Review for Religious - Issue 22.6 (November 1963)

Issue 22.6 of the Review for Religious, 1963.

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Review for Religious - Issue 22.6 (November 1963)
author_facet Missouri Province of the Society of Jesus
author_sort Missouri Province of the Society of Jesus
title Review for Religious - Issue 22.6 (November 1963)
title_short Review for Religious - Issue 22.6 (November 1963)
title_full Review for Religious - Issue 22.6 (November 1963)
title_fullStr Review for Religious - Issue 22.6 (November 1963)
title_full_unstemmed Review for Religious - Issue 22.6 (November 1963)
title_sort review for religious - issue 22.6 (november 1963)
description Issue 22.6 of the Review for Religious, 1963.
publisher Saint Louis University Libraries Digitization Center
publishDate 1963
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spelling sluoai_rfr-467 Review for Religious - Issue 22.6 (November 1963) Missouri Province of the Society of Jesus Jesuits -- Periodicals; Monasticism and religious orders -- Periodicals. Issue 22.6 of the Review for Religious, 1963. 1963-11-15 2012-05 PDF RfR.22.6.1963.pdf rfr-1960 BX2400 .R4 Copyright U.S. Central and Southern Province, Society of Jesus. Permission is hereby granted to copy and distribute individual articles for personal, classroom, or workshop use. Please credit Review for Religious and reference the volume, issue, and page number and cite Saint Louis University Libraries as the host of the digital collection. Saint Louis University Libraries Digitization Center text eng Missouri Province of the Society of Jesus M. R. TILLARD, O.P. Religious Life in the Mystery of the Church Recent yearsI have seen a resurgence of interest in the theological problem of religious life.2 On the eve of the ecumenical council which proposes to study the true structure of the Church, many questions intimately re-lated to the very nature of religious life or to its function in the apostolic work of the Church are beginning to be discussed,s The fruit of these discussions is of primary 1 This article is translated with permission from Sciences eccldsia-stiques, v. 14 (1962), pp. 89-107. The original title of the article was "La vie religieuse clans le myst~re de l’Eglise." The translator was Sister M~ Susanna, O.S.B., St. Mary’s School; Hattieville, Arkansas. a Among the most interesting studies should be noted the follow-ing: R. Carpentier, Li]e in the City o] God (New York: Benziger, 1959); Dom Jean Leclercq, The Li[e o] Perlection (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1961); Louis Bouyer, The Meaning o[ the Mongstic Li]e (New York: Kenedy, 1955); J. perinelle; God’s Highways. The Religious Li]e and Secular Institutes (Westminster: Newman, 1958); A. de Sofas, Les roles respecti]s du laic, du prOtre, et du religieux dons l’Eglise (Paris: Vitrail, 1959); Canon Jacques Leclercq, The Religious Vocation (New York: Kenedy, 1955); M. Sauvage, "La vie religieuse," Vocations religieuses et sacerdotales, n. 213 (January, 1961), pp. 9-37; Le role de la religieuse darts l’Eglise (Paris: Cerf, 1960); Y. Congar, "The Theology of Religious Women," Rzvxzw FOR RZLXCmUS, v. 19 (1960), pp. 15-39; J. Hamer, "Place des religieux dam l’apostolat de l’Eglise," Nouvelle r~ue thdologiq~e, v. 81 (1959), pp. 271-81; H. Holstein, "Apostolat des religieux," Etudes, t. 309 (April-June, 1961), pp. 328-42; La vie religieuse, a special.number of Christus, April, 1960 (articles by R. Carpentier, H. Holstein, F. Koustang, M. Giuliani, E. Tesson); Pour une catdchkse de la vie religieuse (Paris: Commission des Etudes Religieuses, 1958); Les laics et les vocations, a special number of Evangdliser, March-April, 1961. 8 On pp. 14-15of the January 1, 1961, issue of InIormations ca-tholiques internationales it was said: "Some of these needs [of the present apostolate] are formulated by the pastoral of today and hence by tile bishops. Religious wish to remove the walls that isolate their orders and their activity and to find themselves beyond their frontiers; they have so large a share in pastoraFactivity that ~they cannot any longer act like foreign bodies. But it pertains to the bishop to direct and orientate pastoral work. The question of ,exemption and’ the connected one of the harmonization~ of the work 4- 4- 4- J. M. R. Tillard, O.P., is professor of dogmatic theol-ogy at Dominican House of Studies; 95 Empress Avenue; Ottawa, Canada. VOLUME 22, 1965 613 I. M. R. Tillard, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 614 importance because these questions concern the special means by which the salvation plan of God is concretely realized in the midst of men. Accordingly, it is our pur-pose here to attempt a sketch of the theological milieu or context of religious life. Our intention, then, will not be to say anything new, but rather to emphasize one essential aspect: how religious life exists at the very heart of the mystery of the Church. Mystery of the Church As "Communion of Life" and As "’Means of Salvation" At the risk of appearing to wander from the subject, we must first recall certain aspects of the mystery of the Church around which our considerations will be organ-ized. Theologically speaking, the mystery of the Church is essentially resolved into the mystery of the "communion of life with the Father and with men in Christ Jesus." From this standpoint she alone appears as the term of salvation history and as the definitive fulfillment of the promise. From Abraham to the Day of the Son of Man this communion grows continually and without break, although in graduated stages, towards a degree of idepth to be fully realized only in the risen Christ. For Christ, the brother of men, embraces our condition as man ’in its entirety; and He does this (even though He never sinned) at a precise point in history when humanity is stamped by the experience of sin. Now sin, cleavage between man and God, manifests itself most often as a cleavage between man and his brothers: it is the drama of Adam and Eve as it is also the drama of Cain and Abel. If, considered in their human content, the acts of Christ have redemptive value, it is because He accomplishes them by lovingly em-bracing the will of the Father, itself the bearer of love to men; they are redemptive, therefore, in the last analysis because in their deepest motivation they are communion-bringing acts, made fully possible by His ontological con-stitution as true Son of God made truly man. Moreover, at the end of His mystery, thus lived in a motivation of communion, Christ the Lord (Kurios), ex-alted by the Father, bears in Himself (body and soul) the totality of communion gifts that God reserved for~ men ever since creation. We know what these gifts are: total and definitive union of men with God and among themselves in the Holy Spirit, the Breath (pneuma, ruah)l of the divine life.4 The glorified Christ, then, is in Him-of religious with the authority of the bishop will certainly be con sidered by the commission [on religious]." * St. Paul in his theology insists on the fact that the cross of Chris, has effected the reconciliation of men among themselves and witl God; for this, see Eph 2:11-22; Col 1:21-3. On the other hand Go* self the perfect communion of life in which the plan of the Father is realized; and the Church will simply con-sist in the entry of men into the intimacy of this com-munion. In the risen Christ (the reason for this is obvious) she will be the mysterious union of life between God and His creatures, the union in which all of history is consummated. But between Christ, "communion of life," and the Church elevated to this "communion of life," there must be a certain dynamism. It will be necessary to give to men, still sinners, still "of the world," the means of ef-fecting this entry, this passage in Christ from the world and its values to the Father and His values. These means the Church herself possesses and puts at the disposal of men, just as Christ was not simply the "place" of the reali-zation of the communion of life but was also the One sent by the Father for the realization of this end. This presents the second aspect of the mystery of the Church, her aspect as "means of salvation," her "minis-terial" aspect accomplished by the triple ministry of the word, of the sacraments, and of direction in a structure comprising .hierarchy and members. This second dimen-sion of the Church is completely orientated toward the first: the Church offers men the means of salvation in order to lead them "into Christ" (not simply in His foot-steps, but "into Him") in the communion of life. A clear grasp of this point is absolutely necessary to understand the proper place of religious life; the sacramental system as well as the hierarchy and its activity are ordained to the communion of life. At the time of the Parousia they will disappear, when, in the resurrection of the flesh, the gift of God to men will attain its ultimate reality, Hence, only the communion of life stands in the Church as an eternal value. This means that the Church lives in a state of tension. She already bears within herself the communion of life; therefore she possesses the objective not only in inten-tion but as already realized; rather she is the ’objective because she is the communion of life. And yet she is still developing not only by adding new members (quantita-tive and numerical growth) but also by making her actual the Father gives Christ in, His exaltation a share in His doxa [glory] and in His essential immortality, goods that are typically divine. He also gives Him the properly divine title of Lord (Phil 2:6-11). As Son of God, Christ had a right to all these from the moment of the Incarnation, but His desire to espouse our condition in its entirety led Him to renounce the radiation of His divinity on His humanity until the day when salvation would be effected. It is in this humanity that takes places the mystery of the exaltation of jesus; but Paul sees Christ as a whole without distinguishing various levels with the technical precision of later theology. See P. Henry, "K~nose," Sup-pldment de la dictionnaire de la Bible, v. 50 col. 7-161. + P,.ellglous z.lfe VOLUME 22, 196,~ 615 ÷ ÷ ]. M. R. Tillard, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 616 members enter day by day more completely into pos:;es-sion of their initial gift of grace (qualitative growth). The religious life is pinpointed at the very heart of Ibis tension. Religious Life and the Church As "’Means of Salva-tion" In its very structure and practical detail religious life depends entirely on the Church as "means of salvation." This may seem, at first sight, a truism, but it will be useful to dwell upon it. The truth of this is immediately evident from the fact that religious life does not exist without vows received by a legitimate superior. "It is required for the validity of every religious profession that it be received by the legitimate superior (according to the constitutions) either personally or by his representative" (c. 572, § 1, 6°). It is necessary to see the theological significance of this pres-ence of the superior. He does not act simply as a special witness; neither does he act only in the name 0f the institute of which he is superior, accepting the new sub-ject and entering a contractual relationship with him. Rather, he acts formally in the name of the Churcfi! and canon 1308, § 1 says this explicitly: "A vow is public if it is accepted by the legitimate ecclesiastical superior a~ting in the name of the Church." In the superior there is realized here and now the totality of a complex develop-ment: at a given moment in her history the Church ratified and approved the initiative of a founder; by that very fact she conferred upon his successors the power that what they would do in conformity with the approved rule would be conformed to her own will. Hence, in the superior re-ceiving vows, it is the entire Church which on the one hand accepts the gift that the religious makes of himself to the Lord and which on the other hand binds herself to give him the necessary means to live this gift in totality. Furthermore, everything, absolutely everything, that the constitutions, the rule, the customs, and the mode of common life proper to his order or institute provide for him are, in truth, a gift that the entire Church gives him to lead him to a more intense union with God and with his brethren in the Lord Jesus. Here, as elsewhere,, the believer cannot bypass the mediation of the Church. But it seems necessary to go even further. Religious life’ can find its source of grace only in the sacramental system~ where the Church exercises her mediation of salvation~ in a special way. Religious life is not a life alongside or above the sacramental and liturgical life; neither does~ religious life form a union with sacramental life in which~ the vows and the constitutions are superior means "mak-ing use of" sacramental graces to maintain vigor andl assure growth. Quite to the contrary, religious life matures within the sacramental life and under its influence. So true is this that there is no place among religious for the phrase "sacramental life and religious life"; it is rather a case of sacramental life flowering into religious life. This nuance is so important that we shall consider it further. We must first ask ourselves what religious life is. We spontaneously define it as the tending toward perfection. But the perfection of what? Quite simply, of the Christian life. Because he wants to realize the mystery of charity per-fectly? that is to say in the terms we have been using the mystery of the communion of life with God and with one’s fellow men, the religious is not content merely to observe the precepts; he freely and generously binds himself to the narrow way which leads to the keeping of the evan-gelical counsels; for the sake of this he cuts himself off from everything that could place an obstacle between himself and God. Furthermore, he does not bind himself to sporadic and hence somewhat capricious acts of per-fection; he binds himself to a state of perfection. The word "state" implies stability6 and in this case a stability that implies an entire lifetime. All the acts that the religious does throughout life thereby become "informed" by this efficacious desire qf perfection. But in effecting this the religious profession adds nothing to the "virtue" of the sacramental grace present in the subject. Profession does not immediately aim at making a religious a "means of salvation" for others, and it does not add to his status in grace any strictly new modality. It cannot be compared, for example, to the sacrament of matrimony. What, then, is its aim? It aims to make of the religious that perfect Christian that the Father desires, the most perfect mem-ber possible of the glorified Christ. It represents, there-fore, a personal and positive effort toward perfection at the interior of the Christian condition; it is a striving for the perfect human response which--without adding any-thing to it--will allow the seed of grace planted in man by his Christian initiation to bear the/ruit that it nor- ~ See St. Thomas, De perIectione vitae spiritualis, nn. 559-69 in the edition by Spiazzi (the numbers of this edition will be regularl~ cited hereafter). Note the following statement from this work: "He is simply perfect in the spiritual life who is perfect in charity .... For the Apostle in Colossians 3:14 attributes perfection principally to charity." He explains himself in his commentary on Colossians, Chapter 3, Lecture 3 (n. 163 in the edition by Cai) by saying: "A thing is perfect when it adheres to its final end, namely God; and this is what charity effects." o "For a state there is required immobility in what pertains to the condition of the person" (S.T., 2-2, q.183, a.l, ad 3). "Only that seems to pertain to the state of a man which is concerned with the obliga-tion of the person of the man, namely, whether he is his own master or not and this not for a light or easily changeable reason but for a permanent one" (ibid., c). 