On 2 February, the universal Church celebrated the 14th World Day of Consecrated life. In his homily, which he delivered at the vespers on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, Pope Benedict XVI explained the three aims of Consecrated Life Day. “First of all to praise and thank the Lord for the gift of consecrated life; in the second place, to promote the knowledge and appreciation by all the People of God; finally, to invite all those who have fully dedicated their life to the cause of the Gospel to celebrate the marvels that the Lord has operated in them”. But what is the intrinsic relationship between Christ’s presentation feast and consecrated life?
If one were to join the two meanings of the one feast together, as interpreted in both the Eastern and Western lungs of Christianity, one will be coming to a rich and proper significance of the consecration of Christ and of those whom he chose to follow him closely. For the Easterners, Christ’s Presentation at the Temple was called Hypapante, meaning the feast of meeting. In the Pope’s words, “Simeon and Anna, who met Jesus in the Temple and recognised in him the Messiah so awaited, represent humanity that meets its Lord in the Church”. The Latin West qualified this special meeting of humanity with its Lord by ascribing to it the symbol of light, as comes forth from Simeon’s prophecy on the Child Jesus. “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel” (Lk 2, 29-32).
In itself, consecrated life can be said to embrace this unique meeting with the Light of the World, Jesus Christ. This occurs on two accounts: Firstly, it was Jesus who revealed himself as such: “I am the light of the world” (Jn 8, 12). Secondly, within the same self-revelatory statement, Jesus says: “He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life”. Consecrated people are those who, in virtue of their unique and radical manner of consecration, are called to follow their Master, the light of the world. Their proximity to Jesus makes it possible for them to keep seeking their Lord as much as the Lord keeps calling them to himself on a daily basis. In effect, the Holy Father explained that “consecrated life, in fact, witnesses and expresses in a ‘powerful’ way the reciprocal seeking of God and man, the love that attracts them to one another. The consecrated person, by the very fact of his or her being, represents something like a ‘bridge’ to God for all those he or she meets – a call, a return”. Each consecrated person, by his or her existential consecration to God, is eloquently telling to those he or she meets on his or her life journey, “return to the Lord your God and obey his voice (Deut 4, 30), return to the Lord, and he will heed (your) supplications and heal (you)” (Isa 19, 22).
The image of the bridge essentially recalls mediation. Christ is calling consecrated persons to be mediators of his infinite mercy. Since the Son was “sent... into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (Jn 3, 17), likewise consecrated people, after having experienced personally God’s infinite and merciful love, are highly exhorted to be its ardent servants wherever Divine Providence sends them. This clearly emerges from the Pope’s homily on 2 February: “Consecrated persons are called in a particular way to be witnesses of this mercy of the Lord, in which man finds his salvation. They have the vivid experience of God’s forgiveness, because they have the awareness of being saved persons, of being great when they recognise themselves to be small, of feeling renewed and enveloped by the holiness of God when they recognize their own sin. Because of this, also for the man of today, consecrated life remains a privileged school of ‘compunction of heart,’ of the humble recognition of one’s misery but, likewise, it remains a school of trust in the mercy of God, in his love that never abandons. In reality, the closer we come to God, and the closer one is to him, the more useful one is to others. Consecrated persons experience the grace, mercy and forgiveness of God not only for themselves, but also for their brothers, being called to carry in their heart and prayer the anxieties and expectations of men, especially of those who are far from God”.
If consecrated life wants to continue being a hymn of thanksgiving and praise to the Lord, let it always remember that its purpose is that of “being a sign of gratuitousness and of love” and should absolutely refrain from being a slave of any, in the Bishop of Rome’s words, “superficial valuations of functionality”. If “consecrated life... witnesses to the superabundance of the Lord’s love, who first ‘lost’ his life for us,” let it think that when it deems itself weak and useless, it is there when it truly becomes “a precious gift for the Church and the world, thirsty for God and his Word.”
To my dear brothers and sisters in the consecrated life I simply say: “Keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude 1, 21). His mercy in and through our weakness, will continue to work miracles provided that we never tire from obeying to his daily faithful calling: “Come, follow me” (Lk 18, 22).