Eleventh World Day for Consecrated Life

By Cardinal Justin Rigali

 

The need for intimacy written in the human heart

There is a natural longing in the human heart for intimacy. Even the most reserved among us has an interior need for some form of intimacy. Psychologists and sociologists tell us that one of the challenges young adults sometimes face today is an inability to experience or contribute to genuine intimacy in friendship or love. This can often be attributed to the fact that in our modern society, where examples of loving marriage and the extended family are sometimes lacking, a child can be raised without proper examples of that intimacy so necessary for our human fulfillment.

If we were to ask ourselves why there is this need for intimacy, we can find the answer in a very basic truth: we are made in the image and likeness of God! The very mystery of the Blessed Trinity, which has been revealed to us through God’s love, is intimacy itself. In fact we know that the intimate love of the Father and the Son actually begets the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Because we are the creation of God, who is intimacy itself, we have imprinted upon ourselves the potential and the need for intimacy. In fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to the act of Creation as the “work of the Holy Trinity” (290). The Catechism also states: “Being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons” (357).

We know that in the account of the creation of the first man and woman in the Book of Genesis, the fulfillment of this part of God’s plan is made known from the beginning (Gen 2:18-24). In the beauty and intimacy of faithful marriage, this intimacy continues to be lived out down through the ages. Pope Paul VI wrote: “ … the marriage act, because of its fundamental structure unites husband and wife in the closest intimacy, (and) also brings into operation laws written into the actual nature of man and of woman for the generation of new life” (Humanae Vitae, 12).

The Church as the Bride of Christ

The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Son, who became man for us, continues to live out the mystery of intimacy within the Trinity, not only in perfect and continuous union with His heavenly Father but also in His relationship with the Church that He founded and purchased with His blood. This is why the Church is called the Bride of Christ. The Lord referred to himelf as the “bridegroom.” Scripture speaks of the whole Church and of each of the faithful, members of his Body, as a bride “betrothed” to Christ the Lord so as to become but one spirit with him. The Church is the spotless bride of the spotless Lamb (cf. Catechism, 796).

Just as the “imprint” of the intimacy of the Blessed Trinity dwells in the human race as God’s creation and makes it possible, and necessary, for us to experience intimacy, so the spousal intimacy of Christ and His Church is made visibly present in the world. This is shown forth in what is called “consecrated life.” Consecrated life is the living out of the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience. They are called “counsels” and not “commandments,” because they do not bind like the commandments. “Christ proposes the evangelical counsels, in their great variety, to every disciple. The perfection of charity, to which all the faithful are called, entails for those who freely follow the call to consecrated life the obligation of practicing chastity in celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom, poverty and obedience. It is the profession of these counsels, within a permanent state of life recognized by the Church that characterizes the life consecrated to God. The state of consecrated life is thus one way of experiencing a ‘more intimate’ consecration, rooted in Baptism and dedicated totally to God” (Catechism, 915, 916). In the document of Pope John Paul II, which we will make reference to in our next section, he writes: “In contemplating the gift of consecrated life, the Church contemplates her own intimate vocation of belonging only to her Lord, desirous of being in his eyes ‘without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without blemish’”(Eph 5:27).

Reason for Establishing the World Day for Consecrated Life

Pope John Paul II established the World Day for Consecrated Life in 1997. In establishing it, the Holy Father described the reasons for doing so. He wrote: “In the first place, it answers the intimate need to praise the Lord more solemnly and to thank him for the great gift of consecrated life, which enriches and gladdens the Christian community by the multiplicity of its charisms and by the edifying fruits of so many lives totally given to the cause of the Kingdom; … in the second place, this day is intended to promote a knowledge of and esteem for the consecrated life by the entire people of God, the third reason regards consecrated persons directly, (in that) they are invited to celebrate together solemnly the marvels which the Lord has accomplished in them, to discover by a more illumined faith the rays of divine beauty spread by the Spirit in their way of life, and to acquire a more vivid consciousness of their irreplaceable mission in the Church and in the world” (Message for the First World Day for Consecrated Life, February, 1997).

