For the Sake of the Kingdom of Heaven[1]
Constitutions, 257
Each year the Institute of the Incarnate Word’s members make the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola wherein the Spanish saint “invites [us] to the great conquest of sanctity.”[2] Throughout the ‘second week’ of said Exercises, we are given the opportunity to meditate on the contemplation of “The Call of Christ the King,”[3] since Christian life is not just a simple adhesion to doctrine, but rather following and accompanying a Person.
There we hear the resounding question: “What must I do for Christ?”[4] This denotes the singularly ‘practical’ tonality of the calling and consequential following of Christ. As was well indicated by Saint Ignatius, “love must be more manifest in works than in words.” [5] From this, we come to understand the importance of constantly renewing the magnanimity and generosity of our dispositions in our adherence to the King’s will. At times, this certainly includes a return to the beginning and freshness of that call which Christ made personally to each one of us, and that we once again decidedly pronounce our “yes” to the Beloved. This entails, at the same time, ‘making more space’ in our lives, in our souls, and in our hearts so that God might reign in us.
1. Jesus Christ is King
The Directory of Spirituality says, “The Lord is King over all humanity in a strict, literal and proper sense since He received from the Father dominion and glory and kingship.[6] He is King of kings and Lord of lords. [7] The foundation of this kingship is four-fold:
- It belongs appropriately to Him as God, the Incarnate Word. Saint Cyril of Alexandria says: ‘Christ obtains the dominance over all creatures, not taken by force nor taken by any other reason, but by his very essence and nature;’[8]
- It belongs to Him by virtue of Redemption, by right of conquest, since He bought us with his blood: You know that you were ransomed… not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ;[9]
- It belongs to Him because He is the Head of the Church and by the fullness of grace: full of grace and truth;[10]
- It belongs to Him by right of inheritance: whom he appointed the heir of all things.[11]
His royal authority includes the fullness of the threefold power: legislative, judicial and executive.”[12]
Furthermore, “the scope of his reign is two-fold: personal and social. He reigns over all intelligences because He is the Truth, ‘and it is from him that truth must be obediently received by all mankind.’[13] He reigns over all wills because he is Goodness, ‘and further by his grace and inspiration he so subjects our free-will as to incite us to the most noble endeavors.’[14] In addition, He reigns over all hearts because he is Love. His reign is also a social one. ‘There is no difference in this matter between the individual and the family or the State; for all men, whether collectively or individually, are under the dominion of Christ. In him is the salvation of the individual, in him is the salvation of society.’[15]”[16]
“Truly, his Kingdom is neither temporary nor earthly, My kingship is not of this world,[17] but eternal, and of his kingdom there will be no end, [18] and universal, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me[19]; a kingdom of truth and life, of sanctity and grace, of justice, love and peace.[20]”[21]
2. An effective royalty
Now, having freely heard the Lord’s call to follow Him wherever He might go: “whosoever wishes to come with me,”[22] we have accepted to be with Him, because we want to imbue ourselves with His presence and be little by little become “other Christs.” [23] That is, we, religious, have embraced “the way of life which Jesus, the supreme Consecrated One and missionary of the Father for the sake of his Kingdom, embraced and proposed to his disciples.”[24]
This implies – as we have previously mentioned – that Christ must reign in our lives, and this is nothing else than “to prefer nothing whatever to Christ.” [25] Because “the more people set their eyes on the king’s servants and the more attention they pay to them, the less heed they pay to the king and the less they esteem him. […] because the more attention they give to the servants, the more they take away from their lord. And then their judgment of the king is not very high since the servants seem to them somewhat important in comparison with the king. This is what happens in relation to God when a person pays attention to these creatures.”[26]
In this sense, “The religious state clearly manifests that the Kingdom of God and its needs, in a very special way, are raised above all earthly considerations. Finally, it clearly shows all men both the unsurpassed breadth of the strength of Christ the King and the infinite power of the Holy Spirit marvelously working in the Church.”[27]
Many of you know the story of Saint Rafael Arnáiz Barón (1911-1938), a Trappist monk, whose monastic life was interrupted three times due to an illness (diabetes). Rafael had just asked the Abbot to return to the monastery for the third time; and this would be the last. One November day in 1937, he wrote a letter to Brother Tescelino – who had been his nurse while in the monastery – relating that Father Abbot had told him that he could return to the convent when he wanted. The only condition was that he should think it over well and not to rush because now they did not have a nurse (due to the fact that Brother Tescelino had been called for military duty). So, Rafael asked himself, “Humanly speaking, it’s very prudent, don’t you think? But what must I do? Well, look, I think about it this way, let’s see what you think.
