40
YEARS SINCE THE COUNCIL
by Pascual Chávez Villanueva
REJUVENATING
THE FACE
THE EXPLOSIVE ENERGY
OF THE FOUNDERS
“Without the religious orders, without consecrated life, the Church would not be fully herself” (John Paul II, 7/3/1980).
IT is not easy for most Christians to understand the distinction between hierarchy, pastors, diocesan priests, religious, monks... “At the end of the day it’s just priests and nuns”. But that is not so. Within the Church there is a great multiplicity and diversity, in the same way that men and women’s lives are very varied and complex: there is no kind of life nor human activity in which God does not want to be present as the fulness of life and the leaven of salvation. St Paul expains this with great clarity and effectiveness: “The body does not consist of one member but of many …hands…, feet…, eyes…, heart…each member has its own function, and all are at the service of the whole” (1Cor12,1-31). It is the same with the Church, the Body of Christ.
The different vocations are gifts with which God enriches the Church. In this way she remains young and can offer salvation to the men and women of every place, every condition, period and culture. The charisms – as these vocations are called, or gifts of the Spirit – are always at the service of the unity of the Church and of the common good. It is St Paul who tells us: “There are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit. There are varieties of service, but the same Lord.” (1Cor12,4-6). And he mentions some of these charisms, the most important: apostles, prophets, teachers. Some have the task of preaching, others the gift of working miracles, gifts of healing, of directing the community, of speaking different tongues... God still continues to enrich the Church with charisms. He has raised up men and women who have followed Christ in a radical manner and an obedient, poor and chaste way of life. These are people with a special sensitivity who have recognised the emerging needs of mankind and with great daring have tried to respond with the best solutions. The witness of their lives, the clarity of their objectives, the goodness of their cause and their tenacity in pursuing it have motivated others towards the same ideals. This was the origin of the orders, congregations, institutes and nowadays, movements. Men and women raised up by the Holy Spirit to bring to birth religious families with a prophetic style of life and the capacity to make God’s love for the world visible and effective. They are the Founders.
After the persecutions, when Christianity, by now the State religion, was losing some of its vigour and radical character, there came on the scene the hermits, the monks, and the great Rules of Saint Pacomius, Saint Benedict, Saint Augustine. Later Saint Dominic Guzmàn founded the Dominican Order whose mission it is to preach the Gospel. Then in the high Middle Ages, when mankind felt itself afflicted by innumerable evils and even the Church hierarchy seemed to allow itself to be tempted by earthly vanities, Saint Francis of Assisi appeared and became the spouse of “Lady Poverty,” and presented to the men and women of his time and of all ages, a Christ who brought salvation by and with love, full of compassion for those who suffered and full of wonder for the marvels of creation: water, plants, stars, fire, animals, the earth and even death, surprisingly called “Sister”, praising the Omnipotent One. He is the man of “perfect joy,” since poverty, suffering and death brought him close to the ultimate Goodness. When the Protestant Reformation tore apart the Church and whole nations were cut off from their maternal home, God raised up Ignatius of Loyola, who founded the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, the “shock trooops” who following the orders of the Pope defended the Church and Catholic teaching; protagonists in innumerable activities in pursuit of justice, freedom and the truth. There are many founders and foundresses of male and female congregations. Saint John of God instituted his Brothers to help the sick and those in need; Saint Vincent de Paul the Priests of the Mission and the Daughters of Charity; Saint Marcelline Champagnat the Marists and Saint John Baptist de la Salle the Brothers for the school apostolate. When the industrial revolution began and crowds of youngsters flocked to the city suburbs, at risk of being scandalously exploited, Saint John Bosco with his vocational schools prepared them to be “honest citizens and good Christians.” In the middle of the XXth century, Mother Teresa of Calcutta founded the Missionaries of Charity as a response to the many new forms of poverty in modern society.
Certainly the charisms of the founders represent one of the most beautiful “faces” the Church can show to the world, and men and women religious, following the Gospel in a radical way, are like a “a rapid intervention force” to represent the maternal solicitude of the Church among the most marginalised. Today, like yesterday, religious life has to face up to and accept the challenge of being an experience of and a witness to God, the sign and sacrament of his love in a secularised and materialistic world. As John Paul II said, religious life has not only a glorious past to recount but also a future to continue to build, together with all the men and women on the earth. To do this all it needs is for religious men and women to be full of a passion for God and of compassion for mankind.