4- + Religious Liye VOLUME 22, 196~ 617 really should bear. So true is this that if the effort is sus-tained we will ultimately find sacramental grace again now in its total development. Religious life is ordained to the life of grace; it provides the means for this life reach its fulfillment in the believer. We have talked about Christian initiation. This dy-namic thrust towards perfection is essentially realized within the grace given in the three fundamental sata’a, ments of baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist. I,: here that religious life is rooted. There is no problem insofar as it is a matter of bap-tismal grace, which is the grace of resurrection, of in-corporation into the Church the Body of Christ, and of regaining a share (in "pledge" says St. Paul) in divine things. The life of the baptized thereby becomes both presence on earth of the new life of communion with the Father and a worship rendered to God. Here we meet the priesthood of holy life or the priesthood of the bap, tized so much emphasized in contemporary theology. Every Christian life lived "in Christ" is a life "for God" (Rom 6:10-11) and receives in baptism the character that confers this sacerdotal dimension. But if, according to the expression of St. Thomas himself, this is common everyone of the faithful united to Christ,7 the exercise the priesthood of holy life finds its highest expression religious life,s especially in the total gift of one’s self religious value of which must not be minimized even though some pious writing has built around this theme a somewhat romantic halo of cloying sentimentality. When St. Thomas compares religious profession to holocaust,9 he echoes a long tradition that goes back to the ]. M. R. Tillard, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 618 7,,A holy lay person is united to Christ by a spiritual union through faith, and charity but not through a sacramental power. Consequently he has a spiritual priesthood for the offering of spiritual sacrifices about which Psalm 50:19 says: ’The sacrifice to God is the man contrite in spirit’ and Romans 12:1 says: ’Show forth your bodies as a living victim.’ Hence it is said in 1 Peter 2:5: ’To offer spiritual victims is a holy priesthood’ " (S.T., 3, q.82, a.1, ad 2). S,,To give something for the worship of God is necessary for salvation, but that a person should give himself and his possessions completely to divine worship pertains to perfection" (S.T., 2-2, q.186, a.1, ad 1). "The offering of sacrifice and other similar acts which are proper to religion are not the only things that pertain to religion; the acts of all the virtues insofar as they are referred to the service and honor of God also become acts of religion. Hence if a person gives his whole life to the divine service, his whole life will pertain to religion. Accordingly, those who are in the state of perfection are called religious from the religious life they lead" (ibid., ad 2). See also S.T., 2-2 q.186, a.7, c at the end; De perIectione vitae spiritualis, nn. 568, 604. o $.T., 2-2, q.186, a.l; De perlectione vitae spiritualis, nn. 604-5, early days of monastic history and that rests on witnesses of primary importance,t° The surrender of one!s own will in view of the perfection of charity is without doubt the most perfect free response to God’s love. A greater re-a° Speaking of virgins Tertullian had already written: "What a magnificent offering we make to God--that of our body itself and that of our soul itself when we consecrate to Him our very nature" (On the Veiling o] Virgins, 13). Origen in a notably balanced, text which shows that all the members of the Church offer to God a pure, holy, and pleasing victim remarks "that the ho!y and living victim, pleasing to God, is above all that of a virginal body, (Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, 9, 1; P.G., v. 14, col. 1205); and in his homilies on Numbers we find this statement: "To offer oneself to God and to please Him not by means of some other reality but by one’s self surpasses in perfection and sublimity all other offerings" (Homilies on Numbers, 24, 2). Gregory of Nyssa ends his’ treatise On Virginity by reminding the virgin that she will arrive at the contem-plation of God only when, being crucified with Christ, she will have made of herself a spotless sacrifice, thus preparing herself for the re-turn of the Lord whom she will then be able to see with a pure heart (On Virginity, 24; P.G., v. 46, col. 416: "The only class deemed worthy of it [seeing God] are the pure in heart .... Hence I desire that you should become crucified with Christ, a holy priest stand-ing before God, a pure offering in all chastity, preparing yourself by your own. holiness for the coming of the Lord"). St. Ambrose of Milan in his work To Marcellina His Sister Concerning Virgins speaks of a young girl of noble descent whom her parents wished to force into a marriage and says:. "Being urged by her parents and kinsfolk, she took a refuge at the holy altar. Whither could a virgin better flee than thither where the virgin sacrifice is offered?... She, the oblation of modesty, the victim of chastity, stood at the altar of God... asking the prayers of the priest..." (1, 12, 65; P.L., v. 16, cbl. 218). But virginity is not the only thing to be so characterized as a sacrifice; monastic life in its entirety is also called such,~and here the witnesses are’ again numerous. Cassian writes in,a highly realistic way: "Renunciation is nothiu~ but the evidence of the cross and of mortification. And so you must know that today you are dead to this world anti its deeds and desires, and that, as the Apostle says, you are crucified to this world and this world to you. Consider therefore the demands of the cross under tfie sign of which you ought hdnce-forward to live in this life; because you no longer live but He lives in you who was crucified for you. We ~nust therefore pass our time in this life in that fashion and form in which He was crucified for us on the cross so that (as David says) piercing our flesh with the fear of the Lord, we may have all our wishes and desires not subservient to our°own lusts but fastened to His mortification. For so shall we fulfill the command of the Lord which says: ’He that taketh not up his cross and followeth me is not worthy of me’ " (Institutes, 4, 34; P,L., v. 49, col. 19~1-5). Peter Damian writes: "After your death you wish to be buried here where you have chosen to carry the cross of Christ in the footsteps of Christ. For Christ is daily immolated in His members when in them the sacrifice and the devotion of the spirit arc offered and the flesh is sacrificed by the continence of an austere life" (Text given by Jean Leclercq, "Une lettre inddite de saint Pierre Damien sur la vie ~r~mitiquc," Studia Benedictina [Vati-can City: Libreria Vaticana, 1947], p. 287). Gregory the Great (whose authority is alleged by St. Thomas himself) in his commentary on Ezekiel has a long reflection on the difference between sacrifice and + + + Religious Li~e VOLUME 22, 196.3 619 ÷ ÷ ÷ ]. M. R. Tillard, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 62O sponse cannot be imagined. Hence the comparison of,re-ligious life to martyrdom frequently found in the fathers. It will be sufficient to cite Cassian in this regard: "The patience and rigorous fidelity with which the monks de-votedly persevere in the profession once made, never fol-lowing their own wiils, make them living martyrs, c~x~- cified to the world every day.’’11 The testimony of Athanasius of Alexandria in his Life of St. Anthony is especially significant since it concerns one who contributed to the beginnings of cenobitic i.ife: "Anthony returned to his monastery where his faith and piety continually acquired for him the merit of the mar-tyrdom which by the austerity of his life he forced his body to endure.’’12 But there is here no desire to evade the Christian condition; the goal is to become the most perfect possible member of Christ by bringing baptismal grace to its full fruition. Cassian puts on the lips of Abbot John these words which sum up the ideal of the religious: All the advantages of solitude certainly do not surpass that of... being able to submit myself always to the direction of an abbot, imitating in some manner Him of whom it is said:"~He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to death," and to repeat humbly after Him: "I am not come to do my own will, but that of my Father who sent me.°’~ Religious life, then, is established to bring to the height of reality and expression (thanks to the special means which are the vows) the exercise of the priesthood of holy life shared by all the baptized and to help one become in Christ the adopted son most beloved, most devoted, most like to the only begotten Son incarnate. We are, therefore, always at the center of baptismal grace and under its in-fluence. Has not Clement of Alexandria in an admirable holocaust; from it we give the following excerpt which we hesitate to translate: "Sciendum vcro est quia hoc inter sacrificium atque holocaustum distat quod omne holocaustum sacrificium est, sed non omne sacrificium holocaustum. In sacrificio etcnim pars pecudis, in holocausto vero totum pecus offerri consueverat. Unde et holocaustum latina lingua totum incensum dicitur. Pensemus ergo quid est sacrificium, quid holocaustum. Cure enim quis suum aliquid Deo vovet et aliquid non vovet, sacrificium est. Cure veto omne quod habet, drone quod vivit, omne quod sapit, omnipotenti .Deo voverit, holocaustum est. Nam sunt quidam qui adhuc mente in hoc mundo retinentur et tamen ex possessis rebus subsidia egentibus ministrant, oppressos defendere festinant. Isti in bonis quae faciunt sacrificium offerunt, quia et aliquid de actione sua Deo immolant, et aliquid sibimetipsis reservant. Et sunt quidam qui nihil sibimetipsis reser-vant sed sensum, linguam, vitam atque substantiam quam per-ceperunt omnipotenti Domino immolant: quid isti nisi holocaustum offerunt, immo magis holocaustum fiunt?" (On Ezekiel, 2, 8; P.L., v. 76, col. 1037). See also Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, Ecclesigs-tical Hierarchy, 6, 3. u Conlerences, 18, 7; the entire chapter should be read. ~ Athanasius, Lile o] St. dnthony, 15. ~ Conlerences, 19, 6. passage of the Fourth Book of Stromateis shown how the martyr himself is in the direct line of integral bap-tismal life?x4 With regard to Eucharistic grace conceived as a growth in union with the Father and with one’s brothers in Christ, there is scarcely any difficulty in Showing its con-nection with religious life. If this latter is defined as a permanent state of tending towards the perfection of charity, how can it fail to find its special source and place of steady deepening in the offering and consequent ec-clesial sharing in the Body of the risen Christ, the perfect and definitive communion of life, It is in the liturgical cel-ebration of the Holy Sacrifice that the religious com-munity attains its zenith of expression and at the same time draws the nourishment for even greater authenticity. And since every sacramental grace flows from the Eucha-rist, 1~ we must conclude that religious life is fundamen-tally a Eucharistic life in the two inseparable dimensions of this mystery: the ascending dimension in which man through Christ gives himself to the Father and the descending dimension in which through Christ the Father gives Himself to men. It is evident from this why the community celebration of Mass cannot be relegated to the same plane as other exercises of the rule. It is, .on the con-trary, the heart from which flows the life blood that sus-tains the ideal of perfection and through which the good works of this life normally go to the Father through the Church. The question of confirmation is more complex. Never-theless, it seems to us that religious life is lived under the direct and immediate influence of the grace of con-firmation and that it is the most excellent practical mani-festation of this grace, We believe that it is not a matter of mere propriety or appropriateness but one of necessity that is expressed when canon law states: "In every re-ligious institute each aspirant before being admitted must furnish proof of his baptism and confirmation" (c. 544, § 1). Confirmation grace is formally characterized as a grace of maturity, a passage to adulthood "in Christ"; hence it is a grace of growth which helps the initial germ received at baptism to reach its normal development in the Christian. St. Thomas in his theology of the sacra-mental system describes it perfectly in these words: "In confirmation a person receives a kind of perfect age of the spiritual life" (S.T., 3, q.72, a.1): "... a kind of spiritual growth from an imperfect existence to a perfect existence" (S.’T., 3, q.72, a. 11, ad 2). It is a grace of strength certainly l’Stromateis, 4, cc. 9-21, especially the end of Chapter 9 and Chapter 21 near the second fourth. ~$.T., 3, q.79, a.l, ad 1; q.73, a.4. 4- 4- 4. Religious Lite VOLUME 22, 1963 62] ~. M. R. Tiilard, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 6~ (the text of Pseudo-Melchiades is not to be rejected simpl.y and categorically) but a strength identified with the ve,force of maturity in which man "in possession of all Iris means" feels master of himself and capable of radiating his influence. Now is not religious life, being essentially ordered to the search for perfect Christian charity, precisely the fort to reach perfect adult Christian life? If, as St. Thomas has emphasized,t0 adulthood is in contrast to childhood by its complete openness towards others by a negation of egocentrism and by the growth of the desire for total self-giving to a beloved, how can religious life, the total and unqualified gift of one’s self and one’s goods in a per-manent state,1~ fail to fulfill the requisite conditions [the title "adult Christian life"? We must see in it the best active manifestation of confirmation grace. And here from a different perspective we corroborate what we said above about the connection between martyrdom and religious profession, a relationship affirmed by all of Christian tradition: confirmation has for its proper act the confes-sion of faith of the witness (marius) of Christ?s accom-plished in the power of the Spirit.19 Now the confession of faith par excellence and thereiore the supreme witness is martyrdom.20 If, therefore, religious life participates in the excellence of martyrdom because of the totality of the gift it implies, it follows that its day-by-day exercise is the effect in the religious of the grace of confirmation. This grace, constantly strengthened and more firmly es-tablished by contact with the Body of the risen Christ in the Eucharist, supports and inspires the self-gift of man to God. And if the religious finds within himself the neces-sary strength for faithful observance of the vows and (notwithstanding failures and discouragements) a lively, fervent desire for perfection, sometimes in spite of sur-rounding mediocrity, we must acknowledge there, it seems to us, the effect of the grace of confirmation. a~ "When.a per.son reaches maturity, he begins to communicate his actions, to others; before this, he lives almost exclusively for himseff" (S.T., ~, q.72, a.2). x~ De perlectione vitae s~iritualis, n. 605. And see the remarks of H. Holstein, "Consecration et. voeux," Christus, v. 7 (1960), pp. 174- 85. ~S,,The one confirmed receives a kind o[ ex officio power to pub-licly pro[ess in words the ~aith o[ Christ" (S.T., ~, q.72, a.5, ad 2). On the meaning o~ martyr, see T. Camelot, "L’engagement chr~tien: du bapt~me au martyre," Nova et v~tera, v. 24 (1949), pp. ~26--48; P. de Labriolle; "ConIesseur et martyre," Bulletin