Suppose that you are sick in your house, full of care and attention, nearly crippled, useless…, in a word, good for nothing. But one day you see Jesus pass under your window. […] If you saw that Jesus called you and gave you a place among His followers, and looked at you with those divine eyes which shone with love, tenderness, forgiveness, and asked you: Why aren’t you following me? … And you, what would you do? Would you perhaps respond … Lord, I would follow you, if only you gave me a nurse…, if you gave me means to follow you with comfort and without any danger to my health… I would follow you if I were healthy and strong enough to be good for something…?
No, […] surely, you would have said: I will go, Lord, neither my ailments, nor death, nor eating, nor sleep matter to me. If You allow me, I will go. If You want, You can heal me … It does not matter that the path to which you lead me be difficult, steep, and full of thorns. It does not matter if you want me to die with You on a cross […]. They advise me to be prudent… But, of what worth is all this compared to the gaze of a God like Jesus of Galilee, Who offers you a place in heaven and an eternal love? Nothing, brother… not even suffering until the end of the world is would make it worthwhile to abandon following Jesus.”[28]
Analogously, each one of us – certainly assisted by God’s grace – have responded to our Lord’s call leaving everything behind to follow Him. A certain radicalism is imposed if we are to love the Incarnate Word with undivided love. Our choice has been and must continue to be “a choice of a greater and undivided love for Christ and his Church.”[29] This is what allows us offer a “privileged witness of a constant seeking for God […] and of an absolute dedication to the growth of His kingdom.”[30] It is convenient to keep this in mind above all when poverty is more sharply felt, when health isn’t in concordance with apostolic fervor, when solitude becomes heavy, when it seems that divine assistance has come to an end for us, when temptations to make deals with the world increase.
In other words, our consecration implies – in fact – a life of mastery.
A religious of the Incarnate Word must exercise this life of mastery:
- Over oneself: in the measure that man triumphs over sin, he dominates the incentives of the flesh, and governs his soul and body. The religious, in the measure that he subjects his soul completely to God, becomes indifferent and detached from the things of the world. This does not imply a powerlessness, but on the contrary, a dominant and free will, able to be devoted to things of the world without being dominated by them.[31]
- Over people: in the measure that the religious generously surrenders to the service of Jesus Christ – the only King that deserves to be served – he acquires an effective, though spiritual, royalty over men, even over those who have power and authority, and even over those who abuse it. This dominion comes about because the religious takes the burden of their sin and their hardships upon himself, by a humble and helpful love that comes through his self-sacrifice.[32]
- Over the world: 1) By collaborating with the created world through work, and with the redeemed world through apostolate. For this royalty to be effective, there must be a dedication to things, along with a detachment from and an indifference to these same things; 2) By leaving the world behind, be it for fidelity to the same world (a means and not an end), or by fidelity to God, resisting concupiscence, temptations, and sins of the world; by being indifferent to the maxims, jeers and persecutions of the world, depending only on our good conscience illuminated by faith, ready for martyrdom – the full and total rejection of the evil world – for fidelity to God.[33]
- Over the devil: Our rule says: “we need religious who are not only convinced that by the grace of God they have the power to resist the devil, but also are able to exorcise the devil.”[34]
We must persuade ourselves that we have been “consecrated for the Kingdom” and, therefore, we are true religious insofar as we are totally consecrated to the service of God, offering ourselves to Christ as a holocaust.[35] This is done through the faithful and constant practice of the religious vows. In effect, the Magisterium of the Church teaches, “the vocation of consecrated persons to seek first the Kingdom of God is principally a call to total conversion in the renunciation of oneself in order to live completely in the Lord.”[36] Therefore, our oblation made through obedience, poverty and chastity is what makes our existence a “living memorial of Jesus’ way of living and acting as the Incarnate Word[37] in relation to the Father and in relation to mankind,”[38] and an effective contribution to Christ’s Kingdom.
