generosity, the spirit of sacrifice, starting in the

limited circle of the family or of the community and then spreading out into society. This mission is more than ever needed in a world scandalously divided socially, and ever more intolerant in the religious sphere.

Jesus warns us in fact of the possibility that salt can become tasteless, that His disciples may not be genuine. He points out the disastrous effects of this: «It is

good for nothing and can only be thrown out to be trampled under foot by men». Either we are disciples with a clear evangelical identity, therefore significant and

useful for the world, or we are to be thrown away and to be despised, we are the unhappiest of men, we are nothing. Christianity, the faith, the gospel, consecrated life have a social value and a public responsibility, because they are

a vocation and mission, and they cannot be understood and lived “for private consumption.”

This is the meaning of the exhortation with which Jesus concludes His words: «Your light must shine in the sight of men». Jesus wants his disciples to make the

sermon on the mount a way of life. Meekness, poverty, generosity, mercy, forgiveness, reliance on God, trust, love for others are therefore the works of the

Gospel that need to be made to shine out, those which make us become “salt” and “light”, those which help us to create the alternative society that does not

allow humanity to become totally corrupt. As consecrated persons we are called to be hope, to be light and salt; we are

called to a mission to society and to the world, a mission that can be summed up in one word: holiness, which does not mean self-perfection, which would be a futile narcissistic pretence, but which is the result of a total openness to God

through seeking His face, discerning His will, the intimacy of His love, a sharing in His mission. It is also the result of being open to others, coming out of

ourselves, responding to them, showing concern for their needs, sharing in their joys and hopes, their grief and anguish, being ready to serve them, specially the poorest and excluded! Being light and salt means being witnesses who are

luminous, radiant, drawing people to Jesus and His Gospel.

St. John Paul II told us: “it would be a contradiction to settle for a life of mediocrity, marked by a minimalist ethic and a shallow religiosity... The time has come to re-propose wholeheartedly to everyone this high standard of ordinary

Christian living”2 which precisely is holiness. If it is true that consecrated life is «a divine gift, which the Church has received

from her Lord», «a tree planted by God in the Church», «a special gift which helps

2 John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte, n. 31. Cfr. also Starting afresh from Christ, n. 46.

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the Church in her salvific mission » and which itself «firmly belongs to the life and

holiness of the Church » (LG 43 and 44), it follows that a Jubilee, like this year of Consecrated Life is an ecclesial event in the true meaning of the word. It is a real

“kairós”, in which God works in order to lead the Church into its being ever more the bride of Christ, all splendour, without spot or wrinkle.

3. Witnesses to the radical approach of the Gospel

To become “witnesses to the radical approach of the Gospel”, which is seen and

favoured today as an appropriate description of Consecrated Life, is an invitation addressed nowadays to the whole of Consecrated Life, called to be so concentrated on Christ that He really is ‘the supreme law’ for all the consecrated,

which means having “His mind” (1 Cor 2:16) and “His heart” (Rom 8:5), “His sentiments” (Philip 2:5), thinking like Him, loving like Him, reacting like Him, looking at people like Him, sympathising like Him, being compassionate and

merciful like Him, suffering like Him. This take us to the roots of the Gospel and will make of us consecrated persons living Gospels.

The theme of the radical approach of the Gospel can be well illustrated by considering it from a semantic and etymological perspective. In fact, the word

radical is closely connected with root, with being rooted and obviously with radicality. To understand these things better we can make use of the image of the

plant and of the seed. The stability and the strength of the plant tell us that a tree without

roots dries up or falls (in this sense it is analogous - not equal to the

foundations of a building);

The vitality, since the nutriment of the plant comes especially from the

roots (not only, obviously, there are also the air, the sun etc.);

The fact of “interment”, of being underground, “hidden”.

In this sense, there is a very interesting paradox in the expression itself:

“witnesses to the radical nature of the gospel”: witnesses suggests a public

manifestation, therefore of visibility, of “sacramentality”; whereas, paradoxically,

“radical” refers precisely to what is not seen, to what is hidden, “buried”.

I think that often speaking about radicality, people already start from a particular

semantic use of the word, with the meaning of without any conditions, of absolute

fidelity, without compromise, being “all of a piece”, etc., forgetting the

etymological meaning. For example: what does it mean when people speak about

a ‘radical party’? Are they referring etymologically to a ‘return to the roots’

(Marxist, or Maoist, or whatever), or rather to not wanting to have anything to do

with alliances with other political-social currents or movements? It seems to me

that it is rather this second one.