d’ancienne littdrature et d’archdologie chrdtiennes, v. 1 (1911), pp. 50-4; M. Pellegrino, "Le sens eccl~sial du martyre," Revue des sciences religieuses, v. ~5 (1961), pp. 151-75; E. Barbotin, "Le sens existentiel du t~moignage et du martyre," Revue des sciences religieuses, v. 35 (1961), pp. 176-82. ~S.T., 3, q.72, a.7; q.72, a.2, c andad 2. ~ S.T., 3, q.72, a.8, ad 2 and 3. We see, then, that the vows and all they imply of’ value for sanctification do not exist parallel to sacramental life but within its dynamic influence as the special means enabling it to attain its end in the Christian. Hence we recognize religious life as a life integrally united to the Church as "means of salvation"; accordingly, it is a life "of the Church." Religious Life and the Church ,’Is "’Communion of Life" Thus grafted in all its being to the Church as "means of salvation," religious life already realizes the "com-munion of life." As a matter of fact, the same is true for all Christian life. For the Church eternal is already being built, really though mysteriously, in our terrestria/world by the sacraments. The pilgrim Church is the eternal Church already present but tending towards completion; in Christ the kingdom of God has made entry into the world and dwells there, and yet we still await it. For we live now in the economy of faith. The pilgrim Church does not march toward the unknown; she progresses to the definitive unfolding of that which she already is "in pledge." But from all we have said up to this point, we can de-duce the particular value of religious life in the heart of the Church militant, the communion of life already existing. Because of the intense and genuine pursuit of Christian perfection--fruitful pursuit for it would other-wise be vain or purely external testimony--the religious community is a striking indication of the presence in the world of life with the Father and with one’s brethren in Christ. Have we not already defined perfection precisely as the perfection of charity and hence of communion? Because of this the religious community represents in the pilgrim Church the anticipated presence of the eschato-logical kingdom. It is, as it were, the exact "moment" in which the pull toward the kingdom (characteristic of the Church at this stage of its mystery) is on the point of being resolved into its term; or again it is the place in which the definitive kingdom can even now be perceived, dimly but unmistakably. Here we encounter another traditional theme, that of religious life conceived as bios angelikos [angelic life],21 ZtSee Agnbs Lamy, "Monks and the Angelic Life," Monastic Studies, n. 1 (Pentecost, 1963), pp. 39-57; Dom Jean Leclercq, The Lile o] Perlection (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1961), pp. 15-42. The supporting text of this traditional doctrine is obviously Mt 22:30: "At the resurrection they shall neither marry nor be married but they will be like the angels in heaven." The patristic testimonies are numerous; the following can be cited as typical. Athanasius: "The Son of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, having become ÷ ÷ ÷ Religious Lite VOLUME 22, 1963 623 .I. ÷ + 1. M. R. Tillard~ O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 6~ the imitation on earth of the life of the angels, that is, an imitation of the life of the blessed. Therein lies all the ecclesial grandeur of the "mystery" of religious life which thus appears to us as the epiphany of the plan of God. St, Thomas strongly insists on this point when, in attempting to assess the place of life according to the evangelical counsels, he writes: Although the perfection of the blessed is not possible to u:; in this life, still we should try to bring ourselves as far as possible to a likeness of that perfection; and it is in this that there i:~ to be found the perfectiori of that life to which we are invited by the counsels.= We have spoken of the religious community. Common life is one of the characteristic marks of the religious state (c. 487), first of all as a means of perfection but also as a sign of perfection. For the actual holding in common of all goods, even personal talents, and the dedication of each to the good of all cannot be reduced to the simple order of means. They are that, but they are also more than that. They are like the overflow of the perfection of charity. We must recall here, the First ,Epistle of’~.’the Apostle John: "if anyone says, I love God, and hate!!his man for our sakes, and having destroyed death, and delivered our race from the bondage of corruption, in addition to all His other benelits bestowed this also upon us, that we should possess upon earth, in the state of virginity, a picture of the holiness of angels" (Apology to the Emperor Constantius, 33; P.G., v. 25, col. 640). Augustine: "Whoever chastely, innocently, and assiduously keeps vigils undoubtedly engages in the life of the angels" (Sermon 221 on the Vigil of Easter). St. Cyril of Jerusalem: "Let the order of solitaries and of virgins attend to it who are establishing in the world an angelic life.., having been enrolled in the angelical book by reason of their chastity’" (The Catechetical Lectures, 4, 24; P.G., v. 33, col. 487). John Chrysostom: "’They have embraced a life worthy of heaven, and their condition is not inferior to that of the angels" (Against Those Who Oppose Monastic Lile, 3, 11; all of this para-graph 11 should be read). "Note how our weak humanity, i}iferior as it is by its nature to the blessed spirits, in a certain way strains its powers and makes a stern effort to raise itself to the level’ of the angels? How? The angels are not concerned with the bonds of marriage and neither is the virgin. They are ceaselessly in the pres-ence of God and ceaselessly they serve Him; so too does the virgin .... While they cannot ascend to heaven as the pure spirits do since they are held down by their corporal bonds, still they have the greatest of consolations in this regard, since it is granted to them to receive in themselves the Master of heaven, provided they are holy in body and spirit. Do you see, then, what is the glory of virginity? For those who still live on earth it possesses a singular resemblance to the in-habitants of heaven. It does not admit that beings enveloped in mat-ter remain inferior to incorporeal beings; it makes mortals rival the immortals" (On Virginity, 11). "’...admire those in the desert who have adopted the angelic life..." (Homilies on Philippians, 1, 2). See also the numerous texts indicated by Dom Jean Leclercq, The LiIe o] Perlection (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1961), to whom we owe some of the texts we have here cited. = De perlectione vitae spiritualis, n, 569. brother, he is a liar. For how can he who does not love his brother whom he sees love God whom he does not see?" (1 Jn 4:20). "We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren" (1 Jn 3:14). Accord-ingly, ft seems to us that fraternal charity is the fruit of religious life, the already present realization of the com-munion of life with one’s brethren in Christ that is in~ separable from communion of life with the Father. Hence it is an anticipation among men of the eschatological kingdom in all its perfection of love. It is well known how in the ideal of "apostolic life" which underlies all the great experiences of religious in the course of history this dimension of imitation of the first apostolic community which held all things in common because it had but one heart.and one soul plays a predominant part.uz If love of God has led the religious to give all to Him in the joy of his profession, love of his brothers urges him to have noth-ing that is not for their welfare and their joy, The prophetic value of religious life follows frOm this. In the pilgrim Church in accordance with the economy of faith which is essentially an economy of signs pointing to a mystery, it has the role of a sign. By everything that it is, it proclaims to men the mystery of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of brethren living for God, for the glory of the Father, because incorporated into the Lord Jesus and receiving from the Father in Christ a share of divine goods. It already makes manifest the goal--though always through faith--and thereby nourishes men in hope. Once again we find the connection with the grace of confirmation. This grace makes the Christian--"quasi ex officio" (S.T. 3, q.72, a.5, ad 2)--a witness. Religious life, lived in the perspective in which we are attempting to place it, really bears witness; it is a collective as well as an individual witness within the great witness of the entire Church. Although the various aspects of this witness can be described in detail, we shall limit ourselves to the most striking ones. The vows, detachment from all that is not God in order to give one’s self wholly and without half measure to Him, announce and demonstrate to the "world" that God alone is sufficient, that His love and His service can fill a life and infuse it with joy, that His promise is not a deception since it is already fulfilled in m On the "apostolic life" see Pierre Mandonnet, St. Dominic and His Work (St. Louis: Herder, 1944), pp. 258-90; Dom Jean Leclercq, The Li[e of Perlection (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1961), pp. 63- 80; H. Holstein, "The History of the Development of the Word ’Apostolic,’ " Apostolic Li[e (Westminster: Newman, 1958), pp. 31-49; L. Dewailly, "Histoire de l’adjective apostolique," Mdlanges de sci-ences religieuses, v. 5 (1948), pp. 141-52; R. Carpentier, "La vie religieusc au coeur du peuple de Dieu," Christus, v. 7 (1960), pp. 151- 70. For typical patristic remarks, see Cassian, Con[erences, 18, 5; Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, 4, 23; P.G., v. 67, col. 512. 4- + 4- Religious Li]e VOLUME 22, 1963 6?.5 4. 4. 4. ]. M. R. Tillard, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGZOU$ those who respond to His initial gift. This God is not to be confounded with the vague deity of primitive religion or the non-personal god of philosophy. He is the "God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom 15:6; Eph 1:3) who directs salvation history. Religious life thus te.sti-ties to the truth and the power of the resurrection of Christ, power which in spite of the egoism and pride of the human heart, is sufficient to turn it completely to-ward God and toward others. If in the Church fraternal charity is the sign of Christ and His resurrection, then re-ligious life which strives for the perfection of this charity appears as the model of this testimony. This means that religious life has its place at the very heart of the Church as communion of life, that in the economy of faith proper to the pilgrim Church it is the strong pulse of this life with the Father and with one’s brethren in Christ. Hence it represents in the Churda a value of eternity. However, we must not misunderstand this statement and hence conclude that the religious state is somewhat outside of the People of God as they painfully advance toward the heavenly Jerusalem. On the contrary, religious life implies an involvement in the Church; it is this point we shall now consider. As we have emphasized, religious profession aims di-rectly at God. But this perfection of the love of God ("loved above all things") the religious strives for and alrezidy achieves on earth in the actual condition of the pilgrim Church which is the Church in the process of building herself. This remark leads to an important fact. The dynamism of charity like that of any genuine love makes him who loves espouse the will of the one loved and that in direct proportion to the degree of his love. Hence the more perfect his charity, the more completely the Christian embraces in Christ the will of the Father and His plan by making it the very motivation of his life. This plan is a design of love, of salvation for men; and it is meant to lead all to the communion of life. So it is that the religious in his quest of ever greater love of God must necessarily become more and more involved in the Fa-ther’s plan of salvation. Being the quintessence of the Church in her quality as the already inaugurated com-munion of life (and hence from the standpoint of ec-clesial unity and holiness), religious life stands before us now as being equally the quintessence of the Church in her striving toward catholicity (geographic as well as qual, itative). For all men have not yet received salvation, and those who have received it have not given it the welcome necessary that it might achieve in them its proper effect. The love which the religious has for them (which love conjoins the love of the Father for each of them in Christ) leads him to work with all his might that they may enter into the full sharing of the communion of life, though, of course, in faith, with its status of non-evidence. We under-stand from this how the life ostensibly the least occupied with others (contemplative life) can at the deepest level of the communion of saints be the one most charged with salvific e~cacy because the most perfectly surrendered to the love of God. To say as we have said throughout these pages that re-ligious life is a presence of the eschatological kingdom is not to isolate it from the pilgrim Church nor is it to affirm its non-adaption to the present economy. On the contrary, it is most profoundly involved in this economy. It is at the front of the advancing Church, the point where the dynamism toward the Parousia attains its maximum in-tensity and where the thrust of the kingdom toward uni-versality is felt to its fullest; but it is also the point where the eternal values already given "in pledge" are present with the maximum of density and stability in peace and joy (and these also are goods of the kingdom). Briefly, in religious life the life of the Mystical Body throbs in its fullness. First Corollary: Religious Life, Episcopacy, Secular Institutes, Third Orders... It is now easy for us to situate within the mystery of the Church the other states of perfection and certain re-la~ ed forms such as third orders (rightly understood), lay missionary associations, and even groups of married per-sons seeking a kind of Christian perfection. We leave aside for the present the more complex question of the epis-copacy about which we shall say a few words further on. In the Body of Christ the living center where the mys-tery of the communion of life with the Father and with one’s brethren in Christ finds its maximum density is and will remain religious life in the strict sense characterized by the three vows culminating in the vow of obedience and the practice of common life. But the Church, being the living Body of Christ rather than a simple juridical, static structure, is able--under the action of the Holy Spirit, due consideration being taken of the evolution of historical structures--to create in itself new institutions in which the faithful who so desire may attain to the per-fection of ~harity. New "states of perfection," theologi-cally (not necessarily chronologically) derived from reli-gious life in the strict sense, thus appear in the course of time: We note, moreover, that even in the framework of religious life there is a similar evolution: the cenobitical life of St. Pachomius in the fourth century, the monastic institution of St. Benedict around the sixth century, men-dicant orders in the twelfth century, congregations of ÷ ÷ ÷ Religious Lile VOLUME 22, 1963 627 ÷ ÷ ÷ ]. M. R. Tillard, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS clerks regular in the sixteenth century, institutes of simple vows in the following centuries. All of these show that diversity is no stranger to the religious state. Among .the states of perfection which are not religious life in the strict sense, certain ones have neither public vows nor common life in order that