Living on the fault-line Consecrated Religious Life today

Australian Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes (Catholic Religious Australia) National Assembly Living on the Fault Lines Leading in a Climate of Change Melbourne (Victoria), 23-27 June 2014 Living on the fault-line Consecrated Religious Life today João Braz Card. de Aviz Prefect of the CIVCSVA Introduction I wish to convey my affectionate greetings to his Excellency Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Apostolic Nuncio in Australia, as also to his Excellency, Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne. My greetings and thanks go also to Sr. Annette Cunliffe RSC, President of the Catholic Religious of Australia, who more than a year ago sent me the first invitation to participate in your important National Assembly, and as well to the secretary Sandra Crocombe, who in so many ways facilitated our travel. I wish to greet as well Sr. Carmen Sammut SMNDA (Missionary Sisters of our Lady of Africa), President of the International Union of Superiors General. I greet each one of you, consecrated men and women who have come from so many parts of this great land of Australia, as well as from other 1

countries, to participate in this ecclesial meeting in the spirit of the Gospel of Jesus and to seek to grow together in our life as men and women who want to follow Jesus till the end along the road laid down for his disciples and the way of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. I add to my own greeting that of his Excellency Mons. José Rodríguez Carballo OFM, General Secretary of our Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life, with whom we are working in a spirit of communion for over a year now, together with the forty or so persons consecrated persons, religious, diocesan priests and lay persons who work together in our Department, at the service of the consecrated life in the world. My own personal secretary, Fr Donato Cauzzo MI, with whom I work at close quarters, is also accompanying me. You have chosen for this National Assembly, the theme, Living on the Fault Lines - Leading in a Climate of Change, and you have assigned me the task of reflecting on the challenges of the consecrated life today. The present historical moment of humanity and of the Church appears as something new, with its many changes and its own demands, as we know already from personal experience but also from observing new social phenomena such as globalisation, great technical development and the contemporary affirmation of an absolute individualism. Who are we consecrated men and women in the Church and in humanity at this present moment? What values of the gospel in particular should we be living so as to be happy in our vocation and to witness in a credible way for others, values that matter and in which we believe? How are we to face the changes and the challenges that come from the current world, from the Church and from the consecrated life itself? 2

The world of consecrated men and women is found in the Church from the earliest centuries up to today. It is a rich world thanks to the diversity of religious families and, taken as a whole, it is the incarnation in the history of the Church and of humanity of the values that take their rise from the Gospel of Jesus. In every Founder or Foundress there shines a word of Jesus destined to be a light not only for persons of their time, but also for future ages. How many are the charisms that live on after so many centuries! We think of the ancient contemplative orders, of the numerous religious congregations and of the associations of apostolic life, born in order to multiply the works of mercy in the midst of humanity. Hermits, monks and cloistered nuns of East and West testify in the Church, some for more than 1500 years, to the light of the Gospel that creates culture, that illuminates the life of millions of persons and that leaves behind it a wake of holiness in the Church. So is it also for the so numerous sisters and friars, present in situations of the most unthinkable human need, in frontier situations, in constant danger of their lives, in risk of sickness, surrounded by situations of hatred and division. No less is the hidden but very fruitful presence of the Secular Institutes, in their variegated forms of consecration in the midst of the world, realising high ideals of life and of holiness in the hubbub of the cities, hidden in the most diverse of human activities. Nor are there lacking consecrated women of the order of virgins, present today as at the beginning of the Church. They are women who give testimony of a very high and ever-new ideal of virginity as a fruitful form of bridal consecration to the Lord, anticipating for us and in the world the characteristics of those values of the Kingdom lived in hope. Beside these more ancient and traditional forms of consecration, new kinds of foundations and communities are appearing today, grouped under the denomination of new forms of consecrated life. This term covers a vast range 3

