Review for Religious - Issue 23.2 (March 1964)
Issue 23.2 of the Review for Religious, 1964.
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sluoai_rfr-479 Review for Religious - Issue 23.2 (March 1964) Missouri Province of the Society of Jesus Jesuits -- Periodicals; Monasticism and religious orders -- Periodicals. Issue 23.2 of the Review for Religious, 1964. 1964-03 2012-05 PDF RfR.23.2.1964.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 Number of Votes in Elections - by Jos~ph F. Gallen, S.J. Christian Humanism and St. John by Matthew L. Lamb, O.G.S.O. Meaning of Religious Sisterhood by Charles A. Schleck, C.S.C. Religious Life and the Paschal Mystery by Eugene U. Bia~hi, Sisters and Change by Sister M, Wilma, 8.G.L. Religious Life, Eschat01ogical Sign by d. M. R. Tillard, O.P. Profession as Covenant Action by Sister Elaine Marie, S.L. Survey of Roman Documents Views, News, Previews Questions and Answers B’ook Reviews 129 149 160 174 185 197 207 216 226 233 JOSEPH F. GALLEN, S.J. Number ofVotes Required for Election in Lay Religious Institutes 1. Basic Determinant In conformity with canon 101, § 1, 1°, the constitu-tions of brothers and sisters usually express the basic principle in this matter as follows: Unless otherwise prescribed for a particular election, all elections shall be decided by an absolute majority of secret votes; that is, a number which exceeds half the number of valid votes Ca,~L o o Therefore, according to the ordinary norm of canon 101, § 1, 1°, and the practice of the Sacred Congregation of Religious in approving constitutions, not the total num-ber of those who have a right to vote, thus including the absent, nor the total number of electors physically present, but the total number of valid votes cast is to be taken as the total according to which the election is de-termined. Canon 101, § 1, 1°, per.mits particular laws to be contrary to any of its provisions. Consequently, con-stitutions would not be in opposition to the Code of Canon Law if they contained either of the former norms as this determining factor; but this is not done in the constitutions of lay institues. Therefore, if the number of electors present is thirty-six but five votes are invalid, the total according to which the election is determined is thirty-one, not thirty-six, and an absolute majority is six-teen, not nineteen, votes. 2. General Norm In approving tht constitutions of lay institutes, the Sacred Congregation of Religious gives a general norm for deciding elections, which is to be followed in all elec-tions except those for which the constitutions specify a ÷ ÷ ÷ Joseph F. Gallen, S.J., is professor of canon law at Wood-stock College; Woodstock, Mary-land 21 VOLUME 2~, 1964 129 4, 4, $. 1:. Gailen, S.]. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 130 different norm. This general norm is ordinarily, applied in the practice of the Holy See to the election of general officials in congregations, general and regional officials in federations and confederations of nuns, the delegates and substitutes from provinces and larger houses to the gen-eral or provincial chapter, and the provincial officials when these are elected in the provincial chapter. The fol-lowing appears to be the preferable way of phrasing the general norm because it avoids the unnecessary repetition so frequently found in constitutions: Unless otherwise prescribed for a particular election, all elections shall be decided by an absolute majority of secret votes, that is, a number which exceeds half the number of valid votes cast; but if after two ballotings no one has received an absolute majority, a third and last balloting shall be held, in which a relative majority decides. In the case of an equality of votes among several candidates in this third balloting, the senior by first profession is elected; if the religious made their first pro-fession on the same day, the senior by age is elected. This same norm shall resolve an equality of votes on the only or decisive balloting of any election (cc. 167, § 2; 174; 101, § 1, 1°). This general norm demands an absolute majority for election on the first or second ballot, but a relative major-ity is decisive on the third ballot. If two or more candi-dates are tied on the third ballot, seniority by the date, not the hour or minute, of first profession determines the one elected; if the candidates made their first profession on the same day, the elder or eldest in age, again according to the day, is elected (c[. Rxvmw FOR RELIGIOUS, 17 [1958], 359-61; 362-3). To avoid repetition in subsequent articles of the constitutions, the general norm adds that this same norm for resolving an equality of votes applies to the only or decisive balloting of any election. The article would have been phrased in an even better man-ner by stating, "on the only, the decisive, or the limiting ballot of any election." "Limiting" would apply to the ballot on which only those with the highest number of votes may be voted for on the next and last ballot. For example, the third ballot, if it does not result in an elec-tion, is the limiting ballot in a four-ballot election of the superior general, as will be explained below. An absolute majority is a number that in any way exceeds half the number of valid votes cast, e.g., nine out of sixteen, eight out of fifteen. A relative majority is a number of votes for one person that does not exceed half the valid votes cast but is larger than that given to any other, e.g., if fifteen valid votes are cast and Brother John receives six, Brother Francis five, Brother Thomas three, and Brother Robert one, Brother John is elected on any ballot in which a relative majority is decisive. The abso-lute majority is correctly defined in the following articles taken verbatim from constitutions: The election shall be made by secret ballot and by an absolute majority of votes, that is, a number exceeding one half the number of valid votes cast. ... an absolute majority of votes, that is, more than half, without counting invalid votes. The election shall be decided by an absolute majority of votes, that is, when one sister has received more than one half of the votes that have been validly cast. The chairman shall then s.tate the number of votes which make an absolute majority, that is, the number which exceeds half the number of electors present after deducting the number of votes which are invalid. These elections must be held by secret ballot and decided by an absolute majority of votes; that is, by a number more than half of all the votes, e.g., if there are thirteen votes, seven con-stitute an absolute majority. All elections must be canonical, that is, in order to be elected, the absolute majority of the validly cast votes is required, unless the constitutions ordain otherwise. Any majority suffices, so that, for instance, five votes out of nine constitute a majority. The president will declare that sister elected who has received an absolute majority of the suffrages, even though the excess over half the number be but half of a suffrage. For an election to be valid, the nun elected must obtain.., at least an absolute majority,, that is, a number exceeding half the number of votes, excluding the votes which are null; so that if there are five vocals, three votes are required, and if ten vocals, six votes (can. 174). The following, also unchanged, are examples of an in-correct definition of an absolute majority found in a few constitutions: ... by an absolute majority, in other words, by at least one more than half the number of votes. The sister who shall have at least half the number of votes plus one shall be recognized as superior. An absolute majority is had when the number of those present exceeds, at least by one, half the number of those who are by right members of the council. Canon 101, § 1, 1° permits particular laws to be Con-trary to any of its provisions. There would consequently be no objection against the definition given above if these institutes were establishing a proper and distinctive abso-lute majority for themselves, but they are in fact giving a definition that they presume to be the common under-standing of the absolute majority. The essential note of the absolute majority is that it exceeds half. This is the one thing that is necessary. It is not required that the half be exceeded by any determined quantity. Therefore, any excess whatever above half will constitute an absolute majority. It is true that this excess will be at least one vote above half when the total num-ber is even, e.g., 3 out of 4, 4 out of 6, 5 out of 8, 12 out of 22, 26 out of 50, 51 out of 100, etc. However, the excess need be only a half vote when the total number is odd, e.g., 3 out of 5, 4 out of 7, 5 out of 9, 12 out of 2$, 26 out of 51, 51 out of 101, etc. That this is the understanding Number o~ Votes VOLUME 23, 1964 ÷ ~. F. Gallen, $.J. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS of an absolute majority is evident, from the following canonical authors: Therefore, if a college consists of 25 members, but only 21 are present and of these 2 abstain from voting and 2 cast invalid votes, the absolute majority is taken with regard to the number 17, or the number of valid votes, and the absolute majority is 9. If 95 valid votes are cast, the absolute majority is 13 (Bender, Normae generales de personis, nn. 304-5). ¯.. that is, a number which exceeds half the votes; but any excess is sufficient, even of half a vote above the half, e.g., 7 votes out of 13 (Maroto, Institutiones iuris canonici, I, n. 467). ... an absolute majority or such a number of valid votes which in any way at all, even by only half of one, exceeds half of the total sum of valid votes cast looked at in itself or abso-lutely; therefore, e.g., if 20 votes were cast, but 6 or 5 are invalid so that 14 or 15 are valid, that only is approved which has at-tained at least 8 votes (Michiels, Principia generalia de personis in Ecclesia, 481). The absolutely greater part is the part larger even in the slightest way than half, e.g., 11 out of 20, 21 out of 40, 20 out of 39, etc. (Coronata, lnstitutiones iuris canonici, I, 17.1). ¯ It has already been stated above that the absolute majority is constituted by any number exceeding one-half the number of valid votes, e.g., 9 out of 16, 8 out of 15, etc. (Creusen, Re-ligious Men and Women in Church Law, n. 76).1 The common understanding of this term is also the same: Plurality, Majority, and Two-thirds Vote. In an election a candidate has a plurality when he has a larger vote than any other candidate; he has a majority when he has more than half the votes cast, ignoring, blanks. In an assembly a pluralit, y never elects except by wrtue of a rule to that effect. A majority vote when used in these rules means a majority of the votes cast, ignoring blanks, at a legal meeting, a quorum being present. A two-thirds vote is two-thirds of the votes just described? Two-thirds Vote. A two-thirds vote means two-thirds of the votes cast, ignoring blanks which should never be counted. This must not be confused with a vote of two-thirds of the members present, or two-thirds of the members, terms some-times usedin by-laws. To illustrate the difference: Suppose 14 members vote on a question in a meeting of a society where 20 are present out of a total membership of 70, a two-thirds vote would be 10; a two-thirds vote of the members present would be 14; and a vote o[ two-thirds of the members would be 47.8 I The same definition is given by Berutti, De personis et de clericis in genere, 43--4; Beste, Introductio in C,odicem, 159; Cap-pello, Summa furls canonici, I, n. 197; Fanfani, De iure religiosorum, n. 106; Jone, C,ommentarium in C,odicem furls canonici, I, 113; Lewis, C,hapters in Religious Institutes, 116; Parsons, C,anonical Elections, 153; Regatillo, Institutiones iuris canonici, I, n. 209; Toso, C, ommentaria minora, I, 44; Vermeersch-Creusen, Epitome iuris canonici, I, n. 225; Wernz-Vidal, De personis, n. 32; Goyeneche," C,ommentarium pro religiosis, 33 (1954), 49; authors who wrote before the Code of Canon Law concur in this definition, e.g., Piatus Mon-tensis, Praelectiones juris regularis, I, 531; Battandier, Guide can-onique, 4 ed., 1908, n. 318. 8General Henry M. Robert, Robert’s Rules o[ Order Revised (Chicago: Scott, Foresman, 1951), 23-4. ~ Ibid., 204. Majority, Plurality, Two-thirds. A majority vo~e is more than half. A candidate has a plurality vote when he receives more votes than any other candidate. A majority vote is more than half of the votes cast, which is usually a very different thing from a vote of a majority of the members present, or a majority of the members. Thus, if 12 members vote, and 21 are present at a meeting of a society having 80 members, a majority vote is 7; a vote of a majority of the members present is 11; and a vote of the majority of the members is 41. So a two:thirds vote is 8; a vote of two-thirds of the members ¯ present is 14; and a vote of two-thirds of the members, or a two-thirds vote of the members, is 54.’ In the case of a tie on the third ballot, the general norm given above is not completely the same as that of ¯ the Code of Canon Law stated in canon 101, § 1, 1°. Ac- ,cording to this canon, the election is determined by seniority of first profession or age only if the president is unwilling to break the tie. The distinction therefore is that the president has the right but is not obliged to break a tie on the third ballot. This law of the Code must be observed when no different norm for breaking a tie is .established in the particular constitutions. All admit that a tie may be broken by the president of an election who is also a member of the chapter, e.g., by a brother general or mother general at the elections of the general officials. This provision of law can be said to ’give such a president an added vote. If he uses his power, the president merely declares publicly in whose favor he breaks the tie, i.e., the person who is to be held as elected. He is not obliged to favor one for whom he had already voted because the canon imposes no such obligation.5 This part of canon 101, § 1, 1° on the president reads as follows: "... if it is a question of elections and the president does not wish to break the tie by his vote, the one who is senior by ordination, first profession, or age is elected." Since the canon states that the president may break the tie by his "vote," a few authors claim that a president who is not a member of a chapter does not have the right of breaking a tie on the grounds that he does not have a vote, e.g., the local ordinary or his delegate could not break a tie when presiding at the election of a mother general in pontifical or diocesan congregations nor. at the election of a superioress of a monastery of nuns (c. 506, §§ 2, 4). Even if the Latin "voto" here means vote, the sense is that a vote is being given to any presi-dent to break the tie. The wording of the canon in grant-ing such a vote neither implies nor denies that the pres- .ident had already voted in the election. However, it is far more likely that "voto" means decision, since "suffra- General Henry M. Robert, Parliamentary Law (New York: Cen-tury, 1923), 571. Cf. Bender, Normae generales de personis, n. 303. 4" Number oJ Votes VOLUME 23, 1964 133 ÷ ÷ J. F. Gallen, $.J. REV~EgV FOR RELIGIOUS glum" is the word constantly used for a vote in the canons on election,s The common opinion rightly holds that any legitimate president may break the tie. The evident and essential argument is that the canon makes no distinction. It does not state that the president must be a member of the electoral body itself to have the authority to break the tie, as is explicitly mentioned in canon 171, § 1 for the ob-ligation of a president to take the oath to perform faith-fully the duties of his office and to observe secrecy.7 Even if the first opinion were probable, the second would remain at least probable; and we would have the case of a positive doubt of law. The act of breaking the tie is an act of jurisdictions or at least of dominative power. In either case, the Church certainly supplies the necessary authority in virtue of canon 209;9 and a presi-dent who is not a member of the chapter unquestionably possesses the power to break the tie. Michiels follows other authors in observing: ...in elections the breaking of a tie by the president is jusdy left to his judgment and prudence, lest he be afterwards accused of favoritism or complaints be made by members of the electoral body or others that a person was imposed on them by higher authority against their will. This is something that is not infrequently to be feared, especially if the president is not a member of the electoral college, as in the elections of nuns or of religious men ...10 The following are examples of articles, rarely found in the constitutions of lay institutes, that give the president the right of breaking a tie in elections: Should the number of votes be equal [in the election of the brother general] and the president decline to use his casting vote, the senior of profession, of community, or finally of age, e Cf. cc. 160-82; Michiels, Principia generalia de personis in Ec-clesia, 482-3; Larraona, Commentarium pro religiosis, 8 (1927), 164, note 361. The negative opinion described above is held by Chelodi, Ius canonicum de personis, 409, note 2, and with probability by Parsons, op. cir., 154-55; Farrell, The Rights and Duties o] the Local ¯ Ordinary regarding Congregations o] Women Religious o! Pontifical Approval, 84-7; and Quinn, Relation o] the Local Ordinary to Re-ligious o] Diocesan Approval, 78-9: ~ This common opinion is held by Michiels, op. cir., 483; Maroto, Commentarium pro religiosis, 15 (1934), 350; Larraona, ibid., 8 (1927), 22; Coronata, lnstitutiones iuris "canonici, I, 647; Jone, op. cir., 113- 4; Vermeersch-Creusen, op. cir., n. 225; Ojetti, Commentarium in Codicem iuris canonici, II, 135; Abbo-Hannan, The Sacred Canons, I, 148; Bender, op. cir., n. 308; Lewis, op. cir., 117-8; Muzzarelli, Tractatus canonicus de congregationibus iuris dioecesani, 126; Jom-bart, Traitd de droit canonique, I, n. 821; Sipos, Enchiridion iuris canonici, 281, note 14; Goyeneche, De religiosis, 39, note 41. s Cf. Bouscaren, Canon Law Digest, II, 160. ~ Bouscaren, op. cit., III,. 73. 10 Michiels, op. cir., 483; cL Cappello, op. cir., 189, note 5; Ojetti, op. cir., 136. would be elected .... The election of the brother assistants general shall be made in the same way as that of the brother superior general .... The brother econome general and the brother secretary general are elected by the chapter in the same way, for the same time, and under the same conditions as the brother assistants general. If in this fourth and last scrutiny [in the election of the mother general], two sisters should have an equal number of votes, the president may decide the election; if he prefers not to decide, the elder by profession is considered elected. If in the third balloting, two sisters should have an equal number of votes [in the election of delegates to the general chapter], she who presides may cast the decisive vote; if she prefers not to do it, then the elder by profession is to be con-sidered elected. If in the third balloting [in the election of the tellers and secretary of the general chapter], two sisters should.have an equal number of votes, she who presides may decide; if she rather not, the elder by profession shall be considered elected. 3. Variations in the General Norm A few constitutions require a two-thirds vote, espe-cially for re-elections, as can be seen from the following articles: A majority of two-thirds of the number of votes cast shall be necessary to elect the mother general in the first, second, and third scrutiny .... The electors shall proceed to the fourth scrutiny, and in this case they shall be obliged to vote for one or other of the two sisters who shall have received the largest number of votes in the third scrutiny. The term of office for the reverend mother custodian gen-eral shall be six years. She may be re-elected for six more years, if she obtains two-thirds of the votes. In no instance shall she retain office for three successive terms, though she may be re-elected after being out of office of reverend mother custodian general [or sixyears. The term of office of the rector general shall last six years. For the election of the rector general for a third term of office, two-thirds of the votes are required. The superior general is elected for six years. She remains in office until the election or confirmation of a successor. The same sister may be elected twice in succession,, but not for a third term of six years unless she obtains two-thirds of the votes. They [general officials] may be re-elected if they receive two-thirds of all the votes, yet not for a third term unless they have been out of office for six years. A small number of constitutions enact for the election of the general officials that only the two religious who had the highest number of votes in the second balloting may be voted for in the third balloting: The four general councilors, the secretary general, and the treasurer general are elected in the same manner by secret ballot, except that if on the first ballot no sister receives an absolute majority, a second ballot is taken and if this brings no result, a third ballot is taken in which only those two sisters will have a passive vote who received the greatest number of votes... 4. 4- 4. Number of Votes VOLUME 23, 1964 ]35 ~. F. Gallen, SJ. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS "An invalid vote does not of itself invalidate an elec-tion or a balloting. The invalid votes are simply not counted in any way. An invalid vote does invalidate the election if it is certain that the person would not have attained the required number of votes without the in-valid vote (c. 167, § 2). The only invalidating effect that can cause a practical difficulty is a vote for oneself. This difficulty occurs, as in the present case, when the election was decided by only one vote.’’tt Because a vote for oneself is invalid (c. 170), one or two congregations demand an added vote when the one elected is a member of the chapter, who alone can vote for himself (cc. 163; 168). The one illustration from con-stitutions that I have of this point is very obscure. I have accordingly changed the following article to the extent of removing the obscurity: For the election of a prioress general an absolute majority of votes is req.uired, that. is, a number, exceeding half the valid votes cast; but if the sister chosen is a member of the chapter, one added vote is necessary. The preceding article, enacted for an absolute major-ity, does not solve the difficulty of the invalid vote for oneself in an election won by one vote when a relative majority is decisive nor when the effect is a tie vote that is broken by the decision of the president or by seniority of first profession or age. A general norm that would ex-clude these cases would also be quite complicated and very likely more complicated than useful or necessary. As explained in the REWEW FOR RELmXOUS, 17 (1958), 358-9, a few congregations solve such difficulties on a different principle: If a sister were elected merely by a majority of one vote or on a parity of votes by right of seniority, it would be necessary to verify her ballot before proclaiming her election in order to make sure that she has not voted for herself, in which case her election would be annulled in favor of her competitor and she herself would be forbidden to participate in the other acts of the chapter. According to canon 101, § 1, 1° and the general norm of constitutions given above, an election is necessarily at-tained within three ballots. The foIlowing norm of in-definite balloting is found most rarely in the constitutions of lay institutes: For election of a superior general, however, two-thirds of the votes are necessary. Iiin the first voting no one received such a number, further votings must take place until the required number of votes is obtainedY REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 17 (1958), 358. ~Cf. cc. 321; 329, § 3; 433, § 2. Canon law gives no other norm for breaking a tie when seniority of first profession or age has failed to do so.x3 4. Special Norms The constitutions in congregations of brothers and sisters ordinarily establish a norm different from the general norm for the election of the superior general and for that of the provincial superior when’the latter is elected in the provincial chapter, of the superioress of a monastery and the mother general and the regional mother of a federation or confederation of nuns, of the tellers and secretary in the general or provincial chapter of lay congregations and in a general or regional chapter of a federation or confederation of nuns, of the com-mission for the examination of the reports of the superior general in the general chapter, and in lay congregations for the delegates and substitutes to the general or pro-vincial chapter from the smaller houses and from the groups in the group system when they do not assemble for voting. 