February 1, 2017
Dear Fathers, Brothers, and Seminarians:
The feast of the Presentation of our Lord in the temple, celebrated on February 2, was instituted by St. John Paul II as the day in which the entire Church gives thanks to God for consecrated life, recognizing in it “a precious and necessary gift for the present and future of the People of God, since it is an intimate part of her life, her holiness and her mission.”[1] Also on that day we celebrate the “day of religious of the Incarnate Word.”
To all of you—dear Fathers, Brothers, and Seminarians—who in all places live out your commitment to God with great fidelity, reflecting the way of life of Christ[2] by your own lives, works, and words, I want to pass on my warmest greetings on this day.
May this celebration be filled with a unique joy upon “esteeming our vocation”—as St. Alphonsus recommended to his religious— “for it is the greatest blessing that God can bestow upon us after those of creation and redemption.” And the Church herself recognizes this in saying: “The consecrated persons themselves are, in fact, the best resources that we have.”[3]
We, who recognize in our vocation a two-fold calling—one from God and the other from the Church—confess from the very first pages of our Constitutions that “for the glory of the Holy Trinity, for a greater manifestation of the Incarnate Word, and for the honor of the Church founded by Christ which ‘subsists in the Catholic Church which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him,’[4] we want to give ‘testimony that the world can neither be transfigured nor offered to God without the spirit of the beatitudes’(LG, 31).”[5]
With these words, we express, among other things, that not only is consecrated life an integral part of the Church, for it is found “at the very heart of the Church as a decisive element for her mission,”[6] but that it is also in the Church that we find the propitious means to give of ourselves with “greater perfection in our service to God and His people.”[7] Thus we strive forward trusting in divine mercy that one day we may reach the kingdom of Heaven. For this reason, we state that “we do not want to know anything apart from her.”[8] For, as the Spiritual Father of our small Religious Family said: “It would be against the very nature of the Church and of consecrated life to admit parallelism between the two.”[9]
Convinced that “religious life is Christocentric,”[10] we also declare that “We want to always be rooted in Jesus Christ, and only in Christ, who has come in the flesh[11] and lives forever. We want the fullness of Christ in everything and everybody, for no one can lay any other foundation[12] than Christ, the Rock.[13] We want to love and serve Jesus Christ – His Body and His Spirit – and to help others love and serve Him. We want to love and serve the physical Body of Christ, the Eucharist, as well as His Mystical Body, the Church.”[14]
We must live in such a way that our love and service to Jesus Christ be identified with our love and service to the Church, for they are not two separate loves, but one love. I consider it opportune that we take advantage of the celebration of this feast to reflect on religious life in relation to the life, holiness, and mission of the Church, to which our entire lives belong.
1. Religious Life, Intimately United to the Church.
We all know, profess, and are convinced that the Church is inseparable from Christ.
In the divine order of things, there is never a kenosis without a pleroma. The Servant of God Archbishop Fulton Sheen expressed this exquisitely in his writing: “if the kenosis was the emptying out of Christ as Victim, the pleroma of Christ is the Church […] The Church without Christ would be like an empty chalice; Christ, without the Church would be like a rich wine that could not be tasted for lack of a chalice […] Just as there is no Messiah without Israel, nor birth of Christ without the Virgin Mother, so there is no Christ without his Church, nor can the fullness of Christ be found outside of his Mystical Body… the Church is the personification of Christ, as Christ is the Incarnation of God. He is the Groom, the Church his Bride.”[15]
“There is thus a profound link between Christ, the Church and evangelization.”[16] Our Directory of Spirituality teaches this when it says, “This hierarchical and mystical reality – visible and spiritual, terrestrial and celestial, canonical and charismatic, human and divine – resembles ‘the mystery of the Incarnate Word’[17] by way of a deep analogy since ‘the same Christ is embodied in his Body, the Church’ (LG, 48).”[18] Our Directory of Consecrated Life also points this out: “the love of Christ Head includes love for his body, the Church, with whom he is mystically identified.”[19] That is why, from the time of our Novitiate,[20] there has been instilled in us “love for the Church and its sacred pastors”[21] as part of one and the same reality.