of initiatives, difficult even to classify at the present moment, due to their novel and original traits in comparison with the past, and still more difficult to assign a place in the present structure of church order. In them we find not only religious men and women, but also lay persons; not only virgins, but also married couples all of them making up an ecclesial Family where everyone, each according to their proper state of life, is tending together to the perfection of charity according to a particular charism and apostolate. Certainly not all in these times of ours is light, where the consecrated life is concerned. Europe and the most developed countries, amongst which your own Australia, have seen monasteries and religious houses, with their works, diminishing. The consecrated population has visibly aged and without vocations is closing its houses and shutting down its works. A significant number of consecrated men and women have abandoned their vocation. Some institutes have lost their vitality and are depleting their last energies in a context of division and of an absence of evangelical life. Some time ago I heard an Australian bishop make this pessimistic forecast: I believe that in a few decades consecrated life will disappear in Australia. In other continents, by contrast, as in Asia, Africa and to some extent Latin America, new monasteries and religious houses are being opened, vocations are multiplying, there is a growing search for God amongst young people and the Church is looking for ways to give a more lively testimony to the Gospel. It is true, however, that even in the midst of these signs of vitality of the consecrated life there is a search for something deeper that goes beyond the experiences of consecration as we have known it hitherto. There is a waiting for something new, for something consonant with the current culture and sensitive to the values most deeply felt by men and women of our day. 4

A The renewal of the religious life 50 years after the Vatican II 1 Religious in the dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium on the Church (1964) Chapter VI of the dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium on the Church is dedicated to that part of the people of God constituted by religious men and women. As we have seen, in the Church today they are a variegated, numerous and very significant group. Lumen gentium defines the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience as a divine gift, which the Church received from its Lord and which it always safeguards with the help of His grace (LG 43). Such is its value that the state which is constituted by the profession of the evangelical counsels, though it is not the hierarchical structure of the Church, nevertheless, undeniably belongs to its life and holiness (LG 44). Today, fifty years after the Council, the ongoing investigations carried out in ecclesiology, whether on the level of theological research or on that of the concrete experience of communion, allow us to affirm, in the happy expression of Pope St John Paul II, that the hierarchical dimension and the charismatic dimension in the Church are co-essential: I have often had occasion to stress that there is no conflict or opposition in the Church between the institutional dimension and the charismatic dimension, of which movements are a significant expression. Both are co-essential to the divine constitution of the Church founded by Jesus, because they both help to make the mystery of Christ and his saving work present in the world 1. This fact does not derogate from the duty of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, whose task it is to lead the People of God to the most fruitful pastures (cf. Ez 34,14), to wisely regulate the practice 1 St. John Paul II, Message to the World Congress of Ecclesial Movements and New Communities, 27 May 1998, no. 5. 5

of the evangelical counsels, whereby the perfection of love of God and love of neighbour is fostered in an outstanding manner (LG 45). The Council continues to see in religious the opportunity for the Church to present Christ in an ever more perfect way to men and women: in contemplation on the mountain, in His proclamation of the kingdom of God to the multitudes, in His healing of the sick and maimed, in His work of converting sinners to a better life, in His solicitude for youth and His goodness to all men, always obedient to the will of the Father who sent Him (LG 46). The Conciliar fathers recognise furthermore that the profession of the evangelical counsels involves the renunciation of goods very worthwhile in themselves, while this necessary renunciation is not opposed to a true progress of the human person; indeed, it is very profitable for the purification of the heart, spiritual liberty and the fervour of charity. The Virgin Mary and the Founders are the confirmation of this truth. In this way, consecrated men and women stand amongst their contemporaries in a very special way, assuring them of the tenderness of Christ (cf. LG 46). 2 The conciliar Decree Perfectae caritatis (1965) In this Decree the Council intends to treat of the life and discipline of those institutes whose members make profession of chastity, poverty and obedience and to provide for their needs in our time (PC 1). What is of particular interest here are the principles of renewal and adaptation that the Council proposed here fifty or so years ago in view of our verifying at what point we are today in regard to their presence in the life of our institutes at the present time. We transcribe them directly from the text of Perfectae caritatis. Principles for renewal and adaptation (nos. 2-4): 6