5. Special Norm Ior the Superior General and Others In the almost universal modern practice of the Holy See in approving constitutions, the present norm is es-tablished in congregations of brothers and sisters for the election of the superior general and for that of the pro-vincial superior when the latter is elected in the pro-vincial chapter. The Holy See usually imposes the same method of election in constitutions for the general and regional superiors and the superiors of monasteries of nuns, and a small number of institutes require it for the election of the general officials. Other norms will be most rarely found in either pontifical or diocesan constitu-tions. The following seems to be the clearest and briefest way of expressing this special norm: The superior general is elected by an absolute majority of secret votes. If three ballotings fail to produce this majority, a fourth and last balloting shall be held. In this balloting the electors shall vote for one of the two religious who had the highest number of votes in the third balloting, but these two religious themselves shall not vote. If more than two would be eligible by reason of an equality of votes in the third balloting, the norm of article... [the article containing the general norm] shall limit the candidates to two. Of these two, the religious who receives the greater number of votes in this fourth balloting is elected (cc. 174; I01, § 1, 1°). This special norm differs from the general norm in that it may go to four ballots and that only the two highest in the third ballot may be voted for in the fourth ballot. ~ Cf. Goyeneche, Commentariura pro religiosis, 33 (1954), 50-2; Vermeersch-Creusen, op. cir., n. 225; Bender, op. cit., n. 309. ÷ ÷ ÷ Num[ier o[ Votes VOLUME 23, 1964 137 J. F. Gallen, $.J. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS These same two religious who had the highest number of votes on the third ballot are, in more recently approved constitutions, practically always deprived of active voice on the fourth ballot. Even if permitted to vote, as is true in many older constitutions, neither may validly vote for himself (c. 170). As members of the chapter, both have the right to vote. They cannot be deprived of this right except through a provision of law, but neither canon law nor the constitutions in question deprive the two highest of their right to vote. A curious case can thereby result, which can be illust~ated as follows. There are 36 capitu-lars, and Brother John and Brother Francis are the two religious who alone have passive voice on the fourth bal-lot but in the particular institute they are permitted to vote on this ballot. Brother Francis votes for Brother John. Brother John does not vote for himself but hands in a blank vote. The resulting total number of valid votes is 35, of which Brother John has 18 and is elected and Brother Francis has 17. It is therefore possible for one to win an election by merely abstaining from voting. The abstention, even if from the reprehensible motive of winning the election for oneself, is not an invalid vote for oneself because it is not°a vote cast expressly and di-rectly for oneself.14 If more than two would be eligible by reason of any equality of votes, the ordinary norm of seniority by first profession or age is to break the tie and limit the candi-dates to two on the fourth ballot. Many cases of a tie are possible, e.g., the three or four highest could have been given seven votes each, and one could have been given seven and three others could have been tied at six each. In the latter case, the one who received seven votes is clearly a candidate on the fourth ballot, but the other candidate among the three who are tied is to be deter-mined by the norm of first profession or age. Because of such possibilities of tie votes on this ballot, it is better to phrase the general norm for breaking a tie in the manner stated in section 1, "on the only, the decisive, or the limiting ballot of any election," and thus avoid its repe-tition in this article. A tie on the fourth and last ballot is evidently broken by this same general norm, which does not have to be repeated in enunciating the present article because, as the decisive ballot, it was already included in the phrasing of the general norm given in section 1. 6. Special Norm for Tellers and Secretary of a Chap-ter and lor Others Canon 171, § 1 permits that the tellers be designated by election in secret balloting, by appointment of the x, Cf. Normae o/190I, art. 234; Goyeneche, Quaestiones canonicae de lure religiosorum, I, 19-21. constitutions or customs, or by the appointment of the president. Canon law says nothing on the manner of des-ignating the secretary. In the practice of the Sacred Con-gregation of Religious in approving constitutions, the tellers and secretary of the general, and usually also of the provincial, chapter are elected. These o~ficials are sometimes designated by the constitutions or appointed by the provincial superior for the latter chapter. The nun secretary and assistant tellers in a general or regional chapter of a federation or confederation of nuns are also elected. The two priest tellers at an election in a mon-astery or a general or regional chapter of nuns are ap-pointed by the presiding local ordinary, regular superior, or rdigious assistant. The secretary in a monastery elec-tion is one of these priests appointed as such by the presi-dent or a nun chosen by the chapter with or without the proposal of a name by the president. Canon 171, § I commands that the voting be secret when the tellers are elected but does not require an ab-solute majority. The Sacred Congregation of Religious in approving constitutions demands only a relative ma-jority. The article more commonly found in pontifical constitutions permits the tellers and secretary to be elected in the same or distinct ballotings. Therefore the two tellers may be elected first by voting for two religious on the one ballot or all may be elected together by voting for three religious on the one ballot. In the latter case, the two highest are the tellers and the third highest is the secretary. Any tie vote is decided according to the seniority of first profession or age, as stated in the general norm. The following excerpts h’om constitutions il-lustrate this type of article: Moreover two tellers and one secretary shall be chosen by secret ballot. The chapter immediately elects from among the capitulars, by a relative majority of votes, two tellers and the secretary of the chapter. First of all two tellers and one secretary of the chapter are to be elected from among the capitulars by only a relative majority of votes. Some constitutions state expressly that all three are to be elected on the one ballot: At the first session of the preliminary meeting two tellers and a secretary of the chapter shall be elected from the chapter. This election is eff.ected by one ballot. The three sisters re-ceiving the highest number of votes are elected respectively first teller, second teller, and secretary. The chapter immediately elects from among the capitulars, by a relative majority of votes and on the one secret ballot, the two tellers and the secretary of the chapter. The general chapter first elects from the number of voters in the chapter two tellers and a secretary by a relative majority vote in a single ballot. Number ol Votes VOLUME 23~ 1964 139 ]. F. Gallen, $~]. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 140 Other constitutions demand two ballots, one for the electibn of the two tellers, the other for that of the secre. tary: The two tellers for the general or provincial chapter shall be elected from among the capitulars present by a relative major-ity of votes and on the one secret ballot. Then the secretary of the chapter shall be elected in the same manner. Before the elections of the officials of the congregation, a secretary on one ballot and two tellers on another must be chosen by secret vote from among the members of the chapter. Election in these cases is by a relative majority of votes on the first ballot. The following is an illustrative article on the assistant nun tellers in a federation of nuns: The counting of ballots is performed by the presiding officer of the chapter assisted by the two tellers who have accom-panied him (can. 506, § 2); they shall be aided by the two tel-lers elected together by the chapter by at least a relative maj.ority of the votes on the first ballot at the beginning of the session. The following are articles on the same type of tellers at monastery elections of nuns: To receive the votes of those who through sickness are un-able to come to the grate, he who presides at the election shall" appoint two nuns of mature age and virtue, and above suspi-cion, who shall go to receive the votes of the sick, and shall bring back the papers, which they are bound in conscience not to open or alter. If for reason of illness anyone of the voters cannot be pres-ent at the election, her vote in writing is to be obtained and put into a box under lock and key by two of the voters desig-nated by the president; the latter have the obligation of per-petual secrecy and will deposit it in the ballot box with the other votes (can. 168). Should any of the vocals be ill, and unable to come to the election room, then before any of the others have deposited their votes in the urn, the subprioress and two of the senior nuns shall take the urn closed to the room of the sick nun, and receive her folded voting paper, and bring it to the election room where the scrutators must see that it is in the urn. The committee for the examination of the reports of the superior general in the general chapter is not mentioned in canon law. According to the law of the constitutions, the three religious of this committee are elected by writing three names on the. one ballot. A relative majority decides the elections, and a tie is broken in the usual way according to the provision stated in the general norm. The same type of report has to be given by the mother general and regional mother of a federation or confederation of nuns and is sometimes im-posed by the constitutions on the provincial superior for the provincial chapter, even if this chapter does not elect the provincial superior and officials. The following. article typifies the practice on .the manner of electing this committee: The chapter shall then elect by a relative majority.of secret votes and by one secret ballot a committee of three capitulars who had no part in the preparing or approving of the reports of the mother general. This committee is to ~xamine the re-ports thoroughly and give its observations to the chapter be-fore the election of the mother general. The practice described above is ordinarily followed also for the committee or committees on proposals in the chapters of affairs when elected by the chapter. 7. Special Norm for Delegates from Smaller Houses and Groups In the house system of electing delegates and substitutes to the general or provincial chapter, smaller houses are united into groups, e.g., of not less than twelve nor more than twenty-three religious. Each group elects one local superior and one subject delegate and two substitutes from its number. In the modern practice of the Holy See, the voters assemble in their own houses and their col-lected votes are mailed to the general or provincial su-perioi. The simplest way of voting is for each elector to write two names on the one ballot, one of a superior, the other of a subject of the group. A relative majority decides this form of election since the constitutions al-most universally enact that there is to be only one ballot-ing. A tie is again settled according to the provision of the general norm. The constitutions usually state that the substitute of the superioi will be the superior who received the greatest number of votes after the superior elected and that the substitute of the other elected delegate will be the non-superior, or subject religious, who received the greatest number of votes after this delegate. In a very small number of congregations, the substitutes are voted for explicitly. This same total process is used in the group system for electing delegates to the same chapters when the members of the groups vote in their own houses and the votes are mailed to the general or provincial superior. The following articles are examples of this practice: The smaller houses, in which fewer than twelve professed sisters habitually reside, shall be formed into.groups by the mother general with the consent of her council, so that each group shall comprise at least twelve and not more than twenty-three professed sisters. In each of these houses, on the day de-termined in the letter of convocation, the voters shall assemble under the presidency of their local superior and shall elect by secret ballot two delegates.belonging, to their group, one of whom must be a local superior, the other a sister who is not a local superior. The local superior shall collect all the ballots without inspecting them and enclose them with her own vote in an envelope, which she shall seal in the presence of the 4. 4. 4. Number ol Votes VOLUME 23, 1964 4. 4. ~. F. Gallen, $.]. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS electors. She shall inscribe upon the envelope: "The election of the Delegates of Group (N.), house (N.),"and immediately forward it to the mother general. The mother general with her council shall open these envelopes and count the votes; The secretary general shall record the votes. The sisters who received a relative majority are elected as delegates to the general chapter. If there is an equality of votes, the senior by first profession is elected; if there is an equality of profession, the senior by age is elected. The substitute of the superior will be that superior who received the greater number of voles after the supermr elected; the substitute of the other delegate will be the sister, not a superior, who received the greater number of votes after this delegate. The mother general shall immedi-ately inform the groups of the results. The voting will be from prepared lists. The first list will contain the names of all local superiors then in office, from which each sister will vote for ten delegates. The second list will contain ten equal groups of the sisters who have been professed of perpetual vows for at least five years and who are neither local superiors nor members of the general chapter in virtue of any office. Each sister shall vote for two delegates from each of these groups. The groups are arranged by the mother general with the consent of her council so that each group has the same gradation of older and younger sisters. In each house, on the day determined in the letter of convocation, the sisters shall assemble under the presidency of their local superior. The latter shall collect all the marked lists without inspecting them and enclose them with her own vote in an envelope, which she shall seal in the presence of the electors. She shall write on this inner envelope, "Election of Delegates, House N.," and forward it immediately to the mother general. As soon as possible after all the envelopes have been received, the mother general with her council shall open the envelopes and count the votes. The secretary general shall record the votes. The elections are decided by a relative majority. The substi- .tutes are the local superiors and the sisters of each group who in order received the next highest number of votes. In the system described above for smaller houses and groups, it has been practically invariable that there was only one balloting and consequently the elections were decided by a relative majority. A recent innovation of one congregation requires an absolute majority in the group system on the first balloting and provides for a s~c-ond balloting in which a relative majority is decisive. The following quotations from the pertinent articles will clarify this description: ¯.. each of the sisters will indicate on a specially prepared ballot, provided by the regional superior, her choice of five of the eligible sisters .... The mother general, in a meeting of the general council, shall open and examine the ballots .... She shall then make known the results to the sisters in each of the houses of each region. (c) Any sister who has received a majority of the votes of the sisters of the region is declared elected. If among the other sisters voted for, none has received an abso-lute majority, the sisters of the interested region will vote once again, as before, for as many delegates as did not receive a majority in the first ballot. Upon receipt of the second ballots, the same procedure as in (c) shall be followed but a simple plurality suffices for election .... The five sisters receiving the highest number of votes after those elected on the second ballot shall be regarded as the substitute delegates for their region.1~ A similar system that had already existed in a congre-gation of brothers is as follows: The election of deputies to the general chapter in which only the brothers professed with perpetual vows shall take part, shall be made in secret ballot and by an absolute major-lty of votes. If the first ballot does not give anyone an absolute majority, a second ballot shall be taken, for which only the four brothers shall be eligible who received the ~eatest num-ber of votes at the first ballot. If one brother attains an abso-lute majority at the first ballot, his election as deputy is se-cured, and a second ballot shall take place for the election of the second deputy. In this second election only the four brothers shall be eligible who attained the highest number of votes after the elected deputy at the first ballot. In these two cases, a relative majority will suffice .... In order to take the place of the deputies who may be unable to go to the chapter, there will be two substitutes, who shall be the two brothers who obtained the highest number of votes after the two deputies elected. The ballot papers sealed in double enclosure shall be addressed to the brother provincial. 8. Number o] Votes Required ]or Postulation Postulation is defined in canon law as the act in which electors by their votes propose to a competent superior a candidate whom they consider more suitable and prefer but cannot elect because of an impediment from which the superior can and is accustomed to dis-pense (c. 179, § 1). (a) Higher number of votes required by the constitu-tions. The particular constitutions may require a higher number of votes than that demanded by the Code of Canon Law, e.g., two-thirds. This may be imposed for any impediment as in the following articles of constitu-tions: If a two-thirds majority.., desires to place in the office of reverend mother...general a sister who lacks some juridical ~ualification/the members of this majority may, with the form postulate, request the competent superior that the desired candidate be promoted to said office. Postulation of ineligible candidates shall be allowed only in extraordinary instances. It shall be valid only when the postulated candidate receives a two-thirds majority in the election. .The higher number of votes may be demanded only ÷ for the impediment of a term of office beyond that per-mitted by the constitutions as in the following prescri÷p-tions of various constitutions: The prioress general is elected for six years by an absolute majority and can be re-elected immediately only for a second Number o] Fores VOLOMF Z3, 1964 J.. F. Gailen, $.~. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS period of six years. For a further term, postulation requires two-thirds of the votes. But in order to be elected [mother general] for a third term of six years, it is necessary that she receive at least two-thirds of the votes, and moreover, the confirmation of the Holy See... At the expiration of these six years she may be re-elected for another term [o[ six years]. In order to be re-elected for a third term, or rather to be postulated for, at least two-thirds of all the votes are required as well as the confirmation of the ordi- .nary o[ the mother house. The superioress general is elected for a period of twelve years. A superioress general may be re-elected for a second period of twelve years on condition (1) that she receives two-thirds of the votes of the chapter; (2)-that the re-election is approved and confirmed by the Holy See. If no such higher number of votes is prescribed in the constitutions, the following norms of the Code of Canon Law must be observed (c. 180, § 1). (b) Postulation that is not concurrent with election. When all who receive votes are being postulated and no eligible candidate has received any votes for election, an absolute majority of votes is required for postulation on any balloting on which this same majority is necessary for an election; but on a balloting in which a relative majority is sufficient for election, e.g., the third according to canon 101, § 1, 1°, it is safely probable that a relative majority suffices also for postulation.16 The canon in ques-tion, 180, § 1, says "the greater part of the votes." While this phrase in the Code usually means the absolutely greater part of the votes, or absolute majority,~7 its sense can also be simply "majority," which is to be further determined as absolute or relative according to the norm of canon 101, § 1, 1° or ’that of the particular constitu-tions. Such a sense is possible in the Code. Canons 321 and 433, § 2 demand not merely the "greater number of the votes" but the "absolutely greater number." (c) Postulation that is concurrent with election. This ’occurs when in one and the same balloting some are vot-ing for an eligible candidate or candidates while others are casting their votes for one or several candidates who le This opinion is held by Ojetti, oi0. cit., IV, 110; Maroto, lnstitu-tiones iuris canonici, I, n. 668; Schaefer, De religiosis, n. 524; Bastien, Directoire canonique, n. 275; Coronata, op. tit., n. 253, 1); De Carlo, Jus religiosorum, n. 148; Jone, op. cit., 186; Berutti, oi0. cir., 236; Naz, Dictionnaire de droit canonique, VI, col. 1095; Tabera, II diritto dei religiosi, n. 88; Oesterle, Praelectiones iuris canonici, I, 100; Abbo- Hannah, ol~. cir., 240; Gerster, Ius religiosorum, 238. 17Cf. cc. 286, § 2; 411, § 1; 526; 650, § 2; 1460, § 1; 1577, § 1; 1873, § 2; 2031, 2°. The opinion that the absolute majority is necessary] for postulation on any balloting is held especially by RegatiIlo, lnstitu-tiones iuris canonici, I, n. 314 and also by Wernz-Vidal, oi0. cit., n. 276; Toso, op. cir., 147; Pujol, De religiosis orientalibus, n. 125; Cocchi, Commentarium in Codicem iuris canonici, II, n. 92; Lewis, op. cit., 134. cannot be elected but only postulated. In this case two-thirds of the votes are required on any balloting whatsoever for postulation to be effective and to pre-vail over electionAs Therefore, on the first two ballotings anyone who is postulated must received two-thirds of the votes, any-one who is eligible must receive an absolute majority. If there are 30 valid votes, 16 is the absolute majority, 20 is two-thirds; if 31 votes, these two are 16 and 21; if 32, 17 and 22. Two-thirds of 31 is 20 ~, of 32 is 21 ~A. It is evident that neither 20 nor 21 votes respectively would sutiice because two-thirds of the votes would not have been attained in either case. Therefore, the number higher than the fraction is necessary.19 If a relative majority is decisive for election on the third balloting, anyone being postulated must still re-ceive two-thirds of the votes, but a relative majority will be decisive in favor of one who is eligible. For example, 15 valid votes are cast on such a third balloting and A, who is postulated, receives 9 votes, B, who is eligible, receives 6 votes--B is elected. Or there are 17 valid votes and A, who is postulated, receives 11 votes, B who is eligible, receives 6 votes--B is elected. In the same third ballot 15 valid votes are cast and A, who is postu-lated, receives 9, B, eligible, receives 4, C, also eligible, receives 2--B is elected. Or 17 valid votes are cast and A, being postulated, receives 11 votes, and there were six other candidates, all eligible, and each received one vote. The president, if the institute follows the norm of canon 101, § 1, 1 °, may break the tie; otherwise, it is to be broken by seniority of first profession or of age and in both cases in favor of one of the six eligible candidates, each of whom received only one vote. As a. final example, 35 valid votes are cast on the third ballot, and A and B, both postulated, have 23 and 11 votes respectively, but C, who is eligible, receives only 1 vote--C is elected. The intrinsic reason for the two-thirds norm and its conse-quences is that election, since it is the designation of a canonically suitable person and according to the ordinary norm of law, is to be preferred to postulation, which is the selection of a canonically unsuitable person and ac-cording to an exceptional, unusual, extraordinary, and merely permissive norm of law. aSReply of the Code Commission, July 1, 1922 in Bouscaren, op. cir., I, 142-3. Cf. Fanfani, op. cir., n. 113; Maroto, Commentarium pro religiosis, 3 (1922), 132; Jone, op. cir., 186; Schaefer, op. cir., n. 525; De Carlo, op. cit., n. 148; Abbo-Hannan, op. cir., 240; Berutti, op. cir., 237; Beste, op. cir., 217; Parsons, op. cir., 156. 19Cf. Vermeersch, Periodica, 16 (1927), 265*-266*; Bergh, Revue des comraunaut~s religieuses, 21 (1949), 151; "Can Biervliet, Notes pratiques de droit canonique, III, 95; De Carlo, op. cit., n. 148; Sanabria, Derecho de religiosa~, n. 150. ÷ ÷ Number ot Votes VOLUME 23,, 1964 145 ]. F. Gallen, $.]. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 146 (d) Four-ballot election. A four-ballot election is found frequently in the practice of the Holy See in approving constitutions, e.g., for the election of the superior general in lay congregations. Briefly, this norm demands an ab-solute majority on any of the first three ballots. If three ballotings fail to produce such a majority, in the fourth and last balloting only the two religious who had the highest number of votes in the third ballot may be voted for. Whichever of these two receives the greater number of votes on the fourth balloting is elected. The two high-est are usually, but not always, deprived of active voice on the fourth and last ballot. If on the third balloting, A, who is post6lated, receives 9 votes out of 15, B, who is eligible, receives 4, and C, also eligible, receives 2, the election has not been de-cided. A, the postulated candidate, did not receive two-thirds, and no eligible candidate attained an absolute majority. No principle of canon law excludes A from the fourth balloting nor does the norm usually found in con-stitutions, since this states merely that only the two who received the highest number of votes on the third ballot-ing may be voted for in the fourth balloting. If on this fourth and last ballot, A receives 9 votes and B 6, B is elected, because postulation in concurrence with election always demands two-thirds of the votes and election pre-vails over postulation. Constitutions more recently approved can be found that restrict postulation for the office of superior general to the first two or three ballotings, especially when the impediment is that of an immediate re-election beyond the number of terms permitted by the constitutions. If anyone who is postulated has not received the required number of votes in the first two~0 or three21 ballotings, all postulation ceases and the election begins completely anew, without counting in any way the previous ballot-ings. The following are articles from constitutions that illustrate the exclusion of postulation after the third balloting: If the one being postulated [for mother general] does not receive the required number of votes by the end of the third balloting, all postulation ceases and the election begins, which cannot be extended beyond four ballotings. If any religious is under an impediment for being elected superior general, but the impediment is one from which the Holy See usually dispenses, she can be postulated... If in the first three ballotings, the postulation is not admitted, then all postulation ceases and the election starts over, but does not go beyond four ballotings... One set of diocesan constitutions states in relation to =Gf. Gutierrez, Gommentarium pro religiosis, 33 (1954), 91. = Gf. Tabera, op. cit., n. 88; Van Biervliet, op. cir., 93. the forbidden immediate re-election of ~he mother gen-eral: "A candidate may not be postulated on the fourth ballot." Verbally at least this means that all postulation ceases at the end of the third, balloting but the election goes immediately into the fourth ballot and does not begin anew as in the articles cited above. The following article, if corrected, seems to me to be preferable to any of the others in this matter¯ It excludes all postulation after the second ballot and applies also to the three-ballot elections and thus to the elections for other offices. It is the same as the article cited immedi-ately above inasmuch as the election simply continues after the exclusion of all postulation; it does not begin anew. This article actually reads: ¯.. consequently, if after two ballots, the candidate does not receive two-thirds of the vote, she is deprived ofpassive vote for that office. The postulation becomes void and the balloting is resumed for the election. Corrected so that the election begins anew after the exclusion of postulation, the article would read: To be effective in concurrence with election, postulation re-quires at least two-thirds of the votes. If after two ballots, a postulated candidate has not received two-thirds of the votes, all postulation for the office ceases and the election begins com-pletely anew. The restriction of postulation to the first two ballots, on which election universally demands an absolute majority, would also exclude the possibility of an elec-tion by a very small relative majority on the third ballot. A case similar to the prevalence of election over postu-lation can occur in a simple election. The constitutions in question contain the usual norm for the election of the mother general. It requires an absolute majority on any of the first three ballots. On the fourth balloting only the two highest in the third balloting may be voted for, but these two sisters themselves do not vote. The one of these two who receives the greater number of votes on the fourth balloting is elected. The constitutions add, however, that a re-election to a second immediate term demands two-thirds of the votes. Let us suppose that there are 18 valid votes. Sister Jane, being voted for a second immediate term, has 11 votes, Sister Mary, who was never mother general, has 7 votes. Which of these two would be elected on the third or foui-th balloting? On the third balloting, neither would be elected. Sister Jane does not have two-thirds of the votes and Sister Mary has not attained an absolute majority. On the fourth balloting, Sister Jane again would not be elected Number oJ Votes VOLUME 23, 1964 and for the same reason, but Sister Mary would be elected. ~he ~lec~ion i~ to terminate with the f6urth ballot, and the evident intention of the constitutions in enacting a two-thirds vote for re-election is that election is to prevail over re-election. 4- 4- 4- I. F. Gallen,. S.J. REVIEW FOR R~IGIOUS 148 MATTHEW L. LAMB, O.C.S.O. Christi an. Humanism and St. John’s Theology of Life To the question, "What is the religious life?" there is no easy answer. An adequate reply depends on a con-sideration of several basic theological problems. Here I would like to study one of these, the problem of Christian humanism, in the light of St. John’s theology of life. Since the religious ~tate is a quest for the perfection of the Christian life, such a study is necessary if we are to know just what the religious life means in terms of human ekist-ence. This is an urgent problem today when the various apostolates of religious men and women demand such a large measure of involvement in the’ woHd they seek to save. Life is a reality that biologists and philosophers have a great deal of difficulty trying to define. The new life Christ came to give is overshadowed with even greater mystery. Jesus defined this higher life when He said, "I am... the life" (Jn 14:6)--a definition binding it in-separably to the primordial mystery: God. St. John ex-perienced this mystery of new life, and its theme became a dominant one in his th.eology. He saw it as a vital com-munion with the glorified Christ and so also with our Father, the living God. Such communion is possible by receiving the Spirit through faith, a living faith that acts out its convictions in sacramental rites and fraternal love.1 In St. John’s Gospel and Letters a special noun, zoO, is set aside, to designate this new life Christ gives--no other New Testament author uses it exclusively with this mean- ¯ See P. D. Mollat, S.J., De notione vitae apud sanctum ]oannem (Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1960); p. 54, "ahere the author gives, a. similar definition of the main characteristics of St. John’s nodon of the Christ-life. Matthew Lamb, O,G.S.O., is a pro-fessed monk of Holy Ghost Monas-te. ry; .Conyers, Geor-gia. VOLUME 23; 1964. 149 M. L. Lamb, 0.~$.0. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS ing. When John wants to speak of our natura) life, he refers to it as psych& Reflecting on the relationship be-tween these two lives, we can gain some insight into the Apostle’s attitude toward human values and how super-natural life affects these natural values. Contemporary thought on Christian humanism still contains the antithetical positions of former times. Some advocate an incarnational approach: creation has a value in its own right, a value that was intensified when God became a creature in the Incarnation. Others stress an eschatological approach: sin has devaluated creation to such an extent-that it crucified its incarnate Lord; a truly Christian appreciation of this world will only be possible when it is completely transformed by Christ’s Second Coming. The late Cardinal Suhard, in his pastoral letter on "The Meaning of God," pointed out this presence of apparent contraries: a humanism which is authenti-cally Christian must at the same time be a humanism of the Incarnation and a humanism of the cross. It should witness to an appreciation of human values which slights neither the immanence of God nor His transcendence.~ St. John’s theology of life contains a similar paradox. There is the thesis which emphasizes the continuity of God’s life-giving action, ~he God who saves us is the God who created us. Creation owes its existence to Him just as much as salvation does, and both of these orders are united in the Incarnation. Then there is the antithesis, the tension and conflict which seems to negate the In-carnation and contradict any claim to continuity between creation and salvation history. But beyond this paradox John also see a true synthesis; the tension and conflict undergo a redemptive transforraation so that they actually contribute to the development of the human and divine lives that had been united in the Incarnation.a These three aspects or moments in St. John’s theology of life recur throughout his Gospel and Letters. They also correspond with the meanings he gives the term "world" (kosrnos). As St. Thomas Aquinas mentions in his commentary on the prologue of the fourth Gospel,4 this word has at least three general meanings. It may refer I See The Church Today: The Collected Writings o] Emmanuel Cardinal Suhard (Chicago: Fides, 1953), pp. 182-7, 209-12. *This is similar to the pattern of Hegelian dialectic. The Au]hebung, or dialectical synthesis, means at once to annul, to pre-serve, and to elevate; it thus makes a return to the thesis but en-riches and elevates the latter with the experience of alienation and negation provided by the antithesis. So the thesis of the Incarnation in which God assumes human life undergoes the negation of the cross as antithesis, only to find this human life preserved and ele-vated in the Resurrection as synthesis. Also note the key concepts of lile and love in Hegel’s Early Theological Writings. ~ Commentary on St. John, chap. 1, lect. 5, n.128 of the Marietti edition. to the world as created and ruled by God;~ or, as it is perverted through sin and at enmity with God;e or, as it is loved by God and brought to perfection through Christ’s redemption.7 The Continuity o[ God’s LiIe-Giving Action St. John was deeply impressed with the unity of the divine plan; God has no afterthoughts. The prologue re-veals the pre-existence of Christ’s personality and His identification with the Word. He is the Logos, Yahweh’s creative Word whom the first chapters of Genesis reveal as calling the universe into being (Jn 1:3--4, 10). The Word is continually present, communicating existence and life in all of their manifold forms. It is He who has established Israel as Yahweh’s covenanted partner, "his own" people (Jn 1:11-13). Finally, the Word Himself becomes flesh thereby fulfilling beyond measure the covenant promises, giving men the ultimate revelation of His "kindness and fidelity" (Jn 1:14-18).s In Christ, God is revealed as eternal life (Jn 5:26; 1 Jn 1:2). This continuous life-giving action is important for John. He advanced the theology of the Synoptics and the earlier stages of St. Paul’s theological development to view the whole of God’s action in one all-embracing sweep. Creation comes forth from the Word and through man is to return to God. Man fails, so the Word becomes man and ascends back to the Father (Jn 16:28) drawing with Himself all creation and so returning it to its source (12:32, 47; 17:21-23). It is within this great salvific cycle that John considers the Christ-event. Unlike St. Paul, whose dramatic meet-ing with the risen Christ left its other-worldly mark on his theology, John is preoccupied with the divine-human union in Christ. "The Incarnation is the key to John’s thought, as Christ’s death and resurrection are to Paul’s.’’9 For John it is this meeting of divinity and humanity in Christ that is of central importance; all the human actions of Christ are mysteriously linked with the divine being of the Word. What Jesus says and does (Jn 8:28; 15:21-24) are so many signs of what He is. He says: "I am the living bread" (6:51) and He feeds the multitudes (6:11); "I am the light of the world" (8:12) and He heals the man born blind (9:6); "I am the resurrection and the life" (11:25) 5 For example: Jn l:10b and 17:5,24. 6For example: Jn 1:29; 8:23; 12:25,31a; 16:11; 1 Jn 2:16; 5:19. ~ For example: Jn 3:16,17c; 4:42; 6:33,51; 8:12; 12:47b. s On this theme o[ Jn 1:1-18 celebrating the triple coming of the Word in creation, in the Mosaic covenant, and in the new covenant Christian of the incarnation, see David M. Stanley, S.J., "Carmenque Christo Humanism Quasi Deo Dicere .... " Catholic Biblical Quarterly, v. 20 (1958), pp. 188-91. 6 From David M. Stanley’s exposition of St. John’s theology in his forthcoming introduction to the New Testament. VOLUME 2.~, 1964 151 M. L.O L.Ca.mS.Ob,. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS and He raises Lazarus from death (11:43); "I am the good shepherd" (10:11) and He lays down His human life for the redemption of the world. These expressions, and others like them, are closely related to the divine name itself: I AM.1° This heaven-earth-heaven movement of his theological thought allowed John to accent the present values of the Christian’s earthly existence since it put these values in a perspective that clearly revealed their relation to the in-carnate Word--everything belongs to Christ (Jn 3:35; 13:3). Such a perspective highlights the continuity be-tween nature and supernature; both come from the Word. Not that the supernatural emerges from natural forces; rather, it is the continuity of a gratuitous coming down "from above" meeting what is "from below" in order to raise it up (Jn 3:13, 31; 8:23). It is this created universe that is brought to perfection in and through Christ. John’s narration of Jesus saying "I am" the light, water, bread, vine, and so on, is not understood allegorically by the evangelistAa All these natural objects and the world of which they are a part are present in an eminent way in Christ. They share even now in the redemptive Incarna-tion of the Word. Nature thus takes on a sacramental character for one who believes. Just as objects such as water, chrism, bread and wine, and so on, are fit for use in the sacraments only by first fully being what they are, so the universe is re-lated to Christ by its very existence. The idea that our world is some sort of cosmic clock, made by a god who winds it up only to let it tick on in its created solitude, has no place in Christianity. All the grandeur and beauty of being overflows from the divine "I am--fear not" (Jn 6:20). This is the divine name; everything that exists is, in some mysterious way, present in God. For the Christian, sacredness ranks along side of truth and goodness as one of the transcendental attributes of being. In St. John’s writings all the so-called ordinary objects and events of life are seen in a deeper perspective: air, light, water, the harvest, bread, wine, the recovery of the sick, death--and most of all, our fellow men. These are all natural things, but through the Incarnation God has become natural too. No New Testament author knew better than John the implications of creation in its rela-tion to salvation history. As Thomas Aquinas was to formulate it later, grace(eterhal life) perfects nature.1~ ao Ego eimi is the New Testament equivalent of the divine name given in Ex 3:13-4: "This is what you shall say to the Israelites: ’I Am has sent me to you.’ " See Jn 4:26; 6:20; 8:24.28,58; 18:5,6,8; note that most of the English translations still render this as "It is I" or similar expressions. ~x See Mollat, De notione vitae, p. $0. ~ Summa theologiae, 1, q.l, a.8, ad 2: "gratia perficit naturam." Conflict and Opposition to the New Life Yet there is the paradox: the apostle who is so positive in his approach to human values is, at the same time, the one who gives the clearest accounts of the.conflicts Jesus encountered. How can John’s theology of life and his ap-proach to human values be termed incarnational when he uses the term kosmos to designate all that is opposed to Christ? He portrays an overpowering dialectic: light-darkness, truth-falsity, spirit-flesh, belief-disbelief, love-hate, joy-sorrow, peace-persecution, heavenly-earthly, life-death, God-ruler of this world. How can he be so optimistic in the face of this struggle? Do not the negative elements so forcefully described demonstrate the discontinuity be-tween nature and grace? Does not the new life do violence to human values? In view of this is not Christian human-ism obliged to minimize temporal values and wait for the coming of Christ at the end of history? Questions such as these inevitably arise when we consider the tension and suffering which accompany the new life. In a very real sense, however, such a struggle fits into the over-all scheme of creation. The universe is dynamic, it is in progress and so is subjected to the tension between the less perfect and the more perfect. The physical objects man has analysed depend on the preservation of delicate patterns of balance if they are to survive. The emergence of other forms is possible insofar as such patterns can be upset and others take their place. Atoms need the tension between the positive proton and the negative electron. Chemical compounds can emerge thanks to the many un-stable molecules which easily disintegrate. The higher integration of a living cell is impossible without vast aggregates of more or less unstable chemical compounds. When these cells divide, certain of their constituents must dissolve. Truly significant insights in the field of man’s intellectual life occur only after the tension of prolonged inquiry. Illustrations of this dynamic process which turns negative elements to positive advantage could easily be multiplied,as Viewed in this light the parado~ of a world rejecting The same expression occurs in S.T., 1, q.62, a.5, c; 2-2, q.26, a.9, obj.2; 3, q.69, a.8, obj.3. Variations of the expression abound: "Grace does not destroy nature," 1, q.l, a.8, ad 2; "but presupposes it" 1, q.2, a.2, ad 1; 1-2, q.4, a.5, obj.1; q.94, a.6, ad 2; q.99, a.2, ad 1; 3, q.Tl, a.l, ad 1. ~See Bernard Lonergan’s world view ~f "Emergent Possibility" in Insight: ,4 Study o] Human Understanding (New York: Philo-sophical Library, 1958), pp. 115-28. The solution to the problem of evil must be in accord with this pattern of world process (pp. 697-8); For the effect this solution has on humanism, see pages 726-9. VOLUME 23, 1964 M. L.O L.Ca.mS.bO,. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS its Creator’s revelation of Himself in Christ (Jn 1:18; 14:9; 1 Jn 2:23) loses none of its pain--"my soul is troubled" said Christ in reference to His Passion (in 12:27). However, it helps us to see how the presence of evil and its opposition to Christ does not disrupt the con-tinuity between nature and grace. Christ comes to give us a new and higher form of life (zoO, Jn 10:10). To live through believing in Christ (Jn 3:15; 6:40; 20:31) is not simply to adopt an ethical code, it is to enter into a new realm of existence. The negation--darkness in John’s vo-cabulary- which evil is cannot keep God’s plan from being realized; instead it becomes a stage in this plan’s development. St. John may not have given much thought to the pat-terns of world process, but from his Master he learned well the principles involved: "Amen, amen I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it remains alone; but if it dies, it will bring forth much fruit" (Jn 12:24; also 15:1-6). The tensions of conflict and opposition are the "birth pangs" of a higher life that is born and grows in the world of men. "A woman is sorrow-ful when she is in labor for her hour has come. But when the child is born she soon forgets the pain on account of her joy over the fact that another human being has been born into the world. Therefore you also are now sorrow-ful..." (Jn 16:21). Yes, Johannine theology is incarna-tional, but any birth demands tension, conflict, pain. He saw clearly that the new life Christ gives would convulse the world with the pains of labor and growth. Human existence would know a new and deeper tension; for this new life is not something to come, it is present here and now. By believing and acting out this belief in the sacra-ments, we already are born into the Christ-life.14 We enter into communion with the Word incarnate and so already have eternal lifeA5 Without faith the problem of physical and moral evil is insurmountable. John’s whole conception of faith is cast in terms of this total acceptance of the manifestation of God’s saving love in Christ.16 Man must believe, and so transcend his own humanness, or disbelieve, and so eventually despair of even his own humanity. For such a refusal is basically a surrender to the forces of negation which, seen only from a natural perspective, culminate in death.17 To reject Christ, to try to remain simply human :*Jn 3:3,5,12,15; 6:35; 1 Jn 5:1. ~Jn 3:36; 5:24-5; 6:47; 1 Jn 5:12. a°See Thomas Barrosse, C.S.C., "The Relationship of Love to Faith in St. John," Theological Studies, v. 18 (1957), pp. 538-59. On faith as a response to God’s love, see pp. 543--5. :~ Here we are dealing with humanity; that is, man who unifies in himself spirit and matter. As St. Thomas expresses it: "It is evident that man is not just soul but is a being composed of soul and body" and nothing else, is by that very fact to become less than human: "He who is attached to his natural life (prychin) destroys it; and he who hates his natural life in this world will preserve it unto eternal life (zorn)" (Jn 12:25). It is easy to see why St. John phrased the paradox the way he did; the incarnate Word is eternal life (11:25 f.; 14:6); in Him the divine and the human.are inseparably united. From this flows the destructive character of an attach-ment to the human which overlooks the radical orienta-tion of humanity to God that has resulted from the In-carnation. There was no more a state of "pure nature" for St. John than there was for St. Thomas.is Man is the most open of all creatures. When he refuses the test of faith, he cuts short his own openness to the infinite; the darkness closes in. The Redemptive TransIormation of the Conflict How does St. John account for this transformation from death to life? Or, to put it in more Hegelian termi-nology, how does the synthesis resolve the dialectic by negating the antithesis and so reaffirming and elevating the thesis? There can be no doubt that for St. John it is love that effects the redemption in which the very events which were going to negate life are utilized to foster life on a higher level. God’s own inner life is love (1 Jn 4:8).1~ The Father loves the Son, giving Him everything and showing Him everything (Jn 3:35; 5:20). The Father loves men, giving them a share in His life of love through the Incarnation: "In this has the love of God been shown in our regard, that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we may live (z#sfraen) through him" (1 Jn 4:9). Christ manifests His own love of the Father in obeying the Father’s commandments (Jn 5:30; 6:38); in so doing He reciprocates the Father’s love, He "abides" in that love (14:31; 15:10). The most important commandment was doubtless that regarding His human life: "Because of this does the Father love me, that I lay down my human life (psych~n) so that I can take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again; this is the com-mandment I have received from my Father" (Jn 10:17-18). (S.T., 1, q.75, a.4, c). Taken in this precise sense it can be said that death destroys man even though his soul is immortal and this im-mortality could be known by natural reason. as See S.T., 1, q.95, a.1. It is interesting to note in this connection Christian Aquinas’ affirmation of man’s natural desire to know God: 1, q.12, a.l; 1-2, q.3, a.8. On man’s immanent source of transcendence, see Lonergan, Insight, pp. 636-9. ~ See Thomas Barrosse, C.S.C., "Christianity: Mystery of Love," Catholic Biblical Quarterly, v. 20 (1958), pp. 145-7. VOLUME 23, 1964 ÷ ÷ ÷ M. L. Lamb, 0.C.8.0. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS ]56 For the synoptics the death of Jesus was necessary" be-came "it had been "written" or "prophesied" that it should be so. John sees more dee.ply into the mystery: God offers His Son because He loves the world and wants all who believe to have eternal life rather than death (Jn 3:16). In obeying this command of the Father, Jesus shows His love of the Father and Their mutual love for men (Jn 10:17; 13:1; 14:31). St. John is careful to bring out this redemptive value of love in his narration of the Passion. The event im-mediately leading up to the condemhation of Christ was His raising of Lazarus from death, the man whom Jesus loved (Jn 11:5, 36; 11:45-53). In conformity’with Chapter 10, verses 17 and 18, the death and resurrection is repre-sented as a single movement of Christ towards His glori-fication (12:23; 13:31; 17:1 f.), a movement over which Christ exercises a transcendent control.20 Our Lord seems to remain calm in the midst of the turmoil around Him; He is already on His way back to the Father. His exalta-tion has begun at the very time that men think He is in ignominy. The powers of evil thought that by destroying His human life they would end His challenge .to their dominion over the world. Instead it is this very act which redeems the world: Christ draws the universe to Himself as He is exalted in His death-resurrection (Jn 12:32). In "taking up again" His human life in the Resurrection, Jesus was fulfilling His mission of revealing God’s love for men just as much as He did in the Passion. He also was introducing the final and highest form of Christian humanism--the humanism of the Resurrection. We share in the transformation this death-resurrection has accomplished by being "born again" of the Spirit (Jn 3:3, 7-8, 14-15). Through this birth into the divine life we are able to "hear" Christ’s words in faith (Jn 8:47) and to respond by love (1 Jn 4:7). We cannot surrender to the forces of negation insofar as "seeds" of divinity are within us (1 Jn 3:9). Faith, then, is the acceptance of God’s saving love re-vealed in the incarnate Word. Only by this faith can men see that the suffering and death they must endure are in reality the beginnings of their exaltation in Christ. He alone is the Light--John’s favorite symbol of Christ-- that enables us to see this mystery. There can no longer be any excuse for refusing to admit this dynamic orienta-tion of humanity into the divine life (Jn 3:19; 15:22). This faith that hears the word of Christ is not merely theoretical, it delivers us from death: "Amen, amen I say to you that he who hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life (zoen), and will not come to judg- ~See David M. Stanley, S.J., "The Passion According to John," Worship, v. 33 (1958-1959), pp. 210-30. ment, but has already passed out of the (power of) death. into the (power of) life (zodn)" (Jn 5:24). Indeed, John is convinced that we need not wait until the Second Coming to share in the mystery and power of the Resurrection: "I tell you, the time is coming--it is a~ready here!