2 … they were united, heart and soul
A second visibility factor for the consecrated life is that of life in community; today this may be one of the elements most attractive to young people; and almost the most important for those who are seeking something or who make judgments. It is therefore necessary to give an adequate picture of community life within the consecrated life, both as it is and as it seeks to be, especially if the community life is apostolic. The form religion most often takes amongst young people in cities is that of belonging to a group. Being a Christian is almost to belong to a group; one finds everything necessary for a life of faith, and the vocational process should emphasize that a fundamental element of the vocation is personal choice, including the fact of leaving one’s home and one’s own country to go where the Lord calls us.

No doubt the sense of what ‘community’ means rests in the vocational pastoral and in the transparent dimension of the consecrated life. Despite the individualism which is so deeply rooted in our society, the desire for a fraternal life is one of the elements most strongly felt by young people interested in the consecrated life, and it is precisely those community attitudes, such as welcome, brotherhood, simplicity, hospitality, forgiveness, compassion… which attract and get through to them; when these attitudes are present they make people want to share them.

Earlier I referred to the urgent responsibility the Pope places on consecrated life in the post-synodal document, so that we should zealously encourage fraternal life, following the example of the first Christians in Jerusalem. The Pope wants to make visible to the world communities "in which solitude is overcome through concern for one another, in which communication inspires in everyone a sense of shared responsibility, and in which wounds are healed through forgiveness, and each person’s commitment to communion is strengthened" (VC 45). Solitude, communication, forgiveness… attitudes which clearly and strongly demonstrate the fruits of the "new commandment".

Elsewhere in his Exhortation the Pope speaks of communities of consecrated life in the different societies of our world where "persons of different ages, languages and culture meet as brothers and sisters [and] are signs that dialogue is always possible and that communion can bring differences into harmony" (VC 51).

These are communities which reflect the joy and happiness of living in fraternal love in an apostolic relationship. There is no question of hiding the difficulties that exist whenever people live together on a long-term basis; if we reveal them openly, young people can understand them without being shocked and we can invite them to "come and see" the efforts we make to attain "love for one another", to share faith and prayer, to heal old wounds through kindness and welcome, to talk about our problems… "come and see" how we try, sometimes with difficulty, to build communities of solidarity and reconciliation.

In a cultural context strongly imbued with individualism, these apostolic and prayer communities are comprehensible signs of the evangelical values of consecrated life which can certainly raise awareness and awaken the desire to belong; not only would such communities be a valid way to inspire vocations, but their existence would certainly also bring with it the revitalization of the Institution. The effort to engender life in its turn revitalizes the body of the congregation; in some places, vocational promotion has without doubt become a factor in the renewal of the community. However, to be effective, vocational promotion must in turn rely on the visibility of renewed community life; such community life will not leave anyone who enters into contact with it impassive or without questions.