From the bulletin for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (Feb 02, 2025)
Feast of the Presentation
The Feast of the Presentation is also “World Day of Consecrated Life.” The connection is obvious enough. Today, “Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord.’” (Lk 2:22-23). Just as Jesus was consecrated to the Father’s service, so He calls some of His disciples to a life of total and permanent devotion.
But what is the “consecrated life”? All Christians are already consecrated to God in virtue of baptism. They are made holy, set apart for divine service and worship, and placed “with the sacred,” as the etymology implies. Referring to baptism, Paul tells us that “you have been washed clean, you have been sanctified, you have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:11). In consequence, “your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have received from God, and that you are not your own. You have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body!” (1 Cor 6:19-20). Surely, we could all stand to recover a greater appreciation of this primary and general consecration to God. Already made “holy,” we are also called to become holy: to make our affections and actions correspond to our baptismal consecration.
However, when we speak of the “consecrated life” in the Church, we are typically not referring to that consecration, which is something much broader. Nor are we referring to the religious life, which is something slightly narrower. Religious are those consecrated persons who live under a common rule (“regula”) that regulates life in the community. But a consecrated person can also be a hermit living alone in the woods, or a consecrated virgin in the midst of the world. Nor does category include those men consecrated to God by the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Rather, it’s those who are wholly dedicated to God in a radical and permanent way by a vow of celibacy especially, but also a pledge to live the evangelical counsels of poverty and obedience as well.
Jesus speaks of the consecrated life in Matthew 19, in conjunction with His teaching on marriage. When the disciples ask if it is really better not to marry, Our Lord responds, “Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are … eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let those accept this who can do so” (Matt 19:11-12). Here we learn that to renounce marriage in order to belong more wholly to Christ and His Church, is 1) a grace that not all receive, 2) a call that should be embraced by those who receive it, and 3) a great and desirable thing, for it is greater even than the very desirable state of marriage.
In his apostolic exhortation on the Vita Consecrata, St. John Paul II says many profound and beautiful things about this supernatural calling that abides “at the very heart of the Church” (VC 3). It is a special way of following Christ with undivided heart according to the “characteristic features” of His life, celibacy, poverty, and obedience (VC 1). Those who embrace it become living icons of the Church, making manifest her holiness, mission, and her spousal devotion to Christ the Bridegroom (VC 3). In all its diverse forms, it is that way of life by which chosen disciples perpetuate the Transfiguration: led up the mountain and apart from the world, they fix their gaze of their lives on the glory Beloved Son of God, in whose image they themselves are transformed (VC 14-16; cf 2 Cor 3:18). And, in virtue of the vows by which they are both “crucified with Christ” (Gal 2:20) and made signs of our life in the world to come, consecrated persons powerfully make present the Paschal Mystery, the dying and the rising of Christ.
As we speak, God is actively calling members of our parish family to this life. Join your pastor in praying that these individuals might have ears to hear and hearts to heed!
Comments