A Need for Consecration

R. Thomas Richard

Introduction

Renewal in the Church will come about through consecrated persons. When renewal comes, if we may so speak in faith and hope, not presumption, it will come by the grace of God and the sacrifices of persons consecrated to God. These consecrated persons will be found among those formally consecrated as religious - nuns and brothers, sisters and priests in religious orders - but also will include those generous, willing, self-offering Catholics among the laity, among deacons, among diocesan priests and bishops.

Renewal of the Church is the will of God Who calls us to fullness and newness of life, and His Church echoes this call. Renewal permeates both spirit and letter of Vatican II, as Paul VI declared in his closing discourse at the Council. He pointed the Church to the many documents of Vatican II as directives for that "renewal of thought, action, practices and moral virtue, of joy and hope, which was the very purpose of the Council". Renewal has begun in the Church, even now visible and audible in countless ways and at all levels among us. Ever more profound, more complete renewal remains our hope and hunger today; it permeates our prayer; it will be answered: it will come.

Renewal worthy of God's intention will not come easily. Like a woman in labor, the Church groans with anguish for this new life urging to come forth from within. The anguish itself teaches us, and points us to the Passion of our Lord. He consecrated Himself for us, that we might be consecrated in truth (Jn 17). Our consecration, a result of His, also places us immediately in His passion, His labor, His cross. Consecration is not cheap.

Consecration is not a difficult concept; it is the reality of the thing - the immediate and personal reality - that is so hard, so costly. We are in fact and personally consecrated by Baptism and Confirmation (CCC 784,1535) "to be a spiritual house and a holy priesthood," set apart at the beginning of our journey for our part in the priesthood of Christ. At the very beginning, even though we may have precious little understanding of it, we are consecrated to a personal share in the cross, in the self-offering of Christ. As long as we remain in Him, we remain in this consecration. As long as we remain in Him, a share in His priesthood (sacrifice, self-gift, suffering) remains essential in our vocation.

Faithfulness to our part, to our vocation as Church is essential and fundamental to renewal. We are called to "a permanent renewal of the Church in greater fidelity to her vocation." (CCC 821) Within the vocation as Church are the many particular and specific vocations of her members. Several problems (or opportunities) face us today in this matter. Many Catholics lack understanding and appreciation of our vocations as persons, male or female. "What does God call me to specifically as a man? Specifically as a woman?" Many Catholics lack precise understanding and appreciation of the distinct vocations within the Church of laity, of priest or deacon, or of consecrated religious. More fundamentally, many Catholics lack sufficient understanding and appreciation of our personal role - our vocation - in the sacrifice of Christ.

The spiritual and personal reality of consecration suggests something beyond vocation. Following a sense of personal vocation is a deeper call that may be heard, that ought to be heard. This more complete invitation calls forth the integrity of a person; it seeks to gather the wholeness of a person to offer himself fully as person. St. Paul expresses this call: "I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." (Rom 12:1) Assent to this deeper call, made with understanding and with full consent of the will, is found in the meaning of consecration. Consecration is a self-offering into covenant; it is an act of human freedom, of consent to union with the kenosis, or self-offering, of Christ. It is inseparable from trial by fire, from the dark night, from the testing unto pure gold. If many would say, with Mary, "Be it done unto me according to your word," how Christ would be manifest among us! How powerfully renewal would come upon us! If many would allow upon themselves the burden of the cross, the honor of consecration, how the saving work of Christ through His Church would advance upon the world.

Vocation

Every state of life offers a particular part in the cross of Christ, a specific invitation to consecration, an irreplaceable role in renewal. A lay man has opportunities and challenges different from those of a priest, as a deacon has from a nun. A single woman in the world faces the cross differently from a bishop, as a bishop does differently from a married man. Certainly not everything is different. All are called to holiness and to the perfection of charity (CCC 2013)! Yet God has created a great diversity among us, for reasons that are "very good." For renewal, we need the fullness of Church alive in Christ.

In the confusion of our times, the value of the diversity in the body is not well understood or accepted. In the matters of vocation and state of life, the value of our differentness is darkly clouded in a social oversimplification for sameness. Our society began denying that kings are better than commoners: "All men are created equal...." A national schism was narrowly averted over the issue of racial hierarchy: whites are not superior to blacks. More recently, the extension of the vote to women is only the beginning of a social reformation still in process. There is a sense in which all persons are equal, and this equality ought to be recognized and respected.