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Sometimes there is also the tendency to identify radicality with perfection or the

pursuit of it, but that is not the case: from a small plant and even more so from a

seed that has only just been planted in the ground one does not expect there to

be fruit, but rather that it puts down roots that are good and deep. From someone

who wants to enter the life of religious life in general one cannot require that

he/she be “holy” a saint (unfortunately sometimes not even after many years of

consecrated life): but rather that he/she be rooted in his/her choices. I think this

has implications for formation. In the first place for the stage of initial formation,

of which I would emphasise two aspects along these lines: profundity (typical of

the root) of life, going against the current of our culture, which emphasises rather

extension, inevitably superficial. There is a virtue quite forgotten in our days,

perhaps because often it has been misunderstood: humility which, very

significantly comes from humus. Humus and root are inseparable. It is nothing

other than the “life hidden in Christ”, from which and only from which, can

emerge apostolic fruitfulness (the fruits!).

4. Consecrated Life, a reserve of humanity

If consecrated life is the soul of the Church and represents a supply of humanity

and a therapy for this society, then what sort of consecrated life is necessary and significant for today’s world? The reply can only be a religious life that is mystical, prophetic, servant, with a radical approach to the gospel both personal and at

community level, a life therefore that is rich in humanity and spirituality, the source of hope for humanity. All of us are called to place ourselves on this path

and to find ways of expressing, according to our own charismatic identity, how we can be mystics, prophets and servants and, consequently, succeed in ensuring that every community is such.

The mission of consecrated life has a specific role in the Church and in the

world: to be charismatic and prophetic. I like to say that consecration is itself already prophecy, to the extent that it bears witness to the Absolute nature of God and the Gospel values which nowadays more than ever go against the

current, in a society marked by secularism, religious indifference and practical atheism. Gospel values are a prophetic rejection of the idols which this society

has made and presents for man’s adoration: power-money-pleasure. In addition consecrated life is bound to raise issues for those people – the young in particular since they are most at risk – whose lives are enclosed in purely earthly

parametres with an immanentism that is fruitless since it is without a future. For this reason, when it is lived to the full and with joyful thankfulness religious

life is a prophecy of the ultimate reality, of the final destiny of the whole of creation, of history and of the universe. It is a prophecy nowadays more than ever

necessary precisely because our post-modern era is marked by the knell of human hopes and the loss of utopias, condemning men to the hell of pragmatism, of efficiency, of functionality, without faith, hope or love.

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Consecrated life is a prophetic sign when it makes present, visible and credible

the primacy of the love of God and bears witness to it with a strong sense of communion and of fraternity, in a style of life at the service of the poor and the

abandoned of the world who make sad the outlook of society and obscure the loving presence of God. We are aware and are convinced that «without faith, without the eyes of love, the world is too evil for God to be good, for a good God to

exist».3

The primacy of the love of God preserves the consecrated person from the voluntaristic and perfectionist temptation. He/she does not bind him/herself because he/she has to reach a state of perfection understood in an abstract

manner as the total control of him/herself. His/her commitment and his/her daily efforts are the way in which he/she responds to a love infinitely greater than

anything he/she does and the efforts he/she makes. Since he/she has been and continues to be unconditionally loved he/she responds with generosity. Radicality, therefore, is always the expression of the sequela. The «go, sell everything » was said in the context of a meeting and of a conversation that opens with a loving look («looked steadily at him and loved him ») and closes with the

invitation to share and to companionship («follow me») (cf. Mk 10:21).

The heart of our plan of life as consecrated persons is not to be perfect or to be radical, but to be «signs and bearers» of a love that has preceded our response,

has fascinated us and been the foundation of our “yes”, for always (cf. C. 2). The safest test to distinguish between voluntarism and sequela is the presence of joy. This is also the way to assess the quality of work and of temperance. A sad

austerity and a commitment to work that removes peace from one’s face and extinguishes the smile are a symptom that something needs to be attended to.