Our Constitutions, in turn, declare with great strength our clear intention to “… deny ourselves at the feet of the Church… [and to] obey for love of Christ… [those] to whom the Holy Spirit has given the governance of the Church of God.”[22] We also affirm that “our submission to the Church hierarchy is a title of honor of our Religious Family.”[23] For, as Blessed Pope Paul VI said, “one cannot love Christ without the Church, hear Christ, but not the Church, be in Christ, while outside of the Church.”[24]
How immensely edifying and gratifying it is to see our religious in so many places and at the price of great sacrifices, who, imbued with this very spirit, give witness with the gift of their very lives, that love of Christ and love of the Church identify with one another! For, to what else may we attribute the fact that our missionaries go with a martyrial disposition and withstand the most extreme temperatures, experience great poverty, pass through the midst of the nights and tribulations of the soul, if it were not for this love? They suffer the “contradictions of the good,” with no other support than the promise of our Lord who said: “whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25: 40), and “Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink … will surely not lose his reward” (Mk 9: 41). And to what can we ascribe those who most gladly spend and are utterly spent (cf. 2 Cor 12:15) for the salvation of souls in inhospitable places, amidst the indifference of the big cities, and in those places where nobody else wants to go? We only find the answer in their loyalty to their love of Christ and to His Church.
For as our Directory of Consecrated Life says: “The consecration and profession of the evangelical counsels are a ‘special witness of love.’[25] For we know that in loving the Church, we love Christ our Spouse, who is at the same time Head of the Body. This is our magnificent and privileged role: to love Christ Spouse and his Body. And so, moved by charity, “we live for Christ and his Body which is the Church.”[26]
It is for this love of Christ and His Mystical Body that we consecrate our “spiritual life for the benefit of the entire Church,”[27] and we dedicate ourselves “to work according to our proper strengths and ‘in keeping with the proper type of their own vocation, by means of prayer, or by apostolic ministry, so as to implant and strengthen the Kingdom of Christ in souls and to extend that kingdom to every place.’”[28] And so, we feel and act “always with her, in accord with the teachings and norms of the Magisterium of Peter and the Pastors in communion with him,”[29] because we know that we are called to be witnesses to ecclesial communion (sentire cum Ecclesia), by means of “adherence of mind and heart to the Magisterium of the Bishops, living it out loyally and witnessing to it clearly before the People of God.”[30]
This has been and still continues to be the spirit of our Institute, which has always held as sure criteria to sentire Ecclesiam and sentire cum Ecclesia.[31] And there is only one way to understand it. We understand it just as we have from the beginning, sure that the supernatural efficacy of all our apostolic activity depends on this. We are conscious that if we were to act in a different manner, we “would gravely betray our charism.”[32] How comforting is it to observe how so many bishops, throughout the whole world (in all five continents), from the very beginnings of our congregation, give great worth to this undeniable aspect of our spirituality! How pressing it should be for us to consider the fact that over two hundred and fifty bishops from all over the world insistently request the presence of our priests!
Let us not forget, then, that by uniting “perfect love of God and perfect charity towards our neighbor” as Pope Pius XII said, we should always see ourselves as “totally consecrated to the needs of the Church and to those in most need,”[33] and therefore as impelled to missionary work. This must not be done previous to a serious effort in giving an upstanding priestly formation, so as to “be in perfect communion with the Church hierarchy by a double bond: by faith and charity themselves, and by the governance of one, Peter, over all,”[34] praying at all times fervently and with devotion for the Church.[35] Such prayer is certainly not a secondary aspect for us, and for this reason we seek to be formed to have “a deep intimacy with God.”[36]
