The offer of the Christian people to God from the Church

M. Anna Maria Canopi OSB

The vast calendar of the Jubilee celebrations includes one on February 12, the feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the temple, a special convocation of all the members of the Church who made the choice of consecrated life. Is it a special Jubilee in the scope of the great Jubilee? It is better to view it as a strong moment in the Jubilee year, in that the Church has in its consecrated members its most living expression, the ones that bring it back to its own origins. In fact, for two thousand years, Christ is followed and passionately loved by a large number of men and women, who, after having met him, let themselves grab onto him and pushed by the Spirit, dedicated their whole lives to him. It was precisely because they were won over by Him, the one who in order to return men to the Father made himself their brother and for them he chose to die, and that is why the consecrated follow the ideal of the greatest love that pushes one to give their lives for others. The Gospel offers us the living picture of the first encounters of Jesus with his disciples. They are few words that are needed to transform their lives, opening them to unexpected horizons and entrusting them with a universal mission. Master where do you live? Come and you will see, and that day they remained next to him (cit. John 1, 38-39); and still: Follow me, I will turn you into fishers of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him (cit. Mark 1,17).The yes to the Fathers plan, the desire to remain with Jesus, the readiness to follow Him wherever He went, are the characteristics of every Christian life, but in particular in the lives of the consecrated, those who are never against the love for Christ. The feast day of the Presentation of Jesus at the temple has been for many years particularly dedicated to the consecrated and therefore was retained as the most appropriate celebration for them during the Jubilee. Just as Jesus was presented and offered to the temple, so is every consecrated person an offer accepted by the Church and presented to God as an offering on the part of the whole Christian population. The gift of this vocation and this great responsibility that it holds is a great one. In fact, with Jesus, Light of al people, even the religious are called to be a light that shines in the darkness of the world; with Jesus, whose redeeming sacrifice we prophetize, even He like Mary, the first and incomparable consecrated cooperative in the redemption is invited by the Spirit to let themselves be assimilated by the Lamb, sacrificed for the salvation of everyone. The consecrated, however, acknowledging that they are carriers of a great treasure, or clay vases do retain their human weaknesses and are, or perhaps even more than others, faced with the temptation of bringing even less to their alliance of love with Christ, they know they have to continuously commit themselves to conversion. The Jubilee offers them an extraordinary occasion to complete, all together, an itinerary of preparation to become even more aware of their real connection with the grace of the vocation that wants them more conform to Christ in order to make Him visible in the presence of brothers. The condition to enable the profound participation to the particular grace of the appointment offered by the Jubilee is that of obtaining, with an open soul, the welcoming gift of the Spirit, who always renews the heart in love. The first of the three days of preparation, therefore, is dedicated to a solemn celebration of thanks for the gift of the vocation. In fact, nothing more than gratitude warms the heart or makes it more available to grasping the Word, which was behind the initial generous answer. Nothing more than that can highlight the marks of faith of the Lord, who guided the steps of individuals for a long twenty centuries of history. From gratitude, then, come sincere repentance the theme of the second day for not having always known how to correspond fully with the expectations of God. Even this penitential celebration has a festive tone: in fact, it proclaims the divine mercy and the joy that comes from the constant renewal of forgiveness on the part of God, who finds his joy precisely through saving men and is pleased in seeing all of his children resemble Christ. It is this faith and it is this hope that puts the consecrated once again more clearly on that path, which in this era appears as though their lives are undergoing a profound identity crisis. In reality, it only concerns an adjustment period, an adjustment that they are experiencing in faith, knowing that from their serene witness, they are particularly dependent on the Church and on all of humanity. In fact, it is easy to be carried away by pessimism or discouragement having seen the man dramatic instances of our history that have involved evil. The communal Eucharistic adoration, which is the theme of the third day of preparation, indicates the inexhaustible source on which to peg faithfulness and generosity, up to the point of extreme sacrifice. A particular duty of consecrated life is that of keeping alive in those who have been baptized the knowledge of the fundamental values of the Gospel, witnessing in a unique and splendid way that the world cannot be changed and offered to God without the spirit of the Beatitudes. In this way, consecrated life continuously reminds the People of God for the need to answer with sanctity of life and the love of God, that is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, so is written in the Apostolic Exhortation, Consecrated Life (cit. n. 33). The spirit of the Beatitudes, which is the basis for the origin of the spirituality of consecrated life, consists essentially in humility and in the pureness of heart, to open up to hear and to allow oneself to be obedient, experimenting in this way with the real poverty, which is the lose of oneself in the yes to the love which is aimed at full communion with God and with brothers. Since the Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente exhorts each one to do all that is in their power to do, so that the great challenge of 2000 is met, which is certainly tied to a particular grace of the Lord for the Church and for humanity, we can correctly state that the consecrated, witness of the faith in God and of the faith to God, are the people who today are in a better position to give humanity a contribution of hope and help to discern the real values and to choose them while resisting the seduction of other idols that populate the scenario of this world. Thus, this Jubilee day for the consecrated offers the world an optimum occasion to realize that the source of beauty and joy, to which each human heart aspires, is right there, in Christ, who is the same, yesterday, today and through the centuries.