their members may give them-selves more directly to apostolic action; these are the secu-lar institutes~4 ordinarily ranked among the states perfection. But some of the faithful, without binding themselves to the obligations of the state of perfection, seek such a state under the direction of a religious order to which they attach themselves by a promise without strict canonical value. These are the third orders of which canon 702, § 1 says: Secular tertiaries are those who live in the world under the direction of a religious order, following its spirit, and endeavor-ing to tend to Christian perfection according to the demands of their state in life, following the rules approved for them by the Holy See. This surveillance of the Holy See should be noted, for it gives ecclesial status to the institution. Other laymen without any ties to a religious community go out spon-taneously to put themselves at the service of the Church a mission territory. And one can envisage the possibility of groups of married persons in an association and even bound by certain vows in view of a striving for Christian perfection in the married state. The sacrament of matri-mony does not remove the exigency for perfection in-cluded in the graces of baptism and confirmation, even though this sacrament makes it necessary that it be real-ized in a special way and in special circumstances. All these modes of life flow from the ideal of perfection which the Church possesses by her very nature but which in reality finds its privileged means of realization only religious life strictly so-called. Hence the perfecton these modes of life is to be judged in comparison with this ideal. We must recall that here--as elsewhere in this study--we are not talking about the actual holiness of its members. A married Christian will often be holier than mediocre religious, for the perfection of the individual gauged by the degree of his charity. We are dealing with the means chosen to attain this perfection, notwithstand-ing the use the subject makes o.f them.25 For a correct judg-u On secular institutes see J. Beyer, Les instituts sdculiers (Bruges: Descl~e de Brouwer, 1954) and the review of it by R. Garpentier in Nouvelle revue thdologique, v. 77 (1955), pp. 408-12; J. M. Perrin, Secular Institutes (New York: Kenedy, 1961); Dom Alvaro del Por-tillo, "L’~tat actuel des instituts sdculiers," Documentation ¢atho-lique, v. 56 (1959), col. 495-504. ="A person is properly said to be in (he state of perfection not because he has the act of perfect love but because he binds himself perpetually and with a certain solemnity to the things that pertain ment in this matter, we must go back to the great mystery of vocation. God regards each Christian individually. He wants each member of the Mystical Body to fulfill his own specific function not only for his own perfection but also for the good of the whole. The Church means of salva-tion- in her sacraments and her different states of life and aids to holiness supplies the Christian the milieu favora-ble for the response to this call. It is for the individual to know how to discern it and to respond to it; in the last analysis his personal sanctity will depend on the generos-ity of his response. The problem of the episcopacy is, as we have said, more complex; and we cannot fully clarify it here. In his De perfectione vitae spiritualis St. Thomas gives a lengthy study of the episcopacy precisely in its connection with the state of religious perfection. We know his conclusions: the episcopal state is superior in perfection to the reli-gious state26 because the bishop must "perfect" his flock --"It is clear that a greater perfection is required for one to give perfection to others than for one to be perfect in one’s self."27 But we must be careful not to place the two perfections on the same plane. By the grace of the sacra-ment of the episcopate the bishop must act as the "sacra-ment of Christ, Head of the Church," as the one through whose ministry divine things come to men. By the acts of his pastoral function, of his prophetic function (ministry of the word of God), and of his priestly function, he con-tinues in the Church the work of the Apostles, envoys following in the footsteps of the Son sent by the Father. In an envoy in the Biblical sense of the word (the shaliah), the one sending is himself present (Lk 9:48; 10:16); hence in the bishop we meet the mystery of Christ the Head acting in His Church for the vivifying of His members. From this fact follows the perfection and transcendence of the bishop. It is a perfection that can be qualified as hierarchical and that arises from the grace of a specific sacrament, that of orders. On the other hand, the perfec-tion of the religious is that of an ordinary member of the Body of Christ, not on the plane of the hierarchical priest-hood but on that of the.priesthood of the baptized. Hence it tends toward the personal and progressive perfection of the Christian. Between the perfection of the episcopal state and that of the religious state there is the relation-ship that we discern in the Church between the Head and the Body. We have already insisted on the fact that reli-to perfection .... Hence nothing prevents that so~e should be perfect who are not in the state of perfection and that s?me are in the state of perfection who are not perfect" (S.T., 2-2, q.184, a.4). See J. Beyer, Les instituts sdculiers (Bruges: Descl~e de Brouwel, 1054), pp. 355-7. ~ De perlectione vitae spiritualis, nn. 657-62. ~ De perIectione vitae spiritualis, n. 658. 4. 4. 4. Religious Liye VOLUME 22, 196,~ 629 ÷ ÷ ÷ ]. M. R. Tillard, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS gious perfection depends entirely upon the Church as "means of salvation"; the hierarchy (and hence the epis-copacy par excellence) is by the will of Christ at the very wellspring of the means of salvation.2s Second Corollary: The Problem of the Relations Be-tween the Episcopacy and Religious in the Apostolate At the end of this reflection we are perhaps in a better position to consider the relations between the episcopacy and the religious in the apostolate of the Church. Does not the fact that religious escape in some measure the ordinary jurisdiction of the bishop, that certain orders actually enjoy a privilege of exemption, constitute an anomaly endangering the effective functioning of the means of salvation? We must reflect somewhat on this very delicate problem,u° Certainly, as contemporary ecclesiology strongly in. sists, the local church (the diocese) signifies and realizes the Church universal. Where the local community is, there is the Church of Christ in all its essence. Hence the importance of the role of the bishop as head of the ;local church. On the other hand, contemporary theology is rediscovering another traditional truth already vigorously defended by Cyprian,a° that of the collegiality of the 6pis-copacy. Father Hamer describes this collegiality in~ the following way: "No bishop can avoid solicitude [or all the churches. Collegiality is this openness to universality, this openness to the entire Church, which is inscribed in the episcopacy of each pastor in communion with the epis-copal body under the authority of its head.’’al This means that the local church by its very structure opens neces- =S,,This sacrament [confirmation] is given to confer a certain ex-cellence, not like the sacrament of orders of one person with regard to another, but of a person with regard to himself; thtts tile same man, when mature, excels himself as he was when a boy" (S.T., 3, q.72, a.8, ad 1). ~ Here again we do not pretend to say anything that is new; the problem has been studied at length by the following: J. Hamer, "Place des religieux dans l’apostolat de l’Eglise," Nouvelle revue thdologique, v. 81 (1959), pp. 271-81; H. Holstein, "Apostolat des religieux," Etudes, t. 309 (April-June, 1961), pp. 328-42; Y. Congar, "The Theology of Religious Women," REvmw FOR RELICdOUS, V. 19 (1960), pp. 15--39; M. Giuliani, "Vie religieuse et apostolat," Ghristus, v. 7 (1960), pp. 204-26. The matter had already been considered by J. Creusen, "En marge de la hierarchie?" Nouvelle revue thdologique, v. 55 (1928), pp. 492-503. ~O,,By the institution of Christ there is but one Church spread out in many members throughout the world, a single episcopacy represented by a multitude of bishops united with each other" (Epistles, 59). "The anthority of the bishops forms a unity of which each holds his part in its totality" (The Unit), o] the Catholic Church, 5); this entire chapter deserves to be read. ~*J. Hamer, "Note sur la coll~gialit~ ~piscopale," Revue .des sci-ences philosophiques et thdologiques, v. 44 (1960), p. 50. ) ~ sarily onto the whole Church. Hence,it is that by its very nature the apostolic orientation of the Church, the anx-iety for the salvation ol~ men, transcends the boundaries of the diocese. To reject this transcehdence would be in fact to excommunicate onesell: (und~,rstood in the sense in which we have here used the term ’:communion"). Fur-thermore, an intense movement of internationalization begun by the popes themselves permeates the entire Church today.~2 Is it not precisely this catholic dimension that is realized in religious life. By reason of their consti-tutions the exempt orders (and exemption admits of a whole scale of degrees~) never escape from the jurisdic-tion of the Church: they attach themselves immediately to the head of the Church. And the apostolic activities of their members are not accomplished haphazardly or solely in view of the particular interests of the community. They are in the service of the head of the Church for the Church and hence ultimately for the local churches grouped around their bishops where the whole Church is realized. When a superior assigns a religious to a cer-tain diocese without previously consulting the bishop, he is not introducing a foreign body or an outsider; .he is sending one totally dedicated by his, profession to the service of God in the Church. The pr~esence of religious communities exempt (but not inactive) in the diocese ap-pears to us as yet another sign: the sign of the presence of the universal Church in the local church. And this exists in the persons of men who are precisely’in the state of seeking the perfect communion of life with God and with all men in Christ. We discern in this an authentic homo-geneity between religious life and the true nature of the apostolate in the Church. I Father Hamer~4 has called attention to another aspect of the apostolate of religious, that of’,the formation of groups o1: specialists. The diverse need~s of the universal Church transcend the particular needs Of a given diocese; in order to function, the Church requ~r.es certain special-ized organizations, special groups of .,at~ostles who re-nounce certain tasks in order to devote themselves almost exclusively to others demanding perhafss more patience, different aptitudes, a milieu of tranqtiillity or culture. . The most typical example is that of th.eologlcal research (and we include in this term all researcO concerned with the deposit of faith). How can we fully appreciate what the contemporary Church owes to the Iw ~ork of the Ecole m See H. Holstein, "Apostolat des religieux,i’ Etudes, t. ~09 (April- June, 1961), pp. ~1-2. sSSee E. Flogliasso, "Exemption des religieux," Dictionnaire de droit canonique, v. 5, col. 646-65. 8~j. Hamer, "Place des religieux dans l’apostolat de l’Eglise," Nouvelle revue thdologique, v. 81 (1959), pp. 271-81. + + + Religious Li]e VOLUME 22, 196.3 63! + + J. M. R. Tillard, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS Biblique of Jerusalem, for example? Religious life by very nature allows its members to devote themselves ac-cording to the end of the institute to such tasks under the immediate authority of the superior; these are tasks which go beyond the proximate needs of each diocese, hut which ultimately become fruitful in the immediately pastoral work of the ordinary pastor ol~ souls. It is note-worthy that diocesan priests engaging in similar work must generally give up a strictly diocesan apostolate, thereby escaping in many areas the immediate authority of their bishops. The superior general who has from the vantage point of his community a global view of the needs of the Church and who is not (as the bishop may some-times be) too exclusively involved in the problems of particular part of the Church or of a particular era is able to see farther than the present moment. In his prudence as superior he haay exercise a boldness that the bishop in his pastoral prudence cannot have because of circum-stances. Hence the superior general helps keep alive es-sential values in spite of crises in which these are almost relegated to oblivion by pastors engrossed in problems of the moment; in this connection it is profitable to recall the history of theological reflection in the Church history of the liturgy. If what we have said is correct, we must conclude that the privilege o[ exemption redounds to the good of the Church and not to the somewhat narrow interests of a certain order or institute. It does not aim so much to "favor" a certain form of life as to permit it ’to realize fully its function in the Church. For this reason the ma-gisterium of the Church approved it at a certain moment of history. Since the Church is in fact realized only in the local churches, these are the ones who ultimately reap the greatest benefits. Above all, we must not imagine from what has just been said that the present efforts toward a genuinely unified apostolate in each diocese and toward the pooling of the resources of all religious institutions under the direction of the bishop (sole head of the diocese under the Holy Father) is to be disparaged. Such a col-laboration is not only useful, it is necessary and it flows from the actual structure of the local church. But this teamwork will be most effective 0nly when it respects the spirit and vocation proper to each institute and frees the religious in an entire zone of life from immediate pas-toral authority so that he may in submission to his own legitimate superior pursue the laborious duty of perfec-tion that puts him at the service of the whole Church. In conclusion we observe that specialization for a defi-nite task seems to follow logically from what we have de-veloped here. Because the religious makes the gift to God of his whole being in an act of religion, it is normal that he seek avidly to develop his talents to their maximum, thus consecrating them in all the perfection of their ac-tivity. The more intense his love, the more he desires that the gift be rich and complete. A fruitful talent is worth more than a buried talent. The stability of life in an in-stitute that he has freely chosen because of its specific end which responds to his personal aspirations (this point is not to be minimized) lets the religious live his gift for the glory of God and the good of the Church. He thus offers daily to the Lord not an inactive corpse but the sacrifice of acts which love urges him to make most magnificent in substance. Here again religious life has the value of an ecclesial sign; it is the sign of the qualitative catholicity of the Church which takes up every human value not to destroy it but to make it surpass itself by referring it to God. In this study we have tried to show that religious life has neither sense nor reality except in reference to the mystery of the Church. On the one hand it is entirely de-pendent on the Church as "means of salvation" since it finds its support and its cause in sacramental grace. On the other hand it represents a privileged moment of the Church as ’,communion of life." In it are joined the two movements that make up the economy of salvation: the descending movement (always first) in which God gives Himself (we, have seen the grandeur of this gift) and the ascending movement in which, exulting with joy in his good fortune, man lovingly responds by giving God all .that he is and all that he possesses. All of this is effected "in the risen Christ" in whom all the brethren are joined-to each other in sharing the same life. The joy and the hope of religious life are, then, the joy and the hope of the Church. VOLUME 633 TERRENCE R. O’CONNOR, s.J. Holy Obedience and Whole Obedience Terrence R. O’Connor, $.J. teaches patristics, liturgy, and oriental theology at Alma College; Los Gatos, California. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS There is an etymological connection between the words "holy" and "whole" which has more than merely linguistic significance. Some flavor of the earlier connotation can be recaptured by comparison with othe~r cognate words such as heal, hale, wholesome, and hallow. The derivation of all these words from a common root seems to indicate ,that somewhere along the line there was an instinctive popular grasP of a significant spiritual truth, that is, that holiness implies a certain wholeness, a completeness. A similar conception is prevalent today in relation to mental health. It is common parlance to speak of a per-sonality as "integrated" or "well-balanced?’ Or we use the term "mentally deficient"--a more sophisticated but less graphic substitute for the plebeian "not all there." At any rate, both sanctity and sanity bespeak a certain wholeness, a needed completeness. From a theological point of view, it might be objected that true sanctity is effected by grace, a free gift of God. It is supernatural, and hence superadded rather than some-thing required to supply a lack. From the standpoint of God’s salvific will, however, grace is a restoration of some-thing missing. Christ, the second Adam, came to restore what the first Adam had lost. Seen in this light, fallen man, however we describe his "natural condition," is incom-plete; and redeemed man has regained a certain whole-ness-- or holiness. A state of sin is radical disintegration. The sinner is "not all there." Whether in connection with spiritual or mental health, integration does not refer simply to the person in himself but also to his adjustment to external reality, to things as they are. In the Christian context, this involves a proper adjustment to the full truth, to the basic realities of reve-lation. 1 That this demands neither a dull conformism 1 One of the reasons why Pope Pius XII called the liturgy "the most efficacious means of achieving sanctity" is that it presents a nor broad theological learning is clear enough from the striking variety in the lives of the saints. But what is no less clear from the history of Christian spirituality is that a selective spirituality, one that picks and chooses certain basic values to the exclusion of others, has not been tried without cost. Partial piety is "unwholesome" piety. The following remarks are an essay towards illustrating this principle historically with regard to the virtue of obedience. Even independently of history, it should be fairly clear that distortion of so fundamental a virtue could well lead to dangers with far-reaching consequences. A glance at the past, however, may serve to render the dangers more specific and to show how their often~tragic consequences have persisted down to our 6wn day: ~re can begin.convemently w~th a whole wew of the meaning of Christian obedience, one which is noteworthy not only because of its antiquity but because ok its solidly dogmatic content along with a deeply inspiring expression which to my mind has never been surpassed. I refer to the letters which St. Ignatius. of Antioch about the year 1 I0 addressed to the churches of Asia Minor while being brought under guard to Rome where he suffered mar-tyrdom. If the following citations do not convey the full richness of these brief epistles, they a~:e’ representative of the central theme that runs throughout. Be zealous to stand squarely on the decrees of the Lord and the Apostles, that in all thi.ngs whatsoever you ~may prosper, in body and soul, in faith and in love, in the Son and the Father and the Spirit, in the beginning and the end, together with your most reverend bishop and with your presbytery--that fittingly woven, spiritual, crownl--and with your deacons. ., men of God. Submit to the b,shop and to each other’s r,ghts, just as did Jesus Christ in the flesh to the Father, and as the Apostles did to Christ and the Father and the Spir!t, so that there may be oneness both of flesh and of spirit? The second passage selected presents the same full con-ception in strikingly graphic imagery. You consider yourselves stones of the Father’s temple, pre-pared for the edifice of God the Father, to be taken aloft by the hoisting engine of Jesus Christ, that is, the Cross, while the Holy Spirit serves you as a rope; your faith is your spiritual windlass and your love the road which leads up to God. And thus you are fellow travelers, God-bearers and temple-bearers, Christ-bear-ers and bearers of holiness, with the commandments of Jesus Christ for festal attire? whole view of Christian truth to the whole man. See Mediator Dei (America Press edition), nn. 26, 45, 47-9, 202. See also Josef Gold-brunner, Holiness Is Wholeness (New York: Pantheon, 1955). = Epistle to the Magnesians, 13. See The Epistles of St. Clement o[ Rome and St. Ignatius o[ Antioch, trans. James Kleist, S.J. (West-minster: Newman, 1946), p. 73. ~ Epistle to the Ephesians, 9; in Kleist’s translation, p. 63. ÷ 4- 4. Whole Obedience VOLUME 22, 1963 ~e ÷ ÷ Terrence R. O’ C onm~r , S.~. REVIEW FOR RELEGIOUS It will be noted here that St. Ignatius sees obedience as a bond bringing together into a dynamic oneness three things: the life of the Trinity, the life of the Church a~ a whole, and the life of each individual member. I shall treat these aspects separately, with a view to showing that ex-cessive emphasis on any one of the three not only destroys the beauty of the whole conception but can lead to serious aberration in the practice of obedience. Obedience and the LiIe oI the Trinity In the two passages cited above, St. Ignatius is dealing with the twofold direction in the workings of grace. The first is a downward direction in which grace is seen as proceeding from the Father, through the Son and the Spirit in their temporal missiong, then through Christ’s appointed ministers, and finally to the world of men at large. Now it is because of the relationships perceived in the temporal missions of the Son and the Spirit that we have come to know of the internal relations in the life of the Trinity. The temporal missions, therefore, are a reflection of the inner life of God, the eternal processions of the Persons being mirrored, as it w~re, in the fulfillment by the Son and the Spirit of the missions committed to them by the Father. The reflection of this life is ex-tended further when the redemptive mission is handed on to men and accepted by men. "As the Father hath sent me, I also send you .... Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (Jn 20:21-22). "He that heareth you heareth me" (Lk 10:16). As concerns obedience specifically, then, it is seen in the framework described by St. Ignatius as more than just another virtue. Its value goes beyond even that of imitating Christ’s perfect obedience to the Father; It becomes in a special manner a manifestation of the dfvine life within us because it is a reflection of the procession of the Son Himself.from the Father. For the upward directibn of the workings of grace--the "hoisting engine," as St. Ignatius calls it--submission to Christ’s appointed ministers is again seen as an essential cog. "He that despiseth you despiseth me; and he. that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me" (Lk 10:I6). "Whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven" (Mr 18:18). This conception of the relation between the life of the Trinity and Christian obedience seems to me particularly meaningful when seen in refer-ence to the petition of the Our Father: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Mt 6:10). The very grandeur of this "whole view," however, has been the occasion of grave d~lusion. Since the dawn of Christianity ther~ have been those who, fascinated ~01ely by the attraction of intimate union with the life 6f~ the triune God and impatient of earthly restrictions, sought for direct contact with the divine. The "hoisting engine" of St. Ignatius was too cumbersome a thing; they would rather soar ecstatically direct to the throne of the Most High. What need of an earth-bound, visible Church when one can abandon his soul to the immediate governance of the Spirit? In exposing his doctrine, St. Ignatius had specifically in mind the exaggerated spiritualism of the Docetists who first denied that Christ had a material body and then-- cgnsistently enough--rejected His visible Church. But Docetism was merely the beginning of an esoteric, charis-matic tendency that has slithered chameleon-like all down the course of Christian history. There was heady, elusive Gnosticism which taxed the best controversial °abilities of the early fathers. There was ecstatic Montanism, seductive enough to win over a Tertullian from the unity of the Church. There was Manichaeism, bringing with it from the distant East a fascination enticing enough to captivate for a time even the great Augustine and insinuating itself into Western Europe under the later forms of Priscil-lianism, Catharism, and Albigensianism. After these came Illuminism, Quietism, and the vagaries of modern reviv-alism. But no need here to relate in full the sorry catalogue of bizarre mysticism.4 The names may change but the common characteristic remains: weirdly ecstatic spiritu-alism that places itself beyond the restrictions of Church authority.5 Christ may have said: "He that despiseth you despiseth me" (Lk 10:16); but such pedestrian counsels do not apply to those who move in the loftier realm of the spirit. Fo~ some, even gross licentiousness matters nothing; for if my soul is being led by the Spirit, what difference can actions of the material body make? Note, however, that the initial attraction is to some-thing good, a real value, but one which receives emphasis so excessive as to become an obsession. As far as obedience is concerned, the final result is not merely distortion but out and out rejection. Obedience ’and the Life of the Church But despite all this, the transcendent, mystic aspect must remain in our consciousness as an integral part of the whole reality. It endows obedience with a singula÷r beauty, exalting.it far above the level of the merely ethic+al and making it a sublime, supernal thing in comparis÷on ’ For a treatment of this tendency in ancient and modern times, see Ronald Knox, Enthusiasm (New York: Oxford University Press, 1950). 5,,False mysticism is at all times a revolt of private enlightenment against ecclesiastical authority." Pierre Pourrat, Christian Spirituality (3 vols.; London: Burns, Oates, and Washbourne, 1922), v. 1, p. 62. Whole Obedience VOLUME 22, 1963 637 ÷ ÷ ÷ Terrence R. O’Connor, S.I. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS with that obedience which is the bond of any natural society. Once the full grandeur of this conception is lost, there is danger of aberration in another direction. This occurs if undue emphasis is placed on the ecclesio-logical aspect of obedience so that it is seen too exclusiw.qy under the aspect of jurisdiction. Now it .is clear that this whole notion with which we are dealing collapses utterly unless it includes a real, perennial jurisdiction committed to the Church by Christ. But if our instinctive attitudes go no further than that, if jurisdiction comes to be thought of simply as authority, as the right to command, it then tends to stress laws and sanctions so that motivation is apt to spring merely from obligation and even fear rather than from love. When, for instance, the exercise of ecclesi-astical authority follows too closely the patterns of civil law, the result can be a Joan of Arc at the stake or a John of the Cross in a dungeon. If these examples seem remote from present-day atti-tudes and practice, it would nevertheless be naive to suppose that we have outgrown tendencies towards cessive juridicism. In his much-quoted pastoral letter on the here-and-now problems of the Church, the late Car-dinal Suhard of Paris described the issue in clear terms: The Church, "permanent incarnation of the Saviour," per-petuates His mystery. In Him two natures were united: He was man and God. In the same way two worlds are closely united in the Church: the invisible reality and the visible Society, the community of the faithful. If we forget one of these two aspects we suppress the Church. Without a visible organization, with-out institutions, a hierarchy, the sacraments, etc., Christ is no longer "incarnate" on earth, the Church is no longer a body, But, on the other hand, to stop at the juridical organization and to go no further than external appearances is to replace the Body of Christ by a corpse of the Church? Paris echoes Antioch, and despite the passage of two milleniums the apostolic message resounds with no less pertinence. ~ Without attempting to evaluate the extent of over-emphasis on jurisdiction, it seems worth mention that in recent centuries and increasingly in our own times sepa-rated Christians both in East and West have charged Roman Catholicism with excessive juridicism. Given their varied theories on the nature of the Church, the charge is only to be expected; and certainly it has been colored at times by exaggeration. This would hardly justify us, however, in simply dismissing the whole thing as groundless. At any rate, Catholic prelates and promi-nent theologians are facing the issue squarely. This is seen most strikingly, perhaps, in the long-standing discussion Emmanuel Cardinal Suhard, Growth or Decline,?, trans: J. Cor-bett (South Bend: Notre Dame, 1948), p. 28. ,~ on the Catholic position on Church and State;7 but broader dimensions of the problem have come to the fore as the result of issues raised in the current Vatican Council II. Implications for the religious life should need no lengthy elaboration. All religious Superiors have real authority to command; and even where the authority is dominative rather than jurisdictional, it is related to the jurisdictional structure of the Church at least by reason of ecclesiastical approval of the rule. Yet it is particularly in. the familial framework of a religious order that we should expect an atmosphere that transcends the merely juridical by a kind of obedience that reflects the love proper to the eternal Father and His divine Son. There is ample evidence that this is often the ’case, but I do not think many would claim that it is always the case. Where it is not, the superior-subject relation becomes both less paternal and less filial and reflects very dimly ind,eed the relations of the.Trinity. This need not imply "coI~lness." It may simply be that a superior, overwhelmed by the responsiblilty for making decisions, takes refuge in un-flinching adherence to precedent and the letter of the rule so that subjects tend to, become in effect legal entities rather than persons. But subjects too can become precisely legalistic; fOr instance, by neatly delimiting the scope of their ~obligations by a facile appeal to chapter and verse of the law. The "sea-lawyer" is not found only in the forecastle. Obedience and the Life of the Individual In this final section there is again question of a real value in connection with the virtue of obedience. We can call it the ascetical value, thot is, obedience considered as perfective of the individual. We need not delay long to stress the importance, acknowledged by constant tradi-tion, of this aspect of the virtue. ~The sin of disobedience of the first Adam was repaired by the obedience of the second Adam, Christ; and every Christion who would take up Christ’s cross and follow Him must imitate His obedi-ence. It is, in fact, precisely this submission of one’s highest faculties through obedience that is traditionally seen as the most significant aspect of the ~tetachment required for the carrying of the cross.8 Since, then, this idea is familiar enough, we can turn our attention to the aberration peculiar to it. It is again a matter of undue emphasis whereby, in this instance, obedi- 7 A review of Catholic opinion on this issue is found in the report prepared for .the World Council of Churches by A. Carrillo de Al-bornoz, Roman Catholicism and Religious Liberty (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1959). 