3. This is My Oblation[39]
Christ’s invitation “whoever wishes to join me” comes coupled with “to labor with me”, and Saint Ignatius places the reason for this on Christ’s lips: “that by following me in suffering, he may follow me in glory.”[40]
Although we have said this already many times and it is very well known, we think it worthwhile to mention that to follow Christ, “is not the promise of easy successes. It does not promise anyone a life of comfort. It is demanding. At the same time, it is a Great Promise: the promise of eternal life for man, who is subject to the law of death; the promise of victory, by means of faith […]. To find your life, you must lose it; to be born, one must die; to save oneself, it is necessary to carry the Cross.”[41]
Our consecration is synonymous with holocaust, with oblation. In more Ignatian terms, it would be the same as saying that our consecration for the kingdom of Christ “includes the acceptance of spiritual warfare.”[42]
This is why we thought it possible to juxtapose the prayer of oblation for the Kingdom of Saint Ignatius and our formula of religious profession, upon which it is of great profit to meditate. It is remarkable how well they match, as seen below:
| Oblation for the Kingdom[43] | IVE Formula of Consecration[44] |
| Eternal Lord of all things, | For love for the Father, the first origin and supreme goal of the consecrated life; for Christ, which leads to closeness with him; for the Holy Spirit, who opens our hearts to his inspiration. |
Our consecration has God’s initiative as its origin and God Himself as the end toward which we tend. “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,”[45] we have embraced this state of life that “constitutes a closer imitation… of the way of life that the Son of God chose for Himself on entering the world… ”[46] Our only goal is “to seek God alone.”[47] In this way, our religious life as such promotes a transfigured existence by means of the practice of the evangelical counsels, and becomes a manifestation of God and a confessio Trinitatis, that is, one of the concrete imprints that the Trinity leaves in history.[48]
“Concretely, chastity is a reflection of the infinite love that unites the three Divine Persons. Poverty is an expression of the reciprocal and total self-giving of the three Divine Persons among themselves. Obedience is a reflection in history of the loving correspondence proper to the three Divine Persons.”[49] Parting from this transfigured existence, we want to participate in the life of the Trinity and bear witness to that saving love.[50]
In fact, our formula of profession[51] and the very Constitutions that govern our particular style of sanctification and apostolate begin and end with a Trinitarian invocation, because the beginning and goal of our consecration is none other than “God alone.”[52] Thus, as Saint Ignatius begins by saying: “Eternal Lord of all things” our Constitutions begin with: “We profess that God is the Lord and Father of all things, the beginning and end of everything”[53] and that “we must restore entirely all things in Christ,”[54] for this is precisely to “perpetuate the Incarnation in all things.”[55]
Thus we understand that the practice of our religious vows is a “manifestation of self-giving to God with an undivided heart[56] and a reflection of the infinite love that unites us to Him.”[57]
This requires a “holy familiarity with the Word made Flesh”[58] and a profound formation in an intimacy with God,[59] who disposes our soul to receive His inspirations,[60] so “that we may belong ever more to Christ, and therefore to His Mystical Body, since anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.[61]”[62]
In this way, our “religious consecration becomes an image of the Trinity: ‘it announces what the Father, by means of the Son, in the Spirit, carries out with His love, His goodness and His beauty… Therefore, its primary objective is to make visible the wonders that God accomplishes in the fragile humanity of those who are called.’[63]”[64]
In other words: “we embrace this way of life to devote ourselves more easily and fully to divine things, thus achieving eternal blessedness with more security, and finally, in order to dedicate ourselves with greater freedom to the work of leading others to the Kingdom of Heaven.”[65] This is done in such a way that our consecration “must be useful for our neighbor as a living testimony of supernatural realities.”[66]
| Oblation for the Kingdom | IVE Formula of Consecration |
| this is the offering of myself which I make with Thy favor and help, | I, N. N. freely make an oblation of my entire being to God […] |
As the Magisterium of the Church teaches: “Consecration is the basis of religious life. By insisting on this, the Church places the first emphasis on God’s initiative and on the transforming relation to Him involved in religious life. Consecration is a divine action. God calls a person whom He sets apart for a particular dedication to Himself. At the same time, He offers the grace to respond so that consecration is expressed on the human side by a profound and free self-surrender.”[67]
However, this “consecration to God in religious life is a total consecration, ‘requires,’ according to Saint Gregory, that one consecrates his ‘whole life to God,’”[68] which can only occur by means of a vow, since we do not possess our entire life in one moment. By means of the vow a man freely renounces ‘the very freedom to abstain from what refers to divine service.’”[69]
That is why our Constitutions specify that our oblation consists principally in the fulfillment of the three vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, moved by charity.[70] Thus, religious profession constitutes a true holocaust of oneself, since by virtue of the vows, the religious wholly and unreservedly offers himself and his possessions to God. Through the vow of chastity, he offers the good of his body; through the vow of poverty, he offers the good of external things. Through the vow of obedience, he offers the good of his soul.[71]
