We often speak of difficulties, if not of crisis, of the authority, especially in the democratic and often individualistic Western countries; these difficulties invest also the consecrated life, immersed as it is in this cultural climate. Often they state that a new style of authority would be needed for the consecrated life, after the authoritarian and spontaneous season. This would be needed for the growth of the individual persons, for a fraternal community, for a shared mission. But this solution is not obvious.

All agree to the diagnosis, but very few are of the same opinion about the remedies and the proposals to re-launch or to re-found the role of authority. The question is not that easy, because we must keep in mind the ecclesiology and the spirituality of communion, as well as the improper use that sometimes has been made of the principle of communion.

During these past years some have weakened the principle of the personal authority in the name of communion, to escape from the communitarian yoke in the name of respect for the person. It does not seem that the remedy would be that of going back to the old order of things, also because the proposal would not be realistic. We need to delineate a figure of the authority  capable of carrying on a balanced service to the growth both of the person and the community/mission.

The recent Instruction has tried to do this, “The service of authority and obedience”, published on 11^th May, 2008, Pentecost Day, by the Congregation of the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of apostolic life. The rather fatigued elaboration started with the Plenary of the Department for the Consecrated Life in September 2005. The sub-title, «Faciem tuam, Domine, requiram» (I seek your face, Lord), suggests the lay-out of the document, “Pilgrim who seeks the sense of life, wrapped by the same mystery surrounding him: man actually seeks the face of the Lord (….). The consecrated life is a visible sign of this search in the world and in the Church, a visible sign of the ways leading to Him” (n. 1).

An enchiridion of the authority

The document could be presented as a compendium, a pamphlet, a brief treatise of today’s authority. In fact, it faces some twenty concrete situations of consecrated life, especially of the religious life in which authority is exercised. The inspiring starting points are the numbers dedicated to the authority by the previous document on fraternal life in community (2^nd February 2004), above all n. 50. 

This suffices to re-assure those who may fear a step behind, just as if we were before a document of restoration. The allergy against authority is rather diffused and we understand the suspicion of some recalling to the order. However, the climate of the Instruction is clearly in continuity with the fraternal climate of the Congregavit nos and has no intention of lessening it. It wants to examine the kind of authority to be proposed, in the context of the new culture and in faithfulness to the Gospel, keeping in view that fraternal life does not exclude obedience, as the daily life proves it. In fact, fraternal life pre-supposes the availability to shoulder one another’s burden, that is to obey according to the needs and the requests of our brothers and sisters. Authority is presented  in the task of contributing, in a balanced form, to the growth of the consecrated person, to the building up of fraternal communities with commitment to the charismatic mission of the Institute.

This type of relation is surely a relation of service, a service modelled on that of the Son of Man, who has not come to be served, but to serve” (Mark: 10,45). This qualification as deacon is constantly reminded, not only with reference to the Gospel, but also with incisive quotations of saints who have enlightened the Church and the consecrated life with their life and doctrine.

This, of course, does not favour a return to authoritarian attitudes.

The three protagonists of authority and obedience

Three priorities are asked from the superiors for the service to the consecrated person: to be a spiritual authority, an authority that guarantees the time and quality of prayer, that promotes the dignity of the person, that infuses courage and hope in difficulties, that keeps the family charism alive, that nurtures the “sentire cum Ecclesia”, that accompanies the journey of permanent formation.

These are concrete points, treated with a simple language and with proposals, far from moralising  and theoretical psychology as well as from “communitarian engineering”; all this is thanks to having paid attention to experience interpreted with evangelical wisdom. Just to simplify; “An authority is spiritual when it is at the service of what the Spirit wants to realise through the gifts He distributes to each member of the fraternity, within the charismatic project of the Institute (…). The service of authority demands a constant presence, capable of animating and of proposing, of reminding the reasons of being in the consecrated life, of helping persons to correspond, with an ever renewed faithfulness, to the calls of the Spirit” (no. 13).  

At the service of the fraternity: it seems that here the profile of authority is truly very high and the requests very much elevated, if we state that “to exercise the authority among brothers and sisters means to serve them after the example of the One who gave up his life in ransom for many, so that they, too, may give up their life” (n. 17). «The community is what its members make of it. It is, therefore, fundamental, to stimulate and to motivate the contribution of all the persons, so that each one may feel the duty of sharing one’s charity, competence and creativity. All human beings are to be empowered and made to converge into the communitarian project, motivating and respecting them” (n. 20c).

If words have their sense, we must ask about who may have the courage of aspiring to assume the service of authority, which can be simplified as follows: “listening to, creating a climate favourable to sharing and co-responsibility, promoting the contribution of all the members to the common needs, discernment and fraternal obedience  (n. 20).

