1.      CONSECRATED LIFE “SCHOOL OF COMMUNION”

The first part of the title recalls a dual aspect of consecrated life:

-         it is a privileged environment where one learns to live the unity which Jesus came to bring on the earth and which constitutes the very heart of the Church;

-         it is called to build unity around itself spreading the communion experienced within itself.

Consecrated life recalls that communion is the way of living in the Church and that it

precedes and inspires every coordination and organization as well as the ways of relationship between religious and laity: first there is a syntony of hearts and then collaboration.

            If religious are, as is often stated, “experts of communion”, they must be able to help everyone: “they 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 fulfillment of God’s plan.” (Fraternal Life in Community n. 10) For this reason, as we read in the apostolic exhortation Vita consecrata, “The Church entrusts to communities of consecrated life the particular task of spreading the spirituality of communion, first of all in their internal life and then in the ecclesial community, and even beyond its boundaries, by opening or continuing a dialogue in charity, especially where today’s world is torn apart by ethnic hatred or senseless violence.” (n. 51)  A call is made to the ability of consecrated persons to express “a fraternity which is exemplary and which will serve to encourage the other members of the Church…” (n. 52)

            It is good to keep our awareness of this mission alive at all times, so as not to fall into the danger of intimism, in the construction of a secure and welcoming environment in which to take refuge. We are urged to experience the demanding dynamics of communion, so as to be able to become authentic specialists in a dialog of love among the various vocations of the local Church: between bishop and clergy, between clergy and laity, among the manyparish and diocesan components. We are responsible for the construction of ecclesial communion and called to know how to transmit the laws of unity first experienced within our fraternity/community.

            Fraternal life of consecrated persons is, in addition, called to become a stimulus for human coexistence itself and, beyond the Church, in a divided and unjust world. This is not the moment to spend time on this last dimension of a vocation to religious life, but the present world situation cannot exempt us from recalling it. Consecrated life is “witness to the divine plan of gathering all humanity into the civilization of love, the great family of the children of God” (VC 35); to the point of showing others “the beauty of fraternal communion”. (VC 41) In face of the war in progress, the good news of universal brotherhood seems a utopia. But we believe and live for this ideal, the same one that guided Jesus.

            On the role of building communion in the ecclesial area, I had the opportunity of already speaking on this in this assembly, bringing attention especially to the relationship of communion with new Church movements.¹ Recently, Fr. Jesús Castellano Cervera returned to the topic developing the aspect of unity among religious families.²

            Today we want to look at the relationship of communion with the laity.