This has a profound impact also on the “face” of a community: a joyful community is a clear and evident sign of vocational “good health” which makes it “attractive” and welcoming. This is one of the features to which the new

generations are more sensitive. 5. A Consecrated Life under the banner of change

Nowadays it is common to find many varied interpretations of the current

situation and the future of Religious Life. There are those who describe it using three images: being in the desert, where there is no one, as a metaphor for

making us present with our activity and our witness where neither the state nor society have arrived; going towards the periphery letting others be at the centre, accepting to live deprived of power and privileges; and reaching the frontiers,

where a more prophetic life and action are more needed. There are those who play with words and think that Consecrated Life is now being called to centre itself with radicality in God, the source of our identity, to concentrate on the things that are essential, and to decentralise going out towards the frontiers. There are those who look forward to a change in the image of a religious house which passes from

being a closed fortress to being an encampment open to all especially the poorest, with Religious taking their place among them, committed to the option for justice

and solidarity, with a simple style of life, promoting a globalization from below,

3 B. LONERGAN, Metodo in teologia, Sígueme, Salamanca 1988, p.118.

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starting with the poorest and the excluded. A religious life with communities that are more hearth and home and less hotels, with more communion of life and more fraternity, giving rise to a real sense of unity in diversity, with lay people side by

side as companions in the mission.

In the post-synodal letter Vita Consecrata, John Paul II, making use of the icon of the Transfiguration, described its character speaking about the Mysterium Trinitatis, to indicate the powerful experience of God which is the foundation of

Religious Life and constitutes its principal mission. He then presented the signum fraternatis, to underline the fact that behind every vocation there is a convocation

and therefore the vocation to fraternal life, to communion which is therefore an essential element of Consecrated Life. Finally he made the connection with

servitium caritatis, to underline the fact that it is the mission that leads us to make our own the passion of Christ for the Kingdom of God, to come out of our

comfort zones to go to the geographical, cultural and existential peripheries and make contact with the people, especially the least, and share their joys and hopes, their grief and anguish.

In the Union of Superiors General, and more specifically starting from the motto of the International Congress on Consecrated Life in 2004, we wanted to interpret

and promote religious life as a samaritan life, characterized by a great passion for Christ and by a great passion for men and women.

The most interesting thing is that basically, even with a variety of expressions

and emphases all these attempts at a definition, which are not examples of mere linguistic virtuosity nor literary flights of fancy, bring together the principal features that define Consecrated Life.

Spirituality. In all religious institutes great efforts are being made so that

the Word of God, especially the Gospel and the Eucharist really are the centre of the life of the consecrated person and the community. We are convinced that the consecrated person is a living and transfigured

memorial of the transcendent dimension that exists in the heart of every human being.

The community. Because we know that the witness of communion, open to

all those who have need is fundamental in our world which is so submerged

in egotism and solitude. Consecrated Life if lived in community is already in itself, a proclamation of the Gospel.

The mission. A mission to be carried out and lived inserted in “the margins”

of society and of the Church, at the ‘frontiers’, which are not merely

geographical, but cultural and existential. This means leaving all the places of privileges and power and entering decisively and with conviction taking

our place in the world of exclusion, of poverty, but also in the contexts ever more secularized, where attempts are made to remove God not only from the political decisions of nations but above all from the fabric of society and

from the very consciences of people, as if one had to live doing without God. The mission, however, includes also the “passion” – understood as suffering

or powerlessness – of so many religious who continue to pray and to offer

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themselves for the Church and for the workers in the harvest, as likewise

the “passion” as martyrdom of so many religious imprisoned or killed for the Kingdom. They are the best representation of Christ Jesus who

continues His passion in the world through his Church. 6. Urged on by personal and pastoral conversion

The changes we are witnessing are so profound and unexpected that it would seem that there is not sufficient time for us as individuals to properly assimilate

them. The danger is that the fragmentary nature of this somehow becomes absorbed into our own “ego”, making us all the more fragile and exposed to

manipulation by anonymous forces. What gain then is it for a man to have won the whole world …?

Faced with this sitution so challenging and demanding there is no room for flight but only for a renewed sense of responsibility. From this point of view our way of life ought to enable us to face up to the valuable question Jesus put to his

questioners: “What gain then is it for a man to have won the whole world and to have lost or ruined his very self?” (Lk 9.25).

It is a question of asking ourselves what can enable mankind, in our case the

young, to live in the world to the full and profit from their extraordinary potential without losing themselves. In this context, the loss of oneself should be understood as the loss of one’s own freedom, not only in the sense of autonomy

but as the possibility of aiming for the ultimate and definitive good capable of integrating everything that one can experience in one’s own life.

