“The Virtue of Waiting Upon the Lord and the Life of Religious Consecration”

Homily for the World Day for Consecrated Life
Feast of the Presentation of the Lord; St. Mary’s Cathedral

Introduction

Today marks the celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life, on which we honor our Jubilarians in religious life.  The first World Day for Consecrated Life was celebrated on February 2, 1997.  In the decree with which he established this observance, Pope St. John Paul II explained that the intention behind it was “to help the entire Church … esteem ever more greatly the witness of those persons who have chosen to follow Christ by means of the practice of the evangelical counsels and, at the same time, [that it] be a suitable occasion for consecrated persons to renew their commitment and rekindle the fervor which should inspire their offering of themselves to the Lord.”

Intention and Reasons

It is “to help the entire Church” – that is, it concerns, as he says, “the entire Christian community,” and not just those who have been given the gift of this charism.  The vocation of consecrated life does, indeed, manifest for us the very heart of what it means to live as a Christian, which is to live in evermore perfect union with our Lord Jesus Christ.

John Paul goes on to give three reasons for the purpose of this annual celebration.  First, he says, “it answers the intimate need to praise the Lord more solemnly and to thank him for the great gift of consecrated life, which enriches and gladdens the Christian community by the multiplicity of its charisms and by the edifying fruits of so many lives totally given to the cause of the Kingdom.”  First and foremost, then, it is a cause of thanksgiving.  We thank God for giving the Church this precious gift, and today in particular we thank those who have responded to it.  It is not only in the completely selfless work that consecrated persons carry out in our midst, forsaking all else for the work of the Gospel, but it is their very presence that is a sanctifying force for the entire Christian community.  The witness of their consecration is a constant reminder and inspiration to all of us to live faithfully our own particular vocation in life.  To my dear sisters and brothers with us today who have given your lives to this call, on behalf of all of us I say: thank you!

Second, Pope John Paul says, “this day is intended to promote a knowledge of and esteem for the consecrated life by the entire People of God.”  How easy it is for us to take even profoundly good things for granted when we have been abundantly blessed with them.  We must never do so with this sublime calling in life!  On the contrary, it gives us great joy to honor our Jubilarians today and all those who have answered this call.  And we must always pray for openness to this call among our younger brothers and sisters.  To those of you still discerning your vocation I say: open your heart to God’s grace, and be courageous in giving your lives completely to the Lord Jesus Christ.  The world needs your witness!

Finally, John Paul says, the observance of this day regards consecrated persons directly themselves.  It is an opportunity for them to renew and confirm their own consecration.  We are immersed in this world of hyperactivity and distractions, which can affect all of us in the work we are entrusted to do, even those who have set their lives apart and given themselves entirely to the Lord.  My dear brothers and sisters in consecrated life, may today re-energize you to always prioritize the one thing necessary, and remind you of the irreplaceable mission you have in the life of the Church.

Why on the Feast Day of the Presentation?

In addition to the reasons John Paul gives to instituting this observance, no less pertinent is the day that he chose: the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple.  Why this day?  It has to do, he explains, with the scene of our Lord being presented in the Temple as described by St. Luke in the Gospel we just heard proclaimed, in which “Simeon points to Jesus as ‘a light for revelation to the Gentiles’” and prophecies “the supreme offering of Jesus to the Father and his final victory (Lk 2:32-35).”  “In this way,” he says, “the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple is an eloquent icon of the total offering of one’s life for all those who are called to show forth in the Church and in the world, by means of the evangelical counsels ‘the characteristic features of Jesus – the chaste, poor and obedient one’ (VC 1).”

Such is the high calling of the consecrated person: to make a total offering of self to Christ, in order to be configured to Christ by renouncing all earthly pursuits and embracing the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience, lived out in a community bound together by a common rule of life.

