“Theologically, what distinguishes the religious profession against the lay life?”. "A new and special consecration." "But is it not enough the baptism’s consecration to become holy?“. I have not heard this dialogue in a Protestant circle, but no less than in a Synod of Bishops. Not about the laymen, but about the consecrated life. Of course, not only here, because the debate, skeleton or amplified with the appropriate theological, anthropological, sociological categories, was repeated in various locations. So much that the Synod, perplexed, or at least uncertain, prayed to the Holy Father to clarify the issue, which dragged by the time of the Council. In this dialogue shows the comparison between democracy of baptism typical of the laity and the aristocracy of the consecrated life, between the "new" of baptism source of equal dignity and the traditional excellence of the consecrated life.

The difficulty of harmonizing two positions seemed particularly difficult for an approach to the problem which aligned itself, more or less unconsciously, in analogy with the structures of civil society which is democratic or aristocratic. But a biblical approach, which is what the founding, the question becomes clear: the Lord Jesus preached to all the conversion and to someone He addressed the invitation to follow him, leaving everything behind. To everyone He was asked to follow his doctrine and example, some were also asked to follow him in his traveling mission, which demanded the utmost freedom from any bond. The theology was to say then: for all there is the baptism, there is also for someone the religious profession or the sacred order. This second form comes from a new and special call, which implies a new and special gift of the Spirit, which creates a new and special consecration. Indeed, from the baptism is not necessarily born the flower of virginity. But it must have been planted on purpose.
So in the Church the democracy of baptism can coexist with the nobility of those who are called to dedicate themselves completely to the mission of Jesus. A very curious aristocracy, because it comes from a more intense, more free, since the nobility in the Kingdom of God is proportionate to the dedication of service performed in the image of Lord Jesus who came to serve and not to be served. Maybe that's why today is so little coveted the aristocracy of the consecrated life? It’s sure, it takes some courage to take seriously a life of service, not always rewarding and always to be considered "useless". It is obvious that the Pope has chosen the biblical path of coexistence of two possibilities of life and mission in the Statute of the Kingdom.

About the consecration

If the analogy with the civil society had tangled an understanding of the relationship between baptism and consecration of religious consecration, the influence of anthropocentric culture had influenced some areas of theological reflection about the subject of the consecration. Obviously in this climate of the centrality of man,  the person who dedicates himself to God is as the good doctor consecrated to the service of his patients and a good mother to her children. Certainly this is true, but not all, since the Lord Jesus says: "You did not choose me, but I chose you." You did not choose to devote yourself, but I consecrate you. That is I keep you for myself and my cause.

The primary subject of the consecration is God who corresponds the response of the human person who agrees to be consecrated and then gives her consent and "consecrates herself". A nice theological summary is offered by Vita consecrata: God, our Father, reserves for Himself a person, that is He devoted her to him, placing her in the following of Christ, in a charismatic project approved by the Church. The person responds dedicating herself to the Father, having been seduced by Christ, upon whom the Spirit casts a fascinating and irresistible majesty.

What about the mission?

In the laborious period of preparation for the Synod the urgency of the mission was highlighted, so as to suggest that was in the focus of the Synod Assembly. The mission was above all a more dynamic category, more right for responding to ongoing change, certainly more than the consecration, which emphasized the static being, the permanence of the relationship with the eternal and who very often had been used to block the expected developments . The Synod recognized the mission as objective of the consecrated life, but putting  the consecration as integrated part of its mission.

The consecrated life is in mission in the first place with her special consecration, which recalls the primacy of God, the example of Christ, and "the infinite power of the Holy Spirit marvelously working in the Church." In this perspective, the contemplatives too are on  mission, since they place positive energy in the body of the Church and even they consider themselves in the heart of the Church, if not the same heart of the Church. But even the consecrated person who is on the decks of activity, brings the announcement of the singleness of Christ, offering the spectacle of his life "Christi formis/like Christ", accepted or contested.

The foundation

The consecration founds the mission for another reason too. It arises from the discovery of the person of the Lord Jesus and his uniqueness, including his form of life, which reveals a mad love from the Creator to his creature. Consecration is the expression of this "crazy" love as a response to the crazy love of the Son of God who has taken that form of life, so disconcerting and so different from all human expectations, humanly not so desirable.

Consecration is the result of theoretical and practical understanding of the indisputable fact, though paradoxical, that the shape of life in Christ is the divine way of living the human life. "To be with Christ in all" to reproduce his form of life, which means "to be for God" and "being for the others". And so the consecration founds the mission. Consecration is a shift/decentralization, from the self to God, from me to us, from the ego to the brothers, a shift /decentralization in the form and style of life of Christ.

Interdisciplinarity?

To do the students better understood in what is basically the "new and special consecration" of religious profession, sometimes I concluded with a draw focus rather unusual to the interdisciplinarity: from theology to zoology, although a rather popular zoology. The story goes that one day a pig and a chicken wandering around a courtyard and reaching under the windows of a farmhouse, they hear coming from the kitchen smelled of a dish made with eggs and ham. "As you see - the chicken says to the pig - we both end up in the same way." "Just a minute - the pig says - you give the eggs, I give life. Yours is a gift, mine is a holocaust." At this point there was no need to continue because everything became clear. Oh! the power of the popular imaginary (and common sense!).

Pier Giordano Cabra csf
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