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The "Passion for Christ, passion for humanity" is to be
understood in the fullest and broadest meaning of the term. It is not
only a developing a passion for, but also a sharing the sufferings of
life. Speaking of consecrated life, the title wants clearly to refer to
the sharing of the passion of Christ for the Father, for the Kingdom,
for our salvation. This is the reading key of
Mother Giuseppina Alberghina, Superior General of the
Congregation of the Sisters of Jesus the Good Shepherd, and
Vice-President of the USMI National, with reference to the slogan of the
World Congress on Consecrated Life, that will take place in Rome from 23rd
till 27th November this year.
The basic document, on which the participants are
called to reflect, from its very introduction does not hide the big
challenges which question the twenty-first century consecrated life.
"As consecrated beings - thus we read in the text- we live days full of
trial and grace".
I think
that we are called to face always moments of trials, which, at the same
time are also moments of grace - M.
Giuseppina specifies. In this
specific case we realise that the actual crisis of vocations is to be
understood as a further call to go back to the origin of the Christian
vocation, consequently to the very foundations of the call to a special
consecration. It is a trial, according to Bonhoeffer, just because there
is no grace, if not at a dear price. This appeals to our collaboration
and freedom.
It is a
time of grace because it is a moment granted to us to discern all
together: this is, in fact, the main objective of the Congress, to ask
ourselves what the Spirit of God is creating among us. The decrease in
vocation is to be interpreted positively, but also as something that is
dying in order to have a new life. A new life which is not up to us to
mould, but to the Spirit of God. It is an attitude of discerning and
discovering the validity of the res novae, of the new things that
the Lord is making, but also to welcome and to promote this newness as a
gift.
I feel
that this attention runs throughout the whole document: the listening
to the Spirit, to the signs of the time, to be read always in the key of
four fidelities: to Christ, to man, to the Church and to Religious Life.
How does this congress stand in the journey of renewal?
I think
to understand that this Congress has been conceived by an initial
discernment of our times. This, not only because we find ourselves at
the dawn of the new millennium, and therefore at a time of transition,
but precisely because the awareness of this change, that goes beyond the
chronological fact, tells us that the world is dizzily changing and we
feel the need of discerning this time and our vocation in it. Our
belonging to Christ itself questions us, starting from our humanity.
The
passion for Christ and for humanity expresses the Samaritan Icons that
permeates the document. There is a time in history in which we want to
listen to Christ more attentively and more faithfully. We want to listen
what Christ wants to tell us and what the suffering of humanity asks
us".
The first part is dedicated to the surrounding reality.
One of the questions stands out particularly: Which consecrated life is
the Holy Spirit arousing?
"
From the document and from its lengthy preparatory phase, I think to
catch the perspective of the consecrated life to be more ad more one.
In the past we have reflected on the diversification of consecrated
life. Today, the urgency of the Gospel and the dignity of the human
person urge us to re-think that consecrated life is fundamentally one.
Consequently to look once again for the oneness that does not annul the
differences, but that anyhow does not put them in the first plain. A
oneness founded on essential things. Perhaps the very first thing we are
asked to do is that of guaranteeing the continuity of the Gospel
proclamation. The need is there for people that may guarantee the
belonging to Christ, the total commitment to the on going proclamation
of the Gospel".
The document speaks particularly about blocks, alluding to personal and
communitarian limits: isn't this, too, a challenge that questions the
individual as well as the community?
"No
doubt, the blocks the text speaks of, as a fruit of an ample reflection
participated by very many religious, both male and female, in every part
of the world, express the awareness that the religious life needs to be
freed from some elements that risk to turn into obstacles. This concerns
our personal unfaithfulness and limits, our lack of coherence, of
radical response to the call but, to me, the common fear of being too
few is not evangelical. We are in a situation of Diaspora, of
dissemination in the world, which must be interpreted as a spurring, as
a liberation from some of our closures.
A Church
that worries too much about herself, that clings to herself, is no
longer able to guarantee the proclamation of the Gospel. A foot-note in
the document refers to the worries of consecrated persons of 'feeling
ignored if compared with other more docile groups and actually not
appreciated'. But we do not mind being protagonists since our
intention is that of being courageous, daring disciples of Christ who
are not afraid of being little and poor. In fact, it is thus that the
power of God acts."
The
document contains shadows, but also lights. In fact, it speaks of signs
of newness. The present time offers contradictory signs, which by
themselves become signs not easily interpreted as such.
"Perhaps
the most important thing, in this case, is just that of quenching our
thirst at the sources of Life, as suggested by the evangelist John with
the icon of the Samaritan woman. It is also leading all, who are
entrusted to us, to quench their thirst at the sources of life. This
just because life is being threatened, and risks to whither; Christian
life itself is threatened for want of nourishment and risks to lose its
truth of belonging to Christ. Thinking of the thirst for the "sacred",
revealed by people in a contest more and more enslaved by materialism,
as the document clearly exposes, it is a contradiction that requires a
therapy like all others: the therapy of quenching one's thirst at the
source of life and to lead others to it.
Another
thing is the gesture of bending on the man in the street which points at
the other icon of the Samaritan referred to. Through us, Christ himself
bends on the suffering humanity. This is a fundamental perspective. In
other words, it is not we to be so clever as to carry on our shoulders
the suffering man, because we ourselves, along with our contemporary
fellows, are the ones on the margin of the street. It is Christ who
keeps on bending on us, it is he who uses those who have known his love,
to go on doing it".
But the consecrated life asks also, and above all, new communities.
Sharing the mission for its re-foundation. On which basis?
I think
that one stronghold of the oneness of consecrated life mentioned above
is the witness of fraternal life: that it may become a little prophetic
sign for the Church and for humanity. I think to understand that what
does not work in today's world is exactly that the life of relation is
in a deep crisis. Where is prophecy, then? We, who are called to
contemplate the Trinitarian relations and who want to participate in
them as children in the Son and the Spirit, who weaves such a communion.
We are not yet experts of communion,
We shall
be experts of it when we succeed in believing that God can make us one
in spite of our weakness. He can weave this communion by granting us,
day after day, to welcome and to forgive one another. It is the strength
of starting again that can be prophetic. While the texture of society
seems to get more and more lacerated , we consecrated witness to the
reality that every laceration can be reconciled. But where does the
newness of life lie? It is in the capacity of the community to weave the
relations woven by the Spirit of God. Wherefore there is always the
possibility to forgive and to reconcile ourselves. This is rightly a
sign and prophecy".
In fact, it is not by chance that we read of the will "to
set up a consecrated life authentically Samaritan".
"This is
a beautiful expression referring to the two biblical icons. In people
who approach Christ authentically, in spite of their marginal social
situation, we can perceive the healing of all the dichotomies that
afflict mankind, for instance between spirituality and mission".
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