Loving Father, you have called many of your sons and daughters to follow as fully as possible Christ's own path of poverty, chastity, and obedience. By their example and our communion with them in prayer and service, keep us all faithful to our own particular calling that the life of Christ may come to perfection within and among us. May we always keep our eyes and hearts focused on the things of heaven until the day we are all called to share in the fullness of your life and love as you live and reign Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.

We thank God for the gift of consecrated life

My Brothers and Sisters in the Lord:

As you know, throughout the calendar year 2006, I have been writing on the theme "developing a culture of vocation" within the archdiocese. This month of September, I am dedicating my column to some reflections on consecrated life in the Church today. First, however, I would like to describe what we mean by a "culture of vocation."

Vocation: Chosen and Called by God
In our Western culture, since we tend to define everything in terms of "choice," when it comes to life decisions and commitments regarding profession and/or relationships, the emphasis falls on our act of choosing. In Christian faith, though, things work the other way around. We believe that God chooses us and it is up to us to respond to the particular gift and call He offers us. We have been chosen by Him for a particular purpose, a vocation of love and service. In this perspective, therefore, it is not just a matter of my own individual decision to be a priest or religious, to be married or single; in faith and with joyful trust, I accept the particular calling God seems to be proposing for me. I let myself be loved and used by God — for my own salvation and fulfillment, but also for the redemption of others.

From the time of our baptism, we believe that the grace of the Holy Spirit is at work within us, enabling us to respond to God's gifts and the needs of others. Our vocation as a Christian continues to grow and mature as we live through all the seasons of life; the image of Jesus Christ comes to greater perfection within us as we pursue a life of virtue, charity, justice and peace… with the Lord and for others.

Our vocation to live and serve as Christians is renewed and deepened whenever we celebrate the Holy Eucharist; for in that sacrificial meal, we unite our lives, our labors, and our leisure with the selfless love of Jesus Christ and His one perfect offering to the Father for our salvation. As we contemplate and enter into the mystery of Christ's vocation in the Eucharist — bread broken to nourish and blood poured out to heal — our own vocation takes on new meaning and purpose. We understand ourselves no longer as isolated persons but as sharers and members of Christ's Eucharistic Body, the Church. In the Holy Eucharist, we truly experience the mystery of being chosen and called by God, the gift of vocation.

Christ's consecrated bodyand our consecrated lives
At the heart of the Eucharistic celebration and the Eucharistic Prayer is the consecration of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. "Consecration" literally means "making holy." In the Mass, our simple gifts are claimed and accepted by God the Father and become part of Christ's self-offering to His Father. "Consecration" celebrates a true change, a conversion; bread and wine become something new — Jesus Christ. As we share of the consecrated gifts, we ourselves are consecrated or changed; we become a new creation in Christ. While this process and dynamic is true for all Christians, it is especially the case for those who accept God's call to religious life.

The gift of selfless love naturally calls forth a response of selfless love. The self-emptying of Christ's obedient love prompts us and impels us to empty ourselves, to hand over our very bodies, minds and hearts, our plans for the future, our hopes, dreams and fears. While every Christian is called to give back to God all that He has so generously confided to us, those who embrace consecrated life want every single aspect of their lives to belong to God and so they embrace vows of poverty, chastity and obedience as a way of living baptism and the Eucharist as fully as humanly possible. Consecrated life is not so much a denial of earthly opportunities as it is an act of selfless love — like Jesus, with Jesus, and for His Body, the Church. Consecrated religious seek to say with Jesus: "This is my body; this is my blood.… This is my life poured out for you and for all."

Consecrated Life: Icons of Jesus
In every age, believers have needed some type of image to help make "real" and concrete the mystery of God's presence and love. Christians look to Jesus Christ as the perfect representation of God with us; as we proclaim in our Creed each Sunday, He is "the only begotten Son of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God." As our late Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, reflected on the gift of consecrated life in the Church, he suggested that those who have taken consecrated vows of poverty, chastity and obedience make Jesus "constantly visible in the midst of the world." Their very lives, as well as their ministry manifest and proclaim the total self-gift of Jesus Christ. Men and women who have completely consecrated their lives to the Lord truly become "icons" or living signs of the Lord's love for us all. As "living sacraments," they point us all toward the fullness of God's love we hope to enjoy in the heavenly Kingdom.

