Prophecy

The prophecy was returned to great immediately after the Council. And it is understandable: in times of changes taking place, the prophet is more charming and interesting man of the Institution, because it is projected into the future, or at least, opens new perspectives. However, the word "prophecy" combined with the consecrated life at a certain time, towards the end of the last century, was considered an explosive mixture so as not to be even mentioned in the Lineamenta sent to prepare the Synod of Bishops on Consecrated Life.
The reasons for this purge of course there were:  in Latin America  the prophetic dimension was reserved for the social problems of liberation from poverty. In the United States circulated a curious theory of consecrated life as a succession of the prophets of the New Testament, in parallel to the apostolic succession from the hierarchy. In Europe, there are still those who used the prophecy of the religious against the weight of the Institution, up to consider  physiological the dialectic charisma/tic- religious life versus Institution- Hierarchy.
It is understandable that with such interpretations rather one-sided, feared for the health of consecrated life and be/were held carefully protected from the temptation prophetic. But, as you know, abusus non tollit usum!

In the Synod many interventions have treated just the prophetic dimension of the consecrated life, emphasizing that in the period of renewal there were often more facile prophets than false prophets, without missing the real ones. And the subsequent apostolic exhortation Vita consecrata dealt at length and with a wealth of specifications, the theme of the prophecy of consecrated life, presenting Elijah as an example of the prophet,  jealous defender of God's sovereignty and intrepid defender of the rights of the oppressed.

The prophecy must be contextualized: where the prevailing lack of respect for the human person will emphasize its social denunciation, however there where God is forgotten, it will have the courage to face the "priests of Baal", although their number and their force is overwhelming. This is the situation of our secularized society, where we are content with the proper functioning of the things in the name of pure rationality or desire’s fulfilment, without any reference to God

What prophecy?

But today, consecrated life has become cautious, almost reluctant to talk about prophecy, more than it was a few years ago, when there was so much youth and had many vital energies involved in its works. How do you in fact talk about prophecy, when the future is so uncertain? As you can expect creative and innovative solutions by elders community? What perspectives can make people, absorbed in the management of a difficult survival of their works, often bureaucratic and waiting to pass into the hands of the laity?

Yet we can and must speak of prophecy, because the consecrated life is prophecy with its own being. The fact that there is a so unusual way of life  it is difficult to explain with the usual reasons, invites you to take a short reflection.

Prophecy is to believe in the consecrated life, being a precious gift for the Church's life, for the simple reason that refers to the way of life of Christ, chaste, poor and obedient. And this despite the scandals of abuse on the part of consecrated persons, because chastity for the Kingdom of Heaven always has a secret charm, even for very skeptical ones. And this despite the financial scandals, because the dedication to others of the majority of consecrated persons is an eloquent sign of the Gospel. And this despite our bickering, because the fact that we live together, despite our many differences, speaks to the hearts of those who know what it means the difficult coexistence. And when it was not a sign, our life is an act of love for the Lord Jesus, that in His eyes is infinitely more desirable than the human recognition. And that persevere in the void of comparison, it is true prophecy.

Prophecy is to live happily in the present moment, thinking of the Lord's words: "We are but servants," happy to serve and to have served our Lord. And bearing in mind the spiritual wisdom of the great tradition of consecrated life, expressed in the Ignatian phrase: "Do everything that depends on us and then leave the results to God as if everything depended on Him." Do everything that depends on us also seek to achieve creative fidelity to the charism, without therapeutic tenacity. Here it is useful not always easy discernment between the two criteria of the search for new forms and acceptance of the end of a mission, difficult judgment, but still possible for those who are in a prayerful attitude and listen to what the Spirit is saying to the Church.

Prophecy is to accept that we have accomplished our part in the mission of the Church, some perhaps no longer considered important or necessary or even to its setting due to lack of reinforcements. The consecrated life has educated people in the West to charitable works in the various sectors of the needs of others. Now the society has learned to do for herself, has come of age and self-sufficient. If our work for quantitative presence is less and less required, more necessary is quality presence of exemplary of the Gospel, even in the midst of all the strings of legislation increasingly leveling. Exemplarity which means put at the center the human person to be served.

Prophecy is our blessed hope

Prophecy is not festering for what is happening outside or inside of us, "as do those who are without hope."  To worry about, but not be weary, to be realistic, but not embitter others with our whining and our tirades against the hardness of the times. Who says God attend, has the task of infusing hope, based on the certainty that the story does not escape from the hands of God. Our fight in God prophetically says the trust of parents who see their children away, believers who are continually most isolated, of committed Christians who doubt the effectiveness of their efforts.

Prophecy is the personal recovery of the eschatological dimension, a dimension thought to be a time constitutive and even priority of religious life. Which means waiting positively the sky, projecting constantly and joyfully towards it, "awaiting the blessed hope" of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, by living until he comes. "Come Lord Jesus," is the great prophetic invocation in a world that is closed in on itself, with no prospects for the future, which removed the death and its thoughts. The confident expectation of a "blessed hope" is a prophecy which can be made with particular ease by those who dedicated his entire life to the Whole, the Beloved of his heart. It must be done because this is the test of the truth of what we say and what we do or have done.

Maranata! Come Lord Jesus to fill my heart with love, to distribute to me your riches, to fulfill my most intimate desires. Sometimes I think that the Lord is taking away so many things that we thought were a prophetic sign, asking us to live this prophecy essential to shake our world that is deluding itself that it is sufficient to itself.

This is the great prophecy, always possible, more and more necessary: ​​say with heart and lips: "Come, Lord Jesus."

Pier Giordano Cabra fn
Via Piamarta, 6 - 25121 Brescia