This consecration truly encompasses our entire life, and this is why we say “of my entire being”. Therefore, we can say, “religious life consists essentially in the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience,[72] by means of which we offer to God our exterior goods, the right to form a family and our freedom, that which is most precious to man. In this way, the religious keeps absolutely nothing for himself. […] Saint Thomas teaches that ‘those who consecrate themselves entirely to the service of God are called religious by antonomasia, offering themselves to Him in holocaust.’ […] In a holocaust, the victim offered to God is immolated. Immolation implies the victim’s total destruction for God’s honor. The religious immolates himself for God as a holocaust, following Christ poor, chaste and obedient unto death on a cross.”[73] “Going beyond a mere destruction, it is more proper to speak of a positive transformation. The religious offers everything in order to attain the perfect charity that will allow him to intimately and fully possess God.”[74]
Therefore, “it entails giving everything, but not as an end in itself, but in order to free himself from those obstacles, which might draw him away from the fervor of charity.[75] Therefore in order to achieve a more intimate consecration to God and a new and particular gift of self to the service of God and the salvific mission of the Church.”[76]
Furthermore, our formula of profession explicitly mentions that we “freely” make an oblation of our entire being:
- We have freely chose to be the eunuchs who have made themselves such for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt 19: 12).[77]
- We have freely chosen poverty in order to proclaim “the Singularity of God, which is our only treasure” [78]
- We freely choose to be obedient and to submit our will to that of our legitimate Superiors, who act on behalf of God when they order something according to the Constitutions,[79] in this we imitate Jesus Christ, who was obedient to death and death on a cross.[80]
Therefore, “the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty, and obedience lived by Christ… and embraced for the love of God, appear as a way for the full realization of persons opposed to dehumanization… they proclaim the liberty of the children of God and the joy of living according to the evangelical beatitudes.”[81] Far from being a renunciation that impoverishes us, the vows enrich us because they free us from “the obstacles that may separate us from the fervor of charity and the perfection of divine worship, and consecrates us more intimately to the service of God”[82] in order to possess God intimately and fully.[83]
In other words, we have chosen to belong totally to the Incarnate Word and this joyfully frees us. We have freely consented to belong to Him, making an oblation of our entire being[84] by the practice of the evangelical counsels according to the “evangelical path traced out in the Constitutions of the Institute of the Incarnate Word,”[85] because we are convinced that, as the Mystical Doctor says, “the immense blessings of God can only enter and fit into an empty and solitary heart.”[86]
| Oblation for the Kingdom | IVE Formula of Consecration |
| In the presence of Thy infinite goodness, and of Thy glorious mother, and of all the saints of Thy heavenly court, | […] Therefore, before God, Our Lord Jesus, and all His Saints […] I request the intercession of Our Lady, the Twelve Apostles, and all the other patron saints, […] |
Our vows formula takes on all solemnity by presenting us “before God our Lord and all his saints” and invoking the intercession of “Our Lady, of the Twelve Apostles and of the other patron saints.” This is due to the fact that the oblation we make is at one and the same time a historical and a supernatural reality. Both the profession and the very practice of the vows become a reality that transcends the earthly plane by moving us to practice the transcendental virtues of faith, hope and charity.[87]
On the other hand, our consecration receives an imprint and a luster that distinguish us from other religious: our great veneration of the Mother of the Incarnate Word and the saints, God’s masterpieces, through whom we honor God Himself.[88]
It seems appropriate to affirm that since our spirituality is anchored in the mystery of the Incarnation to such an extent that we can say that it is “derived from the Person of the Word and from his Mother.”[89] Marian devotion is inherent to our consecration and it cannot be understood apart from her, since we are “essentially missionaries and Marian.”[90] Therefore, we raise our petitions to the Mother of God so that she obtain for us the grace to “achieve the utmost, total and unlimited docility to the Holy Spirit”[91] “so that Jesus can be Lord of all that is authentically human.”[92] Thus, our consecration gives us “dominion over everything, together with a most free will that is ready to please God alone.”[93] From the Virgin Mother we aspire to obtain all the necessary help in order to fulfill the honorable duty of “prolonging the Incarnation in all things.”[94] Consequently, our consecration is framed by, impregnated with, and spreads Marian devotion, since its natural consequence is to “marianize” our entire life.[95] The Virgin Mary becomes the “model and guide for ‘all our intentions, actions and operations’[96]”[97] and is the end to which we direct all our acts, the object that attracts our heart, and the motive for all the works we undertake.[98]
Hence, given that our consecration implies the oblation of our entire being to the Incarnate Word, in order to “better serve Jesus Christ” [99] – we want to make this offering through the Blessed Virgin’s hands “so that she might dispose of it according to her good will.[100] We are certain that we must go to the Incarnate Word through Mary, His Mother, and that she will make us ‘great saints.’[101]”[102]
Moreover, veneration of the saints, – as “the best members of the mystical Body of Christ, the best and most complete fruit of the Incarnation and the Redemption,”[103]− the study of their wise teachings, the riches with which they embellished the work of the Church, their heroic virtues, the example of their lives, and their intercession before God’s throne “spur us to seek the future city… the perfect union with Christ, holiness….”[104] “They constantly remind us of Heaven, eternal life, and the reward for merits: God Himself… impelling whole generations to the heroism of following Jesus Christ.”[105] Therefore, our surrender to Christ finds inspiration, assistance and wise doctrine in the saints so that we may be able to reach the heaven already attained by them.