2. The adaptation and renewal of the religious life includes both the constant return to the sources of all Christian life and to the original spirit of the institutes and their adaptation to the changed conditions of our time. This renewal, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the Church, must be advanced according to the following principles: a) Since the ultimate norm of the religious life is the following of Christ set forth in the Gospels, let this be held by all institutes as the highest rule. b) It redounds to the good of the Church that institutes have their own particular characteristics and work. Therefore let their founders spirit and special aims they set before them as well as their sound traditions-all of which make up the patrimony of each institute-be faithfully held in honour. c) All institutes should share in the life of the Church, adapting as their own and implementing in accordance with their own characteristics the Church s undertakings and aims in matters biblical, liturgical, dogmatic, pastoral, ecumenical, missionary and social. d) Institutes should promote among their members an adequate knowledge of the social conditions of the times they live in and of the needs of the Church. In such a way, judging current events wisely in the light of faith and burning with apostolic zeal, they may be able to assist men more effectively. e) The purpose of the religious life is to help the members follow Christ and be united to God through the profession of the evangelical counsels. It should be constantly kept in mind, therefore, that even the best adjustments made in accordance with the needs of our age will be ineffectual unless they are animated by a renewal of spirit. This must take precedence over even the active ministry. 3. The manner of living, praying and working should be suitably adapted everywhere, but especially in mission territories, to the modern physical and psychological circumstances of the members and also, as required by the nature of each institute, to the necessities of the apostolate, the demands of culture, and social and economic circumstances. According to the same criteria let the manner of governing the institutes also be examined. 7

Therefore let constitutions, directories, custom books, books of prayers and ceremonies and such like be suitably re-edited and, obsolete laws being suppressed, be adapted to the decrees of this sacred synod. 4. An effective renewal and adaptation demands the cooperation of all the members of the institute. However, to establish the norms of adaptation and renewal, to embody it in legislation as well as to make allowance for adequate and prudent experimentation belongs only to the competent authorities, especially to general chapters. The approbation of the Holy See or of the local Ordinary must be obtained where necessary according to law. But superiors should take counsel in an appropriate way and hear the members of the order in those things which concern the future well being of the whole institute. For the adaptation and renewal of convents of nuns suggestions and advice may be obtained also from the meetings of federations or from other assemblies lawfully convoked. Nevertheless everyone should keep in mind that the hope of renewal lies more in the faithful observance of the rules and constitutions than in multiplying laws. The general principles of renewal just recalled retain their full vigour and actuality fifty years later, at this present stage of the journey of the consecrated life that we are traversing today. Historical circumstances have changed; they are different today to what they were at the time of the Council. Noteworthy steps have been taken in ecclesial life along the way lit by the light coming from Vatican II. We are convinced, however, that bringing these principles to bear upon the stage of the consecrated life we are living today will prove very helpful for us in gaining a better understanding of the new phenomena that have emerged in the consecrated life and in conferring a correct and significant direction upon its course. It is the case that today we are asking ourselves: at what point are we in regard to the return to the sources of every form of Christian life and to the originating inspiration of the institutes? 8

are our institutes adapted in an evangelical way to the changed conditions of the times? is following Christ, as taught by the Gospel, the fundamental norm for us, the supreme rule? are we faithfully observing the spirit and aims of the Founders so as to preserve their charism? is thinking with the Church a strong feature of our institute? Are we aiming at realising the goals of the Church in the biblical, liturgical, dogmatic, pastoral, missionary and social fields? do all the members of our institute know the human condition of our time and the needs of the Church in such a way as to commit themselves in a lived communion with others animated by a spirit of faith and ardent apostolic zeal? is each member of our communities loved personally according to their physical, spiritual, psychological and cultural conditions? are obedience and authority dimensions of the life of true fraternity amongst us, or do they remain instruments of power and of enslavement, perhaps disguised by an unbalanced mysticism? 3 - The consecrated life sign of communion in the Church and in the world in the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation The Consecrated Life (1996) For twenty years now the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita consecrata has been orienting us in a consistent way along the path of conciliar renewal of the religious life. Many indeed are the institutes that today have updated their constitutions, their rules, their directories in accordance with its indications. 9

Vita consecrata makes us understand the following of Christ, the sequela Christi, proper to consecrated persons by means of the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, in the light of the Trinitarian mystery: in it the consecrated life is image of the Trinity (cf. VC 41). The community of the twelve around Jesus, the community born around the apostles and Mary (cf. Acts 2,42-47; 4,32-35) these are the model that has inspired the Church because the Church is essentially mystery of communion, a people made one with the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit 2. Precisely due to this Trinitarian origin of the Church the fraternal life, understood as a life shared in love, is an eloquent sign of ecclesial communion (VC 42). It is an unconditional love based on the new commandment of the Lord (cf. Jn 13,34), called to become a reciprocal love, inescapable law of the Christian community and particularly of consecrated persons. Authority and obedience at the heart of the Church, mystery of communion, and in consequence at the heart of the community of consecrated persons, cannot become authoritarian or a source of enslavement, but must necessarily become mature components of fraternity. One cannot indicate the will of God or obey it by means of a superior, if the one in authority and those who obey are not seeking to follow Jesus together. Without abdicating its primary role of responsibility for the community, authority rightly serves to consolidate fraternal communion and not to vanify the obedience professed (cf. VC 43). As we recalled above, the Apostolic Exhortation calls consecrated persons to live according to the image of the apostolic community, to think with the 2 St. Cyprian, De oratione dominica 23: PL 4,553; cf. Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium, 4. 10

