DIOCESE OF WOLLONGONG –
VOCATIONS CONGRESS GATHERING of RELIGIOUS
RUSE – MAY 18, 2006
Luncheon Reflection – Mary Ryan rsj
Your
Excellency, Archbishop Ambrose De Paoli, Apostolic Nuncio
to Australia, Bishop Peter Ingham, and religious sisters,
brothers and priests of the Diocese of Wollongong: I am
both honoured and delighted (and not a little daunted!) to
be here in your midst today, at this special Vocations
Congress event for the religious of the Wollongong Diocese.
Peter didn’t feature in today’s Gospel, but
I’m going to borrow his words and say: “It is
good to be here!” – and I hope that
you’re feeling the same way!
I am aware that this is not the first time you have
gathered together as a Diocesan community for Eucharist and
conviviality, and I hope and presume that this annual
gathering will continue. I can’t help projecting into
the future, and wondering how many religious
you
think might be present at this annual event in ten
years’ time – i.e. in 2016!?! (Note that I
didn’t say ‘Who
might be here?”, but “How many?” Would I
be right in presuming that many of you would be thinking
… ‘Well, certainly not this many … and
maybe there’ll be just a handful of us’ ??
Dare I appear to be a cock-eyed optimist and state my
belief that there could well be at least as many as are
present here today, and hopefully, a whole lot of new,
fresh, young faces! Please don’t dismiss me as a
hopeless idealist! … or a fixated
‘number-cruncher’! Rather, allow me share my
reasons as to why I believe that, Religious Life is NOT
destined for extinction, as so many people would have us
believe!
Through my ministry in the National Vocations office, I
have the privilege of collaborating with many positive,
enthusiastic people from across this country, who share my
passion for fostering a ‘VOCATIONS CULTURE’,
across Australia, and my dream of seeing this happen in
every diocese, parish, school, Catholic organisation and
family. My duties as Executive Officer of CVMA are many and
varied ~ I love my ministry! It is constant, … has
plenty of challenges …it is extremely life-giving!
Quite frankly, it’s the best thing that’s ever
happened to me! However, there
is
one
ongoing aspect of my ministry which has proved to be
bitter-sweet, and has often made my heart ache.
Part of my brief is to support the religious and priests
who are the designated vocations ministers of their
congregation or diocese. I love this aspect of my work, but
quite often I am saddened by what I hear back from a
significant number of these colleagues of mine. Vocations
Ministers are a great bunch of people:
•
they’re enthusiastic, energetic folk who have a
passion for their vocation;
•
they’ve been chosen by their leaders because they are
a good advertisement for Religious Life or diocesan
priesthood;
•
they treasure the mystery and gift of their call;
and
•
they’re really keen to invite the younger generation
to at least consider joining their ranks – because
they believe in the future of Religious Life ~ and that
becoming a sister, brother or priest is a wonderful,
life-giving, viable option for some younger men and women!
Most of these vocations ministers begin their role with vim
and vigour, yet, for a significant number of them, the
‘bubble bursts’ within a relatively short time:
their energy is depleted, and their excitement and hope are
noticeably diminished.
Why?
•
What has caused their angst?
•
Why are they sad, frustrated and even demoralised?
It’s the lack of support, or the straight-out
resistance they encounter from
some
of the members of their congregations – often a
relatively small, but vocal and influential group - who
bombard them with arguments, clichés like:
•
It’s the age of the laity … We religious have
done our bit: we’ve outlived our usefulness
OR
…
•
Who’d want to join us? … We’re too old
… the age-gap is too great (that’s just not
true!)
OR
…
•
We should be putting our energy into promoting
associateship … lay people can pass on our charism!
(I’m all for associateship, but, I do wonder: in ten
or twenty years’ time, with whom will these
associates associate?!?)
If
you think your congregation is on the way out … if
you think Religious Life is dying, why would you support
your vocations director/co-ordinator?
Is
Religious Life dying?
Do
religious orders still have a place in the Church? Popes
Paul VI and John Paul II, who firstly recognised and
honoured the vocation of every baptised person, also
consistently affirmed the place of Religious Life within
the Church. John Paul II unashamedly promoted religious and
priestly vocations. Year after year, he wove this
particular thread through his messages for World Day of
Prayer for Vocations (4th
Sunday of Easter), and he never shifted from this position!
Last year, just before he died, he wrote :
The coming World Day of Prayer for Vocations … is a
special occasion for reflecting on the vocation to follow
Christ, and, in particular, to follow him in the priesthood
and Religious Life.” (WDPV 2005)
The
wonderful 2002 Roman document “Starting Afresh From
Christ”, provided a very welcome and reassuring
affirmation of the place of Religious Life in the Church of
the 3rd
millennium. It actually responded to the above-named
issues, concerns and arguments that have been raised in
support of the ‘Religious Life is dying’
thesis:
The
decrease in members in many Institutes, and their ageing,
evident in some parts of the world, give rise to the
question of whether consecrated life is still a visible
witness, capable of attracting young people. If, as is
affirmed in some places, the third millennium will be the
time of promotion of the laity, of associations, and of
ecclesial movements, we can rightfully ask:
What place will be reserved for the traditional forms of
consecrated life?
