RELIGIOUS LIFE : WITNESS AND CONSECRATION

The Function of Religious Life in the Church and in the World

The essence of Christianity is love: holiness is ultimately a matter of love, and consecration also belongs to the order of charity. All the laws and constituent parts of the religious life are valueless if they are not illuminated by love.

Holiness ‘Come follow me’ Those who have heard this call of Christ try to follow it along the path of love. To live this love more perfectly, they wish to imitate Christ by adopting as far as possible the ‘apostolic life’. Christ himself gave his apostles the model of this life. This is stylized and organized by the Church, culminating in the present-day structure of the religious life whose whole purpose is perfecting of charity. Charity has a two-fold object. God and or neighbour. The eschatological function and function of service. The first of the these is indispensable and fundamental to the religious life, whatever form it may take, while the second can be manifested in various ways in active life.

Holiness is visible sign. Holiness is not visible at all times and to all people but it is true on universal level. Holiness is one of the ‘notes’ of Christ’ Church, one of the marks by which the Church may be recognized. Religious life as a whole constitutes a treasure-house of holiness within the heart of the Church, and the love of our neighbour.

The order of consecration.

The level of being, an order of consecration whereby a creature, an object or a person, this is because the intelligent creatures, are capable of love and of free acts. In a new state of belonging to God. In the case of Christ, his sacred humanity was consecrated in an absolute unique way since it belongs to God, being united to the person of the Word: God himself is the unction which imbues St. Gregory of Nazianzen stated.

The christian, as a son and daughter of God, is consecrated by his or her very baptism. But those who have heard Christ’s call and have chosen to follow him are consecrated in a special manner. The religious life, whether active or contemplative, consists in his consecration which by setting a person apart from profane usage, and dedicating him or entirely to God alone, realizes our baptismal consecration in a new way, new point and intensity in a free act which stems from a personal choice and response to a vocation. For Christians who have been baptized as infants can and should ratify their baptismal consecration when they reach the age of reason, but very often this consecration is something actually lived rather realty chosen; it is passed on within a certain family or social context rather than being the object of a personal commitment. It is a religious life because everything in it is part of a divine service. “Even the most humble objects of the monastery should be regarded as sacred vessels (Omnia vasa monasterii ac si lataris vasa sacrata conspiciat),’ said St Benedict.

Consecration is better understood if it is seen in its deepest and most essential aspect, as a sacrifice of love. In every religion sacrifice comes first (sacrum facere) is an act whereby a creature is made sacred, set apart for God; for christian, sacrifice is fulfilled and made perfect by love. This has a double function of the religious life, just as an X-ray reveals the skeleton of a living body; for if we look into the many kinds of sacrifice prescribed under the old law we will see that they fall into two principal groups: holocausts and sacrifices of communion.

The victim of holocaust is offered up in pure homage to the creator of all things, to the source of all that we have. It becomes sacrosanct, something that must not be touched. It may no longer be used or turned to human account. It must be completely burnt up, utterly destroyed, without being put to any earthly use. In the sacrifice of communion, after the gesture of oblation which consists in placing the offering on the altar or raising it up in the Lord’s sight, the celebrants reserve ‘God’s portion’ to themselves and then God himself gives back to men the victim which now becomes their food, whereby they share in his sacred banquet. This is the memorial of these wonderful events, renewed for us each morning in the Mass.

The consecrated person comes to before Christ to offer herself or himself for consecration and for the total giving of herself, body and soul, in order to belong to God. God may accept her as a holocaust, in which case she will be a victim wholly consumed, so to speak, within her monastery, convent in a life that is hidden and impenetrable. Upon this altar of common earth she will burn for God and God alone, glowing with love in spirit of faith. No one, absolutely no one, unless he shares the secret of the communion of saints which is hidden in God, will have any visible shares in the sacred mystery of this life: it is a mystery of the hereafter, an affirmation of the sudden presence among us of the heavenly Jerusalem. This is what we call eschatological function of the religious life. She or he comes back to men, to nourish their lives. This is what we call function of service.  

The victim becomes life to be eaten and consumed. Sacrifice is an act of public worship, and the same is true of religious profession. For the religious life has an officially recognized place in the Church. The religious life necessarily takes on a social and visible dimension. Religious life presents itself as inescapable fact, a reality embodied in a common way of life, established and guaranteed by the seal of hierarchical approval, and as such its very existence constitutes an irrefutable witness. Hence the heavy burden of responsibility which lies in their lives before the eyes of the world in a way that can be readily understood.