Equality, of course, does not mean identity. We are equal, yes, but differently. Having equal value and dignity before God, being created in the image of God as all are, certain differences remain. Kings and commoners may have different social responsibilities. Different ethnic and racial groups historically may have expressed their human genius in different cultural ways. Men and women may demonstrate quite different psychological patterns of thought and response even within a given culture. At the human level, all persons are equal but not the same.

In the Church, it is essential to our mission that we work within the truth of our creation: we are equal before God as persons, yet we are called to different and complementary expressions of this One in whose image we were made. After calling the Church to full personal self-offering, which we might identify with consecration, St. Paul goes on to teach us of the interrelated gifts and roles within the body of Christ: "... in one body we have many members, and not all members have the same function ...." (Rom 12:4) It is crucial that we recognize the will of God for our mutuality, our complementarity, our interdependence. It is not enough to say merely that man is equal to woman, priest to lay person, religious to all. It is essential to add that we are gifted for different and interrelated ministries in Christ, and if we are not faithful to the unique call of God to us, to each of us, then the whole is wounded by our omission and our failure.

Is It Pride?

Can it be so simple yet so difficult a matter as pride, that resists God's call for our self-offering in a body of different members, different gifts as He has placed us? Can it be so humiliating a picture as the many wanting only places that they perceive as honorable? John the Baptist is a great example of a humble man, who can perhaps help us to make straight the way of the Lord in this matter. "He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light." (Jn 1:8) John was, by all accounts, at peace with both his mission and his limits. His mission was heroically accomplished! And his limits were humbly received and lived. "He confessed, he did not deny, but confessed..." - this mysterious phrasing emphasizes his fidelity to his mission - "... I am not the Christ." (Jn 1:20) What wonderful theology is cloaked in this strange triptych: it is positive confession, not negative denial, to assert his limitation! His role is clear to him, and it is no insult to his self-worth or dignity. He is a voice, preparing the way for the Word.

Contrasted with beautiful humility, so fruitful in its faithfulness, is barren and ugly pride. "How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground! You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high." (Isa 14:12-13) Pride is found close to us, as Jesus warned, "they love the places of honor at feasts, and the best seats in the synagogues" (Mt 23:6), but we are not to be like that. "Whoever humbles himself will be exalted." ( Mt 23:12)

Is it not pride, that seeks the "best seats" among us in the Church today? These demands for power, for authority, for title, for recognition - even under the cloak of ministry - is this not a seeking for self at the exclusion of Christ and His cross? The Baptist offers us such a beautiful witness: the willingness to be second and not first, to be follower and not leader, to serve and not be the one worthy of servants. The greater mystery, of course, is the witness of Christ who shows even more perfectly the witness of humility: God Himself, humbled and emptied, Servant of all.

We who are in Him by virtue of Baptism, are called to humility, to service, to obedience in a personal share in His apostolate. Like the Baptist, each has a part to play in the service of the Servant. The Apostle Paul, describing the many different ministries in the Church, writes of a truth no more important then than now: "... the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love." (Eph 4:16)

This is the key, I believe, for renewal in the Church today: let each part work properly. Let the deacons be deacons; let each deacon live his calling. Let the priests be priests; let each priest live his calling. Let the laity be the lay Christian faithful; let each lay man and lay woman live his and her vocation. Let the consecrated religious be consecrated religious; let each religious nun and sister and brother and monk and priest be faithful to each of their parts in the Church.

Is this not a crucial part of the wisdom heard in the Church through Vatican II? All are called to holiness, and to the perfection of charity - yet in particular and consequential ways, according to each place in the apostolate. If all would be deacons, where would the laity be? If all would be nuns, where would the priesthood be? If all were consecrated religious, where would the children be? "For the body does not consist of one member, but of many" (1 Cor 12:14) "But God has arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as He chose. If all were a single organ, where would the body be?" (1 Cor 12:18-19)

The apostolate of the deacon is different from that of the priest, and both are needed. The ministry of the laity is different from that of the monk, and we need them both. The work of the nuns for the good of the Church is special, and beautiful, and different from that of other "organs". The gifts and call of men are not the same as the gifts and call of women, and if the differences are blurred, who will compensate for God's design and purpose? What God has joined together, let not man put asunder. What God has made distinct and different, let not man confuse together.

