Kathleen McGarvey OLA
‘I expect that each form of consecrated life will question what it is that God and people are asking of them… During this Year no one can feel excused from seriously examining his or her presence in the Church’s life and from responding to the new demands constantly being made on us, to the cry of the poor.’ (Letter to all Consecrated People, II, 5)
Introduction
Apostolic Religious life is very seriously questioned today, by the hierarchical church as well as by the wider society. Up until the mid-1970s, this way of life was valued in Ireland because of the works Religious did. Some Religious ran the schools, hospitals, orphanages, and basically all other services for the poor that were available in this country; other Religious were missionaries who left home and family to go and help the poor in faraway lands. Nowadays Religious neither need to do nor have the personnel to do these same works; government and NGOs supply these needs if they exist. Many people who are not Religious, or even believers, are working for peace and justice, and it is lay people who respond to emergency situations abroad with courage and professionalism which Religious would be hard put to match. The existence and relevance of apostolic religious life today is also questioned because the members no longer live and dress in styles that differ from the rest of society and so the somewhat mysterious and specific identity and status Religious once had is no longer there.
The Contemplative life, on the other hand, still has some appeal and is seen to have a much greater relevance and attraction today: they still use the uniform and the cloister and the monastic style of life, they follow the path of spiritual searching which many in today’s noisy world find meaningful, they live a life dedicated to prayer for the world, being open to people who want to come to stay a while with them in prayer, offering a listening ear … all this seems to be of relevance.
I don’t intend in this paper to defend religious life, either Apostolic or Contemplative. As Schneiders said, ‘Religious choose religious life because, in some deep way, they must. Like the artist who has to paint or the poet who has to write, Religious have to do what they do, not because it makes sense but because life does not make sense for them on any other terms.’[2] However, the fact that religious life ‘has been stripped both of its claim to a unique kind of social usefulness and of its religious mystique… and of its claims to superiority which were never well founded’ has opened the gates for us to recognise how urgently we need to move beyond our old theologies of the religious life and of mission and radically re-examine the meaning and role of this way of life. This year provides an opportunity for us to do this.
I believe that to look at what God is asking of us separately from what People are asking of us could lead to a spiritualised otherworldly type religious life. Therefore I take the two together and simply point to six requests, for want of a better title, which God and People ask of Apostolic Religious today.
1. To love God and my Neighbour
What God is asking of us today can be no terribly different to what God has always asked of us: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. And Love your neighbour as yourself.’(Mk. 12: 30-32; cf. Mt. 22: 37-39). When the people of Micah’s time were exasperated with God because no matter their sacrifice God never seemed satisfied, Micah reminded them ‘You have already been told what is right and what Yahweh wants of you. Only this, to do what is right, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.’ (Mic 6:8).
This is what God asks of us as Religious just as it is what God asks of every human being. To keep this commandment is far more important than any other act or sacrifice relevant to our vows or our Constitutions. If our chapters and meetings serve to do anything other than help us to love God and our neighbour then we are wasting our time and our money.
2. To believe we are called
I believe the second but very basic thing God is asking of us as Religious today is to remember and believe that our life is a response to a Call from God, not an option we ourselves have made and one we can drop when we choose. Pope Francis advises us that it is good at times to remember that first call: ‘I urge each of you to recall, as if you were making an interior pilgrimage, that ’first love’ with which the Lord Jesus Christ warmed your heart, not for the sake of nostalgia but in order to persevere in joy.’ (Message for Mission Sunday 2014)
In his letter to Religious on the occasion of the Year for Consecrated life Pope Francis said: ‘I urge you not to join the ranks of the prophets of doom who proclaim the end or meaninglessness of the consecrated life in the Church in our day; rather… Let us constantly set out anew, with trust in the Lord.’ (par. 3, pg. 12) The big convents which separated Religious from people who lived in normal houses are past. The religious garb/habit which differentiated Religious from other people is past. The big institutional ministries by which Religious were known are past. But the essentials of Religious life are still very relevant. I believe God is asking us as Religious in Ireland today, amid the challenges we face, to believe in religious life and to reflect again on the real meaning and gift of this vocation.
3. To be Prophets of God’s Kingdom
The third thing God may be asking of Religious today is to remember that our way of life is to be Prophetic. In November last year, Pope Francis, in a meeting with the Union of Superior Generals in Rome, the superior generals of all male religious congregations, said
‘Evangelical radicalness is not only for religious: it is demanded of all. But religious follow the Lord in a special way, in a prophetic way. It is this witness that I expect of you… Be witnesses of a different way of doing things, of acting, of living! It is possible to live differently in this world… It is a question of leaving everything to follow the Lord’.
