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The term “consecrated life” is often used in a generic way to refer to special vocations in the Church, through which the perfection of charity is sought. In canon law consecrated life includes only religious institutes, >hermits, consecrated virgins (>Virgins) and secular >institutes. Associated in the popular mentality with these, although canon law does not include them in consecrated life, are also the societies of apostolic life.
The new canon law in this regard has taken special care to accommodate each and every one of the particular charisms, trying to avoid the rigidity to which the Code of Canon Law of 1917 tended. The new Code establishes norms for all institutes of consecrated life (CCC 573-606). These are characterized by the profession of the evangelical counsels and a stable way of life within an institute canonically erected by the competent ecclesiastical authority (CIC 573). The competent authority can be the local bishop (CTC 579, 595) or the Holy See (CIC 589). Consecrated life, by its very nature, is neither clerical nor secular: some institutes are recognized by the Church as clerical (although they may also have lay members); others are recognized as laity (CIC 588). The >exemption is maintained in certain aspects of the government of the local bishop in favor of the Holy See or another ecclesiastical authority (CIC 591). Each institute must expose and explain its way of understanding the evangelical counsels (CIC 598-601). Two canons on hermits and consecrated virgins are added.
All forms of consecrated life in the broad sense have tried to renew themselves after Vatican II. In general, they have identity problems in the face of the council’s insistence on the universal call to holiness (LG, c. V). Some have wanted to minimize the difference with respect to the faithful in general, thereby further increasing their identity crisis. Others continue to try to give expression to the specifics of their lives in front of Christians in general. The council did not hesitate to affirm the validity of religious life (LG, c. VI; PC) and of other forms of radical commitment. One of the features of the post-conciliar Church has been the appearance of new forms of committed Christian life (>Associations of the faithful; >Church movements), and even of consecrated life in the strict sense, the new Code of Law also dealing with the latter canonical (CIC 605).
The key theological point in relation to the consecrated life is that it is a way of living more radically the original consecration, which takes place in baptism. Strictly speaking, one would have to say that it is God who consecrates: it is God who gives the initial vocation to baptism and subsequent calls. The response through vows in consecrated life has taken many forms throughout history, all of which have enriched the Church, since each of them highlights in its own way some aspect of the mystery of Christ and of the only holiness, which has innumerable forms (LG 41). .
Christopher O´Donell – Salvador Pié-Ninot, Dictionary of Ecclesiology, San Pablo, Madrid 1987
Source: Dictionary of Ecclesiology
Imitation of the lifestyle of the Lord
The “consecrated life” has always been presented as an imitation and extension of the Lord’s own style of life. The called persons share the same life of Jesus (in his being or consecration and in his dedication), to prolong his same mission. This evangelical following of the twelve Apostles and other people called by Jesus has been called “apostolic life” (“apostolica vivendi forma”). It is a follow-up in fraternity for the mission.
The “perfection of charity” (LG 40), which is the vocation of every Christian, is expressed in a special way in the permanent (and “professed”) practice of the evangelical counsels, as a radical “evangelical following” to conform to Christ and associate spousally. In addition to baptismal consecration, “consecrated persons, who embrace the evangelical counsels, receive a new and special consecration that, without being sacramental, commits them to embrace, in celibacy, poverty and obedience, the way of life practiced personally by Jesus and proposed by Him to the disciples” (VC 31). This consecration entails a “special conformation with the virgin, poor and obedient Christ” (ibid.).
Ecclesial sign of espousal with Christ
The ecclesial sign of consecrated life, as a “state of life that belongs to the life and holiness of the Church” (LG 44), is part of the “sacramental” structure of the Church. In this way, a trinitarian itinerary is made, in the Spirit, through Christ, to the Father. It is a spiritual, community and missionary itinerary, which assumes the totality of the person in a spousal love for Christ, chaste, poor and obedient, to live in the presence of the Lord in the midst of the brothers (the fraternity) and to “love and make loved”. to Love”, according to the expression of Teresa of Lisieux, patron saint of the missions. In this way, “consecrated life itself, under the action of the Holy Spirit… becomes a mission, as the entire life of Jesus has been” (VC 72).
The contents or essential elements of the “consecrated life”, or life of “special consecration” (RD 7; PC 5), according to evangelical doctrine and ecclesial tradition, can be summarized in the following attitude of personal relationship with Christ (encounter , contemplation, betrothal), to share his same life of charity expressed mainly in chastity-poverty-obedience (follow-up), in communion of brothers and in view of the mission. Thus it appears as “a peculiar consecration that is intimately rooted in the consecration of baptism and expresses it more fully” (PC 5; cf. can. 573).