| Oblation for the Kingdom | IVE Formula of Consecration |
| I protest that it is my earnest desire and my deliberate choice, provided only it is for Thy greater service and praise, | I commit all my strength so as not be evasive to the missionary adventure, in order to inculturate the Gospel in the diversity of all cultures, to extend the Incarnation of the Word “in all men, in the whole man, and in all the manifestations of man,” assuming all that is authentically human, in order to be like another humanity of Christ, to carry out, with greater perfection, the service of God and man. |
This is so simply because “love must be more manifest in works than in words.”[106]
The “committing of all one’s strength” is to “decidedly want”[107] to imitate Christ in his suffering of which Saint John of the Cross speaks and which our proper law expresses in diverse ways: “we want to imitate Jesus Christ as perfectly as possible;”[108] “firmly resolved to reach sanctity…with ‘a great and very resolute determination to persevere until we reach it (sanctity),’”[109] etc. This is so because religious consecration in this Institute implies the closest possible imitation of the mystery of the Incarnate Word and of the attitudes that come with it.[110] Together with the demand for conversion and sanctity, we are called to live a transfigured existence, contemplating and bearing witness to the transfigured face of Christ. [111] The Incarnate Word offered himself to the Father without restrictions; He offered himself as a victim, He immolated himself in expiation, He gave himself without reserve and this should be the priestly attitude of every member of our small Religious Family.[112]
Therefore, as members of the Institute all of us work toward our self-perfection, “becoming in Christ ‘an eternal offering for God,’[113] ‘a living sacrifice in Christ for the praise of his glory,’[114] this is the priestly attitude of the ‘third class of man’ in the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. [115] One must live this attitude permanently, without diminution or retraction, without reserve or condition, without subterfuge or delay, without retreating or even slowness in both personal matters and in great historical endeavors…”[116] Given that “in institutes dedicated to the apostolate, there is no other path to holiness, no following of the evangelical counsels, no life dedicated to God and his service, that is not intrinsically linked to the service of the Church and the world,[117]than all of our missionary and apostolic labor must be founded on the conviction that it is necessary that He reign.[118]
Now in this apostolic work, the testimony of life occupies the first place, since “one is a missionary above all for what he is… before being so in word or deed…”[119] For us this is the “first and irreplaceable form of mission”[120] so that the charity of Christ may shine on the faithful.[121] In this sense, “Not only must all members of the Institute observe the evangelical counsels with the greatest possible perfection, but they must also surrender to Jesus through Mary, and ‘direct their lives according to the Institute’s own law and so strive for the perfection of their state.’[122]”[123] Nevertheless, not only through our consecration but also by means of our apostolic work, we seek to associate ourselves to the work of redemption and the spreading of the kingdom of God,[124] transfiguring the world from within with the power of the Beatitudes.
By confessing that Jesus Christ is true God and true man, who unites both natures in His one Divine Person, we are in the world without being of the world, and in Christ we assume all that is human, since “what is not assumed is not redeemed.” [125] Consequently, it is our sublime task to ‘assume’ the cultures we live in, purifying and elevating them: starting from Christ and the Gospel “within the framework of the Church.”[126] We want to do this “even in the most difficult situations and under the most adverse conditions.”[127]
The Word assumed a human nature, giving it the dignity of His Divine Person. In the same way, this assumption man’s entire reality and culture is only real when it “truly transforms what is human into Christ, [thus] elevating it, dignifying it and perfecting it. What is left merely at the human level has only seemingly been assumed.”[128] Therefore, in our missionary work we are guided by the principle that “true inculturation is from within: it consists, ultimately, of a renewal of life under the influence of grace.”[129]
At the same time, we are convinced that it is the task of consecrated life to spread the kingdom of Christ even to the furthest regions, to the growing multitude of those who do not know Christ. This is another reason that “urges us to work in the most difficult places – those where no one else wants to go.”[130]
Furthermore, far from considering pastoral work as a means of escape that has led some to fall into activism, for us the missionary labor is a cross, and as such, it unites us more closely to Christ. Moreover, the interior source of our apostolate is, and we want it to be so always, our ever-deepening communion with the pastoral charity of Jesus Christ.[131] Contrary to what some people think, we are convinced that “the mission strengthens consecrated life, infuses it with renewed enthusiasm, fresh motivations, and a stimulus to fidelity”[132] since the act by which we love God and the act by which we love our neighbor is one and the same.[133]
“Therefore all the members of our Religious Family should collaborate with full enthusiasm in the missionary work,[134] thus bringing to fulfillment their self-donation to God out of love for so many men and women of our time to don’t know Christ, and who seem to be begging, like that Macedonian: Come to Macedonia and help us.[135]”[136] The zeal of our members for establishing of the Kingdom of God and the salvation of men thus becomes the best proof of their gift of self authentically lived. [137]
| Oblation for the Kingdom | IVE Formula of Consecration |
