The prophetic witness in the modern world

The prophetic witness in the modern world

Nidhin

 The consecrated life is the life of witness in this world.  It is the prophetic witness to the primacy which God and the truths of the gospel have in the Christian life. This prophetic witness is the special form of sharing in Christ’s Prophetic office. According to Bl. Pope John Paul II the true prophecy is born of god, from friendship with him, from attentive listening to his word in the different circumstances of history.

 The religious must feel in their hearts a burning desire for the holiness of god and, having heard his word in the dialogue of prayer, they proclaim that word with their lives, with their lips and with their actions, becoming people who speak for god against evil and sin (VC 84). This is how the religious are expected to do their prophetic witness.

This contemporary world demands a convincing prophetic witness because they seem to have lost the awareness god’s presence. The consecrated persons must give witness to the affirmation of God and eternal life. It is in this place the evangelical counsels become necessary for the consecrated persons to become witness in the world. They imitate the chaste, poor and obedient Christ. The living of these counsels itself is prophetic in this present society.

The prophetic character of the religious life demands the consistency between proclamation and living. The religious proclaim their vows publically and in order to fulfill their prophetic witness they must live them in its fullness. But, this modern world and its rationalistic thoughts raises many challenges to the consecrated life. To overcome these challenges the consecrated persons must have a courage and faithfulness of a martyr.  They must bear witness to Christ the lord with the gift of their lives.

Bl. Pope John Paul II speaks about three major challenges of religious life in ‘Vita Consecrata.’ They are directly related to the evangelical counsels of chastity poverty and obedience. The vows from the rationalistic point of view is misinterpreted as a denial of the values inherent in sexuality, in the legitimate desire to possess material goods or to make decision for oneself. But the real meaning of the evangelical counsels are far beyond these explanations. It is not the denial of the values of human life but it is the affirmation of the real values of the created goods and it relativize the created goods by pointing to God as the absolute Good. Thus they find the real value of everything and reject the idolatry of anything created.

 Now let us go little deep into the challenges of the consecrated life. The first challenge of the religious life is the challenge to the consecrated chastity. That arises from the Hedonic culture. We know what hedonism is. They have a different understanding of happiness. They consider bodily pleasures as the real happiness. And they separate the sexuality from all the objectives of moral norms. It is a kind of idolatry of sexual instinct. The consecrated persons through living the vow of chastity give witness to the world that it is possible to love God with whole heart, putting Him above every other love and thus love every creature with the freedom of god. It gives a witness to the interior honesty in human relationships. The vow of chastity does not limit the nature of man i.e. to love. But it gives a joyful liberating experience. It gives the freedom to love everyone in this world in a same way. Through this vow the consecrated persons are liberated from binding themselves to one person or one family.

 Another major challenge is the materialism. It is the challenge to the vow of poverty. Materialism is a desire for possession without considering the needs and sufferings of others especially of poor. And the result is; the rich becomes richer and richer and the poor becomes more poor and poorer. The profession of the evangelical poverty is the authentic witness or testimony against this materialism. It is expressed in an active involvement in the promotion of the solidarity and charity. Through deferent charitable works and educational institutes the consecrated persons fight to overcome the hunger and its cause. By living the poverty they learn more to give than take or possess. Thus they overcome the challenge of materialism. They attest that god is their true wealth and challenge the idolatry of money.  The consecrated persons live the poverty by respecting and conserving the creation. They do it through reducing the consumption, by living more simply and placing a necessary brake on their own needs. They show a preferential love for the poor by sharing their conditions of life through living and working among them.

The different understanding of the notion of freedom is another major challenge to consecrated life and it is the field where the religious through the vow of obedience give a prophetic witness to the world. Considering the obedience of Christ to the Father as the point of reference we can prove that there is no contradiction between obedience and freedom. Obedience is actually the gradual conquest of true freedom. We gain the freedom of the children of God through obedience so we can say that obedience makes us actually what we are. We find our true identity as children of God through obedience.

 As a conclusion we can say that the challenges that consecrated persons faces in their lives challenges them to show the world a true testimony with their lives. And the evangelical counsels are the means for giving witness to the world. The counsels makes them prophets and give them the courage of a prophet.