Throughout the centuries and throughout the world, the Church has been blessed by many different expressions of consecrated life: religious orders and institutes devoted to contemplation or the apostolic life; societies of apostolic life; secular institutes; consecrated virgins; and other groups of consecrated persons. In many parts of the world today, religious life is prospering, while in other areas, it is going through a time of new formation and development. In every circumstance, consecrated life is an important and necessary gift of the Church. As our late Holy Father put it, consecrated life "manifests the inner nature of the Christian calling and the striving of the whole Church as bride toward union with her spouse." Those who embrace consecrated life are living their baptismal calling to its utmost. They seek to follow the example of Christ's own path of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Even before Christianity, many spiritually committed and zealous men and women chose to live in communities where they shared a simple life in common, devoting themselves to prayer and study, focused on the world to come; examples of this way of life include the Essenes and the Qumran community at the time of John the Baptist. Jesus Himself called the disciples to live with Him and then sent them forth on mission. After His death-resurrection, His disciples sought to live this dynamic of "communion and mission," sharing a common life when possible and going forth to preach the Good News to others, inviting them to join their communities of faith and love.

In every age, religious life seeks to balance this dynamic of communion and mission — contemplative communion with the Lord and ministry for the sanctification of the world. Some forms of consecrated life focus more on apostolic service, while others emphasize contemplation. Many religious communities have "mixed membership" — that is, both contemplative and active members.

Pope John Paul II explained the many complementary ways of living a consecrated calling: "Men and women religious completely devoted to contemplation are in a special way an image of Christ praying on the mountain. Consecrated persons engaged in the active life manifest Christ 'in His proclamation of the Kingdom of God to the multitudes, in His healing of the sick and the suffering, in His work of converting sinners to a better life, in His solicitude for youth, and His goodness to all.' Consecrated persons in secular institutes contribute in a special way to the coming of the Kingdom of God; they unite in a distinctive synthesis the value of consecration and that of being in the world" (Article 32).

Religious Life: Icons ofthe Transfigured Christ
As our late Holy Father reflected on the gift of consecrated life in his Apostolic Exhortation of 1996, he focused on the moment of Christ's Transfiguration on Mount Tabor. Peter, James and John were privileged to contemplate ahead of time the glory of the Risen Lord; He was preparing them for the humiliation of His suffering and death, something they would witness on another mountain, the Mount of Olives.

The Transfiguration story also emphasizes the role of the Father and the Holy Spirit: God the Father takes the initiative to manifest His Son and His voice identifies Him as such. The cloud that overshadowed the disciples represented the all-encompassing Holy Spirit. As Jesus stands in radiant glory between Moses and Elijah, the great symbols of the Law and the Prophets, He points to the exodus or passage of suffering He must undergo even as He also manifests in a partial way His future Resurrection and the full glory of His second coming.

In much the same way, religious life is Trinitarian and eschatological in its focus. Those who give themselves completely to the Lord do so for their own salvation: to contemplate the mystery of Christ's Trinitarian love and our place within it. At the same time, because of their contemplative union with the mystery of the Lord's presence and love, they also manifest the Transfigured Christ to others. Because they have set aside all things for the Lord, they become for the rest of us signs of the world to come, and our eventual communion with the Lord and one another in the Kingdom. The scene of the Transfiguration — like religious life itself — reminds us that we are all called to devote our lives as far as possible completely to the Lord; we are to listen to Jesus and contemplate His presence that we, in turn, might bring that presence to others.

The evangelical counselsin a communal setting
As a means of following as perfectly as possible the example and teaching of Jesus in the Gospel, those in consecrated life take public vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, thus dedicating their bodies and spirits, their present and future totally to the Lord and His Body, the Church. These three vows actually represent a commitment to live the three Gospel teachings or evangelical counsels, that is, following the path and example of Jesus, who chose a life of poverty and chastity, always obedient to the will of His Father. While all Christians can and should aspire to follow these three Gospel counsels, those in consecrated life pledge to devote themselves completely to this pursuit.

The vow of consecrated chastity manifests a desire to give God an undivided heart, belonging completely to Him as the spouse and center of one's life. Through the vow of poverty, the consecrated person proclaims that God alone can satisfy the hungers of the human heart. Through the vow of obedience, consecrated persons unite themselves with Christ's attitude of complete openness to the gift and call of the Father.

These evangelical counsels — embraced as vows — give concrete shape and form to the spiritual communion and "marriage" of their hearts with the Lord as spouse and Savior. These counsels (or vows) of poverty, chastity, and obedience run directly counter to everything our society affirms: in place of the comfort and security of possessions, poverty. Instead of satisfying our natural appetite and desire for sexual intimacy and union, perfect chastity. And in a world that prizes independence and personal control of all things, humble obedience for the good of all. In short, "money, sex and independence" have been replaced with "poverty, chastity and obedience."

A close rapport and inter-relationship exists between each of these three Gospel counsels: to be chaste and completely pure in body and spirit, one needs to be detached from possessions as well as people. Obedience and radical availability for missionary service is much easier for those who are unattached to earthly things and non-possessive in relationships. Communal living is a very helpful and appropriate support for these three vows: Poverty and obedience make greater sense when one understands how one's self-sacrifice is building up and strengthening one's brothers and sisters. The loving support of spiritual friendships in community brings much consolation to those who have accepted the charism of celibate chastity.