Church, sentire cum Ecclesia, to foster fraternity in the universal Church and in the particular Churches. In this way the experience that must grow constantly is that of dialogue animated by charity. This goes especially for the testimony of fraternity in a world that is divided and unjust. For this reason the time has arrived for a sincere communion between the different institutes, as is in great part being realised. It is necessary to continue to accord great value to the organisms of coordination and to communion and collaboration with the laity (cf. VC 45-56). The dignity and the role of women in general and of the consecrated woman are particularly accentuated in Vita consecrata (cf. nos. 57 and 58). The document foresees new perspectives of presence and action and the urgency of creating room for women to participate in different fields and at all levels, including decision-making processes, above all in matters which concern women themselves. B - The consecrated life in the present historical moment In the itinerary we now intend to follow let us take a look, even if very briefly, at some characteristics of our present historical moment, in which men and women called to the life of the gospel are living today. We will then seek to understand how today s consecrated life can express its profound Trinitarian dimensions, origin of its identity and of its mission, in the necessary passage from a mainly individual spirituality to a spirituality of communion. We must ask ourselves: what world are we talking about today? What are its signs, its characteristics? What new demands does this world (culture, values, sensibility) make upon this vocation of persons called to live by the profession of a Christian life solidly founded on the evangelical counsels? 11

Without claiming to be exhaustive, we wish to draw attention here to a few characteristics of the historical moment we are passing through and, at the same time, also creating, looking especially at the current phenomenon of globalisation. The present historical moment is marked by a vertiginous technical development that has changed our human experience of time and space. Human relations are becoming intense, rapid, variable and simultaneous, also with those who are not near at hand. We can be informed in real time concerning almost everything. We can travel almost anywhere in a short time. At the same time the current globalised culture is tending to eliminate or reject universal values that have always been unanimously recognised throughout human history, in a special way in relation to God, while it is affirming individualism, relativism and secularism. In this way each person becomes, without God, both a rule for him or herself and determines what is good, recognising as a value only that which gives pleasure, what procures happiness, even if in an ephemeral way and one that is lived but for a moment. Increasingly, what for religion is a value, for men and women of the globalised era is not. In this way a widespread contradiction is created: in the very historical moment in which technology has created greater possibilities of relations, the elimination of values, at the service of affirming the absoluteness of the individual, creates a crisis for the human capacity for relationships in every direction: with regard to God, to members of the family, between men and women, between generations, between members of different cultures, between religious families and ecclesial authority, between the members of 12

the same religious family, and again in relation to nature and to the whole of the cosmos. In the ecclesial world no one any longer understands what obedience is for, and how to exercise authority, and even the value of the life of fraternity is, so many times, no longer understood. In this way the common life, already interpreted in a negative way according to the traditional saying attributed to the young Jesuit Saint John Berchmans (dead at the age of 22): vita communis mea maxima poenitentia, that is, my greatest penance is the common life, becomes even more onerous, to the point that many consecrated persons are abandoning it in order to experience a measure of freedom. As we, in the Department, can bear witness, the motivation given by consecrated persons for the abandonment of their religious families or institutes has to do, not so much with the recognition of having mistaken their vocation, as with the fact that many of them no longer experience their own community as their home and do not feel happy. Certainly we, in the consecrated life of members of the Institutes Of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, feel the impact of this current historical reality in our own vocation too. Like everyone else, we too feel the generalised crisis in building human relations. We feel that such relations are decisive, yet frequently we feel incapable of building them in a satisfying way. For this reason it will be necessary, as Pope Paul VI pointed out, to go up as far as the Trinitarian mystery, a point taken up again in the Apostolic Exhortation Vita consecrata (1996), which in the first chapter speaks of the Confessio Trinitatis, and directs us to the Christological-Trinitarian source of the consecrated life (nos. 14-24). 13

