Florida Catholic | Bishop Wenski's Column

‘Wherever the Church is at work … consecrated women are there’

NOVEMBER 16, 2007

“The one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk 14:11). Let’s hear it for the religious women who, in following the evangelical counsels, seek the path of humble service lived within an exalted vocation. Here in the Diocese of Orlando, we are blessed with a goodly number of religious sisters who work in various ministries of this local Church: They serve in our schools and parish religious education programs and in administrative posts in our chancery, but also they are found among the poor, the immigrant and the developmentally disabled.

Wherever the Church is at work — defending and promoting human persons and the common good — consecrated women are there; and not in those first places where they could bask in the approval of the crowds, but in the “last places” — working often unnoticed and unappreciated. But this is precisely what makes their witness all the more powerful and prophetic.

For, as Jesus said, the last place is the place of the disciple. As consecrated members of Christ’s faithful, vowed to poverty, chastity and obedience, the lives of the “sisters” are signs of contradiction. And as such, their lives encourage others. In fact, their lives challenge others to take a position regarding Jesus.

This Jesus is not a remote figure remembered from a long-past history. Rather, for vowed religious he is a living person, a person with whom one can have an intimate friendship, a friendship which has inspired them to follow him without compromise.

And because of this, religious women over the centuries have rightly been called Brides of Christ. This expression has its roots in the Scriptures. St. Paul in Ephesians speaks of Christ’s love for the Church as the love of a groom for his bride. Like the terms “People of God,” “Body of Christ,” the “New Jerusalem” and other expressions found in the Bible, this phrase, “Bride of Christ,” helps the community of believers understand better the Mystery that is the Church of Christ.

Consecrated women live out the implications of what friendship with Jesus means. They witness to and help illustrate the meaning of the vocation of the entire Church called to be the Bride of Christ. Their lives model for all of us the demands of discipleship as we each strive to live out our baptismal vocation to holiness and make our pilgrimage to the Father’s House and to the joys of heaven likened in the Scriptures to a great Wedding Feast.

A pilgrim — of necessity — cannot be weighed down by extra baggage. And for this reason the evangelical counsels help those in consecrated life mirror Mary’s free response to the Lord’s invitation. Poverty, chastity and obedience lived according to the spirit of their particular congregation’s rule of life have freed them for the journey — and for service. Like Mary, before God, the sisters say: “Be it done unto me according to your word”; before men, they instruct us as Mary instructed the servants at Cana: “Do whatever he (Jesus) tells you.”

The consecrated life is a call to humble service within an exalted vocation: By belonging entirely to God, they belong entirely to their brothers and sisters. I would ask any young woman or girl to prayerfully consider whether God might be calling her to religious life. For further information, ask any one of the good sisters who serve us so well in the Diocese of Orlando or contact our Vocation Office.

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