2. Holiness as a Loving Response Due to Christ and His Church.
In addition to the consecrated life being a gift for the Church, religious men and women “are the Church,”[37] for the simple fact of being baptized. Even more, we can say that we, religious, are “in a certain way the soul of the Church by our very religious profession, which is ordered completely to the perfection of charity.”[38]
This indicates to us, in a particular way, that we should be firmly resolved to reach holiness, especially by means of the increasingly deep and consistent practice of the religious vows, ever faithful to the spirit of our Institute, always persevering and conscious that “if holiness is attainable, it is above all because it is the work of God.”[39]
Only in this way will we be saints as God desires us to be saints, for He is the one who has called us to serve him in this particular Institute. And by the grace of God, the generations to come will also be so, that is, if we know how to transmit that which we have received. For, our religious life “is not born of any human initiative but rather from an initiative of God, and as such, a gift of the Lord’s goodness for the life and holiness of the Church.”[40] Because “communion in the Church is not uniformity,”[41] our small Religious Family will be all the more useful to the Church and its mission, the more that it respects its identity[42] which, like all gifts of the Holy Spirit, has been given with the objective that it may bear fruit for the Lord.[43]
St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori wrote a beautiful letter on August 8, 1754, in which he encouraged the religious of his order to remain firm in their first fervor and denounced some members of the lack of this spirit. In this letter he said: “What will become of these, I know not; for God has called us into the Congregation (especially now at its beginning) to become saints, and to save ourselves as saints. As for him who wishes simply to save his soul in the Congregation, but not to become a saint, I know not whether he will be saved at all.”[44]
St. Vincent de Paul reminded his first religious about the truths about vocation with these words: “God is the one who calls us and who, from all eternity, has destined us to be Missionaries, since He didn’t bring us to birth either one hundred years earlier or later but precisely at the time of the institution of this Company. Consequently, we must neither seek nor expect rest, satisfaction, and blessings anywhere else but in the Mission, since that’s the only place God wants and desires us to be—presuming, of course, that our vocation is genuine and not founded on self-interest, or to free ourselves from the inconveniences of life, or from any other motive of human respect.” And he continues: “We’re the first ones to be called. Those who enter a Congregation during the first century of its establishment… are called the first members. Since, then, we’re the first ones chosen to lead the lost sheep back into the fold, what will happen if we leave? Where do we think we could go? Quo ibo a spiritu tuo et quo a facie tua fugiam?”[45]
Dear Fathers and Brothers, striving to be holy, we contribute to the holiness of the Church. For, our vocation “never has as its end our personal sanctification. Moreover, an exclusively personal holiness would not be authentic, because Christ has united in a very intimate way holiness and charity. And so, those who tend towards a personal sanctity should do it within the frame of a commitment of service to the life and holiness of the Church. Even the strictly contemplative life… carries within it this ecclesiastical orientation.”[46]
Even when during this earthly pilgrimage the sons of the Church frequently grieve the Holy Spirit,[47] faith tells us that we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption,[48] and we can advance along the way to holiness, notwithstanding our weaknesses and sins, until reaching the end of our path.
In this sense, how encouraging do the words of St. John Paul II become for us, words which become very timely for all of us: “We must give witness to the truth, even at the cost of being persecuted, even to the point of giving our blood, as Christ himself did […] Surely we will find ourselves faced with difficulty. There is nothing extraordinary about it. It forms part of the life of faith. At time, the trials are light, others may be difficult, while some even dramatic. During trials, we can feel all alone, but divine grace, the grace of a victorious faith, never abandons us. That is why we may await the victorious overcoming of any sort of trial, even those which are most difficult.”[49]
3. The Mission Is Engraved in the Very Heart of the Consecrated Life.[50]
“It is from God’s love for all men that the Church in every age receives both the obligation and the vigor of her missionary dynamism.”[51] As a result of this we are driven by a love for the Incarnate Word who loved the Church and gave himself up for her,[52] and we dedicate ourselves to Him “completely as to our highest love.”[53] And so we conserve, cultivate and continuously implore God for the grace of a spiritual fervor and the joy of giving of ourselves completely in our specific mission within the Church, which is that of evangelization of the culture, according to the spirit which was brought forth by the Holy Spirit in the founder of our Institute, and all this even when we have to sow among tears.[54]
The work of evangelization can only be carried out with a certain efficacy based on the force of our religious community,[55] insofar as it resides in unity. Without forgetting that “it is above all in truth that unity is built,”[56] for, Christ Himself taught us this when He said: Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.[57]
And so, the desire expressed in our Directory of Spirituality continues to be imperiously valid: “We aspire, according to the words of Saint Paul, to agree with one another[58] in the Lord (Phil 4: 2). This unanimity or concordance we seek means unity in the judgment of reason about what must be done and unity in the will so that all may want the same thing. This concordance is born of the same faith by which we know what must be done, and from charity by which we all love the same goods and share the same burdens like good soldiers of Jesus Christ.”[59] It has always been edifying to note, particularly in these recent times, the solid internal cohesion that exists among the members of our religious family, something which is one of the most treasured fruits that we witnessed in the celebration of the last General Chapter. It is a grace of the Holy Spirit, given to us so as to sustain us during many difficulties. Such unity is nourished by the Holy Eucharist and sustained by supplication, which implores for it, conscious that it is a specific gift from God, through the Blessed Virgin’s intercession.