In the context of the continuing reflection of this Assembly and with an eye on the characteristics of the current world, I would like to introduce a few ideas for reflection, in this same direction, as a concrete way for the consecrated life to find once again its fruitfulness and its happiness in the new evangelisation. 1 Begin again together from Christ, so as to inhabit already this land of the Holy Trinity Certainly we must get an ever deeper grasp of the Christian life in terms of personal relations with the Father and with the Son and with the Holy Spirit. But it seems to me that an element of newness for consecrated persons, that is manifested necessarily in the current culture, is the passage from the individual sequela Christi, or following of Christ, which always remains necessary, to the communitarian sequela Christi. Paraphrasing the image of Saint Teresa of Avila, Chiara Lubich, Foundress of the Focolare Movement, has written that today we must commit ourselves to building, over and beyond the interior castle, that is, the personal relation with God, the exterior castle as well: going to God together with one s brothers and sisters. This applies certainly not only to consecrated persons, but to all the baptised in the Church, to all Christians. But for us consecrated persons it ought to apply in a special way. The Church in fact even entrusts us with the specific task of being an example for other Christians of how one can live the radical choice of God and of the Gospel, not alone but in communion: communion with God and communion amongst ourselves. In the document of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life, Religious and Human Promotion, religious are defined as experts in communion. We read at no. 24: Experts in 14

communion, religious are, therefore, called to be an ecclesial community in the Church and in the world, witnesses and architects of the plan for unity which is the crowning point of human history in God s design. Above all, by the profession of the evangelical counsels, which frees one from what might be an obstacle to the fervour of charity, religious are communally a prophetic sign of intimate union with God, who is loved above all things. Furthermore, through the daily experience of communion of life, prayer and apostolate the essential and distinctive elements of their form of consecrated life they are a sign of fraternal fellowship 3. Today this requires of us disciples a joyous re-discovery of God-Love, that is, of a relationship with Love, that is God and that realises diversity in unity. We need to allow ourselves to be enlightened by this relationship that circulates between the three divine Persons, that constitutes God s own proper identity, and apply this reality to man and woman, created in God s image and likeness, that is, in the image of Love. The relation that makes of the three divine Persons one sole and unique God is Love. In the first letter of Saint John this reality is handed on to us: God is love (1 Jn 4,8.16). Unity and diversity, two dimensions of being, long scrutinised by philosophy, do not find an authentic light that leads to a resolution except here, in the mystery, in the wonder revealed and communicated to us by the very Son of God, in the mystery of the Incarnation, whose home is the Most Holy Trinity. Pope Saint John Paul II, and Benedict XVI, have pointed men and women of our time towards this foundational reality. 3 Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life, Religious and Human Promotion, 25 April 1978, no. 24. 15

For a long time a respectful distance towards the Most Holy Trinity has left us in an attitude of adoration before it, while being attentive to preserve a correct theological language elaborated in the midst of so many historical difficulties. So long as this reality of God-Trinity appeared to us as a very complicated mystery, we were content to leave it at the margins of theological reflection and of Christian anthropology, at least in so far as it was a reality to be experienced. In consequence, being a disciple of Jesus did not, for Christian people, mean inhabiting the Trinity, or living as men and women bonded by relations that are vital to our own fulfilment and happiness and that have their birthplace in the Trinitarian mystery of God who is love. Today we are seeing the Most Holy Trinity return in the midst of God s people. Thus Christian anthropology, and with it also mysticism and asceticism, are recovering the essential dimension of the relation of love, according to God. In fact, man and woman were created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gen 1,27), that is, of love. Outside this reality they cannot ever find their true fulfilment, their freedom and their happiness. This is the human-divine anthropology that we must recover, first of all in relations between us consecrated persons, so as to be its witness to others. 2 The consecrated life: being witness of God-Love in human and ecclesial relationships It is necessary to look at the mystery of the incarnation of the Word and at the mystery of the cross of Jesus in order to understand that God is love and to live in the image and likeness of God, Most Holy Trinity. What is love? 16

