Religious community and personal growth

35. Because religious community is a Schola Amoris which helps one grow in love for God and for one's brothers and sisters, it is also a place for human growth. The path is a demanding one, since it requires the renunciation of goods that are certainly highly valued,(⁴⁵) but it is not impossible. A multitude of men and women saints and the wonderful figures of religious men and women are there to prove that consecration to Christ "does not constitute an obstacle to the true development of the human person but by its nature is supremely beneficial to that development".(⁴⁶)

The path towards human maturity, which is a prerequisite of a radiant evangelical life, is a process which knows no limits, since it involves continuous enrichment not only of spiritual values but also of values in the psychological, cultural and social order.(⁴⁷)

In recent years, major changes in culture and custom have been oriented, in practice, more towards material realities than towards spiritual values. This makes it necessary to pay attention to some areas where, today, persons appear to be particularly vulnerable.

36. Identity

The process of maturing takes place through one's own identifying with the call of God. A weak sense of identity can lead to a misconceived idea of self-actualisation, especially in times of difficulty, with an excessive need for positive results and approval from others, an exaggerated fear of inadequacy, and depression brought on by failure.

The identity of a consecrated person depends on spiritual maturity; this is brought about by the Spirit who prompts us to be conformed to Christ, according to the particular characteristic provided by "the founding gift which mediates the Gospel to the members of a given religious institute".(⁴⁸) For this reason, the help of a spiritual guide, who knows well and respects the spirituality and mission of the institute, is most important. Such a one will "discern the action of God, accompany the religious in the ways of God, nourish life with solid doctrine and the practice of prayer".(⁴⁹) This accompaniment is particularly necessary in the initial stage of formation, but it is useful throughout life, in order to foster "growth towards the fullness of Christ".

Cultural maturity also helps one face the challenges of mission by acquiring the tools necessary for discerning future trends and working out appropriate responses, in which the Gospel is continuously proposed as the alternative to worldly proposals, integrating its positive forces and purifying them of the leaven of evil.

In this dynamic, the consecrated person and the religious community are a proposal of the Gospel, a proposal which manifests the presence of Christ in the world.(⁵⁰)

37. Affectivity

Fraternal life in common requires from all members good psychological balance within which each individual can achieve emotional maturity. As mentioned above, one essential element of such growth is emotional freedom, which enables consecrated persons to love their vocation and to love in accordance with this vocation. It is precisely this freedom and this maturity which allow us to live out our affectivity correctly, both inside and outside the community.

To love one's vocation, to hear the call as something that gives true meaning to life, and to cherish consecration as a true, beautiful and good reality which gives truth, beauty and goodness to one's own existence -- all of this makes a person strong and autonomous, secure in one's own identity, free of the need for various forms of support and compensation, especially in the area of affectivity. All this reinforces the bond that links the consecrated person to those who share his or her calling. It is with them, first and foremost, that he or she feels called to live relationships of fraternity and friendship.

To love one's vocation is to love the Church, it is to love one's institute, and to experience the community as one's own family.

To love in accordance with one's vocation is to love in the manner of one who, in every human relationship, wishes to be a clear sign of the love of God, not invading and not possessing, but loving and desiring the good of the other with God's own benevolence.

Therefore, special formation is required in the area of affectivity to promote an integration of the human aspect with the more specifically spiritual aspect. In this respect, the guidelines contained in Potissimum Institutioni(⁵¹) concerning discernment of "a balanced affectivity, especially sexual balance" and "the ability to live in community" are particularly relevant.

However, difficulties in this area are frequently echoes of problems originating in other areas: affectivity and sexuality marked by a narcissistic and adolescent attitude, or by rigid repression, can sometimes be a result of negative experiences prior to entering the community, but they can also be a result of difficulties in community or apostolate. A rich and warm fraternal life, one that "carries the burden" of the wounded brother or sister in need of help, is thus particularly important.

While a certain maturity is necessary for life in community, a cordial fraternal life is equally necessary in order to allow each religious to attain maturity. Where members of a community become aware of diminished affective autonomy in one of their brothers or sisters, the response on the part of the community ought to be one of rich and human love, similar to that of our Lord Jesus and of many holy religious -- a love that shares in fears and joys, difficulties and hopes, with that warmth that is particular to a new heart that knows how to accept the whole person. Such love -- caring and respectful, gratuitous rather than possessive -- should make the love of Our Lord seem very near: that love which caused the Son of God to proclaim through the Cross that we cannot doubt that we are loved by Love.

