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The Daily Challenges
45. It is not possible to remain indifferent to the prospect
of an ecological crisis which is making vast areas of our planet inhabitable and hostile to humanity. The rich countries are consuming resources at a
rate which cannot sustain the equilibrium of the system, thus causing poor
countries to become even poorer. Nor can one forget the problems of peace so
often threatened by the spectre of catastrophic wars.138
Greed, the craving of pleasure, the
idolatry of power, the triple concupiscence which marks history and is also at
the root of present evils can only be overcome if the Gospel values of poverty,
chastity and service are rediscovered.139 Consecrated
persons must know how to proclaim, with their lives and with their words, the
beauty of poverty of spirit and of chastity of heart which free one for service
to brothers and sisters and of obedience which gives longevity to the fruits of
charity.
How can we remain passive in the
face of contempt for fundamental human rights?140 A special
commitment must be made to certain radical aspects of the Gospel which are
often less understood but which cannot, because of this, be given less
importance in the Church's agenda of charity. First among these is the respect
for every human life from the moment of conception to natural death.
In this openness to the world which
must be ordered to Christ in such a way that all realities find their true
meaning in him, consecrated lay men and women who are members of Secular
Institutes hold a privileged position. Sharing the common conditions of life,
they effectively work for the Kingdom of God by participating in the political
and social reality bringing to them a new value, in view of their following of
Christ. Precisely through their consecration lived without external signs, as
lay people among lay people, they can be salt
and light even in those situations in which a visible sign of consecration
would be rejected or serve as an impediment.
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