Religious profess publicly to give God primacy in their lives, to live by the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience so that their lives are consecrated to God, following a particular charism in a life of service to God so as to realize God’s Kingdom of Justice and Peace present in this world. According to the Pope, people look at Religious and say ‘What’s happening? These people are telling me something! These people go beyond a mundane horizon.’
St Francis of Assisi surely did that. Catherine McCauley did it. Mary Ward. Mary Aikenhead. Nano Nagle. Mother Teresa of Calcutta. In their own specific ways all the founders of our congregations did. However, we must ask, is the witness we give as Religious today prophetic? This question applies to us as individuals as well as institutions. I really am not so confident that the witness Religious give today, that I give today, is prophetic. If we want to wake up the world, as the Pope reminded us that we are called to do, we have to wake up ourselves. When we ask what it is that people are asking of us today, we have to come back to this call to be Prophetic. What kind of Prophets do People in Church and Society need today?
As Religious in Ireland we have become afraid: we have been subsumed under the guilt and weight of child safeguarding issues; so much of our energy has gone into this as also has so much of our material resources and our personnel; we are now afraid to be in contact with children, we are afraid to open our doors or our spaces to children or even to vulnerable adults for fear of accusations or of claims; we are shy of speaking publicly or being in the public eye; we are afraid to let people know who we are… But ours is a public life; our call is to be prophetic; our vocation is to witness to a life given to God and to the service of God’s reign.
4. To be Prophets of a New Way of Being Church
Religious life is a life on the margins of both Church and Society. The Institutional Church consists of the hierarchy and the laity. Religious have no specific function or meaningful role within the institutional Church; ordained ministers are the ones who lead, teach, and administer sacraments; laity can do all the rest. Being on the margins of the Church, excluded from decision making and leadership is certainly not something we should promote. However, it does allow us a certain freedom to speak out and to work for change. Hence, I believe a fourth thing asked of us as Apostolic Religious it to be Prophets calling the Church to reform so as to be true to what the Church is called to be.
In a talk given to the Loreto Sisters in Loyola last year, entitled Is another Church possible?, Jose Antonio Pagola spoke of the serious need for reform in the Church so as to focus the Church more fully on Jesus Christ and his project of the reign of God and to enkindle in the Christian communities some of that fire which Jesus wanted to see burning in the world (Lk. 12: 49). Like Pope Francis, Pagola is concerned that there are many Christians without Jesus, that Jesus’ project of the Kingdom of God is not the primary task of many diocesan churches and parishes, active compassion and solidarity is not the main principle of activity. He believes that another Church is possible and we can all contribute to making that happen. We need to let people know and share on the Gospel and actually meet Christ personally through the Gospel. We need to move away from emphasis on the Church and on the sacraments and put much more emphasis on the Kingdom of God helping people know that they can and must do their little bit to make that ‘Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven’ by working for social justice and human dignity.
In Ireland today, so many people have been disillusioned by the Church. Undoubtedly, Religious too have been disillusioned, as of course have many priests and even bishops. It would be easy for Religious to enjoy our freedom from hierarchical position and sit back to criticize the Church. But I believe it is a greater challenge and a more worthy mission to continue to believe in and love the Church as a Community of Believers and do what we can with courage and conviction to help a new Kingdom-centred Church to emerge.
5. To live what we profess
I believe a fifth thing God is asking of Religious today is to live what we profess and to live it happily. Three essential aspects of Religious life are, according to Vita Consecrata, Consecration, Communion, and Mission.
In terms of Consecration, we profess the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience according to a particular charism and sharing in a specific mission. God knows what we profess and certainly People know what we profess. But undoubtedly people question our way of living it. While many people in Ireland today suffer poverty, we Religious enjoy at least adequate material wellbeing and often have substantial investments as insurance for future congregational needs. To sell all we own and give the money to the poor (Lk 18: 22; Mt. 19:21; Mk 10:21) is something Religious cannot easily do because of our many obligations, especially to our elderly members who have the basic right to be adequately cared for. It is also something we may not want to do because of the securities, real or imaginary, which it affords us. This freedom from material security and a greater trust in providence is a challenge I believe God may be calling us to so that we can live more authentically that which we profess.