In this attempt at renewal, in order to be more responsive to today’s challenges, there is a series of factors that one cannot underestimate, but which at the same

time cannot be all-determinng so as to produce a paralysis which prevents movement and any attempt to bring life to society. I am referring to the ageing and the insufficient numbers of personnel, to the limited flow of vocations, to the

complexity and weightiness of structures, to resistance to the work of real co-responsibility with lay people.

Restructuring of the works as pastoral conversion

There is no doubt that the current numerical contraction in the West generates not a little preoccupation in the government of the Provinces, which have numerous works for which they have available fewer and fewer personnel. Often

the confreres and the sisters allow themselves to be taken up by an excessive frenzy in the works and by an activism that empties their spiritual life and makes

them weak and more vulnerable. Nowadays it is quite common to speak about the complexity and the weightiness

of the works without succeeding at the same time to create structures that are more flexible yet equally effective for the purposes of the mission. The conversion

of the traditional forms into more flexible structures is often quite difficult and controversial: we can think of the “dramas” in connection with the combination of

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Provinces and the forced closure of works and communities. Certainly, taking on

lay personnel, on a voluntary or professional basis, for the maintaining and the functioning of the works is becoming more and more an accepted reality but there

is still a long way to go. The changes demand a structural rethinking and at the same time encourage us religious to greater transparency and radicality in living our own charism.

The reason for ‘pastoral conversion’

Trying to find solutions to pastoral problems, for the first time at Aparecida (Brazil), in the Vth General Conference of CELAM, there was not only talk about

the need for ‘personal conversion’ in order to better describe the condition of the disciple of Jesus, as a person who first of all submits himself to the Lordship of Jesus and of His Word in order to become His ardent missionary.

In fact they also began to speak about the absolute need for a ‘pastoral conversion’, saying that structures and bureaucracy cannot take precedence over the evangelizing mission, that the planning procedures while necessary cannot

drown the missionary thrust. This makes us understand that the restructuring required of us is not

fundamentally an administrative or juridical act, but a process that is profoundly pastoral, because it means making ourselves present in new ways where we are, more responsive to the needs of those for whom we work, and to make ourselves

present in situations where until now we have not been and where nowadays our presence is more relevant.

It is not a question of withdrawing or bringing down the curtain, but of the threefold and simultaneous process of resignifying, re-shaping and relocation. It is

a question of learning the art of dying and the art of living, letting go of what should die so that the new can germinate, flower and bear fruit. And this is the

fruit of the Spirit, Who takes out the heart of stone and replaces it with a heart of flesh and so renews the face of the earth.

The novelty of the Spirit

The youth and the perennial newness of the Church and of humanity are the fruit of the New Man, the Risen Lord, as the Gospel of John recounts as it places the

coming of the Spirit on the same day as the Resurrection of Jesus. Breathing His Spirit on them, the Lord Jesus, the New Man gave to the disciples the mission and the possibility of being new men and women and of making humanity new

through forgiveness and reconciliation (Jn 20:19-23).

It was precisely the Holy Spirit Who prevented the Church from remaining a synagogue, that is a closed place for the elect, for people who do not recognise themselves as sinners and who do not want to be forgiven. That Church, having

come out of the Upper Room is always tempted to return and once again shut itself off. It is tempted not to let itself be forgiven, not to have forgiveness as its task; especially when outside it meets the winds of contradiction. And then the

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signs of fear reappear: the little flock instead of going out closes in on itself and

become isolated without even realising that not all those who are knocking are doing so simply to bang on a closed door but also to enter. Only the Spirit can

restore courage as every new page of history and of society is turned. Only He can urge us on so that we set out on new paths towards new goals for the Kingdom of God and for mankind.

But the Spirit given by the Risen Jesus also means something else for us: it is the trademark of our identity, that is of our separation from the world. Alas for us if

we were to forget it, to give in to the world’s seduction, to its logic! He, the Spirit, ensures the fidelity of the Church to Christ. He sees to it that our cause before

the world is and really remains «the cause of Jesus » («the truth»!) and does not become a different cause.