Blessed Paolo Manna encouraged his missionaries in a way that is very important for us still today: “Let us set forward to work in unity and with perfect concord in the place where obedience has assigned us. Let us not forget that our Institute represents one of the most glorious squadrons of the Church. As soldiers of this valiant army, we should march together and well organized as an army prepared for battle.[60] If we didn’t have the spirit of a united body, if each one wanted to work after his own whims, if we weren’t ever obedient to the orders of our generals, we would be scattered, we would be weak and we would gain defeats rather than victories. The losses of vocations in all Institutes for lack of spirit of obedience and of fraternal unity prove a sad demonstration of this: Their heart is false! Now they will pay for their guilt.[61] Will we remain united? We will save souls, build up the Church and we will always have victory. [For] A brother helped by a brother is like a strong and lofty city” (Prov 18: 19).[62]
Dear Fathers and Brothers: fraternal communion, deep and well understood, is already a form of apostolate, and therefore “contributes directly to evangelization.”[63] Moreover, “the whole fruitfulness of religious life depends on the quality of fraternal life in community.”[64] This is true, because the very Incarnate Word has called us to live together so that the world may believe.[65] This aspect should not be seen by us as secondary or accidental, for, “if we do not have good communities we will not be able to carry forth works of any importance.”[66]
“How often do works fail for divergence among missionaries… how many missions are ruined for this reason! May this never happen in our small Institute, where we are so few for a work that seems infinite! Let us sacrifice everything to preserve unity and concord, let us sacrifice above all our self-love, our points of view and our comfort.”[67] May we never follow those who create division, who seek to disintegrate, and who even conspire to break this precious unity.
“For this reason, it is of primordial importance that those who prepare to go to the missions cultivate a healthy love for the community in which they live without excluding any member, especially those with the most difficult personalities.”[68]
In the end, may this feast of religious life within the universal Church, and particularly our feast for religious of the Incarnate Word, find us more united in Him, more imbued with His spirit, with souls soaked in the same affections as His Most Sacred Heart. May this take place in such a way that we be religious “who nourish their spirit with the Word of God, serve their neighbor in solidarity with all in need, promote the laity, and have a great capability for dialogue without suffering any identity crisis. Our priests must desire ongoing formation, abandon themselves to Providence, and love the Catholic liturgy. These individuals are tireless preachers, rich in spirit, ‘with tongue, lips, and wisdom, which the enemies of truth cannot resist,’[69] who are exceptionally fruitful in their apostolic and vocational efforts; they have missionary and ecumenical impetus, are open to any particle of truth wherever it is found, have preferential love for the poor without exclusivity and without exclusions. They must live in transparent and contagious joy, in unperturbed peace even amid the most arduous battles; they live in absolute and unrestricted ecclesiastical communion as relentless evangelists and catechists and as lovers of the cross.”[70]
This February 2, we should offer the Holy Mass asking Mary Most Holy, Mother and Model of all consecrated persons to grant us the grace to “live with a quality of religious life keeping to our proper charism, and to make alive again the unique mystery of Christ, above all in the aspects of his emptying of self and his transfiguration.”[71] Thanking God for the immense gift of our vocation to the consecrated life, let us go out everywhere radiating the love and joy which come from being called to love and serve Christ in the heart of His Holy Church.
Happy Feast Day of the Religious of the Incarnate Word!
Fr. Gustavo Nieto, IVE
General Superior
[1] Vita Consecrata 3; op. cit. Lumen Gentium, 44.
[2] Cf. Directory of Consecrated Life, 22; op.cit Vita Consecrata, 32.
[3] Directory of the Novitiate, 144, op. cit. Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Starting Afresh from Christ: A Renewed Commitment to Consecrated Life in the Third Millennium, 18.
[4] Lumen Gentium, 8.
[5] Constitutions, 1.
[6] Vita Consecrata, 3; op. cit. Ad Gentes, 18.
[7] Constitutions, 6.
[8] Directory of Spirituality, 244.
[9] Saint John Paul II, Apostolic Letter for the Fifth Centenary of the Evangelization of the New World, 29 June 1990.
[10] Directory of Coonsecrated Life, 34.
[11] 1 John 4: 2.
