|
Religious community as expression of ecclesial
communion
10. From the very beginning, consecrated life has cultivated this intimate
nature of Christianity. In fact, the religious community has felt itself to be
in continuity with the group of those who followed Jesus. He had called them
personally, one by one, to live in communion with himself and with the other
disciples, to share his life and his destiny (cf. Mk. 3:13-15), and in this way
to be a sign of the life and communion begun by him. The first monastic
communities looked to the community of the disciples who followed Christ and to
the community of Jerusalem as their ideal of life. Like the nascent Church,
having one heart and one soul, so the monks, gathering themselves under a
spiritual guide, the abbot, set out to live the radical communion of material
and spiritual goods and the unity established by Christ. This unity finds its
archetype and its unifying dynamism in the life of unity of the Persons of the
Most Blessed Trinity.
In subsequent centuries, many forms of community have arisen under the
charismatic action of the Spirit. He who searches the depths of the human heart
reaches out to it and satisfies its needs. He raises up men and women who,
enlightened by the light of the Gospel and sensitive to the signs of the times,
give life to new religious families -- and hence to new ways of living out the
one single communion in a diversity of ministries and communities.(24)
It is impossible to speak of religious community univocally. The history
of consecrated life witnesses to a variety of ways of living out the one
communion according to the nature of the various institutes. Thus, today we can
admire the "wondrous variety" of religious families which enrich the
Church and equip her for every good work(25) and, deriving from this,
the variety of forms of religious communities.
Nevertheless, in the various forms it takes, fraternal life in common
has always appeared as a radical expression of the common fraternal spirit
which unites all Christians. Religious community is a visible manifestation of
the communion which is the foundation of the Church and, at the same time, a
prophecy of that unity towards which she tends as her final goal. As
"experts in communion, religious are, therefore, called to be an ecclesial
community in the Church and in the world, witnesses and architects of the plan
for unity which is the crowning point of human history in God's design. Above
all, by profession of the evangelical counsels, which frees one from what might
be an obstacle to the fervour of charity, religious are communally a prophetic
sign of intimate union with God, who is loved above all things. Furthermore,
through the daily experience of communion of life, prayer and apostolate -- the
essential and distinctive elements of their form of consecrated life -- they
are a sign of fraternal fellowship. In fact, in a world frequently very deeply
divided and before their brethren in the faith, they give witness to the
possibility of a community of goods, of fraternal love, of a programme of life
and activity which is theirs because they have accepted the call to follow more
closely and more freely Christ the Lord who was sent by the Father so that,
firstborn among many brothers and sisters, he might establish a new fraternal
fellowship in the gift of his Spirit".(26)
This will be all the more visible to the extent that they not only think
with and within the Church, but also feel themselves to be Church, identifying
themselves with her in full communion with her doctrine, her life, her pastors,
her faithful, her mission in the world.(27)
Particularly significant is the witness offered by contemplative men and
women. For them, fraternal life has broader and deeper dimensions which derive
from the fundamental demand of this special vocation, the search for God alone
in silence and prayer.
Their constant attention to God makes their attention to other members
of the community more delicate and respectful, and contemplation becomes a
force liberating them from every form of selfishness.
Fraternal life in common, in a monastery, is called to be a living sign
of the mystery of the Church: the greater the mystery of grace, so much the
richer is the fruit of salvation.
In this way, the Spirit of the Lord, who gathered together the first
believers, and who continually calls the Church into one single family, calls
together and nourishes religious families which, by means of their communities
spread throughout the world, have the mission of being clearly readable signs
of that intimate communion which animates and constitutes the Church, and of
being a support for the fulfilment of God's plan.
|