The reason that February 2 is chosen as the date for this celebration is that it is the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple. Jesus was brought to the Temple (cf. Luke 2:22-38) in order to fulfill the Law of Moses, which commanded the first-born male to be presented to God in the Temple in Jerusalem. It is in this Gospel scene that we find the aged Simeon and the prophetess Anna greeting the infant Jesus and recognizing Him as the long awaited Messiah. This liturgical celebration has long been associated with the consecrated life because of the example of the total giving of the Son of God to the Father, humbling Himself to obey the law of Moses, which He certainly had no obligation to do. So it is with consecrated persons, who follow the counsels of Jesus in an act of total self-giving, so that the intimacy of the Father and the Son, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, might be shown forth in the world by means of their consecration.

From the earliest days of the Church, men and woman have felt called to respond to the Lord’s invitation to follow Him in this intimate manner. Pope Pius XII, in speaking particularly about evangelical chastity, wrote: “Innumerable is the multitude of those who from the beginning of the Church until our time have offered their chastity to God. Some have preserved their virginity unspoiled, others after the death of their spouse, have consecrated to God their remaining years in the unmarried state, and still others, after repenting of their sins, have chosen to lead a life of perfect chastity; all of them at one in this common oblation…” (Sacra Virginitas, 5).

It is very important to understand that the consecrated life is not a men’s or women’s club! This consecration comes not from a cold heart but from a loving heart, which has responded to the greatest of loves. It does not thwart the need for intimacy but fulfills it by mirroring the spousal image of Christ and His Church. The freedom of action that comes in being freed from many temporal cares and from the responsibilities of a family are not ends in themselves but means of being freed for the things of God (cf. 1 Cor 7:32-35). The Fathers and Doctors of the Church have always taught that this form of life does not involve Christian virtue unless it is embraced “for the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt 19:10).

Celebrating Consecrated Life in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia

The Church in the United States celebrates the Eleventh World Day for Consecrated Life this weekend of February 3-4. In anticipation of this weekend’s celebration, I wrote to all the Religious Priests, Sisters and Brothers in the Archdiocese expressing my appreciation for their presence and service among us. In that letter, I wrote: “Your way of living and working vividly conveys the message of fully belonging to the one Lord. Placing yourselves without reserve in the hands of God and of the Church is a strong and clear proclamation of God’s presence in a language understandable to all our contemporaries.” This is a wonderful opportunity to recall that in this local Church of Philadelphia we are blessed with over 3,500 religious priests, sisters, and brothers, as well as over 500 members of secular institutes, three consecrated virgins and one consecrated hermit. Their witness, their prayer and their apostolic works helps build up the Church in Philadelphia in a manner that will only be fully revealed in heaven.

Esteem for the consecrated life

I have already mentioned that Pope John Paul II stated, as one of the purposes for the establishment of this day, his desire that there be a greater esteem for the consecrated life among Christ’s faithful. Last year, addressing consecrated persons gathered in Rome for this celebration, Pope Benedict XVI beautifully summarized the reason for this esteem. He said: “Indeed, just as Jesus’ life in his obedience and dedication to the Father is a living parable of the ‘God-with-us,’ so the concrete dedication of consecrated persons to God and to their brethren becomes an eloquent sign for today’s world of the presence of God’s Kingdom.
Your way of living and working can vividly express full belonging to the one Lord; placing yourselves without reserve in the hands of Christ and of the Church is a strong and clear proclamation of God’s presence in a language understandable to our contemporaries. This is the first service that the consecrated life offers to the Church and to the world. Consecrated persons are like watchmen among the People of God who perceive and proclaim the new life already present in our history.”

I ask you to recall in a special way these days all those living out the consecrated life, especially those who do so in our own Archdiocese. We think of the cloistered Religious, who live out their consecration for us and for the Church in our midst. We think of the various communities of religious men and women who live out their consecration in works of charity, seeing in those they serve the Person of Christ. We recall the Secular Institutes, described by the Catechism of the Catholic Church as institutes “ … in which the Christian faithful living in the world strive for the perfection of charity and work for the salvation of the world especially from within” (Catechism, 928). We recall again, that it is the act of total self-giving, mirroring the offering of Jesus to His Father and to His Bride, the Church that constitutes the consecrated life. The apostolates, so varied, necessary and fruitful, are secondary.

I know that you want to join me in thanking all those who live out the consecrated life in our own Archdiocese and throughout the world. In the midst of a world that is often forgetful of its Creator and Savior, these persons remind us of the “summum bonum,” the “greatest good,” which in this world is communion with the Blessed Trinity, through the life of grace. In eternity, our earthly intimacy will be fulfilled as we gaze upon the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

February 1, 2007