| to imitate Thee in bearing all wrongs and all abuse and all poverty, both actual and spiritual, | […] so that my life may be a living memorial of Jesus’ way of living and acting as the Incarnate Word in relation to the Father and in relation to mankind. […] make a vow forever to live: chaste for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven; poor, manifesting that God is man’s only real treasure and obedient, even to death on the cross, in order to follow the Incarnate Word more intimately in His chastity, poverty, and obedience |
These words from our consecration – so profound and rich in content – indicate the very reason for our religious profession, namely: to live the grace of Baptism to its fullness and to perpetually make present in the church the form of life chosen by the Son of God at the moment of His incarnation.[138]
If we have already said that our religious profession was an image of the Trinity, now we must include that it is at the same time Christ-centered, since our vocation implies an “adherence that allows us to conform our entire existence to Christ, by means of the practice of the evangelical counsels as the most radical way of living the Gospel and following Christ.”[139] Although this pertains to all religious, “this truth is even greater for us, the religious of the family of the Incarnate Word.”[140] Although it is essential to every religious person, we do not want it to pass by unperceived in our lives. Rather, we want this Christocentric imprint to be branded by fire in us and in our apostolate of evangelizing the culture, since the reality of being other Christs is central to our spirituality.”[141]
Therefore, “we want to imitate Jesus Christ as perfectly as possible. He teaches us, I have given you an example.[142] Saint Paul exhorts, Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.[143] We must be the aroma of Christ,[144] ambassadors for Christ… [145] of the mystery of the Gospel,[146] [the] letter of Christ,[147] [we must] put on Christ.[148] We must be firmly convinced that we are predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son,[149] reproducing Him,[150] becoming similar to Him,[151] configuring ourselves to Him,[152] and knowing that we reflect the same image[153] of the only Son of God.”[154] In short, “we are religious in order to imitate the Incarnate Word, the chaste, poor, and obedient Son of Mary.”[155]
Each one of us, members of the Institute, knows that we are called united ourselves to God by the practice of perfect charity and that by the profession of the three vows we seek to remove the root of all the obstacles that could prevent us from reaching the perfection of charity. These obstacles, as our proper law clearly teaches, “can be triple: the love of external goods, which is destroyed by the vow of poverty; the desire for sensible pleasures, especially carnal ones, which is destroyed by the vow of chastity; and finally, the disorder of the human will, which is remedied by the vow of obedience.”[156] Consequently, if the evangelical counsels are what essentially constitute religious life, than charity is the soul, the most intimate reason of being, and the goal of religious life.
By the practice of evangelical poverty, the members of the Institute of the Incarnate Word seek to imitate Christ who was poor: “poor in his birth, even poorer in his life, and utterly poor on the Cross,”[157] until the point of conquering complete detachment, not only of material goods but of everything that is not God Himself, which implies the perfection of charity and complete and consummate holiness. As Saint John of the Cross says, “to love is to despoil oneself for love of God of everything that is not God.”[158]
By the practice of consecrated chastity, we offer God the holocaust of our body and of all of our natural affections, which implies a preferential choice of exclusive love of God. It is our desire to live triumphantly victorious chastity as a sought after and joyful sacrifice to obtain intimate union with God through that spiritual and virginal matrimony that characterizes consecrated life, in which the heart is not stifled, but surrendered, and made sacred.[159]
Furthermore, and most importantly, following the Incarnate Word’s example, as members of the Institute we offer ourselves totally to God by means of the vow of obedience, by which we want to offer him the gift of our will.[160] “Man can give nothing greater to God, than to subject his will to another man’s for love of God,”[161] teaches Saint Thomas Aquinas. In imitation of the Incarnate Word, obedient to death and death on a cross[162] – by means of which he redeemed and sanctified men – we want to live obedience cooperating with Christ in the salvation of our neighbor, that is, participating in Christ’s Redemption.
| Oblation for the Kingdom | IVE Formula of Consecration |
| should Thy most holy majesty deign to choose and admit me to such a state and way of life. | May the love and grace of the Most Holy Trinity help me to be faithful to the work that has already begun. |
Lastly, we declare that “religious life is a following of Christ, but not in just any way ‘but with the resolution of not looking back. That is why our Lord said: No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.[163] It is with this firm purpose of following Christ that we make the vows.’”[164] Yet, aware of the sublimity of such an undertaking, and of the miseries and weaknesses that beset us, we not only ask for the intercession of Our Lady and the saints, but also ask God Himself to help us to be faithful in the work that has begun.[165]
In the name of the Church and the Institute, he who receives the profession of the religious vows recognizes the explicit desire of the religious to be totally conformed to Christ, the Incarnate Word.[166] This desire must be made effective, and we must persevere especially “for the increased holiness of the church”[167] and expansion of the kingdom of God.
* * *
The path that leads to sanctity, the conquest for the kingdom, entails the acceptance of spiritual warfare.
