Vocations- if all are equal and in service of one another, how do we speak of them?
Vatican II
affirmed the universal call to perfect holiness of all Christians, whatever
their state or condition,[1]
with the following of Christ, whose life was poor, chaste and obedient, being
the foundation of perfect love.[2]
Indeed, Rincón-Pérez notes that “the Council, as emerged from the
development of chapters V and VI of Lumen
gentium, deliberately suppressed the term “state of perfection” to avoid
making any suggestion that Christian perfection is a monopoly reserved to a
canonical state.”[3] All
Christians are called to live a life that is chaste, obedient to God and the
Church, and reasonably detached from material possessions appropriate to their
state.[4]
In so doing, all Christians are called to the perfection of love in accordance
with the fit of their proper vocation,[5]
for diversity of gifts is the work of the Holy Spirit. Thus describing consecrated life as more perfect, more complete, more radical, undermines the universal call to holiness of all the baptized.
So how do can we reflect on and speak of the differing vocations in service of one another without retreating to former language of more perfect or more radical. Does the following hold any possibilities?
- Christian marriage is a graced way of being to image/make present/to be an icon of the convenant relationship of love between God and the People of God.
- Consecrated life (or more particularly, consecrated celibacy) is a graced way of being to express the primacy of Christ and His Kingdom in our lives.
- The single way of life? A graced of way being that reflects/images God's openness to all? inclusivity? universal call to holiness?
- ........
[1] Lumen Gentium 11, 29.
[2] Perfectae Caritatis 1, 466. This was
affirmed again in John Paul II, Apostolic
Exhortation. Vita Consecrata 31.
[3] Tomás
Rincón-Pérez,
“Introduction to PARS III De institutis vitae consecratae et de societatibus
vitae apostolicae” in E. Caparros et al., Exegetical
Commentary on the Code of Canon Law: Book Ii: The People of God (Canons 460 -
746). Vol. 2,2 (Midwest Theological Forum, 2004). 1455.
[4]
John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation. Vita
Consecrata 30.
[5]
John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation. Vita
Consecrata 31.
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