All of this we learn from Pope John Paul II, with these first words spoken about the Church’s observance of the World Day for Consecrated Life.  But there is more to understanding why the Feast Day of the Presentation is so well-suited to this observance, which we learn from the most recent words spoken about it, that is, the homily Pope Francis gave last year for this annual observance.  In reflecting on the scene in the Temple, Pope Francis focused on the “two elders who were waiting patiently, vigilant in spirit and persevering in prayer” – Simeon and Anna.  They are elderly, but they stay awake, “like an eternal flame” he says; “advanced in age,” they are “young at heart.”  As described by St. Luke, they embody the virtue of patient waiting upon the Lord: Simeon “was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel,” and Anna “spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.”  Even with all of the suffering and oppression their people endured under Roman occupation during their lifetimes, even in old age, they did not, as Pope Francis says, “retire hope.”

He goes on to reflect on the virtue of waiting, something that certainly has become much more difficult for us in the world in which we live today.  He gives two reasons for this: neglect of the interior life and adapting to a worldly lifestyle.  Especially in religious life it is easy to become weary, to lose a sense of amazement, and to harbor bitterness.  Without preserving the interior life such a decline is inevitable, which then leads to that great danger of the worldly lifestyle. 

The Virtue of Growing Old Gracefully

We live in a world in which we have everything instantaneously: information through social media, heated food through microwave ovens, purchases of every kind over the internet.  To allow the spirit of the world to enter into our religious life will make us sterile: we will bear no fruit.  “The Christian life and apostolic mission need the experience of waiting,” the Pope reminds us.  This is because, he says, “Every day the Lord visits us, speaks to us, reveals himself in unexpected ways and, at the end of life and time, he will come.  He himself exhorts us to stay awake, to be vigilant, to persevere in waiting.”

Those who have matured into old age gracefully manifest to us this virtue of patient waiting.  Our contemporary society, it seems to me, has developed a prejudice against what is old.  What is old is seen as belonging entirely to the past, now overcome and having no relevance to today.  All traditional cultures, on the other hand, understand that what (and who) is old is to be esteemed, for there is where is found the wisdom of the ages and institutional memory.  At the same time, those who grow old gracefully understand their place in forming a new generation that will usher in the age to follow after them.

So we see with Simeon and Anna in the Temple.  They mark the point of transition in God’s plan of salvation: the Old Covenant, represented by the two elders, is giving way to the New, represented by the young parents of the fulfilled promise of the Messiah, the very Son of God.  The elders give way to something greater, the “light for revelation to the Gentiles.”

We began our Mass today with a reference to this prophecy, in the ceremony of the blessing and lighting of the candles, which we conducted with the Jubilarians we honor today.  This ceremony is celebrated only at this Mass during the year, precisely to commemorate this prophecy.  It is, moreover, one of only three Masses during the year in which the blessing of an object is prescribed within the liturgy, the other two being ashes (on Ash Wednesday) and palms (on Palm Sunday). 

The ceremony, then, orients us toward the ultimate purpose of the Incarnation, marked by the Advent/Christmas cycle which comes to a close today: the Paschal Mystery of Our Lord’s saving Passion, death and Resurrection.  Christ the light first entered the Temple on this day, when he was presented to the holy Simeon who took him into his arms; at the Easter Vigil the Church will proclaim him the light of the world, when candles are once again lit at the beginning of the liturgical celebration and carried into the Church, now accompanied by the three-fold acclamation, “The Light of Christ”/“Thanks be to God.”  This is the whole point of the Christian life in this world, which the Church always keeps before our eyes in her liturgy and through the vocation of the consecrated life.  Our sisters and brothers who have embraced this calling bear witness to this essence of Christian life for all of us; they keep this vision of what it means to be a Christian always before our eyes.

Conclusion

Let us, then, learn from our ancestors about how to live this sublime mystery of life in Christ, and let us pass it onto our successors.  In the words of Pope Francis in that homily he preached on this Feast Day last year: “Like Simeon, let us also pick up this child, the God of newness and surprises.  By welcoming the Lord, the past opens up to the future, the old in us opens up to the new that he awakens….  Let us be … moved by the Spirit, like Simeon and Anna.  If, like them, we live in expectation, safeguarding our interior life and in conformity with the Gospel, if, like them, we live in expectation, we will embrace Jesus, who is the light and hope of life.”  Amen.