8 See Pourrat, Christian Spirituality, v. 1, pp. 64-80. + + Whole Obedience + + + Terrence R. O’Connor, S.I. REVIEW iFOR RELIGIOUS 640 ence becomes excessively introversial so that its value simply as self-perfective becomes the raison d’dtre, the be-all and end-all of the virtue. The roots of this aberration can be discovered in the beginnings of monasticism in the early centuries of the Church. For many of these pioneer monks, the ideal to strive for was a certain apatheia, a detachment from self and from the things of the world. More than merely :1. re-jection of worldly values, this flight from the world was for thousands geographically literal, becoming a flight from men to the solitude of the desert. Here, through rigorous asceticism, the rebellious body was reduced to submission, thereby liberating the captive soul to rise steadily to the heights of theoria, contemplation. Now in much of this it is unquestionably possible to appeal to the authority of Scripture. But the terms em-ployed and the ideals they represented were heavily in-fluence. d by contemporary Stoicism and Neoplatonism.9 And h~rein lay the aberration; for too often the indiVidu-alistic, pagan ideals of Greco-Roman culture prevailed to the exclusion of fundamental Christian values. The result was a semi-Christian, lopsided spirituality, fully mei’itin~ the strictures of Dom Cuthbert Butler: i i~ v It was a spirit of strongly-marked individualism. Each v~orked for his own personal advance in virtue; each strove to do his utmost in all kinds of ascetical exercises and austerities---in prolonging his fasts, his prayers, his silence .... They were athletes, and filled with the spirit of the modern athlete. They loved to "make a record" in austerities, and to contend with one another in mortifications; and they would freely boast of their spiritual achievements?~ In such a conception of the Christian life, where does the virtue of obedience fit? It is seen only for its ascetical value, in a purely individualistic sense. That is, I submit to a superior simply because this surrender of my will is an excellent exercise for fostering apatheia in myself. If he commands me to spend my time weaving baskets and then taking them apart, I am really getting somewhere regardless of how pointless the task may be. Positive error? Perhaps not in the expression of the idea itself. Its danger lies rather in the true vaIues it for-gets and the false values it begets. What has become of Ignatius of Antioch’s sublime vision of the Church, where obedience is seen as the bond of grace uniting clergy and laity in a corporate enterprise for continuing the redemp-tive work of Christ? But we miss even some of the central vaIues taught explicitly in the New Testament. The basic ~ Pourrat, Christian Spirituality, v. I, p. 78, indicates other, but lesser, influences from Buddhism, Judaism, and the mystery cults. 10 Dom Cuthbert Butler, The Lausiac History o[ Palladius (Cam-bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1904), v. I, p. 237, law o[ love, that virtue by which Christ’s followers should be known, is frozen out by this egocentric, calculated preoccupation with self-perfection. St. Paul, of course, speaks of the Christian athlete and the need of chastizing the body. But his characteristic emphasis is on the body of Christ, the Church. He also fled from the world to the desert of Arabia, but he did not stay there. As a Christian he feared worldliness, not the world of men; for this is the world that God so loved "that He gave his only-begotten Son" (Jn 3:16). Paradoxically, how-ever, the apostolate itself came to be viewed with suspicion as an el~usio ad exteriora, a worldly involvement un-worthy of one dedicated to perfection. For contact with men was seen as an occasion of sin, or, at best, a distraction. Fortunately for us, none of the Apostles borrowed their ideas on obedience from the Stoics. When Christ told them to teach all nations, they took Him at His word. When the corporate, ecclesial values of obedience were forgotten, the results were precisely what might have been expected. There were, of course, the tragic individuals who entered the spiritual arena to challenge all comers, racked up a whopping score of austerities, and were toppled over by their own pride. But there were mass movements more symptomatic of an ill-conceived obedi-ence. These were the gyrovagi, vagabond monks who often formed into unruly bands causing untold disturbance to the churches and exasperating the hierarchy like a thorn in the side. Order in the Church as established by Christ was threatened by anarchy. It would be grossly unjust to stigmatize early mo-nasticism as a whole with this deficiency. Yet the problem was real and widespread, and fortunately was recognized by great leaders in the monastic movement. St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, used his great influence for the spread of monachism and in his Li/e o[ St. Anthony11 gave us one of the lasting classics of monastic literature. Yet when a certain monk Dracontius fled to escape consecra-tion to the episcopate on the grounds that he wanted to lead a life of perfection, St. Athanasius wrote to reprove him for his error: Do not allow the monks to dissuade you, as though you were the only monk ever chosen for the episcopate. Do not excuse yourself as thdugh you would be falling back on the way of perfection. For the fact is that you Will make even greater prog-ress by imitating St. Paul and emulating the actions of the saints. You can see for yourself that once they were made minis-ters of the mysteries of God, they proceeded more surely towards the reward of our heavenly calling.** z*P.G. 26, col. 835-977. See Li[e o] St. Anthony, trans. R. Meyer (Westminster: Newman, 1950). ~Epistola ad Dracontium, 8; P.G. 25, col. 532. Whole Obedience VOLUME 22, 196~ ~41 4. 4. 4. Ter~ence R. O’Connor, S.]. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 642 St. Basil the Great, whose form of monachism became the most influential throughout the East, refers again and again in his rule to St. Matthew’s description of the/-ast Judgment: "Depart from me, you cursed .... As lonl,~ as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to me" (Mt 25:41ff).is He understands this passagea:; re-ferring not only to sharing sustenance with the poor but also to communicating to others the gifts of knowh:dge and grace--that is, the apostolate. For St. Basil, in fact, the strictly eremitical life is unchristian because of its in-dividualism: God the Creator has decreed that we have need of one an-other and that we be joined to one another. Moreover, the kind of charity that Christ taught does not permit that the individual should focus his attention simply on what concerns himself .... But life cut off from converse with men has for its sole purpose solicitude for one’s own individual needs. This ’runs directly counter to the law of charity, which the Apostle Paul carried out so fully; for he did not seek his own advantage but labored for the advantage of all men that thqy might attain salvation .... Now if each of us were to choose the eremitical life so that in-stead of following God’s will by fostering what is conducive to the common good, we would choose to gratify our desire for self-seeking, how would it be possible for such divided members to maintain the ties of mutual interdependence and service? Or how would we observe obedience to Christ our Head?t’ Another outstanding Father who profoundly influenced the spread of monachism was St. John Chrysostom. A recent study shows that he too had little regard for the monk who quits the world inspired by the sole desire of securing his own perfection and salvation.1~ Chrysostom’s practice bore out his teaching. He employed his monks in a highly organized missionary enterprise covering a vast area from southern Syria to the wild reaches beyond the Danube and the Black Sea. However, despite the admonitions of these Fathers of the Church and of later spiritual writers, this constricted view of obedience has persisted down to our own day. One thing that fosters it, I believe, is an oversimplified notion of the "mixed life." In this view, the religious has two dis-tinct spheres of activity: one is the interior life which aims =See St. Basil’s Regulae ]usius tractatae, particularly lnterro-gatio 4, 7, 24, 38, and 42; P.G. 31, col. 906-1052. x, St. Basil, Regulae, lnterrogatio 7, 1-2. See also Stanislaus Giet, Les iddes et l’action sociales de saint Basile (Paris: "Lecoffte, 1941), pp. 199-200: "Absolute retirement [in Basil’s teaching] is but a prep-aration for the active life. Once the monk has become master of him-self, he is in a position to give himself according to his abilities to works of charity and the apostolate. During his own period of re-tirement, St. Basil had nothing else in mind except his preparation for the ministry." x~ Ivo auf der Maur, O.S.B., M6nchtum und Glaubenverkiindigung in den Schri]ten des HI. Johannes Chrysostomus (Freiburg, Switzer-land: Universit~itsverlag, 1959). at the salvation and perfection of self; the other is the external apostolate aiming at the salvation and perfection of others. Such neat departmentalization implies at the outset that the apostolate does not conduce to self-perfec-tion. Bolster this with the familiar ominous warnings against "the world," "activism," .and "e~usio ad ex-teriora," and the apostolate becomes a threat---even an obstacle to perfection. This brings us back to the old error which St. Athanasius reproved in the monk Dracontius. I was once told by two religious priests that they were explicitly taught in the novitiate that their only proper motivation in works of the apostolate was to gain the merit of obedience. This is the old basket-weaving theory in more complex guise. Everything is evaluated from the standpoint of personal gain. This may explain also why even religious engaged in teaching the [aith will express concern because they enjoy their work--as though their activity were to be judged merely as a personal ascetical exercise. All are probably familiar with the comparison between the mixed life and an automobile. The storage battery is the interior life of grace. When the car is on the go, that is, when I do external works, the engine drains the battery so that it needs recharging. Here again the aposto-late is represented as a drag on personal perfection. But the analogy is incomplete. For a car also has a generator to act as a feedback, so that even while the car is going the battery is being charged. Properly understood, apos-tolic activity supplies a spiritual feedback. Self-centered obedience cuts it off. Even a good battery in a good car needs occasional recharging, but any amateur mechanic knows that a car without a generator is headed for an early breakdown. He also knows that when a car is left idle the battery goes dead. Accurate evaluation of the extent of this limited view of the religious life would be difficult. However, current spiritual literature as well as ordinary experience seem to vindicate the presumption that when Pope Plus XII de-scribed the problem he was not dealing with errors in a vacuum. Speaking to the heads of the various, religious institutes, he cautioned against two misconceptions: first, that religious life is merely a salutis re[ugium, a refuge from the tribulations of the world to a safe haven where one can tranquilly attend to his own salvation; second, that there is an incompatibility between the interior life and apostolic activity.10 We still need re-minding that immoderate preoccupation with self can X°Allocution of December 8, 1950, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, v. 43 (1951), p. ~0. + Wh~le Obedience VOLUME 22, 196-~ 643 ÷ 4. ÷ Terrence R. O’Connor, S.]. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 644 obscure or even exclude those communal values so essen-tim in the life of a Christian, How explain the persistence o[ this incongruous motif in the pattern of Christian thought? Let me hazard a few answers. 1. The prestige attaching to the idea because of r.he rigorous austerities of many of its proponents. Even St. Basil admits that he was at first taken in by this specious appeal.17 It has all the blunt attraction of the "hard way" and borrows support from such spiritual counsels as the passage in the Imitation o[ Christ: "In proportion as thou dost violence to thyself, the greater progress wilt thou make.’’is The passage is susceptible of benign in-terpretation, but its almost mathematical formulation too easily suggests that the measure of one’s self-mortifi-cation is the measure of his sanctity. In the Collationes of the Abbot Cassian which had great influence when Christendom was spreading throughout western Europe, we read: "The goal of the cenobite is to mortify and crucify all his desires.’’19 Imitation of Christ crucified is, of course, basic. But the difficulty here is not simply that the good Abbot does not seem to allow that the cenobite might have some good desires along with the bad. It is rather that the whole function of the monk is described in a manner so negative and introversial as not even to suggest the pgsitive corporate values equally essential, to the Christian ideal of perfection. 2. The simplification of one’s life apparently involved in transferring all "decisions" (and hence responsibility) to the superior as the voice of God. One of the counsels given in the Vitae patrum, a classic sixth-century source on early monachism, stretches this notion even to the tTDescribing his earlier esteem for Eustathius of Sebaste and his followers, Basil wrote: "Since that which lies hidden within each of us is not apparent, I thought that a lowly garment was sufficient indication of a lowly spirit, and the coarse mantle, the girdle, and the sandals of untanned hide sufficed to give assurance to me." Letter 223; P.G. 32, col. 825 A. See Saint Basil, Letters, trans. Sister Agnes Clare Way, C.D.P. (2 vols.; New York: Fathers of the Church Inc., 1951 and 1955), v. 2, p. 128. Basil discovered that the lowly garb of Eustathius covered a low spirit of ambitious intrigue which finally allied itself with the Arian heretics. ~s Bk. 1, c. 25, final verse. ~9 Collatio 19, 8. See Jean Cassien, Con]drences, ed. with French trans. E. Pichery (Paris: Cerf, 1959), p. 46. It is true that in Cassian this goal, also called purity of heart, has its positive correlative in charity. But his treatment betrays the influence of the impossible ideal of angelism (acquisition, even. in this life, of immunity from temptations); and even in the virtue of charity the characteristic motivation is individualistic. That is, I perform a charitable work not because it benefits my neighbor but because it advances me in perfection. See Owen Chadwick, John Cassian, a Study in :Primitiv.e Monasticism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1950),I pp. 87- 88. 91-93. extent that it absolves the monk from making any moral decisions whatsoever: "When anyone has confidence in another and submits himself to him as his superior, he should not concern himself about the commandments of God, but should commit his whole will to his spiritual father; for by obeying him in all things, he will not sin in the sight of God.’’