“The transformation of the world and the building up of Christ’s Kingdom of justice and peace can be effected only by grace and the power of God’s love in us. Only love can transform hearts…. the only violence that leads to the building up of the Kingdom of Christ is the sacrifice and service that are born of love.”[168]
This, therefore, is the resounding idea: to sacrifice oneself. History is directed in this way, silently and secretly.[169]
May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Heaven, obtain for us the grace of “knowing how to die”[170] in order to live.[171]
[1] Mt 19: 12.
[2] P. Casanovas, Comentario y explanación de los Ejercicios Espirituales de San Ignacio de Loyola, vol. 1, p. 105.
[3] Cf. Spiritual Exercises, [91] y [100].
[4] Spiritual Exercises, [53].
[5] Spiritual Exercises, [230].
[6] Dan 7: 14.
[7] Rev 19: 16.
[8] Saint Cyril of Alexandria, On the Gospel of Saint John, 12, 18, 38. MG 74,632.
[9] 1 Pt 1: 18-19.
[10] Jn 1: 14.
[11] Heb 1: 2.
[12] Directory of Spirituality, 222.
[13] Pius XI, Encyclical on the Feast of Christ the King, Quas Primas (1925), 4.
[14] Ibidem.
[15] Ibidem, 16.
[16] Directory of Spirituality, 223.
[17] Jn 18: 36.
[18] Lk 1: 33.
[19] Mt 28: 18.
[20] Roman Missal, Preface of Christ the King.
[21] Directory of Spirituality, 224.
[22] Spiritual Exercises, [95].
[23] Constitutions, 7.
[24] Vita Consecrata, 22.
[25] Saint Cyprian, On the Lord’s Prayer, 13-15; CSEL 3, 275-278. Cited in the Directory of Spirituality, 8.
[26] Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 3, Chap. 12, 2.
[27] Lumen Gentium, 44.
[28] Saint Rafael Arnáiz Barón, from the letter to Brother Tescelino, from Villasandino, November 1, 1937..
[29] Cf. Pastores Dabo Vobis, 50. Cited in the Directory of Consecrated Life, 145.
[30] Evangelica Testificatio, 3.
[31] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 34.
[32] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 35.
[33] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 36.
[34] Directory of Spirituality, 38.
[35] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 161; op. cit. Cf. Saint Thomas Aquinas, S. Th., II-II, 186, 7.
[36] Cf. Vita Consecrata, 80.
[37] Cf. Jn 1: 14.
[38] Constitutions, 254. 257.
[39] Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, [98].
[40] Ibidem, [95].
[41] Cf. Saint John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, p. 114.
[42] Cf. Vita Consecrata, 38.
[43] Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, [98].
[44] Constitutions, 254.257.
[45] Constitutions, 1.
[46] Cf. Constitutions, 2; op. cit. Lumen Gentium, 44.
[47] Constitutions, 61.
[48] Directory of Consecrated Life, 231; op. cit. Cf. Vita Consecrata, 20.
[49] Directory of Consecrated Life, 232; op. cit. Cf. Vita Consecrata, 21.
[50] Directory of Consecrated Life, 233; op. cit Constitutions, 9.
[51] Cf. Constitutions, 254, 257.
[52] Constitutions, 380.
[53] Constitutions, 1.
[54] Constitutions, 13.
[55] Constitutions, 17.
[56] Cf. 1 Cor 7: 32-34.
[57] Cf. Directory of Consecrated Life, 147.
[58] Constitutions, 231.
[59] Cf. Constitutions, 203.
[60] Constitutions, 254.257.
[61] Rom 8: 9.
[62] Directory of Spirituality, 235.
[63] Cf. Vita Consecrata, 20.
[64] Directory of Consecrated Life, 12.
[65] Directory of Consecrated Life, 130; op. cit. Sacra Virginitas, p. 9.
[66] Cf. Directory of Consecrated Life, 146.
[67] Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes, Essential elements of Church Teaching on Religious Life 5. Cited in the Directory of Consecrated Life, 10.
[68] Cf. Saint Thomas Aquinas, S. Th., II-II, 186, 6, ad 2.
[69] Directory of Consecrated Life, 46.
[70] Constitutions, 48.
[71] Constitutions, 51; op. cit. Cf. Saint Thomas Aquinas, S. Th., II-II, 186, 7.
[72] The CIC teaches in c. 607, § 2 that: “A religious institute is a society in which members, according to proper law, pronounce public vows, either perpetual or temporal (…), and lead a life of brothers or sisters in common.”
[73] Cf. Directory of Consecrated Life, 13.
[74] Directory of Consecrated Life, 14.
[75] Cf. Lumen Gentium, 44. Cf. also Constitutions, 23.
[76] Directory of Consecrated Life, 15.
[77] Constitutions, 55.
[78] Synodal Message, 9th Ordinary General Assembly on “Consecrated Life and its Mission in the Church and the World,” OR (04/12/1994), 5. Quoted in the Directory of Consecrated Life, 100.