Consecrated life as a complement to marriage, single life and priestly service
Theologically, in our tradition, we speak of the consecrated life as the "highest calling" because those in consecrated life have attained a "state of religious perfection." The sense of "perfection" here is not necessarily "moral" perfection but the perfection of charity in the service of the Kingdom. While every Christian is baptized into the death-resurrection of Jesus Christ, those in consecrated life accept a "second Baptism," a more complete immersion into Christ, and more thorough and all-consuming identification with Him. By vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, they seek to grow more perfect in their love for God and neighbor.

Those in consecrated life in no way presume to be "better" or "holier" than others in the Church; rather, they believe that by the grace of the Holy Spirit, they have been called to this special vocation of service within the Church and so they see themselves as supporting all other Christian believers who also seek to follow the path of Jesus Christ. They also believe and know full well that they, in turn, need the encouragement, prayers, and love of all other members of the Church.

To married persons and single persons alike, consecrated religious offer a message of hope and challenge: in and through all human relationships, we love the Lord and experience His tender compassion for us. The Lord alone is the true and lasting spouse of our hearts and souls. By the humility and hiddenness of their poverty and obedience, consecrated religious challenge those in other states of life to be more detached from earthly things and all the more available for God and His "little ones" in need. The communal life of those in consecrated life is also a reminder for us all that we are indeed called to holiness in and through the daily give-and-take of human relationships.

Secular Institutes
Throughout the centuries, there have also been associations of priests or laity whose members live the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience without a religious habit or particular spiritual exercises in the setting of a community. Members of secular institutes follow Christ's Gospel way of poverty, chastity and obedience in their lifestyle. Although they do not take solemn vows, they make promises — often in a public way — which are renewed each weekend in the proclamation of the Creed during Sunday Eucharist. They are different from "third orders" or sodalities which offer members occasional opportunities to connect with the charisms of particular religious orders through special liturgies or days of reflection and recollection. By their very nature, secular institutes are intended for men or women who wish to reside in the world and engage in normal (i.e. "secular") employment while still dedicating themselves to the Lord. They seek to be a leaven of Christ within the world.

Gratitude for the many formsof consecrated life in the archdiocese
As I mentioned at the beginning of this column, our Church of Detroit has been greatly blessed and built up by countless men and women who have embraced the consecrated life. For instance, we have several groups of cloistered religious sisters within the archdiocese — the Dominican Sisters in Farmington Hills; the Cloistered Carmelites in Clinton Township; the Mount Thabor Sisters in Oxford; and the Contemplative Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Dearborn Heights.

Most of the religious with whom we are acquainted are members of apostolic societies; they serve in parish ministry, teaching, hospital chaplaincy, campus ministry, and in administrative roles within the archdiocese. (I mention a few of the more numerous congregations in the Archdiocese: the Felician Sisters of Livonia; Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary; the Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Oxford, Grand Rapids, and Racine, Wisconsin; Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary from Monroe; Religious Sisters of Mercy; Bernadine Sisters; Sisters of St. Joseph, etc.) We are also blessed by a number of religious orders of men, some of which include religious brothers and priests. Consider some of these groups: the Christian Brothers; the Basilian Brothers and Fathers; the Jesuits; the Franciscans and Capuchins; Marists; Benedictines and Legionaries to name just a few.

Praying for and withconsecrated religious
As we give thanks to God for the gift and blessing of consecrated life in the Church, many of us feel a certain amount of anxiety inasmuch as many religious are aging and a number of communities have had few new vocations for many years now. Our current Holy Father and his predecessors have invited us to pray in a special way for an increase of vocations to religious or consecrated life. The Church has always needed their witness and needs it as much as ever in today's world!

Over the centuries and in all cultures, those in consecrated life have played a significant role in bringing the Gospel into the world and working for the promotion of justice and pastoral outreach to all in need. Simply put, religious life is a prophetic sign and witness in the midst of a world that focuses on power, sexuality and personal freedom; the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience stand in direct opposition to the normal patterns and values of our society.

There is no part of the Church today that has not been touched in some very profound way by the gift and ministry of religious life. As each of us considers our own formation and growth in the Spirit, I am sure we can think of specific people for whom we would like to thank God — and I am sure many of these good people are indeed religious men or women. This month of September, as a new academic year begins, let us give thanks to God for the blessing of the religious who teach` and form the faithful in Catholic schools and programs of religious faith formation. Let us also join hands with religious — men and women — who work in our parishes or in so many settings of service and outreach. Like them and with them, may we strive to know and manifest the mystery of the Transfigured Christ! And above all, let us pray for an increase of vocations to religious life, encouraging men and women to consider this sacred and beautiful calling.

With all best wishes,
†Adam Cardinal Maida

Related columns:
'Total Life Commitment to Jesus in His person'
'Security and happiness in the Lord and our brotherhood'
'Communal discernment to discover the common good'