The Bible tells us that neither great waters nor fire can extinguish it, so great and unique is Love. Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, has come to us from the bosom of the Most Holy Trinity and he has revealed and communicated to us the reality of God who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit of a God who is love. Looking at God s way of doing things in his loving search for man and woman, we can understand, learn and live love. This experience embraces the relation with God, with one s brothers and sisters and with the cosmos. Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem present Jesus to us as a tiny, a hidden God, apparently defeated by the power of evil. Who at Bethlehem knew of the birth of Jesus? The angels, the shepherds, the three Magi! How understand the thirty years of Jesus hidden life at Nazareth? The cross does not seem the right place for God! God is love, the cross is violence. God is holy, the cross is the place of sin, of crime. God is infinite, the cross is finitude. God is life, the cross is death. God is communion, the cross is solitude. In fact, in Paul s language, the cross appears as scandal, madness to human eyes. But Paul proclaims it is the wisdom of God. Where is this wisdom? Saint Bonaventure, meditating on the suffering of Saint Francis in the last stage of his life, says that no one enters correctly into God if not by means of the Crucified 4. This the apostle Paul confirms as well. In the letter to the Philippians it is again the apostle who helps us understand how God-Love is manifested and communicated in the mystery of the incarnation and the redemption. Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and 4 Cf. Journey of the Mind into God, Prologue. 17

found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2,5-11). To have the same attitude as Christ Jesus, disciples must empty themselves of themselves, taking on the condition of slaves. They must also, like Jesus, humble themselves, making themselves, like him, obedient even to death and to a death on a cross. This is a measure that is elevated and obviously contrary to the manner of thinking of the human person today. What happiness can such behaviour produce? Today s world does not understand such abasement as possibility of happiness! The love that is God did this: making itself little in order to come close to man and woman. It took the place of the last so that no man, no woman might ever doubt that the love of God is for all and in the most complete measure. The Eucharist is the most mysterious sign of this abasement of oneself and this hiding of oneself of God-Love. Here is the fulcrum over which we must pass today so that God-Love can be recognised: man and woman, images of God, were introduced into this life of God (Rm 5,5) and, for this, they inhabit love. Love is their dwelling. God is their dwelling. Without realising this same experience with the other, one s companion on the journey (man or woman, in the same measure), the experience of God-love is lost in the void (cf. 1 Jn 4,19-21). 18

For human relations to be radiant with love it is necessary to take up once again amongst us the feeling and the attitudes of equality (equal dignity, everyone only a child of God-Love). Furthermore, ministries, services, charisms, gifts, goods (that is, our rightful diversity) serve solely the beauty and strength of this fraternity in the Church. Ideologies, in our time too, have not been able to bring about the great human values of freedom, of equality and of fraternity. These, however, are the central values of Christian anthropology. If we return today, with simplicity and decision, to the experience of our Trinitarian identity, the Church, with all that it has built up over these twenty centuries, can grow in offering true hope to humanity. From the moment that this Trinitarian love becomes reciprocal between two or more persons (that is, persons who put into practice the commandment that Jesus called his own, his commandment of love), the love that comes and goes in the human relation generates the presence of the living and risen Jesus in the community (cf. Mt 18,20). From the way Jesus speaks of this reality, it is his very presence (in the person and in the community), just as it comes about through the Word, through the Eucharist and through those who are constituted as authorities. The real presence of Jesus in the midst of two or more disciples who live a reciprocal love gives to human relations their most perfect dimension. The more this experience spreads, the more the Church, with all its human beauty, becomes resplendent with the divine. God in our midst in the Church is the light of our city. May the Most Holy Trinity be blessed today and always! 19

Conclusion Concretely, the consecrated life today has before it a possible road for conferring on the world its deepest meaning: namely, that of building up these relations that embody the DNA of our God-Love amongst its members, between Institutes, each one with the others, with the other realities of the Church, with every man and woman in the various fields of human life (political, economic, educational, health, the arts ). In this sense, we recall that to make the credible proclamation of Christ possible today it is not enough for us to possess a moral code, to have a received spiritual inheritance or an ideology. What is necessary is the communitarian testimony of the spirituality of communion that Pope Saint John Paul II prophesied would be the strength of the Church in the new millennium (cf. NMI 43-45). I think that we, as consecrated men and women today, can respond to the challenges that the present time offers us and realise the program Pope Francis has traced for us: Wake up the world! 5. 5 Cf. Conversation with Pope Francis about the Religious Life, 29 November 2013, in La Civiltà Cattolica n. 3925 (4 gennaio 2014), pp. 3-17. English translation at: http://www.laciviltacattolica.it/articoli_download/extra/wake_up_the_world.pdf 20