A Christian life and with greater reason a consecrated life, that has gone soft, become bourgeois, without energy, runs the risk of becoming irrelevant,

innocuous. It no longer has anything to say to anyone. The man of today is a man who is distracted, disenchanted, indifferent, knows it all. Precisely because of these characteristics, he needs to be vigorously shaken up by a testimony that is

particularly provocative because of its approach to life. We need to recover the «pentecostal, spiritual» dimension of Christian life; we

need to find the Spirit again. The current crisis of the Church and of consecrated life does not worry me. What I am afraid of is a Christian and consecrated life

that is insignificant; and the Christian has no significance, has nothing to say, upsets no one, doesn’t reawake the world, when he/she is not truly spiritual and as such is not very attentive to the needs and cries of the poor. Our faith, our consecrated vocation, cannot give in to easy solutions, to

compromises, to benevolent concessions, to equivocal winks, to a balancing act, to fill in the gaps. It cannot give up on its ideals and downplay its claims (which

are of course those Christ established), making friendly arrangements and generous compromises while recovering popularity and joining the ranks. Precisely because the relevance of the faith today depends on its identity and not

on the level of its social acceptibility, we believe in the need for a commitment along these lines that is ever more necessary. We have to raise the stakes and dare to be clear, in other words, to say openly who we are, what we want, what we are asking for without minimising the claims and demands. 7. With a renewed sense of Church

It was not by chance that the Second Vatican Council devoted to Consecrated Life a whole chapter within the dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium on the Church. In fact nothing can be said about consecrated life without reference to the Church

within which by their proper vocation religious constitute the prophetic component.

The reason is that following Christ through the public profession of the evangelical counsels is not a purely human choice, of an ascetical nature or a personal

decision taken in view of acquiring one’s own human state of perfection as

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happens in other religions. Instead consecrated life is a gift of the Holy Spirit; that

is to say it is of divine and charismatic origin and belongs intrinsically to the life and to the holiness of the Church.4 This explains therefore why the events of

consecrated life always go in step with those of the Church: when one is in crisis so is the other, and whenever one is flourshing the other receives an impulse of renewed vitality.5

We can see this in the change the Church went through with the unexpected resignation as Pontiff by Benedict XVI in February 2013, and with the election of

Pope Francis a month later. In fact these were two events that changed in an unforeseeable manner the ecclesiastical world.

There is no doubt that every new Pope gives a different face to the Church. Just to think of the image of the springtime Church of John XXII; of the communicating

Church with Paul VI; of a courageous Church with John Paul II; of a tired Church with Benedict XVI and of a Church with a strong evangelical flavour with Pope

Francis. The first obvious observation is that the challenges of today are no longer those of

the days of the Council: some have changed their appearance, others appear quite new or they arose afterwards. Atheism, for example, is no longer the “scientific” marxist type of 50 years ago but is practical atheism, induced by practical

materialism and by the prevailing consumistic culture. In a similar way the human race of today is not split apart by the Berlin wall, but other dividing walls

have been reinforced, such as those of poverty and hunger, egoism and racism; today the threat of nuclear war is no longer hanging over everythig as it was then, but its place has been taken by international terrorism.

At the same time, however, in these 50 years some “signs of the times” have

appeared which proclaim a better tomorrow for humanity which from many points of view appears to be set on a course towards peace-making: in fact one notices a greater mutual understanding between peoples, a commitment to a future of

peace, of progress, of the promotion of human rights, a more mature ecological awareness, a network ever larger and extensive of mass media and digital communication. How can we not find motives for hope in the decisions of millions

of young volunteers who generously take on the problems of the suffering and the needy? And the potential for humanity of the new technologies, applied to

medicine and human life, are not they perhaps too a motive for hope, as well as for some concern?

Likewise we need to recognise that together with the world, the Church too has changed. 50 years after the opening of the Second Vatican Council, the Christian community has grown, even though in recent years it has lost its enthusiasm, and

recalling the words of Pope Ratzinger, today it seems under stress and tired.

4 Cfr. Lumen Gentium, n. 44. 5 Cf. Bartolome SORGE S.I., “The exercise of leadership in Consecrated life 50 years after Vatican

IIº”. Conference at USG, 22 May 2013.

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It is certainly not the first time that the Church has passed through difficult times.

It is inevitable that with the passing of time dust and dirt are deposited also on the men and the institutions of the Church, as Benedict XVI had already pointed out.

