 THE SITUATION OF CONSECRATED LIFE: Achievements, Challenges, Perspectives
Male Religious Institutes
To make a presentation on religious life for men is not easy because, since it is at the very heart of the Church (VC 3), it participates in a special way in the Church's vicissitudes, aspirations, and crises. That means that in order to understand religious life, we have to look at the current situation in the Church as a kind of background, and see how to respond to the challenges presented by the Gospel and the world. The second reason that speaking about religious life for men is not easy is because there exists a unity, which goes beyond gender, such as the moment of grace we experienced in the two Unions at the Congress: Passion for Christ, Passion for Humanity that was held last November and, finally, because to speak about religious life for men assumes that there is an awareness of the diversity of forms and charisms by which the Spirit has enriched the Church. In fact, the Union of Superiors General is made up of Canons Regular, Monks, Mendicant Orders, Clerks Regular, Cl eric al Religious Congregations, Religious Institutes of Brothers, Societies of Apostolic Life, and some Congregations of Diocesan Right and other Institutes of Consecrated Life.
As we celebrate the 40 th anniversary of the publication of Perfectae Caritatis, I would like to start with a definition of Religious Life given by Vatican II which served for the preparation of this important document: From the point of view of the divine and hierarchical structure of the Church, the religious state of life is not an intermediate state between the cl eric al and lay states. But, rather, the faithful of Christ are called by God from both these states of life so that they might enjoy this particular gift in the life of the Church and thus each in one's own way, may be of some advantage to the salvific mission of the Church (LG 43). We cannot forget that, according to the statistics published in the Instrumentum Laboris for the Synod on Consecrated Life, 82.2% of members of religious life are lay and the great majority of these are women. In fact, 72.5% are women religious, and the remaining 27.5% of the religious who are men are made up of 17.8% priests and 9.7% brothers.
It seems to me that today in the Church there is a tendency to value monasticism and the new forms of religious life that are surfacing. Certainly, monasticism is a form of religious life which, because of its profound spirituality, has always inspired all religious. The new forms of religious life, with new blood and creativity, are a new source of encouragement. But we should not fall into a sense of reductionism that prohibits us from seeing the ways of the Spirit in a variety of forms. Personally, it seems to me that religious life for men has made a very significant contribution to Evangelization, as Paul VI recognized when he spoke about religious life in general: But who does not see the immense contribution that these religious have brought and continue to bring to evangelization? Thanks to their consecration, they are eminently willing and free to leave everything and to go and proclaim the Gospel even to the ends of the earth. They are enterprising and their apostolate is often marked by an originality, by a genius that demands admiration. They are generous: often they are found at the outposts of the mission, and they take the greatest of risks for their health and their very lives. Truly the Church owes them much (EN 69).
Faced with ageing and the diminution in the number of religious in some areas of the world, the temptation is to let ourselves be won over by pessimism and by discouragement. Nevertheless, based on faith and enlightened by hope and by a deep love for all those whom we serve, we can make our own Paul's experience in Asia, at a time of grave confusion and danger. Indeed, we had accepted within ourselves the sentence of death, that we might trust not in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. He rescued us from such great danger of death, and he will continue to rescue us; in him we have put our hope... (2 Corinthians 1: 9 - 10). What we are experiencing now, might it not be a rather favorable time, a time of grace and purification so that, from our frailness, we might not trust so much in ourselves, in our methods and in our prestige, but to trust in that God who is capable of raising the dead and in whom we have put our hope? We should also not forget about new vocations and young religious we encounter today in emerging continents.
Today, more than in the past, as Ringlet reminds us, we talk about leaving Egypt, passing through the Red Sea, and finding foreign peoples , in search of what is possible and new.
– To Leave Egypt , the Egypt of our security and certainty in order to look with new eyes, those of Jesus, at the urgencies of our contemporaries and especially those poor who are excluded from the process of globalization that each continent is experiencing.
– To Pass Through the Red Sea of our insecurity and uncertainty. Of secularized, disillusioned, consumerist lifestyles lived without passion, that do not reveal to the world the passion of Christ for the poor and for the most abandoned on this earth. Insecurity and uncertainty due to the decrease in numbers. Insecurity and uncertainty about our community and apostolic life that is not always integrated. Insecurity and uncertainty due to violence, war, and political and social situations which we do not always know how to face from a Gospel point of view. Insecurity and uncertainty in facing the little esteem which today some areas of the Church give to religious life.