~° I think it should be frankly ad-mitted that such similes as the "old man’s staff," at least if taken in isolation, can conduce to this attitude of pas-sive non-involvement. It might also be asked how much such an attitude contributes to the much-discussed re-tarded maturity observable in some religious. 3. Influence of secular individualism of recent cen-turies on spiritual doctrine with consequent deficiency in social consciousness. It is interesting to compare the ideals in the social encyclicals o[ recent popes with in-dividualistic values still presented as "ideals" of Chris-tain perfection. 4. Injudicious presentation of "detachment’.’ in early training. Granted that at the outset there may be need to "bend the leaning tree in the opposite direction"; yet the Christian idea is at least as much concerned with attachment as it is with detachment~ This attachment (love) must embrace the Church, Christ’s members, people. But in the individualistic context, "people," even my fellow religious, can too readily fall into the category of’ "creatures" which I "use" to foster my own perfection. In a widely-used edition of the Imitation of Christ with "Practical Suggestions" at the end of each chapter, we are advised "never to look on our neighbor but in order to avoid his faults and to imitate his virtues.’’~1 And this is given in answer to the question: "Why are we Christians?" Fortunately for the man who fell among thieves, the good Samaritan could look on his neighbor and see more than a mere means for personal advantage. 5. The tendency of some superiors to foster in their subjects the passive, "old man’s staff" emphasis in obedi-ence because it curtails initiative and renders the process of governing more simple. 6. Misinterpretation of the truth as expressed, instance, in the catechism: "God made me to know Him, to love Him, to serve Him in this world and be happy with Him in the next." It is correct to say that this radical purpose in life, this God-given vocation, must take pre-cedence over all other aims or quests. Clearly there is, then, a legitimate self-interest even in spiritual matters. But this Christian self-interest can be distorted into an Vitae patrum 5, 14, 12; P.L. 73, col. 950 B. ~Thomas a Kempis, The Following o] Christ, trans. Richard Challoner (Portland, Ore., 1925), p. 106. ÷ ÷ ÷ Whole Obedience VOLUME 22, 1963 645 ÷ ÷ ÷ Terrence R. O’Connor, $.]. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 6~6 unchristian self-centeredness. This can occur if all use of creatures in the p.rocess of striving for perfection becomes a too nicely calculated subordination of everything to ,ny own individual purpose in life. An illustration may help to clarify this point. Let us suppose that a mother is earnestly trying to be-come a perfect mother. In this quest for perfection she ¯ works hard at raising her children and doing fill *:he things that a go~sd mother should do. If, however, she is motivated only by duty or improving her character or even gaining eternal merit for herself, she is a gross cari-cature of mother love, regardless of her degree of "morti-fication" or the "virtues" with which she may be adorned. She is out for herself--and in a mother, such motivation is a monstrous parody. She is like a diligent orphanage matron concerned only about her salary and ultimate pension. The thing that makes maternal love not only beautiful in the eyes of men but meritorious in the eyes of God is precisely its selflessness. There is a significant paradox here. Charity must in a real degree be forgetful of self if it is to be perfective of itself. "Charity," says St. Paul, "is not ambitious, seeketh not her own" (1 Cor 13:5). Perhaps this idea is obvious with regard to a mother since the very term "mother" is relative. Hence the perfec-tion of motherhood cannot even be conceived except in relation to both her actions and attitudes towards her children. But the idea should be .no less obvious with regard to a Christian, for "Christian" is no less a relative term than "mother." By baptism we were made relatis;es, brothers to one another, and our perfection consists in the perfection of that relationship, in love. We :might possibly eva’Iuate the perfection of, say, a statue con-sidered simply in it.self, in isolation from other things. An art critic might even draw up a list of the artistic virtues which are manifest in the work. But such an approach is utterly inadequate in evaluating Christian perfection. The Christian is not an absolute. Even if I aid someone in distress but am motivated not by compassion but simply by the merit I can gain, I have shriveled the beauty of Christlike love into a thing of avarice. When Christ told us to love one another, He did not mean we should just go through the motions. Certainly there is danger of a kind of self-forgetfulness which sacrifices the safeguards of the interior life to the hustle and .bustle of "activism." But there is an opposite ¯ extreme which seems to be fostered by such counsels as: "Watch over yourself, stir up yourself, admonishyourself; and whatever happens to others, neglect not yourself.’’22 There seems to be something wrong with charity that puts Imitation o] Christ, Bk. 1, c. 25. others in such a frankly subordinate place, something that would cause external works to be viewed with reserve or even suspicion and that would strip zeal of its sponta-neity. So it is with obedience in the framework of Christian perfection. Since charity is the form of all the virtues, obedience must be shot through with. charity, with that Christian love which sincerely seeks the good of those loved. Obedience to legitimate authority in the Church is not only good for me, it is good for the Church, for the members of Christ, actual or potential. Unless both values enter into my motivation, I end up with a caricature. For self-centered motivation, even in the guise of spiritu-ality, can distort the life of charity into a bogus Chris-tianity. Christian obedience is charity in action; and like charity, it bespeaks a relation to the life of the Trinity, to the life of the Church, and to the life of the individual. This is the balanced, integrated obedience of valid Chris-tian tradition. It.is a holy obedience because it is a whole obedience. 4. 4. Whol~ Obedience VOLUME 22, 1963 ROBERT J. KRUSE, C.S.C. Obedience in the Religious Life ÷ Robert J. Kruse, C.S.C., is a faculty member of Holy Cross Fathers Semi-nary; North Easton, Massachusetts. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 6,t8 In our treatment of authority in religious life (1L~v,Ew FOR R~LmXOUS, September, 1963, pp. 527-35) we pointed out that Christian life is eschatological as well as incar-national in character. That is, Christian life looks beyond temporal chaos to that establishment of eternal order which is the term outside Himself of God’s provident ac-tion in the universe. And if this is true of Christian life in general, it is pre-eminently true of religious life which one might characterize as a sacrament of eschatology, that is, a visible sign bearing efficacious witness to man’s final destiny. It is in the light of this viewpoint that we will develop our reflections on obedience in the religious life. Theologians today lay great stress on obedience as a total commitment to a unique way of life, a life according to the counsels of the Gospel. Thus one author affirms: "It is not therefore.., the primary notion of obedience to surrender one’s will to a human superior, but to sur-render one’s will to a definitely constituted form of life approved by the juridical and mystical Church.’’1 And another author discussing the same subject declares: Religious obedience should by no means be considered pri-marily as obedience to individual commands, nor is it even the abstract notion of a general readiness to fulfill such com-mands. Primarily it is the permanent binding of oneself to a definite mode of life ... to life with God within the framework of the Church .... Obedience is a permanent life-form giving man a Godward orientation .... Obedience is the acceptance of a common mode of religious life in imitation of Christ according to a constitution, which the Church has acknowledged to be a true and practical expression of a divinely oriented existence? And again: "The proper and essential object of religious 1 Robert W. Gleason, S.J., To Live Is Christ (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1961), p. 158. ~ Karl Rahner, S.J., "Reflections on Obedience," Cross Currents, v. 10 (Fall, 1960), p. 370. obedience is an abiding way of life according to the evangelical counsels.’’3 And finally: To make a true act o[ obedience.., demands a certain level of maturity. It demands that one has put aside at least to a significant degree any childish or adolescent qualities and that he has assumed the responsibility of making a total dedica-t~ ort of himseR to God.’ These selected excerpts from various authors provide us with some idea of the stress being laid upon obedience as a total .commitment to a theocentric way of life. Obvi-ously this theocentric way of life is first and foremost a way. That is, our life with God is by no means perfect now in time. Rather it is on the way~ in progress as it were, towards perfection beyond time. In other words the religious life ex professo looks beyond present life to future life, beyond the way to the end of the way, beyond pilgrimage in exile to welcome in our Father’s house. The texts cited above indicated that obedience consti-tutes a total’ commitment to a God-oriented way of life which was further described as a life according to the evangelical counsels. Ultimately, of course, the d~egree of a person’s commitment to God can be measured solely in terms of his love,~There should be no confusion on this score. The dominion of charity over one’s entire life-activity is the decisive scale of a God-oriented way of li~e. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have love.d you" (Jn 15:12). And again: "By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (Jn 18:35). And finally: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Mt 22:37-39). How, then, do the evangelical counsels contribute to the rule of charity over our lives? That is the critical ques-tion. While it is true that the counsels are not in them-selves and absolutely speaking necessary to perfection, it is also true, as one authority expresses.it, that "they con-tribute greatly tO it (perfection) inasmuch as they remove many impediments which usually render more difficult the dominion of charity over one’s whole life.’’5 Thus the boundaries of our problem are circumscribed. We must investigate how obedience contributes to the dominion of love over our entire lives, bearing in mind the while that such a rule of love is essentially God-directed and looks S Rahner, "Reflections .on Obedience," p. 371. ~ Richard P. Vaughan, S.J., "Obedience and Maturity," REw~w fOR RELm~OUS, v. 21 (September, 1962), p. 424. n Joseph de Guibert, S.J., The Theolog), oI the Spiritual LiIe (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1956), p. 67. Obedience VOLUME 22, 1963 6,t9 ÷ ÷ ÷ Robert ~. Kruse, CM.C. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 650 beyond time for the perfect establishment of its reign over our hearts. Upon analysis it appears that each time a superior gives a command in the religious life one of two possible situations is created. We are speaking, of course, of com-mands which are not in themsdlves sinful. Either I:he command is supernaturally enlightened---in harmony with the inspirations of the Spirit of Christ both in its conception and in its issuance; or the command is super-naturally deficient--out of harmony with the inspirations of the Spirit of Christ either in its conception or in its issuance. To put it very simply, the superior’s command may be either holy and wise or unholy and lacking wisdom, though not in itself sinful. Commands, in other words, may be either good or bad. To be good the com-mand must be good in every way. That is, a holy inspira-tion must spring from a good heart and be communi-cated with good will. To be bad it suffices for our present purposes that the command be vitiated in any way what-soever-- whether by reason of bad judgment or by reason of ill will in either conceiving or issuing the order. Hav-ing established these basic distinctions we are now ready to inquire how in each case obedience contributes to’the rule of love over our hearts, that is, to the rule of God over our hearts. Actually, the first situation presents practically no problems. The second, however, presents some very challenging problems. We will treat the first alternative briefly and then discuss the second at greater length. It is evident that the subject’s .obedience to a wise and holy command must be sanctifying given the very char-acter of the ~ommand. What, perhaps, is not so evident is the importance of a free inner acceptance by the re-ligious of the will of his superior. Mere external con-formity has of itself no moral significance as far as the subject is concerned. Order and discipline are imposed and maintained in a prison or in a concentration camp but obviously there is no meeting of minds nor oneness of wills in such institutions. Authority simply commands and is obeyed mechanically without the subject’s making any attempt to embrace the will of authority as some-thing of value. On the contrary, in the religious life: "The subject does not substitute the will of his superior as an extrinsic thing for the free intelligent activity of his consciousness, but accepts the will of the superior and freely makes it his own so that he understands and ful-fills it with intelligence and love.’’6 Therefore in forming the obedient religious it is very necessary to emphasize that obedience does not involve a blind abnegation of all personal responsibility. No one may, so to speak, simply s Gleason, To Live Is Christ, pp. 144-45. hand over his conscience to another, thus fancying him-self relieved of all further decisions. Kather, every com-mand of the superior demands a new and freely willed act of obedience on the part of the subject. The very fact that one is obliged not to obey a sinful command implies that the subject is obliged to Weigh the morality of all his actions--including those commanded in virtue of obedi-ence. Unwillingness or reluctance on the part of the sub-ject to obey the good command gives evidence of a want of good will or a lack of generosity on the subject’s part. In such a situation it is extremely important, particularly in the case of younger religious, for the superior not to be satisfied with the merely mechanical execution of his command. The superior must bend every effort to effect-ing a genuine conversion of will on the part of the sub-ject, for without such a conversion obedience is void of moral value for the subject. In all such cases what is in-volved is a conflict within the subject between self-love and self-will on the one hand and the love of God and the will of God on the other. It is the superior’s duty patiently and perseveringly to return to this theme mak-ing very explicit just what is at stake in the subject’s re-luctance to obey. In this regard the superior must make a practical decision regarding the degree of generosity which may reasonably be expected of a religious at vari-ous stages of his formation and throughout his subse-quent life as a religious. If on the one hand he should not be unduly dismayed by a want of generosity occasionally demonstrated by his subjects, on the other neither may he permit a subject habitually to resist the demands of obedience and to continue unchallenged in this self-cem tered posture. The reason is at hand. Such resistance af-fords clear-cut evidence of a strongly egocentric