The “following of Christ as proposed in the gospel” (PC 2), is concretized (especially in religious life) through a stable commitment or “profession of the evangelical counsels”, to tend to “the perfection of the charity” (PC 1; LG 42; can. 573). Then the “consecrated life” appears as a sign of donation or total consecration to God, to serve in the mission of extending the Kingdom of Christ, in the communion of the Church, on the way towards “eschatology” or final encounter with Christ the Bridegroom (LG 43 -46). This consecration is carried out as a (public) commitment or profession of the evangelical counsels, received by the legitimate Superior (cf. can. 656.5 and 1192.1).
It is total consecration to God, to “live more and more for Christ and his Body which is the Church” (PC 1). As an ecclesial “sign”, it is within the context of the “Covenant”, which is God’s marriage with his Church and with all humanity. The spousal love for Christ is shown in the love for the Church, bride, mystery, communion and mission (cf. Eph 5:25-27). “His spousal love for Christ becomes, almost organically, love for the Church, Body, People of God, Spouse and Mother” (RD 15).
The various forms or modalities of consecrated life (personal or community) are concrete applications of consecration and mission, according to founding charisms and also according to historical, sociological and cultural circumstances. These various modalities are due to the emphasis placed on some of the aspects of liturgical celebration, contemplation, follow-up, community, services, commitments (promises, vows…), associative mode… It is always about grace-bearing ecclesial signs, to live in a peculiar way the same evangelical demands. None of these modalities is exclusive or exclusive, but should tend to appreciate the sign of grace of the others.
Renewal according to conciliar and post-conciliar documents
The “consecrated life” has been inspired by the evangelical following and also by the primitive ecclesial community, where believers were “one heart and one soul” because “they had all things in common” (Acts 4:32). Every renewal of consecrated life will always have this point of reference. This will be a life “according to the model of the consecration of the Mother of God” (RD 17) and as “a type of virginal life that Christ the Lord chose for himself and that the Virgin Mother embraced” (LG 46). In consecrated life, radical following is nuanced by the founding charism, by its Constitutions (cf. VC 36-37, 42, 72) and by the history of grace of each Institute, the concrete way of putting the evangelical counsels into practice, fraternal life and local and universal missionary availability.
The “consecrated life” is described in the council in view of a renewal, in the light of “perfect charity” expressed through the evangelical counsels. In the conciliar decree “Perfectae caritatis” some principles or criteria for such renewal are indicated, according to the various historical modalities and always in the context of the practice of the evangelical counsels and of the peculiar means of perseverance and formation. The numerous post-conciliar documents were specifying and applying these same contents according to different situations, with a view to a better adaptation and insertion.
The tone of the post-synodal exhortation “Vita Consecrata” is one of hope in the face of new challenges and new demands for evangelical renewal, and in view of the evangelization of today’s world. The identity of consecrated life is explained through its relationship with the mystery of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit (it is a “confession” of the Trinity). The life of chastity, poverty and obedience, as an imitation of the life of the Lord and in harmony with his sentiments, acquires that salvific, Trinitarian, Christological and pneumatological light, as an integral part of the mystery of the Church. This special consecration, because it is a participation in the same consecration of Christ the Bridegroom, necessarily leads to the totalizing and universalist mission entrusted by Christ to his bride, the Church (cf. Jn 20:21).
Community life will be a guarantee of a greater insertion in today’s world and of a permanent missionary commitment towards the local and universal mission. Living the mystery of Christ present in the community, as a sign before the world through the Church, translates into missionary efficacy. “The mission strengthens consecrated life, infuses it with renewed enthusiasm and new motivations, and stimulates its fidelity” (VC 78). Communion (as a sign of brotherhood) becomes an effective mission.
Apostolic action is carried out in “intimate union with Christ” (PC 8). Contemplation necessarily leads to “apostolic love”, as “association with the work of redemption and expansion of the Kingdom of God” (PC 5). The experience of the “sense of the Church” leads to “devoting oneself totally to her mission” (PC 6) with a “mysterious apostolic fruitfulness” (PC 7). In this way, consecrated life will preserve its characteristic “missionary spirit” (PC 20). “The mission is inscribed at the heart of each form of consecrated life……