Pope Francis also repeated the same thing putting people on their guard against spiritual worldliness in the Church, against the danger of changing into an NGO when the emphasis is placed on organization rather than on the evangelizing

mission. Other observations of Pope Francis have been against the tendency towards a bougeois life style in the Church and the stagnation that can make it insensitive in the face of huge social problems; against the clericalism that leaves

no space for the laity and in particular for women; against becoming closed in on itself in a self-centred manner forgetting that it was born to evangelize. When the

Church becomes rich and powerful, weighed down by human endorsements and by privileges, every time that diplomacy takes priority over prophecy, when the Christian community withdraws into considering its own internal problems and

slackens its missionary outreach the Holy Spirit – Who is guiding the Church – intervenes: purifies her, renews her and takes her back to the purity of her origins.

Apostolic times return! Is it not perhaps this that Pope Francis is incarnating? With simple gestures and

straight-forward choices he is trying to bring the Church back to the Gospel, promoting a missionary and pastoral Church which moves on, builds up and evangelizes. A poor Church that preaches the values of poverty and proclaims a

merciful God. Taking his inspiration from Saint Francis, whom he chose to take as his patron, and taking the Second Vatican Council as his point of reference, Pope

Bergoglio is carrying out his Petrine ministry through a witness of simplicity, poverty and humility. With his options for the poorest, his gestures of closeness, openness, dialogue, love, tenderness he is seeking to demolish the new walls and

build new bridges. His courageous statements proclaim and denounce everything that is contrary to the plan of God for mankind, both inside and outside the

Church, with great conviction, with strong freedom of speech and with a far reaching vision.

Even if it is up to the Pope to take up again and to bring to a conclusion the journey of renewal launched 50 years ago by the Second Vatican Council in a setting very different from the current one, nevertheless Consecrated Life has its

own precise responsibility.

8. What sort of Consecrated Life nowdays?

From the elements which I have so far presented to you some points for reflection

emerge and in particular a question: what must Consecrated Life be like nowadays in order to be at one and the same time faithful to Christ and to the founders of the various institutes and also in perfect harmony with these steps of the Spirit

Who is purifying, renewing and relaunching the Church? In my opinion, Consecrated Life nowadays needs to be more and more focused on

the Word of God, in particular on the Gospel, with the Lord Jesus as the supreme Rule of Life, with great love for the Church and a profound commitment to the

Kingdom.

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The relationship Church - World

While I was reflecting on the work of the “Synod on the New Evangelization for the transmission of the faith,” in which I had the grace of taking part, I noticed the

presence of two major lines of thought, reflecting a two-fold ecclesiology: one represented by those who think that after the Second Vatican Council the Church

has become old and that the only thing to do is to renew it, as one renews a house, restoring it or modernising it, but fundamentally leaving it as it was without any radical changes; the other represents those who recognise that society has

changed profoundly and the way of living in the house-Church has changed, and that therefore the intervention of an architect is needed to completely review the interior plan; for them it is important to know the causes of this change in order

to know what the Church ought to be like today. Faced with these two views, I consider that the fundamental question is the new relationship Church - World.

And paradoxically one can find the reply in the Second Vatican Council itself as Benedict XVI recalled in his address to a Group of French Bishops «it was and remains a genuine sign of God for our time». And he continues “This is particularly

true in the field of dialogue between the Church and the world, this world «with which it lives and interacts»6 and on which it wants to spread the light which

divine life irradiates.7 The more the Church is aware of its nature and its mission, the more it is capable of loving this world, of bestowing on it a trusting gaze, inspired by that of Jesus, without giving into the temptation of discouragement or

withdrawal. And «the Church, already carrying out its mission in this spirit stimulates and makes its own contribution to human and civil culture»,8 the Council says. Precisely because it looks on the world with the eyes of God and

loves it with His heart it cannot be silent as regards the faith and refrain from bearing witness to the message of Christ «in such a way that all earthly activities

of the faithful are pervaded by the light of the Gospel.»9 Nowadays a more convinced ecclesial commitment is needed to a “new

evangelization” in order to rediscover the joy of believing and to find again enthusiasm in communicating the faith. Faith, in fact, grows when it is lived as an

experience of a love received, and when it is communicated as an experience of grace and of joy. In the same speech to the French Bishops the Pope added: “On how many occasions have we seen that it is the words of faith, simple and direct

words, filled with the life-blood of the divine Word, that best touch the hearts and minds and bring the most decisive lights? We should not be afraid therefore to speak with apostolic passion about the mystery of God and the mystery of man,

and without tiring to show the richness of Christian doctrine. In it there are words and a reality, fundamental convictions and ways of thinking that are the only ones