38. Difficulties

A special occasion for human growth and Christian maturity lies in living with persons who suffer, who are not at ease in community, and who thus are an occasion of suffering for others and of disturbance in community life.

We must first of all ask about the source of such suffering. It may be caused by a character defect, commitments that seem too burdensome, serious gaps in formation, excessively rapid changes over recent years, excessively authoritarian forms of government, or by spiritual difficulties.

There may be some situations when the one in authority needs to remind members that life in common sometimes requires sacrifice and can become a form of maxima poenitentia, grave penance.

In some cases recourse to the social sciences is necessary, in particular where individuals are clearly incapable of living community life due to problems of insufficient maturity and psychological weakness, or due to factors which are more pathological.

Recourse to such intervention has proved useful not only at the therapeutic stage -- in cases of more or less evident psycho-pathology -- but also as a preventive measure, to assist in the proper selection of candidates, and to assist formation teams in some cases to address specific pedagogical and formative problems.(⁵²)

In all cases, in choosing specialists, preference is to be given to those who are believers and are well experienced with religious life and its dynamics. So much the better if these specialists are themselves consecrated men or women.

Finally, the use of such methods will be truly effective only if it is applied exceptionally and not generalised; this is so partly because psycho-pedagogical measures do not solve all problems and thus "cannot substitute for an authentic spiritual direction".(⁵³)

From me to us

39. Respect for the human person, recommended by the Council and by various succeeding documents,(⁵⁴) has had a positive influence on the praxis of communities. Simultaneously, however, individualism has spread, with greater or lesser intensity depending on the regions of the world, and in various forms: the need to take centre stage; an exaggerated insistence on personal well-being, whether physical, psychological or professional; a preference for individual work or for prestigious and "signed" work; the absolute priority of one's personal aspirations and one's own individual path, regardless of others and with no reference to the community.

On the other hand, we must continue to seek a just balance, not always easy to achieve, between the common good and respect for the human person, between the demands and needs of individuals and those of the community, between personal charisms and the community's apostolate. And this should be far from both the disintegrating forces of individualism and the levelling aspects of communitarianism. Religious community is the place where the daily and patient passage from "me" to "us" takes place, from my commitment to a commitment entrusted to the community, from seeking "my things" to seeking "the things of Christ".

In this way, religious community becomes the place where we learn daily to take on that new mind which allows us to live in fraternal communion through the richness of diverse gifts and which, at the same time, fosters a convergence of these gifts towards fraternity and towards co-responsibility in the apostolic plan.

40. In order to realise such a community and apostolic "symphony", it is necessary:

a) to celebrate and give thanks together for the common gift of vocation and mission, a gift far surpassing every individual and cultural difference; to promote a contemplative attitude with regard to the wisdom of God, who has sent specific brothers and sisters to the community that each may be a gift to the other; to praise him for what each brother or sister communicates from the presence and word of Christ;

b) to cultivate mutual respect by which we accept the slow journey of weaker members without stifling the growth of richer personalities; a respect which fosters creativity but also calls for responsibility to others and to solidarity;

c) to focus on a common mission: each institute has its own mission, to which all must contribute according to their particular gifts. The road of consecrated men and women consists precisely in progressively consecrating to the Lord all that they have, and all that they are, for the mission of their religious family;

d) to recall that the apostolic mission is entrusted in the first place to the community and that this often entails conducting works proper to the institute. Dedication to this kind of community apostolate helps a consecrated person mature and grow in his or her particular way of holiness;

e) to consider that religious, on receiving in obedience personal missions, ought to consider themselves sent by the community. For its part, the community shall see to their regular updating and include them in the reviews of apostolic and community commitments.