– Above all, an openness to encounter foreign peoples , in new places of Evangelical service, in the new areopagus of which Vita Consecrata speaks to us about, opening our tents to so many men and women who are searching for something more and who want to satisfy their spiritual thirst or who live without basic necessities, and to those lay persons who today want to share our mission and spirituality.
We can ask ourselves to what extent is our religious life today a passionate experience of God, and to what extent is our life first and foremost a following of Jesus in his commitment to the Father and to his brothers and sisters? To what extent is the Kingdom of God, the central point for Jesus, and in the words of Paul VI, the absolute which makes everything else relative (EN 8), for us the center of our mission and interest? To what extent are we more a cry of the absolute value of God than merely a role we perform? Are we more a presence of the incarnate Word than merely a task? Also, regarding our own spiritual life and life of prayer, are these simply an exercise to perform or are they a vital need, a moral imperative, an existential imperative?
We also do not want to gloss over the challenges presented to us today nor the perspectives that are open to us. I refer especially to:
– Secularism . Many times our language is more timid when we speak of God compared to the language of many lay persons who are committed to living their faith. Sometimes young vocations that come to us in search of spirituality and meaning do not find in us neither a response nor a help. Nevertheless, Paul VI defined a religious as a professional of God .
– The Society of Well-being and the Contagion of the Neo-liberal System and Consumerism . This is another problem that has invaded our communities. We live in a situation where we have everything. We could ask ourselves what our life means for lay persons who have to work hard and to fight for having what is necessary, while we have so many opportunities. Consumerism is an ongoing temptation and, in practice, we easily fall into it. We should make ourselves opt for a simpler life, limit ourselves in our spending, in the thirst for needing so much. We should not make a habit out of having something that we could allow ourselves to have only occasionally and we should not forget that religious life is called to offer another model of society and not to copy the style from the society in which we live. We cannot forget the prophetic character and the counter-cultural dimension of our vocation.
– Forgetting that we religious are human and that we are brothers . When interests distinct from those of the Gospel prevail in us, it is natural that selfishness and individualism have primacy over what constitutes a person (human), a Christian (brother), and the religious life (a common mission in service of the Kingdom). Furthermore, fraternity springs up spontaneously when humanity is lived sincerely and truly. To deny what is human make people act inhumanly and, therefore, deny God who, in becoming man, "assumed human nature in its entirety" (GS 3). I think that the best antidote for this problem is the spirituality of the Incarnation that allows us to integrate the Gospel with reality, love of God and love of neighbor, the mystic and the prophetic, faith and zeal, passion for Christ and passion for humanity.
– The Professionalization or Functionalism of our Mission. John Paul II, in his message to the Congress on Consecrated Life, organized by the USG in 1993, said that all consecration within the Church is intrinsically linked to a radical and vital synthesis between consecration and mission. We cannot understand the one without the other. The problem can arise when we become functionaries and we live our apostolic activity as an end in itself or as a way to search for our own fulfillment. Or when God is present in our work as something relative or secondary or, in the worst-case scenario, when he is nonexistent. In these cases our vocation is in serious danger, because if what sustains me is the absolute importance that I have given to my activities, the moment may come when this no longer says anything to me, or I might think that I can achieve better results outside the structure of religious life, or that, since today we are living association and shared mission with lay persons, there is no need to continue being a religious to live this mission effectively. Or it may happen that I might fall into a state of serious depression when, for reasons of infirmity or health, I cannot continue to achieve.
– The Priority of Institutions. Sometimes we think about our missions and ministries in terms that are too institutional. As a result, this brings support for programs and structures in an order imposed from the outside, not in the spirit that is supposed to inspire religious and in the common discernment of God's will. The most important thing, really, is not necessarily to preserve the works that we have and defend the structures that inspire us, the number of our Brothers or the prestige of our works, but to respond to the needs of the world, based on God's tenderness and the Gospel, and to the new forms of poverty, to be available for missions of peace and to be defenders of life where it is threatened. To be open to the cries of the poor in order to go where our presence is needed most so that at any time we can be sent to places of urgent need in our world. To act more by intuition, as Marist Brother Benito Arbués said, than by security.