capable of bringing the hope for which the world thirsts.” In the College of the Bernardins Pope Benedict wanted to recall that the monastic

life, entirely directed to the seeking of God, the quaerere Deum, becomes the

6 Gaudium et spes, n. 40, 1 7 Ibid. n. 40, 2. 8 Ibid. n. 58, 4. 9 Ibid. n. 43, 5.

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source of renewal and of progress for culture … Religious life, exclusively at the

service of God’s work to which nothing can be preferred (cf. Rule of Saint Benedict), is a treasure. It offers a radical witness to the way in which human life, precisely

when it is placed entirely in the sequela of Christ, carries the human vocation to completeness, to the beatific vision. The whole of society and not just the Church

is profoundly enriched by such witness. Offered in humility, in sweetness and in silence, it demonstrates, one could say the proof, that in man there is more than man himself.”

Finally speaking about catechesis, the Pope says: “You know that in this area challenges are not lacking: whether they are the difficulty linked to the

transmission of the faith received – from the family, from society – that of the faith welcomed personally at the beginning of adult life, or again the difficulty resulting

from a breakdown in the transmission, when various generations already removed from the faith follow each other. There is also the enormous challenge of living in a society that does not always agree with the teachings of Christ, and which

sometimes tries to make fun of the Church and marginalise it, wanting to confine it simply to the private sphere. To respond to these immense challenges the

Church needs credible witnesses. Christian witness rooted in Christ and lived in consistency of life and with authenticity, takes many forms, without any preconceived scheme. It is born and renewed unceasingly under the action of the

Holy Spirit. It is in no way difficult to see how this challenge from the relationship Church –

World is also strongly felt by us in living our consecrated life and in carrying out the Salesian mission. These guidelines of the Holy Father are indeed illuminating

and encourging for our commitment to the radical approach of the Gospel. Centrality of the mission

Both the Second Vatican Council, at which the Church discovered herself as

“mystery” and no longer as the ‘perfect’ society’, as the servant of the world and no longer as mistress, as the ‘sacrament of salvation that illuminates peoples with the

light of Christ’, sharing their joys and hopes, their grief and anguish; and the Synod on the New Evangelization for the transmission of the Christian faith, called

to respond to the great needs of men and women of today through the communication of the Love of God revealed in Christ Jesus; as well as the Year of Faith, concluded two years ago, and now the Holy Year of Mercy invites us to

cross the threshold of the door that opens us to a meeting with the Father and to a life filled with the Holy Spirit as children of God, disciples of the Lord Jesus and

brothers and sisters engaged in building the Civilization of Love. All these events are powerful stimuli for the renewal of our consecrated life.

There is no doubt that the whole world in fact has now become mission territory –whether it is Europe or America, Africa, Asia and Oceania –, and that nowadays

we have to deal with a series of new situations in which human existence is lived out, the witness of Consecrated Life is being given and the mission of the Church is unfolding.

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The vital and oral communication of the faith, however, can never be imposed.

This process can only be undertaken in an atmosphere of great freedom and with a style of presentation capable of opening up places for interaction with all

cultures, for an inter-religious dialogue with men and women of all beliefs, for an ecumenical meeting with Christians of the various confessions, for genuine inculturation in the human situation in which we find ourselves. Therefore the

first and most attractive and convincing form of evangelization is witness, personal and communitarian.

Along these lines and greatly motivated by the person of Pope Francis, by his gestures, his attitudes and teaching, consecrated life is today being called to renew

itself, let itself be evangelized, leaving the cosy nests in which we find security but which make us die of suffocation, going out to the geographical, cultural, existential peripheries. We are called therefore to convert ourselves pastorally, so

as to be joyful and convinced, credible and effective bearers of the Good News and to collaborate in transforming the world making it more human, more the home of

everyone. Consecrated Life has always been distinguished for its commitment to the first

evangelization; in the Church’s “missio ad gentes” its support has been and is still decisive. It has also shown the same commitment to ordinary evangelization,

fostering the acceptance of the gospel and the building up of the Christian community, contributing to the renewal of pastoral work and devoting itself in various different specialised fields such as education, health care, social

assistance, communications, and charity towards the poor and marginalised, and cultural, ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue.

