Pope to Secular Institutes: You are revolutionary!
Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has told the men and women of Italy’s Secular Institutes
that their establishment was a revolutionary and courageous act that revealed how
his predecessor Pius XII knew how to read the signs of the times.
Handing
his prepared text to the 200 consecrated lay men and women present, the Pope preferred
to speak to them from the heart. He began by describing Pius XII’ apostolic constitution
Provida Mater Ecclesia as an act of courage that the Church of the time needed.
It institutionalized the reality of communities of lay consecrated men and women,
and since then – the Pope said – “you have done great good for the Church, with great
courage because we need courage to live in this world”.
“Many of you –
he noted – life alone or in community, you come and go. You live everyday life in
the world, but at the same time custody this contemplative dimension; contemplation
of the Lord and the world; the reality and beauty of the world; the great sins of
society, its deviations, all of these things…”
“This is why your vocation
is fascinating – Pope Francis continued – because it takes place right there, where
the salvation of man is played out and not just of man but of the institutions too
no? “. “May you always safeguard this attitude, to go beyond things…and not just beyond…
but to the very heart of things, where everything is played out: politics , economy
, education , the family ... there! …Don’t be tempted to think…but what can I do?
Remember the Lord spoke to us about the grain of wheat, eh! Your life is like the
grain ... wherever you are do everything you can for the Kingdom to come. A simple
life, a simple gesture but be yeast, be the grain, which makes [the Kingdom] grow.
Thank you so much for what you do in the Church; thank you so much for your prayers
and actions. Thank you for the hope and do not forget , eh! : Be revolutionary !”
Below
please find a Vatican Radio translation of the Holy Father’s prepared text:
Dear
Brothers and Sisters , I welcome you on the occasion of your Assembly and greet
you by saying: I know and I appreciate your vocation! It is one of the newer forms
of consecrated life recognized and approved by the Church, and perhaps one that is
not yet fully understood. Do not be discouraged: you are part of that poor and outward
reaching Church that dreams!
By vocation you are laity and priests like others
in the midst of others, you lead an ordinary life, without outward signs, without
the support of a community life, without the visibility of an organized apostolate
or specific works. Your only wealth is the all-encompassing experience of love of
God and for this you are able to know and share life’s trials in their many forms,
maturing them with the light and power of the Gospel .
You are a sign of the
Church in dialogue spoken of by Paul VI in the Encyclical Ecclesiam suam, " Since
the world cannot be saved from the outside, we must first of all identify ourselves
with those to whom we would bring the Christian message-like the Word of God who Himself
became a man. Next we must forego all privilege and the use of unintelligible language,
and adopt the way of life of ordinary people in all that is human and honorable. Indeed,
we must adopt the way of life of the most humble people, if we wish to be listened
to and understood. Then, before speaking, we must take great care to listen not only
to what men say, but more especially to what they have it in their hearts to say.
Only then will we understand them and respect them, and even, as far as possible,
agree with them. Furthermore, if we want to be men's pastors, fathers and teachers,
we must also behave as their brothers. Dialogue thrives on friendship, and most especially
on service. All this we must remember and strive to put into practice on the example
and precept of Christ"(n.87). The theme of your Assembly , "At the heart of human
events: the challenges of a complex society", points to the scope of your mission
and your prophecy. You are in the world but not of the world, carrying within you
the essentials of the Christian message: the Father's love that saves. You are in
the heart of the world with the heart of God.
Your vocation makes you interested
in every individual and his or her deepest issues that often remain unspoken or masked.
By virtue of the love of God that you have encountered and known, you are capable
of closeness and tenderness. So you can be so close as to touch others, their wounds
and expectations, their questions and needs, with a tenderness that is an expression
of care that erases all distance. Like the Samaritan who walked by and saw and had
compassion . This is the movement to which you have committed your vocation: to journey
alongside each person and be close to every person you meet; because your being in
the world is not simply a sociological condition, but it is a theological reality
that calls you to be aware, to care for, recognize, see and touch the flesh of your
brethren.
If this does not happen if you become distracted , or worse still,
do not know this contemporary world but know and visit only the world that you are
more comfortable with or more drawn to, then conversion is urgently needed! Yours
is an outward reaching vocation by nature, not only because it brings you to others,
but also because it asks you to live where every man lives.
Italy is the country
with the largest number of secular institutes and members. You are a yeast that can
produce good bread for many, the Bread of which there is so much hunger: someone to
listen to people’s needs, desires, disappointments, hopes. Like those who has preceded
you in your vocation, you can restore hope to young people, help the elderly, open
roads to the future, spread love in every place and in every situation. If this does
not happen, if your ordinary life lacks witness and prophecy, then, I repeat to you,
there is an urgent need for conversion!
Never lose the momentum of walking
the streets of the world, aware that walking, even with an uncertain step or limping,
is always better than standing still, locked within your questions or securities.
The missionary passion, the joy of Christ that urges you to share with others the
beauty of faith, reduces the risk of becoming stuck in individualism. The line of
thought that proposes man as creator of himself, guided only by his own choices and
desires, often vested in the seemingly beautiful garment of freedom and respect, threatens
to undermine the foundations of consecrated life, especially of lay people. There
is an urgent need to re-evaluate your sense of belonging to your vocational community
which, precisely because it is founded on community life, finds its strengths in its
charisma. For this reason, if each of you are a precious opportunity for others to
meet with God, it is about rediscovering the responsibility of being prophecy as a
community, to seek together, with humility and patience, a word of sense that can
be a gift for the country and for the Church, and to bear witness to it with simplicity.
You are like antennas ready to seize the seeds of innovation prompted by the Holy
Spirit, and you can help the ecclesial community to take on this gaze of goodness
and find new and bold ways to reach all peoples.
Poor among the poor, but with
a burning heart. Never still, always on the move. Together [in community] and sent
out [into the world], even when you are alone, because your consecration makes you
a living spark of the Church. Always on the road with the virtue that is of pilgrims:
joy !
Thank you, dear friends, for what you are. May the Lord bless you and
Mary keep you. And pray for me!