The Consecrated Life

By DON FIER

So great is the dignity and vocation of the lay faithful that they are able to participate in the priestly, prophetic, and kingly offices of Christ. They share in His priestly office “especially in the Eucharist by offering as a spiritual sacrifice ‘acceptable to God through Jesus Christ’ (1 Peter 2:5) their own lives with all of their works, their prayers, their apostolic undertakings, their family life, their daily work and hardships borne with patience, and even their consolations of spirit and body” (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCCC], n. 189). By gathering up all their activities and spiritually uniting them to Christ’s sacrificial offering on Calvary, “the laity consecrate the world itself to God” (Lumen Gentium [LG], n. 34 § 2).
Likewise, the lay faithful participate in Christ’s prophetic office “by welcoming evermore in faith the Word of Christ and proclaiming it to the world by the witness of their lives, their words, their evangelizing action, and by catechesis” (CCCC, n. 190). It is by constantly striving “to be witnesses to Christ in all things in the midst of human society” (Gaudium et Spes, n. 43 § 4) that they share in this office. Moreover, the lay faithful participate in the kingly office of Christ “because they have received from Him the power to overcome sin in themselves and in the world by self-denial and the holiness of their lives” (CCCC, n. 191). By cooperating with God’s grace so as to uproot the rule of sin in their own lives, the laity are able to positively influence the moral climate in which they live and advance the common good through all their activities.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), as we saw several weeks ago when we began our discussion of those who comprise the Christian faithful, speaks of three general types of vocations by which they contribute to the life and mission of the Church according to their call, gifts, and duties: the hierarchical or ecclesial ministry, the laity, and the consecrated or religious state of life. The focus thus far in this key section of the Catechism has been on the hierarchy and laity, which corresponds to chapters three and four, respectively, of the “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church.” The Catechism now examines the consecrated life, or that “state [of life] which is constituted by the profession of the evangelical counsels” (LG, n. 44 § 4; CCC, n. 914).
Just as the Second Vatican Council Fathers promulgated decrees on the hierarchical ministry (Christus Dominus and Presbyterorum Ordinis) and on the laity (Apostolicam Actuositatem), they likewise issued a decree on renewal of consecrated life in the Church entitled Perfectae Caritatis [PC], or the “Decree on the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life.” Douglas Bushman, STL, in his book entitled The Sixteen Documents of Vatican II, describes this document as “a pastoral elaboration on Church renewal [of religious life] based on the doctrine of Lumen Gentium” (p. 303). It specifies the principles that guide renewal of religious life that are outlined in more general terms in chapter six of Lumen Gentium.
Pope St. John Paul II promulgated a post-synodal apostolic exhortation in 1996 entitled Vita Consecrata, which came on the heels of the 1994 Synod of Bishops: “On the Consecrated Life and Its Role in the Church and in the World.” The Holy Father also devoted a series of 19 general audiences to the consecrated life, dating from September 28, 1994 to March 29, 1995. Along with Perfectae Caritatis, these writings of St. John Paul II will serve as the primary source of reference material for this topic. Providentially, we are examining the Church’s teaching on consecrated life in early 2015, which Pope Francis has proclaimed as the “Year of Consecrated Life.” Having commenced on the first Sunday of Advent (November 30, 2014), its observance will solemnly close on the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (February 2, 2016).
To introduce its exposition on the consecrated life, the Catechism reminds us that “Christ proposes the evangelical counsels, in their great variety, to every disciple” (CCC, n. 915). In other words, the call to holiness or the perfection of charity, which entails the evangelical counsels — namely chastity, poverty, and obedience in accordance with one’s state of life — is universal, regardless of the vocation to which one has been called.
For the lay faithful, “whose proper task is to ‘seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God’ (LG, n. 31 § 2), the consecration of Baptism and Confirmation common to all members of the People of God is a sufficient foundation” (VC, n. 31 § 2). Ordained ministers, in addition, receive the consecration of Holy Orders which enables them to carry out their apostolic ministry. The evangelical counsels “are to be practiced in keeping with the vocation of each” (CCC, n. 1974).
What distinguishes those men and women, then, who are called to the consecrated life? “Consecrated persons, who embrace the evangelical counsels, receive a new and special consecration which, without being sacramental, commits them to making their own — in chastity, poverty, and obedience — the way of life practiced personally by Jesus and proposed by Him to His disciples” (VC, n. 31 § 4). As taught by the Vatican II Fathers, those called to religious life receive a consecration which enables them to “bind themselves to the Lord in a special way, following Christ, who chaste and poor (cf. Matt. 8:20; Luke 9:58) redeemed and sanctified men through obedience even to the death of the cross (cf. Phil. 2:8)” (PC, n. 1 § 3). The state of consecrated life, thus, is “one way of experiencing a ‘more intimate’ consecration, rooted in Baptism and dedicated totally to God” (CCC, n. 916).
It would be good at this juncture to more precisely define the term “evangelical counsels.” According to Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, in his Modern Catholic Dictionary, counsels, in general, are “good actions that are not prescribed by any law. They are morally better than the corresponding precepts, as fasting is higher than temperance” (p. 135). He expands on this by explaining that the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience are most important among the counsels. Why are they called evangelical and why are they most important?
“They are called evangelical,” says Fr. Hardon, “because they were taught and practiced by Christ in the Gospels. Moreover, they are especially proposed by the Church as means for attaining Christian perfection” (ibid.). This closely parallels the Catechism’s definition of the evangelical counsels: “The teachings of the New Law proposed by Jesus to His disciples which lead to the perfection of Christian life. In the New Law, the precepts are intended to remove whatever is incompatible with charity; the evangelical counsels are to remove whatever might hinder the development of charity, even if not contrary to it” (CCC, Glossary).
In his general audience of November 9, 1994, St. John Paul II cites a biblical example which profoundly demonstrates that some are called in a particular way to a life of perfection — to fully embrace the evangelical counsels. In the Gospel of St. Matthew, Jesus addressed such a call to a rich young man who had carefully observed all the commandments of the Law, and now asked what he still lacked. Jesus’ response was: “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Matt. 19:21).
The rich young man was receiving a special call. As explained by St. John Paul II: “At the time of the call, he was invited to a perfection that goes beyond the commandments. He was called to renounce everything and follow Jesus. Perfection consists in the most complete gift of self to Christ. In this sense the way of the evangelical counsels is a ‘way of perfection’ for those who are called to it.” Even though Jesus’ admiration of the young man is evident, the youth sadly departed — he was unwilling to give up his earthly treasures and follow Christ unreservedly.
The special graces necessary to live a consecrated life have been given by our Lord throughout the history of the Church. Thankfully, many have answered this call with selfless generosity and have produced great fruit in the Church’s life. This is attested to in beautifully symbolic language by the Vatican II Fathers: “It has come about, that, as if on a tree which has grown in the field of the Lord, various forms of solidarity and community life, as well as various religious families have branched out in a marvelous and multiple way from this divinely given seed. Such a multiple and miraculous growth augments both the progress of the members of these various religious families themselves and the welfare of the entire Body of Christ” (LG, n. 43 § 1).