The document wants, however, to be “an instruction of use”, for those who have to exercise the authority: a help, more than a reminder; the proposal of an ideal, more than the condemnation of reproved behaviours.

At the service of the mission: The authority has also a responsibility of stimulus and co-ordination towards the mission, though the competences within the community can be distributed to various persons. “Living the mission always implies a being sent, and this implies a reference to the one who sends as well as to the content of the mission to be carried on (…). This recognises that the authority has an important role for the mission, in faithfulness to one’s own charism (n. 23).

Here are the fields of this apostolic area: the authority encourages to assume the responsibilities and respects them; faces diversities in a spirit of communion; keeps the balance among the different dimensions of consecrated life; has a merciful heart, the sense of justice and promotes the collaboration with the laity (See n. 25).

Thus, we can see that authority is at the service of the various dimensions of consecrated life, with particular attention to the new tasks and the new problems of these years.

Christian obedience

Obedience is the fundamental attitude of the creature before its Creator: in fact, what does the Our Father say in its first part, if not the request of doing the will of the Lord?. If man forgets this priority task, the Lord moves in search of him, “Adam, where are you?”. To the invocation, “Show me your ways”, the Creator of all things first answers, “Listen, Israel”, indicating to him the way of life, and then, “This is my beloved Son, listen to Him”. The Christian is a man who listens to the Word as guide in his search for the will of the Father, putting himself at the school of the obedient Son, in the light and power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit infuses in our hearts the love of God that makes us exclaim: Abba, Father!, allows us to seek and to do the will of the Father, confirming us in the following of Christ, the obedient servant

The Consecrated Life has always been understood as “a special configuration with Christ who, moved by the Spirit, considered to be his food, namely his vital question, the tendency to do the will of God; this concerns indistinctly all the consecrated persons. The special configuration with Christ, tending to fulfil what pleases the Father, is made possible in our daily life by a qualified mediation of the authority, when it acts according to the Rule of the Institute, namely of a charismatic project approved by the Church. This guarantees the obedient man to do the will of God, not because what is commanded is always the will of God, but because it is the will of God that we obey the will of the authorised superiors. To go as close as possible to the objective will of God, the communitarian discernment is illustrated in its essential elements, with the necessary conditions for a non illusory research.

This is a simple and dense theological foundation of the brief talk on obedience. The Instruction is rather brief and essential, easily readable and intelligible, which is a relevant merit.

To motivate

Today, any document that speaks of authority and obedience can generate the suspicion that the document tends to side one who proclaims that the solution of the problems in the consecrated life can be found essentially in re-establishing a strong authority and an obedience without many “yes” or “but”.

We must say straightway that our document puts first and over all the “first commandment” of love of God and neighbours. In other words, it inscribes obedience within the “You shall love the Lord your God” with filial heart, expressing the love of a son who trusts the benevolence of the Father. This is a Biblically and theologically motivated thought, encouraging us to go on with speedy steps along the ways of the Lord, in the imitation of Jesus Christ, who was obedient up to death, death of the cross. All this keeps also in mind the present situation with realism, with hope, with the certainty that in the consecrated life there are persons who, at any age, seek first of all to please God and to serve the brothers and sisters within and outside one’s community.

Here is an invitation to a non superficial examination. “What does your heart look for? What are you anxious of? Do you seek yourself or the Lord your God? Are you pursuing your desires or the desire of Him who made your heart and wants it to be realised the way He alone can do it? Are you pursuing only passing things or seeking Him who does not pass away?

As far as authority is concerned, the document shows to be well aware of the difficulties, but also of the possibilities of serving the brothers and sisters in a better way, of favouring the cohesion of the community and co-ordinating the different gifts for the mission, offering useful suggestions to this purpose.

More than once the authority has been warned against the disguised temptation of being served, rather than of serving, of rising above the others, rather than washing the feet of others, of listening before presuming of being listened to. From here flow the encouraging tone and the balance between the tendencies to polarisations possible in this field, rarely deprived of obstacles, which demand prudence in the decisional process, which should more and more involve the community, but which require also firmness on behalf of the authority in demanding the execution of what has been decided. 

Then, there is a “Prayer of the authority” which is a true pearl, taken from the works of a Cistercian Father of St. Bernard’s circle, a prayer flowing from a humble heart that puts its trust in the help of the Good Shepherd. 

A “Prayer to Mary” closes the document, contemplated as a model of obedience “believing and questioning, example of a “docile and attentive heart”.

These are a few notes for a first invitation to take the document  Faciem tuam as an instrument that can be found useful for the animation in the community at a moment in which the consecrated life is called to witness to the primacy of God with its gifts and its poverty, with its weaknesses and often dozing energies, which can be opportunely awaken and newly motivated.

Pier Giordano Cabra
Via Piamarta, 6 – 25100 Brescia