Consecrated life that came into existence to represent the way of life of Jesus and to bear witness to the beauty of the Gospel lived in a radical manner and called to

totally devote itself also to the new evangelization, in other words to re-propose the Gospel to those to whom it has already beeen proclaimed but who as far as the faith is concerned are living far away and indifferent.

Its fundamental contribution in this field is the joyful witness of a life transformed

by the Gospel; without a radical, happy, courageous witness it would not be possible to arouse a new attraction for the Gospel. Only a witness that is passionate, beautiful and prophetic is capable of becoming credible, visible and

fruitful. Consecrated life is at the service of the Gospel, setting out first of all to follow the Lord Jesus. Its witness helps to awaken the need for spirituality, raise the questions about God, about the meaning of life. Fraternal life reveals the

prophecy of communion and is an expression of the charity of God who is love, in dedication to the poor. All of this we incarnate in the specific features of the

Salesian charism which is an educative pastoral charism. Synergy - networking – lay people

Nowadays in this profoundly changed world and Church, consecrated life needs to seek greater, convinced, organised collaboration and good quality communication for networking. We are not starting from zero, since in so many areas and

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initiatives we are already collaborating. Now in these areas of collaboration in the

various continents and regions it is necessary to continue with greater determination, getting to know each other better, overcoming our fears and

avoiding cutting ourselves off and showing favouritism. And, in spite of all these circumstances we need to say that what we are doing is

still not enough. Today in fact networking is necessary; and this goes beyond information and collaboration, that sometimes we manage to achieve more

through external pressure that from inner conviction about the value of this new approach. Networking certainly requires better communication, but above all the sharing of resources and know-how.

In the whole of this process of personal and pastoral conversion it is indispensible that all of us once and for all take on board the strategic decision to share with lay

people the same spirit and the same mission. We need to give them what they have a right to because of their Christian vocation and not consider their contribution

that of simple workers we cannot manage without. Lay people are called to be not only employees and collaborators, but people really co-responsible with us for the same Salesian mission.

All those who collaborate with us, who work side by side with us, are a resource

that we need to appreciate more and make effective. Our role is that of being the heart, the mind and the soul of the presences. Our task is that of being the “animating nucleus” of an ever larger educative pastoral community. This requires

that we change the model, to a new way of being among our lay collaborators and much more importantly, a new way of being ourselves. This is a great choice that we have to make and to promote.

Finally as the theme of the just finished Ordinary Synod of Bishops is reminding

us, nowadays we cannot evangelize the world without focusing on providing pastoral care and evangelizing the family as a strategic objective. The Church, the family of God, grows and becomes strong creating families where God is

recognised and celebrated, and is perceived on a personal and a shared level as Father. Consecrated life which is called to be and to present itself as life in a

family for the faith and for a shared mission has the special and inalienable task of accompanying, enlightening and strengthening Christian families.

9. Prayer to Mary the model of the radical approach of the Gospel I want to finish this talk with a prayer to the Madonna, Mother and model of the

“unconditional and radical yes”. To her we want to entrust consecrated life, in a particular way, our assent of faith, our desire for communion, our apostolic

commitment among the poorest. Blessed are you Mary, the Woman who listens,

because you lived your lfe seeking God’s will for you. And when His design was revealed to you,

you had the courage to accept it, abandoning your own plan of life in order to make that of the Lord your own.

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Mother of believers,

teach us to listen to God and to make our own His will,

so that He may carry out His design for the salvation of the young!

Blessed are you Mary, Mother of the new community, who at the foot of the cross received

as your son the beloved disciple of Jesus and helped the birth of the Church, the new Body of your Son,

a mystical reality of brothers united by faith and love. You accompanied the life and the prayer of the apostles, in the upper room invoking the effusion of the Spirit of the Risen One.

Mother of the brothers of your Son, teach us to form communities

that have one heart and one soul. May our communion, our fraternity and our joy

be a living witness to the beauty of faith and of our Salesian vocation.

Blessed are you Mary, Servant of the poor, because you promptly set out to serve a mother in need

and made your presence felt at Cana, sharing the joys and sorrow

of a young married couple. You did not look at your own interests or needs, but at their needs

and pointed out your Son Jesus as the Lord who can give to humanity the new wine of peace and of joy in the Spirit.

Mother of those who serve, teach us to come out of ourselves, to go to meet our neighbour,

so that while we respond to their needs, we can offer Jesus, the gift of God, the most precious gift!

Amen.

Fr Pascual Chávez V., sdb

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