2. The three supreme fidelities from the Trinitarian perspective of the Exhortation "Vita consecrata": fidelity to the Father, fidelity to Christ, fidelity to the Holy Spirit.

        In Vita consecrata the following affirmation never appears: fidelity to Christ, to the Church, to the Institute and to man of our time, are the "four great fidelities of the consecrated person. And it is not a matter of a simple omission.  The Exhortation has the value of having been structured from a clear Trinitarian perspective. This perspective has marked a development also in the process of clarification of the Biblical, theological and spiritual elements of the "fidelity" of consecrated persons. Such a perspective gives new light to the field of "fidelity".

        As the Pope explains in his exhortation, the Christological character of "fidelity" has to be seen in the necessary openness to the Trinitarian dimension, which characterises the reality of the "fidelity" of every Christian and in a particular way the commitments of "fidelity" of every consecrated person. It is then a question of implementing, consciously and explicitly, a constant and growing "fidelity" to the commitments of special communion of love with the Father, with the Incarnate Word and with the Holy Spirit.

         In an explicit and firm Trinitarian perspective, the language of the "four great fidelities" has to be considered now as obsolete or outdated.  In the broad Trinitarian horizon of the exhortation, the three supreme fidelities are fidelity to the Father, fidelity to Christ and fidelity to the Holy Spirit.