February 2, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, is the day on which the Church celebrates the World Day of Consecrated Life. Therefore, we want to take time in the wake of this feast, to reflect on the meaning and beauty of the consecrated life.
“I have called you by name: you are mine.” These words from the Book of the prophet Isaiah sum up the deepest longing of every woman’s heart – the longing to be known, to be loved, and to belong. Every human being is made for relationship. It is part of our very essence. In Genesis we read, “The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” (Genesis 2:18) And so he creates the woman. From this it is obvious that our longing and need for relationship – our longing to be known, to be loved, and to belong, is fulfilled in the sacrament of marriage. But what about for those who are called to the consecrated life? Do we renounce this deepest longing of our hearts? Absolutely not. On the contrary!
The consecrated life is also a call to relationship – a call to be known, loved, and to belong in the deepest sense of the words. We are called to belong completely and undividedly to God, the one who created us and loves us above all others – our hearts and our bridal love belong to him alone. Our founder, Fr. Kentenich, applied the above words from Isaiah to the call to the consecrated life: “God has called to me: ‘You are mine!’ God wanted that I give myself to him. I responded to God’s ‘You are mine!’ with ‘Here I am! I want to be yours for time and eternity!’” (J. Kentenich, Childlikeness Before God, 6) What an amazingly precious gift! A gift which none of us could ever “earn” or merit. On the contrary – he calls us precisely in our weakness, in our brokenness. As Mark tells us in his Gospel, “[Jesus] went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him.” (Mark 3:13, emphasis added) His call, our consecration, is his gift to us. It is a call to love, a call to consecrate our hearts completely to him. Born of a personal encounter with the Lord, it is a call to enter into a deeper relationship with him.
However, the relationship doesn’t end there. Just as a marriage doesn’t end in the relationship of the spouses to one another, but becomes fruitful in the gift of children, so as consecrated persons, given completely to God, we are also called to be spiritual mothers and fathers to all of God’s children. Precisely because our hearts belong to God alone, they are able to expand to embrace the whole world, for we are called to love what our Beloved loves. In his Apostolic Exhortation, Vita Consecrata, St. John Paul II sums up this innate call to mission in the consecrated life:
In the image of Jesus, the beloved Son “whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world” (Jn 10:36), those whom God calls to follow him are also consecrated and sent into the world to imitate his example and to continue his mission. Fundamentally, this is true of every disciple. In a special way, however, it is true of those who, in the manner that characterizes the consecrated life, are called to follow Christ “more closely”, and to make him the “all” of their lives. The task of devoting themselves wholly to “mission” is therefore included in their call; indeed, by the action of the Holy Spirit who is at the origin of every vocation and charism, consecrated life itself is a mission, as was the whole of Jesus’ life. (Vita Consecrata, 72)
This then is the meaning and the beauty of the consecrated life – we consecrate our life, our heart to a person, to Jesus, and he sends us out to bring his love into a thirsting world. However, we are not alone in this mission. He gives us as our constant companion and guide the most perfect example of consecrated life: our Blessed Mother. She was completely surrendered to God as no other human being. All her love belonged to him alone, and therefore, under the cross, he was able to give her to all of humankind as our Mother. Consecrated to and consecrated for. In the deepest union with her Son, she loves and cares for her children here on earth as only a mother can. Therefore, whatever our vocation may be – whether we are called to consecrated life or to marriage, may she intercede for each of us the grace to answer God’s call as she did – with our whole heart. “Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum – Let it be done to me according to your word.”