Consecrated life, John Paul II reminds us, still has a
history to be written ~ together with
all
the faithful! [#12] YES!!!
Our new Pope, Benedict XVI is clearly upholding JP
II’s unshakeable belief in the future of Religious
Life: in this year’s World Youth Day (Palm Sunday)
message, Benedict wrote to the young people of the world:
There
is an urgent need for the emergence of a new generation of
apostles anchored firmly in the word of Christ, capable of
responding to the challenges of our times and prepared to
spread the Gospel far and wide …If Jesus calls you,
do not be afraid to respond to him with generosity ~
especially when he asks you to follow him in the
consecrated life or in the priesthood. Do not be afraid;
trust in him and you will not be disappointed.
Then,
a few weeks later, in his first message for the annual
World Day of Prayer for Vocations (4th
Sunday of Easter) he wrote, again affirming his belief in
Religious Life, and challenging each of us to recall and
reflect upon the essence of our commitment as religious
women and men:
Another special vocation, which occupies a place of honour
in the Church, is the call to the consecrated life.
Following the example of Mary of Bethany who “sat at
the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching”
(Lk 10, 39), many men and women consecrate themselves to a
total and exclusive following of Christ. Although they
offer different kinds of services in the field of human
formation and the care of the poor, in teaching or in
assisting the sick, they do not consider these activities
as the principal aim of their life, since, as the Code of
Canon Law well underlines, “The first and foremost
duty of all religious is to be the contemplation of divine
things and assiduous union with God in prayer” (can.
663 §1). Moreover, in the Apostolic Exhortation ‘Vita
Consecrata’, John Paul II noted: “In the
Church's tradition religious profession is considered to be
a special and fruitful deepening of the consecration
received in Baptism, inasmuch as it is the means by which
the close union with Christ already begun in Baptism
develops in the gift of a fuller, more explicit and
authentic configuration to him through the profession of
the evangelical counsels” (VC # 30).
So
… Does Religious Life have a future? YES! I firmly
believe it does! And ~ I’ve discovered that
it’s not only popes and Roman documents that agree
with me!! Throughout the last decade, during which
the
‘Religious Life is dying’
theory has gathered momentum, a significant number of the
Church’s contemporary intellectual and theological
giants have voiced their unequivocal belief in the value
and future of Religious Life. Their works are household
names: Catherine Harmer MMS, Seán Sammon FMS, Sandra
Schneiders IHM, Gerard Arbuckle SM, Joan Chittister OSB,
Diarmuid O’Murchu SHM …the list could go on!
It has been so good to read their words: to savour their
hope optimism ~ and be confronted, sobered and stung by
their challenges! These are women and men who have lived
and loved Religious Life over many years. They have
survived the long years of the post-Vatican II
‘agiornamento’, experiencing first hand the ups
and downs, the personal and communal struggles, as their
congregations attempted to get a handle on the sweeping
reforms called forth by Perfectae Caritatis. Despite, or
perhaps
because
of all of this, every one of these authors sees a future
for Religious Life - albeit a very different future from
what we have hitherto known and experienced, AND one which
will continue to demand the investment of our whole selves
– our time, our talents and our passion.
Because they have written from a whole range of
perspectives, their works are, naturally, very different.
Yet these writers have much in common, as they courageously
speak their truth, and call every one of us forth from
complacency, or self absorption or pessimism - or perhaps
all three! They have all, in their own way, demonstrated
their passion for the gift of Religious Life, but: they do
not run from the fact the Vatican II renewal of Religious
Life is still a ‘work in progress’. Way back in
1994, Joan Chittister osb claimed that ‘Religious
Life is still alive, but far from the promised land!’
Twelve years later, it’s true to say:
“we’re still ‘not there
yet’!” Perhaps we never will be! I believe that
one thing is certain, though:
•
unless we have new members to help us forge and shape this
new and different future,
•
unless we step out of our comfort zone, let go of our
control and allow new members to change and refound us,
Religious congregations will
not
be able to continue fulfilling their unique, vital,
prophetic role within the Church and the world of the
3rd
millennium.
Joan Chittister, responds to the often-asked question
“Why would anyone become a religious sister, priest
or brother today?” by turning the question right
around! ‘The real question is’, she says,
‘Well,
why not
?” Religious Life, she insists ‘…is not
a better way, it is not a higher way, but it is the
only
way for this particular person to come fully alive in the
reign of God.’ She goes on to say: The fact is that
for some people, Religious Life is the way that best calls
them to their finest and most spirit-filled selves.
And she’s ‘spot-on’ - if we are to take
seriously Jesus dream of fullness of life for every person.
For some people, religious life is
the
way that enables them to reach their fullest potential, to
become their ‘best self’, and thereby make
their ‘best possible’ contribution to the life
of the Kingdom of God in their small part of the world.