--when those who are dead will listen to the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will live" (Jn 5:25). This new life coming from the acceptance in faith of the meaning of Christ demands a return of love. Such love is patterned on Christ’s love. As He abides in the Father’s love by obeying the Father’s will, so we in turn abide in Christ’s love by.keeping His commandments (Jn 15:9-10); in this way we show our love for Him (Jn 14:15, 21). He left no doubt as to what His command was: "The command that I give you is to love one another just as I have loved you. No one can show greater love than by giving up his human life (psych~n) for his friends" (Jn 15:12-13). As Christ laid down His human life for us, so we ought to lay down ours for the brethren. This does not only mean enduring physical death to save someone else when necessary; St. John seems rather to understand it as an habitual attitude Christians should have of being ready to help others even when it costs. "We know what love means from the fact that He laid down His life (psych~n) for us; so we also ought to lay down our lives (psychas) for our brothers. But if someone who has the world’s goods sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how can he,fiave any loveof God in his heart?" (I Jn 3:16-17).21 This service is not easy; as Dostoevski remarks, "Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams." Yet, as Dostoevski also portrayed so well, any restrictions fraternal love places on the Christian’s human development are turned to positive account by that love’s redemptive force. "We know that we have passed over from the (power of) death into the (power of) life (zorn) because we love the brethren. He who does not love re-mains in the (power of) death" (1 Jn 3:14). The active and passive diminishments--as Teilhard de Chardin calls them--which our human existence must suffer now are not the heralds of humanism’s final,extinc-tion but of its entrance into a higher life. This new life (zoO) does not at all leave our humanity (psych~) behind; it preserves and enriches it. The Humanism of the Resurrection An incarnational humanism based on Johannine the-ology finds its final and highest reaffirmation in the hu- ~Just as here, the tou biou of 1 Jn 2:16 does not refer to "life" as does psychg or zo~ but to worldly possessions; hence "the pride of life" is a. misleading translation and."a vain display in one’s standard of living" would come closer to the meaning of the Greek. ÷ ÷ Christian Humanism VOLUME 23, 1964 M. L. /,arab, 0.~,~.0. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 158 manism of the Resurrection. This does not mean that the reality of the cross is in any way diminished; it is put in its proper perspective. In John’s view we should not look at the Incarnation from the vantage point of Calvary. We should consider it inthe light of the empty tomb--a per-spective that sees the cross as a means and not an end. Genesis describes man’s creative role in the world under the familiar image of God placing him in a garden to cul-tivate it. It was not by accident that John (alone among the evangelists) places Christ’s burial and resurrection in a "garden" On 19:41), while Mary mistook the risen Jesus as a "gardener" (20:15). The risen Lord is not waiting until His Second Coming to exercise His creative and transforming power. John insists that eschatology in this sense is already being realized. Christians are not living in the era of the Crucified-- although this has somehow become Christianity’s popular symbol--but in the era of the Risen. Bernard Cooke, s.J., has described the relevancy of this image well: The notion of the Risen Christ fits marvelously into this whole concept of man in our day. We have a fellow human being, Christ, who has already overcome all the forces of the created universe. He has overcome the most baffling force against which man strives and against which man will prob-ably work to the end of the world--the force of death. Christ has overcome death. This man who lives is no longer bound by the space and time that we ourselves are trying to transcend; He has transcended it. As we go out to conquer and transform a world, and a universe, we can bear with us the image o| the Risen Christ, so that wherever we go in all the material crea-tion of God, we will know that there the Risen Christ is present. This is a subtle, but important awareness which can work in people’s lives, and should work there, to give a new optimism and new. p ositive, approach, to Christian. livin g, which will make our hves as Chnsuans very dynamic and very modern, yet very warm and very human, because throughout the whole of this human progress there will be domination not by the figure of a machine, but always by the figure of the Risen Christ?’ Thanks to the transforming power of the new life this risen and glorified Christ communicates, man, in the last analysis, is not mortal. It is the forces of negation them-selves-- suffering, death, sin--that are under the sentence of mortality. If Christ has not risen our faith is a delusion (1 Cor 15:17), and our humanity becomes as meaningless as it is for Sartre. Religious are called on to reflect in a special way this figure of the risen Christ. If our impact on the modern world has not been what it should be, perhaps this is due to a lack of proper spiritual formation. Too much em-phasis may have been placed on "take up your cross" and too little on the reason: the "follow Me" that leads from at Bernard Cooke, S.J., "The Resurrection in Christian Life," Per-spectives, v. 7 (1962), p. 172. the hill of Calvary to the garden of the Resurrection. Religious consecration is meant to conform us ever more closely to the image of a risen human being. We vow ourselves to continue His transforming mission, to witness here and now to the eternal destiny and the divine mean-ing of humanity. CHhurmisatinain.n VOLUME 23, 1964 CHARLES A. SCHLECK, C.S.C. The Meaning of the Religious Sisterhood ÷ Father Charles A. Schleck, C~.C.o teaches theology at Holy Cross College; 4001 Harewood Road, N.E.; Wash-ington 17, D. C. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 160 In the contemporary scene of the religious life we find a rather heavy emphasis being placed on the role of the apostolate in the life of religious women within the Church.1 And such a vision is certainly necessary if we are to have an integrated picture of what they are expected to contribute to the life of the Church. For at times, per-haps, some have either given or received the impression that the active apostolate is something merely to be toler-ated, that if it were possible it would be dropped com-pletely in favor of the life of contemplation. This, how-ever, is not at all true. For active religious the apostolate in one form or another is of the very essence of the vo-cation which they have received from God. It is not some-thing which has been tacked on. It is something for which they have received a special mandate from the Church. It is for this reason that even the general aim of every congregation devoted to the apostolate--the glory of God and the sanctification of the members--is de-termined and defined by the mandate given by the Church such that they might be sanctified in and through their apostolate, and such that their apostolate might be sanctified in and. through them. But an overemphasis on this insight or dimension of the sister’s vocation, on what she does, could very easily lead to a forgetfulness of another aspect of her vocation, what she is or what she means. And that would be un-fortunate. For this is not what distinguishes her from the lay woman in the world who can undertake the same apostolic works that she does. What primarily and es-sentially sets her apart from them is what she is or means. Nor is it what she does that is most attractive to a woman. It is rather what she is, what she means. For what she does flows from what she is or means. It is for these reasons that the present article will 1 This is the text of a paper delivered in Chicago on August 30, 1963, to the annual meeting of the Midwest Vocational Association. center more on the meaning of the religious sisterhood than on its apostolic perspectives or on methods of re-cruitment. And such an inquiry would seem to demand an investigation of three things: the sister’s vocation as a Christian; her vocation as a religious; and her vocation as a religious woman. .4s a Christian If we were to investigate the Scriptures regarding the nature of the Christian vocation, I think that our investi-gation would yield the following definition: A Christian is a herald and a witness to the paschal mystery. As a herald, the Christian’s mission is to preach or dis-seminate the message of Christ or the kerygma, the good news of man’s salvation in Christ. And this centered more on a person than a doctrine. The early disciples in their own way attempted to nourish the faith and to communi-cate it almost by way of contagion rather than by formal proof or logical demonstration. Their attempt was to elicit on the part of their hearers a response of living faith, one that would manifest itself in the daily actions and lives of those to whom they preached. For it was only on the presence of this condition that these could enjoy the cleansing of heart, the remission of sins, interior peace, and the abiding presence of the Spirit. In addition to being a herald of the Gospel, making the Father known, Christians also had another mission or function, a function which gave authenticity to their mission of being a herald. And that was their mission of being a witness. They were to give the message vitality and life-giving power by witnessing to it in their own lives. In fact, their mission was more to be a witness to the news of the Gospel than to herald it. Thus, the real dignity of the Christian follows from his being a witness to Christ, to God, from his being a continuation in his own flesh and blood by grace what Christ is by nature. He was to be the presence of Christ, who is the presence of Yahweh, who is the present one or the One who is con-stantly present in the temple which is the new Israel. Thus, there is something about the message of Chris-tianity that can only be grasped, made operative and ac-tive and vital, through an enfleshment, as it were, that continues the presence of Christ throughout the whole of the eschatological era of Christianity. That is why the Church as well as each of its members is meant to be Christ’s body, flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone as the wife is of her husband. As a Religious If we were to anaIyze these two aspects of the mission or function of the Christian in the Church, we would quickly see that the function which God expects of the ÷ ÷ ÷ $Rieslt~igrihoouosd VOLUME ]61 ÷ ÷ ÷ REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS religious is especially the second; and this is more impor-tant than the first. In fact, the first presupposes the second if it is to have its efficacy in the world. Thus, while it is true that all have some form of apostolate of mercy (for every form of the apostolate is a form of divine mercy exercised towards man), still, the first apostolate, the first act of mercy which every religious manifests to the human race is that of being a witness, of being a sign or symbol or sacrament of the kerygma which, according to St. John, is the paschal mystery---of one who has died and who has risen, of one who enjoys by way of antici-pation the life of the blessed. The Christian is meant to point out visibly the exceptional discernment of both John and Paul--that