[79] Constitutions, 74; op. cit. Cf. CIC, can. 601.
[80] Phil 2: 8.
[81] Directory of Consecrated Life, 55; op. cit. Starting Afresh from Christ: A Renewed Commitment to Consecrated Life in the Third Millennium, 13.
[82] Constitutions, 49.
[83] Directory of Consecrated Life, 14.
[84] Cf. Constitutions, 254, 257.
[85] Ibidem.
[86] Saint John of the Cross, Collected Works, Letter 15 to M. Leonor de San Gabriel, OCD (8/07/1589). (Translation by Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D.)
[87] Constitutions, 40.
[88] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 257.
[89] Constitutions, 36.
[90] Constitutions, 31.
[91] Constitutions, 19.
[92] Constitutions, 30.
[93] Constitutions, 56.
[94] Constitutions, 17.
[95] Cf. Constitutions, 85.
[96] Cf. Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, [46].
[97] Constitutions, 86.
[98] Cf. Directory of Consecrated Life, 222.
[99] Constitutions, 82.
[100] Cf. Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, 121-125.
[101] Cf. Ibidem, 47.
[102] Constitutions, 84.
[103] Directory of Spirituality, 257.
[104] Directory of Spirituality, 256; op. cit. Lumen Gentium, 50.
[105] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 257.
[106] Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, [230].
[107] Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 2, chapter 7, 7. (Translation by Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D.)
[108] Directory of Spirituality, 44.
[109] Directory of Spirituality, 42; op. cit. Saint Teresa of Jesus, Way of Perfection, 35, 2.
[110] That is: “to practice the virtues of self-denial: humility, poverty, suffering, obedience, self-surrender, mercy and charity to all men.” Directory of Spirituality, 45.
[111] Cf. Directory of Consecrated Life, 234.
[112] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 73.
[113] Cf. Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer III.
[114] Cf. Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer IV.
[115] Cf. Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, [155]. [157].
[116] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 73.
[117] Cf. Perfectae Caritatis, 5
[118] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 225; op. cit. 1 Cor. 15: 25.
[119] Redemptoris Missio, 23.
[120] Redemptoris Missio, 42.
[121] Cf. Eph 3: 19.
[122] CIC, can. 598 § 2.
[123] Constitutions, 378.
[124] Cf. Directory of Consecrated Life, 246; op. cit. Perfectae Caritatis, 5.
[125] Saint Irenaeus, cited in the Puebla Document, 400.
[126] Directory of Spirituality, 65.
[127] Constitutions, 30.
[128] Directory of Spirituality, 50.
[129] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 51.
[130] Directory of Spirituality, 86.
[131] Cf. Directory of Consecrated Life, 261.
[132] Directory of Consecrated Life, 268; op. cit. cf. Vita Consecrata, 78.
[133] Cf. Directory of Consecrated Life, 252; op. cit. Cf. Santo Tomás de Aquino, S. Th., II-II, 25, 1c.
[134] Cf. Directory of the Missions Ad Gentes, 72.
[135] Acts 6: 9.
[136] Directory of Consecrated Life, 271.
[137] Cf. Directory of Consecrated Life, 265.
[138] Cf. Lumen Gentium, 44. Cited in the Directory of Spirituality, 43.
[139] Cf. Vita Consecrata, 16, 18.
[140] Directory of Spirituality, 29.
[141] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 30.
[142] Jn 13:15
[143] Phil 2: 5.
[144] 2 Cor 2: 15.
[145] 2 Cor 5: 20.
[146] Eph 6: 19.
[147] 2 Cor 3: 3.
[148] Gal 3: 27.
[149] Rom 8: 29.
[150] Cf. Rom 8: 29.
[151] Cf. Phil 3: 10.
[152] Cf. Phil 3: 21.
[153] 2 Cor 3: 18.
[154] Directory of Spirituality, 44.
[155] Directory of Consecrated Life, 326.
[156] Directory of Consecrated Life, 52; Saint Thomas Aquinas, S. Th., II-II, 186, 7c.
[157] Constitutions, 66; Saint Bernard, Vitis mystica, cap. II.
[158] Ascent of Mount Carmel, II, 5, 7.
[159] Cf. Constitutions, 59.
[160] Cf. Constitutions, 72.
[161] Saint Thomas Aquinas, S. Th., II-II, 186, 5, ad 5.
[162] Phil 2: 8.
[163] Lk 9: 62.
[164] Cf. Directory of Consecrated Life, 44; Saint Thomas Aquinas, S. Th., II-II, 186, 6, ad 1.
[165] Cf. Constitutions, 254, 257.
[166] Ibidem.
[167] Lumen Gentium, 47.
[168] Saint John Paul II, To the religious in Manilla (February 17, 1981).
[169] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 146.
[170] Directory of Spirituality, 173.
[171] Directory of Spirituality, 178.