The Beautiful Mystery of Complementarity

The body does proclaim this mystery of the Church, as Paul shows us. God has designed us as persons and as members of an ecclesial society to need one another. All are not the same, hence none can be self-sufficient. Each has need not only of another, but of many others. Christ has ordered the hierarchy of our Church to be a true hierarchy of servants, with the head as head-servant of the servants. In His design, there is no place, nor room, for competition or "empowerment" in a worldly sense of the word. Our empowerment can only be for service, our competition, for last place.

How beautifully our Church would shine with the glory of Christ, if each vocation in her members would be embraced, welcomed, generously lived! What peace would come within her structures, if we all would confess with the Baptist our part as given to us by Him? When might we find the words of our mother Mary, that we could say with her, "Be it done to me according to thy word"? How beautiful and whole would the body be, if each part would be faithful to its role! The ordained clergy have a part in the Church that must be present, as does the laity, as does the consecrated religious. What power our Church would demonstrate, if she were fully alive in her members! Renewal will come, through consecrated persons throughout the apostolate of the Church, in a Church fully alive to the Spirit.

Ministries

Particular vocations in the Church are all particular sharings in the vocation of Christ: our ministries are participations in the three-fold ministry of Christ, as Priest, as Prophet, as King. (CCC 783) Every particular vocation shares in each of these expressions of Christ. The bishop has a share in this three-fold ministry: a most complete share, as successor of the Apostles. The priest and the deacon have their share, through and by virtue of the bishop who ordains them. The lay man and woman have a share in this three-fold ministry, appropriate to their unique call to be Christ in the world - to carry the life of Christ out from the Church and into the secular world. The religious have their share in the three-fold ministry, in the unique light of their consecration as religious to be signs of the life to come.

Bishop
Every vocation has a share in the whole three-fold ministry of Christ, but clearly every vocation does not have the same share, or the same particular responsibility. The eye is not the ear, nor the foot the hand, though all share in the full life of the body. The bishop has a most complete participation in the mission of Christ, yet even he has a focus: his first task is to "preach the Gospel of God to all men." (CCC 888) The bishops are most accountable before God: they are indeed "vicars and legates of Christ" (CCC 894) given to be as Christ among us. They are as Christ the Priest, in their ministry at the altar, they are as Christ the Prophet, in their ministry of the word in authoritative teaching, and they are as Christ the King, in their ministry of governance in justice and charity. Yet their great share in the service of Christ may be seen through the focus of their first task, to preach the Gospel. The bishops were there, in the persons of the apostles, when Christ commanded His Church in them and under them and after them: "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you ...." (Mt 28:19) This is the burden of the bishop first and foremost. If he falters in this command, everything in him and under him and after him falters, and is weakened, and suffers.

Priest
The priest has his share in this three-fold ministry, under and through his bishop, but he too has a priority and a focus through which his particular share becomes clear. The priest has his role indeed in the ministry of the word, and in the ministry of governance. But his part in the Church comes into its clarity when seen from his place at the sacred altar, in Holy Mass. He is above all a priest of God in Christ. It is "… in the Eucharistic assembly of the faithful that they exercise in a supreme degree their sacred office...." (CCC 1566) All the preaching of the priest, all his teaching and leading, all his works of charity, all his pastoral care comes into clarity of meaning at the altar. There, through his hands by consecration, the offerings of the whole Church are united to the perfect self-offering of Christ to the Father. It is there that love, our greatest commandment and vocation, finds meaning and fulfillment. There Eucharist, the "source and summit of the Christian life" (CCC 1324), is enabled, is made present among us.

Deacon
The deacon has his share in the full three-fold ministry, also under and through his bishop, with a special charism linked indeed to the name of his office. He is "deacon", servant. His place is among the ordained clergy of the Church, with his part in the teaching, and governing, and sanctifying roles of the ordained, yet with a unique calling as deacon. At altar, he is servant. At ambo, he is servant. In ministries of justice and charity, he is servant. In the servant-heart of Christ, the deacon finds his meaning and call. At the foot of the cross, standing with Mary and John, the deacon finds his formation and mission. The deacon is to live love in the name of the Church, as a witness to her and to all the world, of Him who came "not to be served but to serve." (Mt 20:28) The deacon has his place in the ministry of the altar, and in the ministry of the word. He is called to offer sacrifice with the priest, and to proclaim the Gospel. But his focus, his unique call, is in the ministry of Christ as King. In His kingdom even on earth, in solidarity with his bishop, the deacon lives and leads as servant. His central ministry is the ministry of justice and charity, and it is from this ministry that his place at altar and his words derive their power and their authenticity.

