Super Bowl : It Is Possible To Build A Culture of World of PeacePrevious Article
Summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates: The Pope Encourages Promotion of Understanding and DialogueNext Article
Breaking News

Consecrated Life: “€œNot Professionals of the Sacred”€ but “€œFathers and Mothers”€

Article
Line Spacing+- AFont Size+- Print This Article
Consecrated Life: “€œNot Professionals of the Sacred”€ but “€œFathers and Mothers”€

On February 2, 2017, the 21st World Day for Consecrated Life. Pope Francis encouraged consecrated persons “€œnot to be professionals of the sacred”€ but “€œfathers and mothers.”€ During a Mass in Saint Peter”€™s Basilica in the Vatican, the Jesuit Pope exhorted to reject the temptation to “€œsurvival”€ and to “€œrediscover what one day inflamed our heart.”€

In his homily, in the presence of thousands of consecrated persons, the Holy Father meditated on Simeon”€™s canticle in the Gospel for the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple (Luke 2:22-40): “€œthe hymn of the believing man who, at the end of his days, is able to affirm: it”€™s true, hope in God never disappoints, it does not deceive. (…) Life merits being lived with hope because the Lord keeps His promise,”€ he said.

“€œToday, we too want to sing: God does not deceive, hope in Him does not disappoint,”€ he added. The Holy Father encouraged to “€œrediscover what one day inflamed our heart.”€

The Jesuit Pope explained that this attitude “€œpreserves us from a temptation that can render our consecrated life sterile: the temptation to survival.”€  temptation that “€œmakes us become reactionaries, fearful … in shuts us in, slowly and silently in our houses and in our schemes, … it projects us backwards.”€

“€œThe psychology of survival takes away the strength of our charisms,”€ warned Pope Francis: “€œit makes us want to protect more the spaces, the buildings and the structures than render possible new processes.”€ This temptation “€œmakes us forget grace, it makes us professionals of the sacred but not fathers, mothers or brothers of hope.”€

And the Pontiff continued: “€œThis climate of survival hardens the heart of our elders by depriving them of the capacity to dream and, thus, it sterilizes the prophecy that the younger are called to proclaim and realize. In a few words, the temptation to survival transforms in danger, in menace, in tragedy what the Lord presents to us as an opportunity for the mission.”€

In face of the present “€œmulti-cultural transformation,”€ the Pontiff appealed to consecrated persons to “€œput Jesus in the midst of His people”€ and “€œto put ourselves with Jesus in the midst of His people.”€ Not “€œas activists of the faith”€ but by going out “€œ”€of ourselves to be united to others,”€ not “€œin lamentation or in anxiety”€ … but in praise and in serenity; not in agitation but in the patience of one who entrusts himself to the Spirit.”€

Translation by Virginia M. Forrester

For the full text of the homily click here.

Article

Vatican Live Video Feed

Pope Francis on Twitter