A Closer Look At Consecrated Life
Last week, I mentioned that the Church recognizes the vocation to consecrated life as having “objective superiority.” This week, I want to delve into those details. How is it objectively superior, and what is its true function? Why does consecrated life seem undesirable with so few answering their calls, though it obviously bestows such confidence and joy on its elect?
The identifying characteristic of consecrated life is the vows made to the evangelical counsels (chastity, poverty, and obedience), as those called to the vocation seek to conform their lives in the most literal sense to Jesus’. In paragraph No. 18 of the papal document “Vita Consecrata,” Pope St. John Paul II wrote, “His way of living in chastity, poverty and obedience appears as the most radical way of living the Gospel on this earth, a way which may be called divine, for it was embraced by him, God and man…This is why Christian tradition has always spoken of the objective superiority of the consecrated life.”
The function of the consecrated life is to remind the world that God matters most. The different orders and communities emphasize different aspects of his mission and life; but ultimately, according to Vita Consecrata’s paragraph No. 16, all religious “show that the Incarnate Son of God is…the splendor before which every other light pales, and the infinite beauty which alone can fully satisfy the human heart.” What a wonderful role, to call people back to what they truly seek and desire.
While those called stand as beacons to remind us where we are going, they also serve to direct us to change. When a ship sees the pure light of the lighthouse and discovers it is on the wrong course, one would hope the ship changes direction. Just so, this vocation is both a firm reminder and force for change in society. Those called to the religious vocation are our reference points in the stormy sea of life. We need their models and their guidance because, as Pope St. John Paul II wrote in Vita Consecrata’s paragraph No. 105, “Without this concrete sign there would be a danger that the charity which animates the entire Church would grow cold, that the salvific paradox of the Gospel would be blunted, and that the ‘salt' of faith would lose its savor in a world undergoing secularization.”
I believe our culture experiences a shock of its own every time it realizes that those called to the religious life are so inexpressibly happy because the math does not add up. Religious vocations seem to renounce everything we search for so ardently—satisfaction in people, things and choice—and yet they are so much happier. It is through their examples that we realize that our desires are, indeed, good; there is simply a deeper fulfillment of those desires. The consecrated life looks past the immediate and locks eyes with the eternal.
St. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 7:32-35 that religious life makes it easier to offer an undivided heart. This opportunity for total focus on God should be very appealing for everyone. In extolling the beauty of the consecrated life, I hope we are not afraid to apply its possibilities to our own lives. We must listen to God’s call and be not afraid, whether that means dying to our pride and not pursuing that which is “objectively superior” or dying to our fears and surrendering to that which will grant us a direct path. God calls us particularly, and I pray we listen, for he knows where we will find true joy in him.