Lay Person
The laity have an irreplaceable role in the three-fold ministry of Christ, deriving from the unique secular character of their place in the world. Interrelated among those outside the Church, through their positions in human industry, in economics, in politics, in communities and groups and associations, the laity have unique and privileged places of influence. Sent out to be light, they are in the very places of hunger and need. Sent out as children by His grace, they are among the lost for whom Christ died. Occupying places of influence, they are sent to bear witness through both word and deed that a new way has come upon the earth: a way of justice, peace, truth, love. The laity are in places where there is no bishop, priest or deacon; they are there when no one else can bear witness to the Gospel of Life. If the laity is not faithful to this vocation, where will the witness be? If the laity is silent, where will the word of life be? Who will be there for the lost ones, the confused ones, the abandoned ones, who do not even know what "Church" means? The laity must be Church there, and then, and for them. There is a rightful place, and indeed a need, for ministry of the laity in many works within the Church, in the three-fold ministry of Christ. Yet their focus, their centering call, must be in the world. There, in the "temporal affairs" of this life, and in their homes and families which become the domestic church, the laity have their unique and specific responsibility. (CCC 898)

Consecrated Religious
There are many expressions of the religious life in the Church; there are many gifts within this precious gift. What is formally called the consecrated religious life is characterized by solemn profession of the evangelical counsels: poverty, chastity, and obedience. (CCC 915) These counsels are proposed to every disciple, yet the consecrated religious formally and personally profess these as gift to the Church. Through this generous offering, in union with the full self-offering of Jesus, we see the special vocation of the religious. "The consecrated religious is seen as a special sign of the mystery of redemption." (CCC 932) The religious are a sign for the Church, an example, of the redemption to which we are called, of the kingdom life yet to come. All else the religious do must be seen in the context of this role, this ministry of witness and sign. How hope comes to the whole Church through the heroism of their example! How endurance and faithfulness grow as a result of the sign they are for us! How poverty would come among us, without their particular ministry within the ministry of the Church!

Man and Woman
The treasure of the original intention of God has been greatly clouded and obscured by sin. Male and female, created in the image of God, was "very good". Made to complement one another, to serve one another, to discover through one another the divine vocation to communion, mankind has in sin frustrated this original vocation. Yet in the grace of Christ we can recover this vocation, for the good of the Church and through the Church, the world. Great advances are being made in our understanding today, of the human person, and founded upon our understanding of the human person, the man and the woman. We can easily see, biologically, how sterile our world would be if all were men, or if all were women! Why, then, can we not rejoice in the gifts of man as man, and of woman as woman? Man and woman indeed were created for each other. (CCC 371-2) All cannot be men, and all cannot be women: why then can we not let men be men, and women be women? Let us welcome the genius of each, and of both! Let us be glad in the enrichment that each brings to the body, the Church. Let us recognize the sterility that will come, even in the Church, without the sincere gift of men as men and of women as women to her communion.

Consecration

This paper began with an assertion, a hope, that renewal in the Church will come about through consecrated persons. Persons, set apart for sacred service, freely consenting to a life of sacrifice as members of the body of Christ, are necessary to the life of the Church. Consecrated persons are needed in every vocation and apostolate of the Church. How alive in Christ would we be, with laity truly consecrated to their part in His life, and the ordained and the religious so consecrated as well! Formal consecration in the Church is attained by sacrament (as Baptism, as Ordination), by sacred profession (as the consecrated religious), and by liturgical rite (as the consecrated virgins). Other ways of consecration exist, such as consecration of a home and family to the Sacred Heart, the consecration of St. Louis de Montfort to Jesus through Mary, and so on.

All liturgies have a special value in preparing the soul for grace, and for providing graces even if not sacramental graces, but there is great value even in private consecration before God. It is the interior reality of personal consecration that is being address here: consecrated persons are persons of power in the Church! Renewal in the Church as a whole begins and advances through renewal in persons: among the clergy, among the laity, among the consecrated religious. Let us all consecrate ourselves in all sincerity before God, to serve in His Church. Let us each bring His life to His body, according to the way He has graciously called us to serve.

Unless otherwise noted, text is copyrighted: R. Thomas Richard, 2004.