[12] 1 Cor 3: 11.
[13] Cf. 1 Cor 10: 4.
[14] Constitutions, 7.
[15] Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen, Those Mysterious Priests, chapter 10.
[16] Evangelii Nuntiandi, 16.
[17] Lumen Gentium, 48.
[18] Directory of Spirituality, 244.
[19] Cf. Idem, 255.
[20] Cf. Directory of the Novitiate, 169.
[21] Directory of the Novitiate, 162; op. cit. CIC, c. 652, § 1-2.
[22] Constitutions, 76.
[23] Directory of Consecrated Life, 26.
[24] Ibid.
[25]Directory of Consecrated Life, 23; op cit. Saint John Paul II, Redemptionis Donum, 14.
[26] Cf. Directory of Consecrated Life, 22; op. cit. Saint John Paul II, Redemptionis Donum, 14.
[27] Directory of Consecrated Life, 24.
[28] Directory of Consecrated Life, 24; op. cit. cf. Lumen Gentium, 44.
[29] Directory of Consecrated Life, 25.
[30] Cf. Ibid., 25.
[31] Far and wide throughout our proper law this concept appears again and again. Here are some examples of reference: Constitutions 1, 210, 211, 231, 265, 266, etc.; Directory of Spirituality 227, 241-249, 256, 261-263, etc; Directory of the Missions Ad Gentes 159; Directory of Popular Missions 12-13; Directory of Consecrated Life 260, 263-265, etc.
[32] Directory of Spirituality, 244.
[33] Cf. Directory of Consecrated Life, 257; op. cit. Pius XII, Sponsa Christi, 37.
[34] Constitutions, 210.
[35] Regarding the topic of praying for the Church we highly recommend the reading of Fr. Carlos Buela, IVE, You Are Priests Forever, Part I, chapters 2, 9, 10 y 15.
[36] Constitutions, 203.
[37] Directory of Consecrated Life, 25.
[38] Cf. Ibid.
[39] Directory of the Minor Seminary, 35.
[40] Saint John Paul II, Speech to the Participants of a Meeting Sponsored by the Italian Conference of Bishops regarding Consecrated Life, 9 February 1990.
[41] Vita Consecrata, 4.
[42] Directory of Consecrated Life, 320: “the proper grace of the founder… is one of a particular fruitfulness within the Church, which, by means of him, in the Spirit, is given to a Religious Family for the building up of the Church according to the proper way of living out religious life and the apostolate.”
[43] Cf. Vita Consecrata, 4.
[44] Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Letter to the Fathers and Brothers of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, Letter 180, 8 August 1754.
[45] Correspondence, Conferences, Documents, Volume XI. Conferences to the Congregation of the Mission vol. 1, #86- Perseverance in Vocation, 29 October 1638.
[46] Directory of Consecrated Life, 33.
[47] Eph 4: 30.
[48] Ibid.
[49] Saint John Paul II, Rise, Let us be on our way!, Part VI.
[50] Directory of Consecrated Life, 266.
[51] Directory of the Missions Ad Gentes, 11; op. cit. CCC, 851.
[52] Cf. Eph 5: 25.
[53] Directory of Consecrated Life, 22.
[54] Directory of the Missions Ad Gentes, 144.
[55] Cf. Directory of Consecrated Life, 266.
[56] Directory of Spirituality, 59; op. cit. Saint John Paul II, Meeting with Clergy and Religious in Fatima, May 13, 1982; OR (5/23/1982) Spanish Edition.
[57] Mt 12: 30.
[58] 2 Cor 13:11; Phil 4: 2.
[59] Directory of Spirituality, 248.
[60] Cf. 2 Mac 15 :20.
[61] Hos 10: 2.
[62] Apostolic Virtues, Circular Letter 8, Milan, 15 September 1927.
[63] Directory of Fraternal Life, 21.
[64] Directory of Fraternal Life, 22.
[65] Jn 17: 21.
[66] Directory of the Missions Ad Gentes, 122.
[67] Blessed Paolo Manna, Apostolic Virtues, Circular Letter 13, Milan, September 1930.
[68] Directory of the Missions Ad Gentes, 120.
[69] Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, Prayer for Missionaries, 22.
[70] Constitutions, 231.
[71] Directory of Consecrated Life, 2; op.cit. Cf. Vita Consecrata, 93.