If
Religious Life has been for so many of us, the way through
which we have come to be our ‘best self’, then
why couldn’t this be so for future generations of men
and women? Aren’t we doing them a giant disservice by
not putting the idea before them? Surveys in recent years
have revealed that young people who have chosen religious
vocations have done so for two basic reasons:
firstly,
the example of a religious,
and secondly,
an explicit invitation to consider Religious Life as an
option.
WHY is it that so many family businesses in our cities and
towns can attract succeeding generations of their family
members to come on board with them into the business and
take it forward into the future? It doesn’t take
rocket science to work out that it’s because the
younger generation have imbibed their elders’ passion
for their particular profession or trade. Have you ever
noticed how many funeral directors proudly advertise that
theirs is a family business – which is sometimes
three or four generations old! Another example of this is
the well known Sydney fish monger-turned-entrepreneur,
Peter Doyle, who, at the time of his death in 2003, had
twenty five members of his extended family involved with
him in his business. If the passion of an older generation
for funerals and fish can inspire and attract younger
people to carry forward the baton of their family’s
business into an unknown and different future, why is it
that the members of our congregations: faithful,
faith-filled, fulfilled religious can’t, or
don’t, or won’t , invite younger people to
become sisters, brother and priests, and thereby empower
them to share their talents, gifts and generosity as they
take the ‘business’ of the reign of God on into
the future? Why??? I don’t have the answer –
only the question!
All
of the authors I named a little earlier are far more clever
and learned than I am! If it’s good enough for three
successive popes and a star-studded line-up of contemporary
theologians to believe that Religious Life has a future,
then it’s good enough for me!! However … the
mere fact that they (and I) share this conviction does not
automatically guarantee that it WILL survive! Religious
Life, and individual religious congregations will only
continue – and thrive – if present-day
religious believe in the future, and are willing to invest
in it! Admittedly, there is a whole range of issues that we
need to name, own and address, and there are skills and
insights that we need to acquire (if time allowed I would
love to elaborate on some of these!). However, suffice it
to say that there
will
be a future for our congregations
if
we believe that today, perhaps more than ever before,
Religious Life does have a place and a prophetic role
within the Church. ‘Starting Afresh From
Christ’ calls us to reclaim this place, in communion
with the laity:
Only in an integrated ecclesiology, wherein the various
vocations are gathered together as the one people of God,
can the vocation to consecrated life once again find its
specific identity as sign and witness [SAFC#31]
Religious Life will have a future - if WE are willing to
invest in it, if every one of us is both enthusiastic about
it, and willing to invite new members, into our own, or
other congregations. Let us take seriously the challenge of
Starting Afresh from Christ, which reminds us that
‘care for vocations is a crucial task for the future
of consecrated life [#17] and baldly, but beautifully
confronts us with the statement: The consecrated person is,
by nature, also a vocation animator: One who is called
CANNOT NOT become a caller. [#16] …. One who is
called CANNOT NOT become a caller!
Of course, becoming a caller has wider ramifications than
simply inviting new members to our own religious
congregations! Because we belong to the Church, we cannot
separate ourselves from the much bigger ‘vocations
picture’, and our call from God and the Church to
commit ourselves to collaborating with others as we create
and foster a
vocations culture
across our dioceses and country. Thus, religious men and
women must become key players in empowering young adults:
firstly to discover their call to holiness, and thence to
discern the specific vocation through which God is calling
them to fullness of life, and thereby to make their own
unique contribution to their small part of the world.
Religious, especially older religious can play a
significant role in this respect. Young people are looking
for mentors and spiritual guides, and who is better
qualified than sisters, brothers and priests, irrespective
of their age, who have precious gifts to share with the
younger generation … their wisdom, their
faithfulness, their spirituality, and the many people
skills they have gained through their years a ministry.
Remember the Gospel story of the ‘Visitation’?
… Why
did the young Mary choose the much older Elizabeth as her
trusted confidante? …
Joan Chittister asks: “Why can’t the vocations
find us?”, and her answer is simple, but blunt:
“It’s because we’re whispering!”
For the sake of the Reign of God, and future generations of
God’s people – let’s
stop
the whispering and
start
shouting from the roof-tops: that Religious Life really IS
good news – for us and for our world!
•
Let
us
invest in the future of Religious Life!
•
Let
us
share the gift that it has been to us!
•
Let
us
visualise new generations of younger religious taking our
prophetic charisms forward in hitherto undreamed of ways!
•
Let
us
take the responsibility for inviting that next generation
into our own communities – or other religious
congregations!
and,
•
Let us dare to dream that ‘our greatest leaders may
not yet have entered our congregations’!
Another contemporary author, Fr Terrance Klein, strongly
believes that If [religious] vocations are not forthcoming,
something needs to be reformed in the church, not in
heaven. In the light of his insight, and what I have
already said, let me finish with a question which I believe
is worth our pondering again and again: WHAT might need
reforming … in myself? … my local community?
… my province or congregation?