18th World Day for Consecrated Life

The Archdiocese of Davao celebrated the 18thWorld Day for Consecrated Life with the celebration of the Eucharist on February 1, 2014, Saturday, at San Pedro Cathedral at 9:00 a.m. In a Circular Letter of last December 17, 2013, Archbishop Romulo Valles announced this celebration and in that circular he asked all parish priests to announce this celebration to all the faithful in the Archdiocese at all Sunday Masses on last January 26, 2014. This is a Church celebration. It is a celebration of the Universal Church and the Local Church here in Davao of who we are as Church gifted by God with many charisms to build up the Body of Christ. “The entire People of God celebrates this day. It would be a mistake to think that this day is about and for the religious only. It is a day of the entire Church that acknowledges that the charisms of the consecrated life can greatly contribute to the building up of charity and communion in the local Church.” (Circular No. 40, Series of 2013)

On March 25, 1996, Blessed Pope John Paul II promulgated his Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata, on Consecrated Life in the Church, following the Synod on Consecrated Life. The following year, in 1997 Blessed Pope John Paul II inaugurated the celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life. This is held on every February 2, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. The Archdiocese has chosen to celebrate it this year on February 1 since February 2 is a Sunday. For practical reasons, a Saturday appears to be a better day for the celebration with the hope that many of the lay faithful, priests and religious can participate. This celebration is intended to help the entire Church to esteem ever more greatly the witness of those persons who have chosen to follow Christ by means of the practice of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Blessed Pope John Paul II explained that “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. We should never forget that consecrated life … is a gift which comes from on high, an initiative of the Father “who draws his creatures to himself with a special love and for a special mission” (Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata 17)….  A stupendous gift!… 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…. This form of life, embraced by Christ and made present particularly by consecrated persons, is of great importance for the Church, called in every member to live the same upward striving toward God who is All, following Christ in the light and power of the Holy Spirit…. In contemplating the gift of consecrated life, the Church contemplates her own intimate vocation of belonging only to her Lord…. The fittingness of dedicating a special World Day is evident, then, for it assures that the doctrine about consecrated life will be more widely and deeply meditated and assimilated by all members of the People of God. The third reason regards consecrated persons directly. They are invited to celebrate together solemnly 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…. Truly there is great urgency that the consecrated life show itself ever more ‘full of joy and of the Holy Spirit,’ that it forge ahead dynamically in the paths of mission, that it be backed up by the strength of lived witness, because ‘modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses’ (Apostolic Exhortation, EvangeliiNuntiandi 41).” (John Paul II, Message of the Holy Father for the First World Day For Consecrated Life, 6 January 1997.)

The Message of the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on New Evangelization for the Transmission of Christian Faithheld in Rome last October, 7-28 2012 had this to say about consecrated life as it continued the theme of “witness”:

“Of this supernatural horizon of the meaning of human existence, there are particular witnesses in the Church and in the world whom the Lord has called to consecrated life. Precisely because it is totally consecrated to him in the exercise of poverty, chastity and obedience, consecrated life is the sign of a future world that relativizes everything that is good in this world. May the gratitude of the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops reach these our brothers and sisters for their fidelity to the Lord’s calling and for the contribution that they have given and give to the Church’s mission. We exhort them to hope in situations that are difficult even for them in these times of change. We invite them to establish themselves as witnesses and promoters of new evangelization in the various fields to which the charism of each of their institutes assigns them.”

At the same Synod Cardinal TelesphoreToppo, Archbishop of Ranchi, India, had this say about religious:

“I would like to make a humble appeal to the religious orders to become missionary again! In the history of evangelization, all the religious orders led by the Holy Spirit have done outstanding and marvelous work….In my opinion this Synod must appeal to the Religious men and women to explicitly and directly take up the work of evangelization and transmission of faith in collaboration with the local bishops! I would also like to call upon the Sacred Congregation for Consecrated life to be proactive in promoting the sensus ecclesiae among all religious.”

On November 29, 2013, Pope Francis met with the Union of Superiors General of Religious men and spoke about Consecrated Life. Pope Francis said that he too is Religious, being a Jesuit, and he knows from experience what religious life is. He then quoted from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI who alerts us to the fact that “the Church grows through witness and not by 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. This is the witness of ‘martyrdom’ of religious life. It ‘sounds an alarm’ for people. Religious say to people with their life: ‘What’s happening?’ These people are telling me something! These people go beyond a mundane horizon.” Pope Francis then used the words of Benedict XVI by saying “religious life ought to promote growth in the Church by way of attraction.”

Pope Francis said that the Church must be attractive. He then challenged the religious “Wake up the world! Be witnesses of a different way of doing things, of acting, of living! It is possible to live differently in this world. We are speaking of an eschatological outlook, of the values of the Kingdom incarnated here, on this earth. It is a question of leaving everything to follow the Lord. No, I do not want to say “radical.” Evangelical radicalness is not only for religious: it is demanded of all. But the religious follow the Lord is a special way a prophetic way. It is this witness that I expect of you. Religious should be men and women who are able to wake the world up…. What I expect of you therefore is to give witness. I want this special witness from religious.”

Pope Francis has declared that the year 2015 will be dedicated to Consecrated Life. Here in the Philippines the year 2015 will be dedicated to the Poor. We can look forward to this double dedication that will benefit the Church in the Philippines as the religious by their vowed poverty can witness to us what it means to be evangelically poor. Their vowed poverty can express the story of the poor Christ who by His poverty liberates and enriches us.

During this Year of the Laity, 2014, in the Philippines we are reminded that everyone in the Church is consecrated in Baptism and Confirmation, but the ordained ministry and the consecrated life each presuppose a distinct vocation and a specific form of consecration, with a view to a particular mission. All of the Laity too are consecrated. All the different charisms gifted to the Church are a manifestation of the one mystery of Christ, each expressing, in its own way, one or other aspect of the one mystery of Christ. So as we celebrate the 18th World Day for Consecrated Life, we look the witness of those in consecrated life, for by their very existence in the Church, seek to serve the consecration of the lives of all the faithful, clergy and laity alike.