personal-ity, one hardly suited for the religious life. The truly critical issue, and the superior should not tire of repeating it, is whether self-love or the love of God shall rule the subject’s behavior. Furthermore, pre-cisely because the will of God as manifested by His rep-resentative is often at odds with self-will, its fulfillment will be painful and demand sacrifice. This pain and sac-rifice should be clearly perceived as the participation in the mystery of the cross which in fact they are. Indeed thanks only to such sacrifice does a man win a personal share in the mystery of redemption. Essentially redemp-tion involves the putting to death within us of our self-searching and a corresponding bringing to fuller life within us of our pursuit of God. Self-love alone imprisons us spiritually and only its death will free us to lead a godly life--a life which looks beyond the pleasures which the transitory indulging of self-will affords to the joys Obedienre VOLUME 22, 1965 651 ~IIIIIIIIL-- 4, 4, 4, Robert 1. Kruse, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS which the enduring attachment to the divine will assur~:s. Obedience generously exercised is a cross for self-love, a cross on which self-love begins to suffer death; and with its death the love of God knows fuller life, begins to rule more totally both our conduct and our hearts. With these relatively sketchy but, we think, salient remarks we shall go on to discuss the second alternative proposed above. Stated in the broadest possible terms the problem is simply this: How is the subject to respond to a command which is in fact a bad command, that is, a command vitiated by poor judgment on the superior’s part or by ill will in either the superior’s conception or issuance of the command? Actually, the presence of ill will in the superior can be dispatched rather easily. We take it for granted that the superior can sin in commanding some-thing not sinful, something, in fact, which may prove very salutary in the extension of the rule of Christ’s love over men. It is regrettable, of course, that the.superior is not himself dominated by charity in his relationship with his subjects; and for this the superior is culpable. But the superior’s personal culpability in no essential way jeop-ardizes the attainment of truly praiseworthy goals given the basically sound character of his command. Certainly the subject’s obedience under such circumstances ’may well be more painful as a consequence of the superior’s shortcomings, but equally certainly this-increased diffi-culty does not alter the case substantially. But the situation is altered substantially when the su-perior’s command may be termed an ill-advised or bad command not by reason of any ill will on the superior’s part but rather as a consequence of his poor judgment or lack of prudence. In other words, we have the case of an imprudent command which in point of fact Christ our Lord would not Himself have issued were He .in the su-perior’s place. How can obedience to such a command be construed as conformity to the will of Christ? What, practically speaking, should be the subject’s response to such a command? These are, it seems, the most difficult problems raised in any discussion of obedience. First of all, let us make it clear that the religious has not only a right but an obligation to voice respectfully his reservations regarding the wisdom of some com-mands. The constitutions of religious communities ap-proved by the Holy See provide for such protestations as well as for recourse to higher superiors on those occasions when a lower superior’s decision seems to be ill-advised. Such provisions should by no means be interpreted as mere concessions to human frailty: On the contrary, these provisions are very positive in character and demand of a religious subject the exercise of a high degree of~ virtue. Once more we must insist that a religious does not~ simply forego all exercise of personal responsibility as a conse-quence of his vow of obedience. Occasions ,can and do arise when a subject’s fundamental integrity as a Chris-tian demands that he speak out. To remain silent would be to betray his Christianity. Often, though, it is easier to remain silent, and specious arguments--borrowed for the most part from a naive conception of obedience-- seem to authorize holding one’s peace. Because holding one’s peace seems to preserve domestic tranquility does not mean, however, that holding one’s peace is always the genuinely heroic course of action. Writing on this matter one of the most accomplished theologians of our century has declared: The truly obedient religious does not accept commands with indifference but with love, a love springing from his ardent striving to do the will of (god .... This implies that if a person wishes to obey well he cannot be disinterested regarding the appropriateness of the orders which he receives .... Indeed one may and sometimes one must object to an order, but al-ways in a spirit of submission and in the purest possible desire to see the will of God accomplished. An obedience which would not protest might well be a sign of lukewarmness in the service of God/ Certainly we do not envisage such protestations as commonplace, Nor do we intend by our remarks to sanc-tion the carping attitude of cranks within the religious community. Before any protestations are made it is es-sential that the religious engage in a prayerful inner searching--as detached from all self-interest as possible. Only when he is honestly convinced in the light of super-natural truth that a superior’s decision is imprudent should the religious protest, having recourse if need. be to higher authorities. Furthermore, such a protest must be both inspired by charity in its conception and per-meated by charity in its pursuit. Finally, the religious must be prepared to accept the final decision of his su-periors- whatever that decision proves to be. While the subject has a moral obligation in certain situations to question the wisdom of a decision and to make @pro-priate ,protestations, the subject also has the moral ob-ligation of obeying willingly once such protestations have been voiced. And this raises the last and most di~cult of the questions which we wish to consider: how obedience to a command which objectively considered is a poor command can be subjectively sanctifying. Earlier we emphasized how religious life is eschato-logical as well as incarnational in character. An appre-ciation of the essentially ultra-temporal orientation of 7 Emile Mersch, s.J., Morale et Corps Mystique (Paris: Descl~e de Brouwer, 1949), v. 1, pp. 269-70. 4. 4. 4- Obedience VOLUME 22, 1963 4. Robert ]. Kruse, C.S.C. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS religious life seems critical in the resolution of our pres-ent problem--as it is also critical in the resolution of many analogous problems. What problems do we have in mind? We have in mind problems such as those of death, sufferingl sin, and the like. Or, to put it another way, we have in mind all those phenomena which appar-ently threaten man’s full position of life, which appar-ently jeopardize the possibility of humanity’s total adher-ence to the truth and total commitment to the good. It is precisely the crises which such problems precipitate that teach a man the essentially limited competenc~.’ the temporal order to satisfy his noblest yearnings. Even as man recognizes within himself a desire for wisdom which knows no frontier and a quest for the good which knows no rest, even so does man experience the frus-trating of his desires and of his quests. This frustrating is critical in the spiritual life and of vast significance. is necessary that man encounter questions which surpass his pow.ers of comprehension. In his very encounter of such vexing questions--the why of death, of suffering, evilwman’s finiteness is branded on his soul as he strug-gles for insight. "But neither intellect nor will, neither man’s power to know nor his need to love come out of the struggle satisfied. All too often he is left with no ra-tional solution but only with apparent brutal rejection of the good and the noble. And the more totally a soul is committed to the pursuit of what is true, what is good, and what is beautiful, the more painful will be his experi-ence of the false, the evil, and the ugly. This pain has mysterious significance---efficacy borrowed from the mys-tery of the cross. For in the profoundest sense nothing is more false, more evil, and more ugly than the cross of Christ. That is to say, nothing reveals with more terrifying and bril-liant clarity all of man’s ignobility than the cross, the same time the cross also reveals Christ our Savior’s solidarity with all humanity in its fallen condition. Freely, obediently, and with consummate love our Savior foregoes the divine glory to which His holy humanity has a right. "And appearing in the form of man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even to death on a cross" (Phil 2:7-8). For many this mystery is indeed "stumbling-block" and "foolishness," but for those gifted with belief, with God’s vision of reality, it is rather supreme manifestation of "the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Cor 1:23-24). For even as the cross reveals the evil condition of man’s [allen nature, it also invites man to transcend that condi-tion. This it accomplishes in virtue of its very want intelligibility, its very lack of rationality, its awesome absurdity. Man stands before the cross in utter consterna- tion capable only of stammering: "How can this be? How can God permit this most evil and false of deeds?" And man can only respond in terms of a divine love the depths of which he can never hope to fathom in time simply because it is divine and infinitely surpasses all that is not divine. Yet, withal, the reality of the cross remains; and even if man cannot fully comprehend it neither can he possibly ignore it. And what conclusion does man draw from the mystery? That the unintelligible, the irra-tional, the imprudent, the ill-advised, the ugly somehow find in loving adherence to God intelligibility, ration-ality, prudence, wisdom, and beauty. And all these qual-ities are discovered solely in the exercise of docile, obe-dient love. For a religious can be certain that as often as the com-mand with which he is confronted seems void of wisdom, just so often does his obedience constitute a personal participation in the folly of the cross. It is pre-eminently by obedience in such a situation, a situation characterized by an apparent lack of wisdom on the part of superiors, that the religious bears most glorious witness to the God-oriented nature of his vocation. For here to a unique de-gree does all possibility of self-love and selLinterest escape man. Here to a unique degree does the possibility of a truly disinterested love of God invite man. Here does man’s profession of a destiny which transcends the tem-poral order find most vital expression. For there simply exists no satisfactory explanation within time for some commands, just as there exists no satisfactory explana-tion within the created order for the existence of physical and moral evil. And in man’s very admission of his in-ability to resolve these most searching of dilemmas, hu-manity’s soul is purified of all self-glorification and laid bare [or the saving action of God. In his experience of the cross, man learns the necessity of adherence to God. In his experience of the shallowness of human wisdom and the fragility of human goodness, man learns to cling to the eternal God who alone can establish out of temporal chaos and incompetence an abiding order of truth and of love. Only in the light of the essentially God-oriented and extra-temporal character of his religious profession can the subject ever hope to understand how the ill-advised command can be the will of God for him. The religious must recognize in his fulfillment of such a command the most perfect possible sharing in the mys-tery of the cross. The cross remains eternally the supreme testimony of our Savior’s loving obedience. The very ugliness and stark evilness of the cross serve to floodlight the loving obedience of the Savior, the commending of His spirit into the hands of His Father. And only there, in absolute commitment to the Father, in the most per- Obedience VOLUME 22, 196~ fect of self-givings--a self-giving devoid of all creaturely glorification---only there does humanity find itself truly glorified in the hands of the living God. Thus does man in virtue of a love,inspired confiding of his destiny into the hands of God his Father pass with Christ from death to life. Self-glorification is essentially death-oriented sim-ply because the creature has no power to confer life. By obedience to God in circumstances which defy all crea-turely interpretation man. displays his willingness to break the bonds of the created order with all of its re-strictions and enters into the sphere of the divine. Love alone is capable of animating such a mortification of creaturely glory. Love alone is capable of inspiring such a testimony to divine glory. So that as a consequence of his love man passes from a death-directed to a life-flooded condition,s In summary we may assert that every act of obedience is a participation in Christ’s passover from death to life. And in proportion to .the love which the act of obedience de-mands will the religious experience more perfect trans-formation in Christ. So, too, we can understand how love redeems even the apparently less perfect act sometimes commanded by superiors. Just as Christ’s love redeemed the cross of its folly. And the term of obedient love shall be for the religious a participation in the glorified hu-manity of the risen Savior. With Christ and in Christ the religious by his obedience puts to death man’s will to self-glorification--a self-glorification essentially incompe-tent to satisfy man’s longing for life. With Christ and in Christ the religious by his obedience adheres, to the living God, and there in total loving commitment to God. dis-covers even now in time a sure pledge of that future risen glory he shall enjoy for life eternal. s For a further development of these ideas, see Rahner, "Re-flections on Obedience," pp. 372-74. ÷ ÷ Robert ]. Kruse, C.$.C. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 656 ANGELO P. O’HAGAN, O.F.M. The Lord Is Nigh "He who testifieth these things saith, ’Yea, I come quicklyl’--Amenl Come, Lord Jesusl" (Ap 22:20). The first Christians were acutely aware that the drama of re-demption still lacked its final act, that "this Jesus, who hath been taken up from you into heaven, will come after the same manner wherein ye have beheld him going into heaven" (Acts 1:11). Indeed at the very climax of His trial before the Sanhedrin, our Lord Himself had an-nounced His return upon the clouds of heaven, filling the prophet Daniel’s image of the Son of Man with new meaning (Mk 14:62). And the early. Christian preachers constantly exhorted the faithful to a holy way of life on the grounds that "the end of all things is at hand" (1 Pt 4::7) and "but a little time, and he that is to come will come, and wil! not tarry" (Heb 10:37). This same awareness still vividly colored second gen-eration Christian writings.: the Didache cries out at the close of its liturgy, "May Grace come, and this world pass away .... Maranatha!" (10:6); and we know that mille-narists, who hoped Christ would soon come to establish a temporal kingdom on earth, were numerous even in offi-cial circles. Further, that some second generation Chris-tians had become bitter and disillusioned in their hopes is implied by 2 Peter’s reference to the mockers who "shall say: City of Saint Louis (Mo.), http://www.geonames.org/4407084 http://cdm17321.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/rfr/id/467

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