Modern life has been shaped by some ideologies that undermine faith and spirituality. There is, consequently, emphasis on things mostly related to reason, experience, and pleasure in a worldly manner. Modern world has also put emphasis on the person; and try to create a dichotomy between the Spirit and the body. However, we should remember that the person is not only his spirit but also his body, he is viewed as a whole. Reason and Faith are both important for him/her, in the sense that they are like two wings that help the human person to rise to the contemplation of truth.[1] Only from this perspective we can understand the relevance of consecrated life in our contemporary world. We have several understandings of the lifestyle of consecrated people; however, this reflection will focus on consecrated life, defined as a commitment of oneself to God through a lifestyle characterized by public vows of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience, all for the mission. The core question is how these evangelical values (Chastity, Obedience and Poverty) can inspire and impact the world where there is a lust for richness, pleasure, and freedom. Choosing Consecrated life sounds like swimming upstream for some people.
When we refer to the vow of poverty, we don’t mean that consecrated life is misery. It is not a lonely life, asceticism, sorrow, or pain, as we refer to the vow of Chastity. It is not slavery as for Obedience. It has to be understood as a sacrament which has "the for whom and the to what."[2] Consecrated life is, first of all, a matter of relationship with God, thus, the “to what” the vows refer. If our being poor, chaste, and obedient does not refer first to God, we are living other things than consecrated life. As consecrated people, we obey God more than anyone. This kind of obedience is mediated by our Superiors through co-discernment. Then the for whom? For the people. We are poor, chaste, and obedient not for ourselves but for our brothers and sisters. It is not an individual business, an individual holiness nor self-satisfaction. In a conference on his book : "Consacrés africains pour quoi faire ? " (African consecrated for what?)", Fr.Louis Birabaluge, sx shows that consecrated life has two dimensions[3]: mystical and political. By its nature and history, it serves society and the Church. From a political dimension, it has two functions: innovation and correction. Whenever the Church faces some sociopolitical difficulties that seem uneasy to handle, consecrated people suggest new ways of handling those issues. Thus, they show innovation. In the same vein, when theChurch goes astray from the evangelical values, consecrated people will remind the Church of her mission and of the radicality of what the Gospel calls us to do. Against the rich Church to the detriment of the poor, for instance, a consecrated person will remind her of the poverty of Jesus. Against the Church which is confusing herself with the world and its power at the state levels, the consecrated will remind her of the choice of Jesus, free from the State power for Justice of all the people. Thus, the vows help us in their two dimensions. They are mystical, for they are rooted in Jesus's life and political, in the sense that they are lived and experienced in a society, in a context.
According to Fr. Birabaluge, the obedience vow is fundamental to those who want to follow Jesus closely as subjects in front of the Father. We are following the free Jesus who came to liberate us from any kind of slavery for us to be subjects in front of the freeing and loving Father. Therefore, we are free to influence our history and not to be paralyzed by undergoing it. We are active subjects and should avoid any confusion between submission and obedience. By the vow of obedience, on the political dimension, we should be close to those who do not consider obedience as a virtue, but as oppression. We should remind those who practice their authority forgetting that all authority is meant to liberate and raise people to the higher level, and remind those who refuse to make themselves active subjects as free children of God.
At the core of the vow of poverty, there is solidarity with the poor. However, we don’t deny that poverty, in the strictest sense of the term, is not a positive thing nor a virtue to appreciate. This kind of poverty is sometimes an unchosen condition imposed by society. By freely choosing poverty, a Consecrated person commits himself/herself to proclaim against imposed poverty, and to protest against the culture where people want to define themselves according to their possessions, where people can do all to gain money, regardless of the means they use. The temptation of many is accumulating and getting attached to their possessions. Let us remember that the mystical dimension of poverty is still directed to God. We avoid loving our possessions at the expense of God through a self-sufficient style. God alone is the One who reigns in our lives, the truth that help us understand that we must hold on what does not pass. “We cannot serve God and money” (Mt.26:24). Being in solidarity with people experiencing poverty implies helping them. We cannot help the poor if we are miserable. Therefore, being poor, as a virtue, is to promote as well the law of work, to provide the necessities for life, and to assist those who, by nature, cannot work. In this way, is our vow of poverty relevant. We must also avoid the temptation of luxury and that of avoiding life without suffering. This temptation may lead us far from the people with whom we live, far from being in solidarity with the needy.
As regards the Vow of Chastity, Fr. Birabaluge, says that there is a tendency to think that Chastity is linked to Celibacy. Some people think even that consecrated life is only a matter of celibacy. As for the mystical dimension, Chastity has to be considered as the longing for the day of the Lord to come, his reign. Thus, Jean-Baptiste Metz defines Chastity in the perspective of the reign of God[4]. What should be our great desire and pleasure is to see the reign of God unfolding in our society. As a political dimension, Chastity pushes us to be in solidarity with those people for whom chastity means living with nobody, in order to let them understand that "lonely life is a life of hell."[5] We should be in solidarity with the people who do not choose to be lonely, but society imposes loneliness on them through some kinds of discrimination. It means also to accompany those people who live desperately. The vow of Chastity frees us from getting close to one person in a way that may hinder us from encountering others. It helps to be close to all people so as to journey together with God towards our heavenly homeland. We don’t belong to any person; we are God’s people for people.
Overall, we see that in our current world, consecrated life (the life of poverty, Chastity, and obedience) is still relevant when it refers to its source (God), and points to its object (the people). The purpose of consecrated life for us Xaverians is another vow, the mission toward those who do not know the value of the Gospel. Following Christ, we stress on the incarnation and solidarity (Constitutions 14) while carrying out our mission. We are committed to God for people, and so are and should be other consecrated people.
[1] J. Paul II, Fides Et Ratio, first introductory words of the Encyclical letter.
[2] Kenan B. Osborne, OFM, Sacramental Theology, A General Introduction (New York, Paulist Press, 1988) 45
[3] Conference of Fr. Louis Birabaluge, SX on functional dimension of the religious vows, April 2023.
[4] Cited by Fr. Louis Birabaluge: Metz Jean-Baptiste, Un temps pour les ordres religieux? Mystique et politique de la suite de Jesus, Paris, Cerf, 1981, 50.
[5] Fr. Louis Birabaluge.