During the time of formation, all good will not withstanding, it may prove impossible to integrate the personal gifts of a consecrated individual within fraternity and a common mission. It may be necessary in such cases to ask, "Do God's gifts in this person... make for unity and deepen communion? If they do, they can be welcomed. If they do not, then no matter how good the gifts may seem to be in themselves, or how desirable they may appear to some members, they are not for this particular institute.... It is not wise to tolerate widely divergent lines of development which do not have a strong foundation of unity in the institute itself".(⁵⁵)

41. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of small communities, especially for reasons of apostolate. These communities can also foster closer relations among religious, prayer which is more deeply shared, and a reciprocal and more fraternal taking up of responsibility.(⁵⁶)

But there are some motives which are questionable, such as sameness of tastes or of mentality. In this situation, it is easy for a community to close in on itself and come to the point of choosing its own members, and brothers or sisters sent by the superiors may or may not be accepted. This is contrary to the very nature of religious community and to its function as sign. Optional homogeneity, besides weakening apostolic mobility, weakens the Pneumatic strength of a community and robs the spiritual reality which rules the community of its power as witness.

The effort involved in mutual acceptance and commitment to overcoming difficulties, characteristics of heterogeneous communities, show forth the transcendence of the reason which brought the community into existence, that is, the power of God which "is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

We stay together in community not because we have chosen one another, but because we have been chosen by the Lord.

42. Whereas culture of a western stamp can lead to individualism which makes fraternal life in common difficult, other cultures can lead to communitarianism which makes giving proper recognition to the human person difficult. All cultural forms need evangelization.

The presence of religious communities -- which, through a process of conversion, enter into a fraternal life where individuals make themselves available to their brothers or sisters, and where the "group" enhances the individual -- is a sign of the transforming power of the Gospel and of the coming of the Kingdom of God.

International institutes in which members from different cultures live together can contribute to an exchange of gifts through which the members mutually enrich and correct one other in the common desire to live more and more intensely the Gospel of personal freedom and fraternal communion.

Being a community in permanent formation

43. Community renewal has greatly benefited from permanent formation. Recommended and presented in its basic outline by the document Potissimum Institutioni,(⁵⁷) permanent formation is considered by all who are responsible for religious institutes as of vital importance for the future.

In spite of some uncertainties (difficulties in integrating its different aspects, difficulties in sensitising all the members of a community, the absorbing demands of apostolic work, and a correct balance between activity and formation), most institutes, at either the central or local level, have undertaken initiatives.

One of the goals of such initiatives is to form communities that are mature, evangelical, fraternal and capable of continuing permanent formation in daily life. Religious community is the place where broad guidelines are implemented concretely, through patient and persevering daily efforts. Religious community is, for everyone, the place and the natural setting of the process of growth, where all become co-responsible for the growth of others. Religious community is also the place where, day by day, members help one another to respond as consecrated persons, bearing a common charism, to the needs of the least and to the challenges of the new society.

Quite frequently, responses to existing problems can differ and this entails obvious consequences for community life. From this arises the realisation that one of the challenges intensely felt today is to integrate members who were given a different formation and have different apostolic visions into one single community life, in such a way that these differences become not so much occasions of conflict as moments of mutual enrichment. In such a diversified and changeable context, the unifying role of those responsible for community becomes ever more important; it is appropriate to provide them with specific support in the area of permanent formation, in light of their task of motivating the fraternal and apostolic life of their communities.

Based on the experience of recent years, two aspects deserve particular attention: the community dimension of the evangelical counsels and the charism.

44. The community dimension of the evangelical counsels

Religious profession expresses the gift of self to God and to the Church -- a gift, however, which is lived in the community of a religious family. Religious are not only "called" to an individual personal vocation. Their call is also a "con-vocation" -- they are called with others, with whom they share their daily life.

There is here a convergence of "yeses" to God which unites a number of religious into one single community of life. Consecrated together -- united in the same "yes", united in the Holy Spirit -- religious discover every day that their following of Christ "obedient, poor and chaste", is lived in fraternity, as was the case with the disciples who followed Jesus in his ministry. They are united with Christ, and therefore called to be united among themselves. They are united in the mission to oppose prophetically the idolatry of power, of possession and of pleasure.(⁵⁸)

Thus, obedience binds together the various wills and unites them in one single fraternal community, endowed with a specific mission to be accomplished within the Church.

Obedience is a "yes" to God's design, by which He has entrusted a particular task to a group of people. It brings with it a bond to the mission, but also to the community which must carry out its service here and now and together. It also requires a clear-sighted vision of faith regarding the superiors who "fulfil their duty of service and leadership"(⁵⁹) and who are to see that there is conformity between apostolic work and the mission. It is in communion with them that the divine will -- the only will which can save -- must be fulfilled.