In terms of Mission, responding to the needs of the people should determine where and how we live as Religious. However, for many religious congregations in Ireland today, it is the needs of our Institute which are taking up most of our resources, our time and our energy. This is because most of our members are elderly or infirm and also because of the needs and demands associated with safeguarding policies and implementations, compensation for wrongs done in the past within our structures, new demands of charity laws in Ireland, and other bureaucratic and practical issues of a similar vein. With so few younger members in Religious communities today, there are very few available energies for service outside the community and even those who are offering a service both within the congregation and outside to the wider community are doing more than should ever be asked of people their age. In this area, I feel God is not asking us to do more. What I feel God may be asking of us is to find ways to use not only our personnel but also our houses, our spaces, our other resources to be of service to the people around us so as to make present in whatever way we can the values of God’s Kingdom.
In terms of Communion, as Religious we say we witness through our lives to the communion of all people where all things are shared and used for the common good. However, I read recently about a young woman who went for an experience of community living and found the members did not eat together, did not pray together and came together only once a day and that was for the Holy Hour of watching Fair City! In today’s Ireland we are still thousands of Religious, most elderly but certainly not all, and yet we find it difficult to have, or to believe we have, an effect! An authentic and credible witness to Communion would seem to demand from us a greater readiness to collaborate as religious institutes and as male and female religious.
While we may feel uneasy about some of these truths, we do not necessarily have to feel guilty. But I suggest these hard questions must leave us challenged. How can we today, in all our communities and as a body of Religious, live and witness to what we profess, and be happy to do so? God sees our reality; so too do people. We are called to trust in God and take the risks demanded of us in faith.
6. To respond to the needs of the Poor
Pope Francis places great emphasis on welcoming and reaching out with love and compassion to the poor, to those on the periphery. He asks all forms of Consecrated life to examine our response to the new demands constantly being made on us, to the cry of the poor.
As Religious, many of the poor are today among us: many of our own members are vulnerable and in need of our care, our attention and our time. Caring for them as so many Religious do today gives an important witness of love and care to the world.
There are certainly many poor in Irish society today. There are those who are economically poor such as the homeless, the immigrants, the unemployed, those who are trafficked. There are also those who are, what we might call, spiritually and morally poor. As C S Lewis once said ‘Moral collapse follows upon spiritual collapse.’ In Ireland today, with the growth of secularism and the diminished authority of the Church, there has indeed been a spiritual collapse and I believe there are so many symptoms in our society of a moral collapse. Among these symptoms I would name the great increase in suicide, in drug abuse, in very serious crime and violence, as well as in paedophilia, pornography and other sex crimes. These all indicate a form of spiritual and moral poverty, people without a sense of purpose, without meaning, without hope, lacking respect for life, even their own.
Young people in Ireland have been called the lost generation in terms of faith; those from thirty downwards have grown up in a country where only the negative images of Church and of faith and even of God were portrayed and now they find themselves with no framework within which they can find meaning or guidance. Society today offers too many choices and, in an effort to avail of as many as possible, people are living in the fast lane. So many today are latching on to anything that allows them slow then and find a sense of direction and of stability, values which the Church and the faith tradition in the home and community once provided.
People in Ireland are looking for some sense of God, of community, of belonging, even of moral guidance. With our privileged spaces and our libraries and our other many resources for faith sharing, mindfulness, and spirituality, Religious can undoubtedly respond to some of these great needs and thus witness to a more Christ-centred Church and a welcoming, loving Christianity.
Conclusion
As we look at our world, and even at our small part of the globe in Ireland, there is no doubt that there is as much need for the witness and the ministry of religious life today as there ever has been throughout the centuries. The world and our country need people who witness in a very prophetic and attractive way to faith and to those uncommon values of generosity, detachment, sacrifice, self-forgetfulness, care for others; Religious who witness by our life of consecration, communion and mission to that different way of doing things, of acting and of living.
Today is the time for new visions and new dreams. We as Religious want to be relevant today, not yesterday. With vision this is achievable. It is a time for hope. The Lord is asking us to trust that God is in this time, to believe that God has called us to this path of life, and to not allow the circumstances of the present to disillusion us or rob us of the joy of evangelization. May the Lord give us that grace.
This is an extract from a paper presented at Mount St Anne’s Retreat & Conference Centre, Portarlington, Sat. 30th May 2015
[2]Sandra Schneiders: ‘Religious Life: The Dialectic Between Marginality and Transformation’ in Spirituality Today, October 26-30, 1988, Winter 1988 Supplement, Vol.40, pp. 59-79