Today, is the feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple. Furthermore, it is also the 18th World Day of Consecrated Life.

In his first message for the World Day of Consecrated of 6 January, 1997, Blessed John Paul II listed three reasons that explain why an annual celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life was to be henceforth observed in the entire Church.

“The purpose of such a day is threefold: 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. They are invited to celebrate solemnly together 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” (§ 2-4).

When engaging himself in a lengthy conversation with the Union of Superior General of Men on 29 November  2013, Pope Francis said that the Church solely grows through witness not proselytism. “The witness that can really attract is that associated with attitudes which are uncommon: generosity, detachment, sacrifice, self-forgetfulness in order to care for others,” the Pope said. “This is the witness, the martyrdom of religious life.”

For the Argentinean Pontiff, religious life should foster that much-needed growth in the Church through attraction. “The Church must be attractive,” he said. “Wake up the world! Be witnesses of a different way of doing things, of acting, of living!” But for consecrated people to be radical, it is important that they recognise their sinfulness and weakness, which instead of annihilating their witness serves to “reinforce it”.

While appealing to each and every religious person that “what I expect of you therefore is to give witness”, Pope Francis emphasized that the religious is the one that befriends the periphery. “It is not a good strategy to be at the centre of a sphere,” the Pope said. “To understand, we ought to move around, to see reality from various viewpoints.” Going to the periphery means being in “real contact” with the poor. Pope Francis cautioned that “if this does not happen, we then run the risk of being abstract ideologists or fundamentalists, which is not healthy. Jesus went to all, really all.”

The Holy Father accentuated the fact that for religious to be worthy of their eschatological calling, they ought to remember that it is not enough simply to appear as prophets but to really be them. “Religious are men and women who light the way to the future,” he said.

Concerning charisms, the Pope said that they should be lived “energetically as well as reinterpreted culturally”. Although this is risky it “should not stop us, because there is the chance of making worse mistakes”. He insisted that inculturating a particular charism is “fundamental, and this never means relativizing it”.

Regarding religious brothers who are not priests, Pope Francis said that their vocation should be re-evaluated. For that matter the Pope asked the prefect and secretary of the Congregation for Religious and of Institutes of Apostolic Life – both of whom were present – to facilitate “a more satisfactory reflection”. Instead of erroneously thinking that this vocation had ended, Francis remarked: “We should rather understand what God is asking us.”

Initial formation should fight against the faulty tendency of clericalism. He said: “Formation is a work of art, not a police action. We must form their hearts.” Fraternity is essential. “If a person cannot live brotherhood, he cannot live religious life,” the Pope stated. “With conflicts in the brotherhood … we should involve the heart.”

Are we, consecrated people, really waking up the world?

Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap

San Gwann