Poverty, the sharing of goods, even spiritual goods, has been from the beginning the basis of fraternal communion. The poverty of individual members, which brings with it a simple and austere life-style, not only frees them from the concerns inherent in private ownership but it also enriches the community, enabling it to serve God and the poor more effectively.

Poverty includes an economic dimension: the possibility of disposing of money as if it were one's own, either for oneself or for members of one's family, a life-style too different from that of fellow community members and from the poverty level of the society within which one is living -- these things injure and weaken fraternal life.

"Poverty of spirit", humility, simplicity, recognising the gifts of others, appreciating evangelical realities such as "the hidden life with Christ in God," respect for the hidden sacrifice, giving value to the least ones, dedication to efforts that are neither recognised nor paid -- these are all unitive aspects of fraternal life and spring from the poverty professed.

A community of "poor" people is better able to show solidarity with the poor and to point to the very heart of evangelization because it concretely presents the transforming power of the beatitudes.

In the community dimension, consecrated chastity, which also implies great purity of mind, heart and body, expresses a great freedom for loving God and all that is his, with an undivided love and thus with a total availability for loving and serving all others, making present the love of Christ. This love, neither selfish nor exclusive, neither possessive nor enslaved to passion, but universal and disinterested, free and freeing, so necessary for mission, is cultivated and grows through fraternal life. Thus, those who live consecrated celibacy "recall that wonderful marriage made by God, which will be fully manifested in the future age, and in which the Church has Christ for her only spouse".(⁶⁰)

This communal dimension of the vows must be continuously fostered and deepened -- a process which is characteristic of permanent formation.

45. The charism

This is the second aspect of permanent formation to which we must give special attention in order to promote the growth of fraternal life.

"Religious consecration establishes a particular communion between religious and God and, in him, between the members of the same institute.... The foundation of unity, however, is the communion in Christ established by the one founding gift."(⁶¹) Reference to the institute's founder and to the charism lived by him or her and then communicated, kept and developed throughout the life of the institute,(⁶²) thus appears as an essential element for the unity of the community.

To live in community is to live the will of God together, in accordance with the orientation of the charismatic gift received by the founder from God and transmitted to his or her disciples and followers.

The renewal of recent years, re-emphasising the importance of the originating charism by rich theological reflection,(⁶³) has promoted the unity of the community, which is seen as bearer of this same gift from the Spirit, a gift to be shared with the brothers or sisters, and by which it is possible to enrich the Church "for the life of the world." For this reason, formation programmes which include regular courses of study and prayerful reflection on the founder, the charism and the constitutions of the institute are particularly beneficial.

A deepened understanding of the charism leads to a clearer vision of one's own identity, around which it is easier to build unity and communion. Clarity concerning one's own charismatic identity allows creative adjustment to new situations and this leads to positive prospects for the future of the institute.

A lack of clarity in this area can easily cause insecurity concerning goals and vulnerability with respect to conditions surrounding religious life, cultural currents and various apostolic needs, in addition to the obstacles it raises regarding adaptation and renewal.

46. It is therefore necessary to promote an institute's charismatic identity, especially to avoid a kind of genericism, which is a true threat to the vitality of a religious community.

Several factors have been identified as having caused suffering for religious communities in recent years and, in some cases, continue to cause it:

- a "generic" approach -- in other words, one that lacks the specific mediation of one's own charism -- in considering certain guidelines of the particular Church or certain suggestions deriving from different spiritualities; - a certain kind of involvement in ecclesial movements which exposes individual religious to the ambiguous phenomenon of "dual membership;" - in the essential and often fruitful relationships with laity, especially with lay collaborators, a certain adjustment to a lay mentality. Instead of offering their own religious witness as a fraternal gift which would encourage Christian authenticity, they simply imitate the laity, taking on their way of seeing and acting, thus weakening the contribution of their own consecration; - an excessive accommodation to the demands of family, to the ideals of nation, race or tribe, or of some social group, which risks distorting the charism to suit particular positions or interests.

The genericism which reduces religious life to a colourless lowest common denominator leads to wiping out the beauty and fruitfulness of the many and various charisms inspired by the Holy Spirit.