Servitium Caritatis

Welcome to part four of the Vita Consecrata Series! Thank you for joining us as we walk through Saint John Paul II’s reflection on what the consecrated life is and what role it plays in the Church and in the world.

After exploring the nature of consecrated life in previous chapters, the late Holy Father spends the third chapter of the exhortation reflecting on how consecrated religious serve as a “Manifestation of God’s Love in the World.” He writes:

In the image of Jesus, the beloved Son “whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world” (Jn 10:36), those whom God calls to follow him are also consecrated and sent into the world to imitate his example and to continue his mission. Fundamentally, this is true of every disciple. In a special way, however, it is true of those who, in the manner that characterizes the consecrated life, are called to follow Christ “more closely,” and to make him the “all” of their lives.

Consecrated persons are on mission “by virtue of their very consecration,” John Paul II writes, and they have the “prophetic task of recalling and serving the divine plan for humanity.” This is made possible through an intimate relationship with God, a solid experience with dialogue in fraternal life, and a deep understanding of the challenges of their time. In other words, there must be a close union between contemplation and action in their lives. 

Lent Must Mean Something

Saint John Paul II leads the Stations of the Cross at Rome's
Colosseum on Good Friday 2002 (CNS photo/L'Ossevatore Romano)

Lent begins this Wednesday. Are you ready to invite the Lord into your life and make this Lent mean something?

Saint John Paul II challenged the Church to go deeper than simple fasting during this penitential liturgical season. In his first Message for Lent as Pope, he said:

Lent must mean something: it must show the world that the whole People of God, because it is made up of sinners, is preparing in Penance to re-live liturgically Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection. This public collective witness derives from the spirit of Penance of each individual, and it also leads us to deepen this inward attitude and to strengthen our motivation for it.

Going without things does not consist only of giving away what we do not need; sometimes it also consists of giving away what we do need, like the widow in the Gospel who knew that what she was giving away was already a gift to her from God. Going without things is to free oneself from the slaveries of a civilization that is always urging people on to greater comfort and consumption, without a thought even for the preservation of our environment, which is the common heritage of humanity.

During this season of prayer, almsgiving and fasting, let us move forward as workers in God’s vineyard, in the spirit of penance and charity.

Saint John Paul II, Pray for Us!

The Freedom To Serve

At the school of the Mother, the Church learns to become every day "handmaid of the Lord," to be ready to go to encounter situations of greatest need, to be caring toward the small and the excluded. But we are all called to live the service of charity in ordinary life, that is, in the family, in the parish, at work, with neighbors. It is the charity of everyday, ordinary charity.

…the Church is the people who serve the Lord. For this, it is the people who experiences his freedom and lives in this freedom that He gives. The Lord always gives true freedom. First of all, the freedom from sin, from selfishness in all its forms: the freedom to give of oneself and to do so with joy, like the Virgin of Nazareth, who is free from herself, she does not close in on herself in her condition – and she would have had reason! – but thinks of those who, in that moment, has greater need. She is free in the freedom of God, which is realized in love. And this is the freedom that God has given us and we must not lose it: the freedom to adore God, to serve God and to serve him even in our brothers and sisters.

This is the freedom that, by the grace of God, we experience in the Christian community, when we put ourselves at each other’s service, without jealousy, without taking sides, without chatter… Serving one another. Serving! Then the Lord frees us from ambition and rivalry, which undermine unity and communion. He frees us from distrust, sadness — look, this sadness is dangerous because it casts us down. It casts us down. It’s dangerous. Be careful. He frees us from fear, internal emptiness, isolation, regret, and complaints. Even in our communities, in fact, there is no shortage of negative attitudes that make people self-referential, more concerned with defending themselves than with giving of themselves. But Christ frees us from this existential grayness…

                -Pope Francis

A Leper With The Lepers

Jozef De Veuster received the name of Damien in the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. When he was 23 years old, in 1863, he left Flanders, the land of his birth, to proclaim the Gospel on the other side of the world in the Hawaiian Islands. His missionary activity, which gave him such joy, reached its peak in charity. Not without fear and repugnance, he chose to go to the Island of Molokai to serve the lepers who lived there, abandoned by all. Thus he was exposed to the disease from which they suffered. He felt at home with them. The servant of the Word consequently became a suffering servant, a leper with the lepers, for the last four years of his life. In order to follow Christ, Fr. Damien not only left his homeland but also risked his health: therefore as the word of Jesus proclaimed to us in today's Gospel says he received eternal life…Let us remember before this noble figure that it is charity which makes unity, brings it forth and makes it desirable. Following in St. Paul's footsteps, St. Damien prompts us to choose the good warfare, not the kind that brings division but the kind that gathers people together. He invites us to open our eyes to the forms of leprosy that disfigure the humanity of our brethren and still today call for the charity of our presence as servants, beyond that of our generosity.

-Pope Benedict XVI, October 11 2009

Oh St. Damien Molokai, beatified by our patron Blessed John Paul II, you built the Church above on the abandoned island of Molokai. From your place in heaven, please pray for us sinners on this day of your feast, that we may imitate your example in bringing the Church to those who are far away, especially the poor and the marginalized. 

Serving with Truth

The Pope’s missionary intention for July is that “Christian volunteers in mission territories may witness to the love of Christ.”

The United Nations declared 2001 the International Year of Volunteers, and on this occasion Blessed John Paul II expressed his gratitude for all of those who dedicate their lives to the poor. He said:

Thanks to the many forms of solidarity and of service that they promote and make concrete, volunteer workers make society more attentive to the dignity of the human person and his/her many expectations.

… Dear Brothers and Sisters, who make up this "army" of peace spread over the face of the earth, you are a sign of hope for our times. Wherever situations of hardship and suffering appear, make bear fruit the hidden resources of dedication, goodness and heroism in the heart of the human person.

Making myself the spokesman for the poor everywhere, I want to say "thank you' for your steadfast dedication.

In his message, the late Pope explained why it is that volunteers dedicate their lives to others. It is “the innate movement of the heart,” he said, “that inspires every human being to help his fellow man.” Have you ever felt that rush of joy after helping someone in need? Well that is natural, John Paul II said, because it is in giving that we reach perfect fulfillment.

That “good feeling” is not why we serve, though. We serve because Jesus did when He walked the earth, and we serve because God calls us to do the same. We serve because the fruits of our charity bring justice and peace to mankind, and we serve because every human person deserves to be loved. We serve because our charity is a form of evangelization, introducing others to Christ.