– The Cl eric alism of Religious Life . Almost since the origin of religious life, there were religious priests, such as the Canons Regular, who were close to being contemporaries of the monks and we know that at the end of the nineteenth century the number of institutes of religious priests increased. It is clear that this was a movement of the Spirit within the Church. The problem arises when the priestly ministry absorbs the charism in such a way so that it is in effect reduced to a secondary level of importance over time or when, in contradiction to the original inspiration of some orders or institutes, there is a tendency towards a generalized cl eric alism among the members or a misunderstanding or lack of appreciation of members who are not priests.
– A Lack of Esteem for the Lay Religious Life . In spite of the fact that PC states that the religious life, undertaken by lay people, either men or women, is a state for the profession of the evangelical counsels which is complete in itself (PC 10), it seems to me that it is not always esteemed and understood by other members of the People of God or that it is considered as being incomplete or second-class. A case in point is that of mixed Institutes that are made up of religious priests and Brothers. The synod Fathers, meeting for the Synod on Religious Life, stated that "in these institutes all the religious would be recognized as having equal rights and obligations, with the exception of those which stem from Holy Orders" (VC 10). Nevertheless, the special commission that was constituted has not contributed a satisfactory solution that responds to this proposal. Other orders or congregations have expressed the same desire for their members who are not priests.
– Enculturation and Inter-cultural Awareness . Beginning with Vatican II, we have spoken much about the enculturation of the Gospel. Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical Redemptoris Missio (52), tells us that by means of its enculturation in different parts of the world, the Church understands and expresses better the mystery of Christ. In male religious institutes, we are living that same reality and the challenge that is presented to us is to live the fundamental elements of the charism incarnated in a unique and original way in each culture. But at the same time it is about having an inter-cultural view towards different cultures and enriching ourselves with their values. This is a reciprocal movement that overcomes the predominance of one culture over another, or the imposition of one's own cultural values. This process implies also an affective element, that is to say, to feel as the other feels, with an attitude of respect, solidarity, and Gospel witness.
– The Impact of New Technology . This raises great challenges for us on the levels of initial and ongoing formation. We need to be trained and to train our Brothers in the use of these new methods. We need to consider not only the risks involved, for example the pornography that is available on the Internet, but also we need to consider the time that this technology requires and that at retirement age it could serve as a pretext for not seeking other apostolic commitments adapted to this new stage in life. It is important that we ask ourselves: What do we offer? Do we offer only facilities? Paradoxically, young people today seek to be challenged by demanding and radical opportunities.
CONCLUSION
Seven Trappist monks were assassinated on May 21, 1996 in Algeria. The bishop of Oran, Pierre Claverie, O.P., just forty days before he himself was assassinated, wrote:
From the beginning of my time in Algeria, I have often been asked: What are you (Catholics) doing there? Why do you stay? We are here because of the crucified Messiah. For no other reason and for no other person. We have no interests to safeguard nor influence to preserve. We are not driven by any masochistic or suicidal perversion. We have no power. We remain in Algeria as we would remain at the bedside of a friend, a brother who is ill, silently squeezing his hand, refreshing his face. Because of Jesus, because it is He who suffers amidst this violence which escapes no one, thousands of innocent people are newly crucified in the flesh. Like Mary, like John, we are there at the foot of the cross on which Jesus died, abandoned by his own, ridiculed by the masses.
The martyrs of today are a major source of richness and they are the most eloquent testimony of the value of religious life for men in the Church and for the world. I believe that today our response cannot be anything else. We, too, are here because of our crucified Messiah. We ought not try to be powerful or try to be a powerful or prestigious organization; we do not have interests to safeguard, nor influence to preserve. For us also it is about love and love only, it is about a passion that, as it did for Jesus, should lead us to give our lives for children, for young people, the poor, the infirm, the elderly, men and women the Lord has entrusted to us. It is about uniting the mystic and the prophetic and of creating space for life in abundance.
Living our vocation as consecrated men should lead us to respond to the needs of men and women today, based on Christ and the Gospel, inspired by a "new kind of charity" (IL 25). What the world hopes for from us is, above all, that we be "seekers of God, of the God of Jesus Christ revealed in the Gospel," that we offer the world some guidelines for the world's own search. That we be, also, "witnesses of the hope" that we carry inside us as Saint Peter has invited us to be. Our lives ought to manifest faces of hope, being present by a Gospel choice in situations of pain and misery; showing that the tenderness of God has no borders; that the resurrection of Jesus is the proof of victory; that the God of life will have the last word over the idols of death; that on the last day God will dry all tears and we will live "as brothers and sisters."
Brother Álvaro Rodríguez Echeverría, FSC
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