the Resurrection of Jesus is the place where the way leading from the Father to the world meets with the way leading from the world to the Father. The very witness the religious affords to the Church and to all who lay eyes upon her is a sermon in itself, an unending testimony and remembrance of the paschal mystery throughout the whole of the eschatological era. It is a testimony that the last times, begotten through Christ’s redeeming love, have come upon mankind. It is for this reason that we can say there is a definite timelessness about the religious vocation and mission, in-deed, a kind of monotony, not that of the swinging pendulum but rather that of the circle revolving around a center or that monotony which is proper to eternity. It is especially because of this mission that the religious is meant to be a sign of eternity in time. And while this is the mission of anyone who has been incorporated into the risen Christ, still it is the public function and assign-ment of one who has been more thoroughly incorporated into the mystery. It is the very reason-for-being of a re-ligious. It means that one has definitively and irrevocably sided with Christ; and if she is permitted to associate with men, it is to bring back something of the spirit of the Lord Himself after His Resurrection--to communi-cate the Resurrection-mystery or the grace of the Resur-rection which was offered to her on the day of religious profession. The religious, then, is a kind of paradox. For she is in reality still going through the paschal mystery, on the one hand; and yet, on the other, she has already passed through it symbolically and spiritually. For as far as her will, intention, and desire are concerned, she has al-ready been firmly established in eternity like the risen Christ after His Resurrection. It is her precise mission in the Church to make of eschatology not only the interior and spiritual thing that it is made in the Gospel of St. John but also an exterior and visible thing. In her the world is to be given a perpetual opportunity to see the perennial struggle ended--the struggle between the Prince of Lies and the Spirit of Truth. Just as in the case of Christ the struggle ended in perfect triumph, so too in the religious the struggle has already ended in perfect triumph--symbolically. And if she should come back to the faithful, she does so like Christ after the Resurrection, by way of example, by way of encouragement, by way of remembrance. It is in her that the promised gift of the Spirit, the almost visible outpouring of the Spirit, is continually made manifest, the Spirit who is the Love of the Father and the Son, the Spirit whose whole effort in the Church is to act as its heart, bringing all men into unity in Christ. The mission of the religious in the midst of the Church is to manifest the fact that the fulfillment of all history will be realized with the resurrection of the body. And she is meant to be a sign or sacrament of this faith or belief of the Church. She reminds all who see her that the Chris-tian life here below has not yet reached its ultimate term, that it must strive toward the future and can never install itself in temporal history in any definitive sort of way, in a way that would completely disregard its future term. Virginity is the visible expression of the complete de-pendence of man on grace. And it can be said of the religious that in her all is grace. For by a special act of God’s predilection she is taken out of the ordinary life of men and set in the Church as a sign of one whose redemp-tion has reached not only the soul but also the body. For to be redeemed perfectly is not a mere spiritual real-ity. It affects the whole of one’s being, corporal and spiritual, and implies a necessary relation of the body. It is a living testimony to all who see it that no salvation is to be expected from the flesh but only from the Spirit. For only those who are born "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (Jn 1:13) shall enter into eternal life. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. In the new Israel, the fecundity of the flesh has lost its all-important value. The religious acts as an incarnate prophecy of the end of our earthly existence, a proclamation of the fleeting character of this world. And she is also an announcement and an anticipation of the life to come, a life of the Spirit or, rather, a life in and through the Spirit. It is an antici-pated realization of the final transformation of the glory of the world to come inserting itself into our present situation. The religious shows by her condition that such a life has already started for the Church. She proclaims to all that it is in Christ that man escapes the clutches of death and lives in the Spirit. ÷ ÷ ÷ Religious Sisterhood VOLUME 2), 1964 4. C. A. $chleck, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 164 AS a Religious Woman In the case of the woman, this being a witness to the Resurrection takes on a very special aspect or dimension. For it is most often and most strikingly signified in Sacred Scripture as a union similar to that existing between hus-band and wife. In fact, there is a tradition running through the whole of revelation that makes the feminine figure stand for the whole of humanity, for God’s chosen and elect. And in this role she is not woman to man; rather, she is meant to signify that mankind receives its glory and name, as it were, from God as the .woman does from her husband. Surrender to God seems to be the re-ligious meaning of the feminine figure. And how perfectly this meets her desire. For to surrender herself lovingly to another and to possess this other wholly and to be pos-sessed by him, to love and to be loved, to understand and to be understood, to serve, these are the deepest longings of a woman’s heart; and they account for that specifically feminine quality of concentrating on persons and seeing them as a whole. And how important this picture is for mankind. The woman’s surrender to God is symbolic of the only absolute power that man is endowed with. To effect our salvation, all that we can do is show our readiness to give ourselves completely. The receptive, the passive, the "fiat" attitude of the feminine principle in all human beings appears as the decisive element which we can contribute in the order of grace. That is why the "fiat" of the Virgin Mother is a visible sign of humanity’s religious quality in its essence. It is an act of surrender and, therefore, an essential expression of womanliness. While every soul, every Christian, is spiritually able to be a bride, yet only the woman is able to be a bride by nature. Only she is capable of externally and visibly signifying or symbolizing the mystery of marriage to God which the Christian contracts in his soul in and through his introduction to the life of grace. It is for this reason that a veil is given to the sister as she embarks on this new way of life. And that veil is a sign of her innocence and of her virginal marriage to Christ. In many com-munities a ring is given. This has the function of indi-cating to the entire world as well as to the sister herself that an angelic marriage between God and a creature is not only possible but that it is required of some members in the Church now and of all hereafter, so that she may be presented as a chaste virgin, without spot or wrinkle, a bride dead to the flesh and raised to life in the Spirit of God. From this we can see that, while all religious must give themselves up wholly to Christ, not all of them do so in exactly the same way. While the monk’s profession sig-nifies death to the world, the sister’s profession even exter- nally signifies marriage with Christ. Thus her mission, her part in the life of the Church is to display the way of the interior life of union with Christ. To show forth what is hidden is a paradox, but it is the paradox of the sister’s vocation. All members of the Church are called upon to give themselves to God in something of the way in which the Church gives herself to her bridegroom. But only the sister, because she is a woman, because she can be a bride, is able to evoke this perfect gift and make lovable and attractive this surrender of herself to life in the other. And how important this is for a woman’s vocation. For the woman, insofar as she is directed toward man and toward the love of man, retains her bridal character at all times. In her relationship toward the man who loves her, the wife remains a bride throughout her entire life. The wedding day repeats itself continually as long as life lasts, and the bridal quality of the woman corresponds to love in its undying and unending renewal and in its initial freshness. If this is true of the Christian and even non-Christian woman, then how much more is it true of the virgin who is married to Christ. For she, by special commission from both the Church and Christ, is called by the grace of her vocation and by the Church’s seal of approval to exist as a permanent and symbolic or sacramental sign of the Church’s and of each person’s bridal relationship to Christ. In a much more visible way, by her virgin’s consecration to God and her garb, her bridal quality is renewed and her wedding day continu-ously and daily repeated. In this way she can show, not by commandment nor by word of mouth but by her example and life, the way of the soul in search of God. The singleness of purpose Which we find in a religious woman goes beyond that which is proper to creature and Creator and even beyond that which is proper to father and child. It is one that resembles the relationship existing between a lover and the beloved, such that we can say that an intense com-munity of life, of interests, and of desires as is effected by marriage is brought about between the soul and God in and through virginity. This state is equivalent to the promise made on the part of the one embracing this life to seek perpetually the perfection of a spiritual marriage. And like marriage, the profession of virginity has a per-manence about it, one that in some ways is even greater than that of an earthly marriage since it perdures not only in this life but in the life of the world to come where it reaches its most perfect realization. Both Christian marriage and virginity signify the union of Christ with the Church, but in different ways. Chris-tian marriage not only symbolizes the union of Christ with the Church but renews and recreates it as the ÷ ÷ ÷ /~liglot=s Sisterhood VOLUME 23, 1964 ~. A. $chleci~, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS ]66 Mass renews and recreates Calvary. But its import is to renew and recreate this union in reference to its fruitful-ness. May we not also draw a parallel and say that the pro-fession or the gift of the sister to Christ renews and re-creates the union of Christ with the Church in regard to its immaculateness and purity and innocence. Its lack of sacramentality comes perhaps from its being the per-fect anticipation of that type of union which is proper to eternity or its being an incarnation of a full eschatologi-cal state. And in eternity there will be no sacramental economy. Indeed, to make of virginity a sacrament might be to do it a decided disfavor; for it would take it out of the sphere of the eternal reality it is or symbolizes and place it on the level of those realities that form partially realized eschatology. If the wife in Christian marriage is said to be the body-person of her husband as the Church is the body-person of Christ, then, afortiori, it would seem that the Christian virgin is called to be the body-person of Christ, that her body is His body, and that He cherishes her body and soul and person as His own, that her union with Christ is nothing other than Christ loving Himself. Like the bride of Christian marriage, the sister can be said to put out her finger to receive the wedding ring from her Lord. And as she receives it, she says, "This is my body. This is my person for you to have and to hold." And with all her powers the sister does worship to the Bridegroom who is the Lamb. It is for this reason that the fathers of the Church con-sidered true marriage to be the marriage of virgins with Christ. For them Christian marriage was merely an earthly counterpart of this relationship in the material and temporal order. Thus the sister is not just a daughter of the Church. She is, rather, its reflection, its ray or rep-lica, mirroring in her own life the brideship of the Church by reason of her inner devotedness and total sur-render to God. It is in this way that the sister makes tan-gible, as it were, the perfect virginity of her mother, the Church, and the holiness of the Church’s intimate union with Christ. And the greatest glory of the virgin is to be the living image of the perfect integrity of the union be-tween the Church and her divine Spouse. Thus the late Holy Father, Plus XII, said: The virgin soul binds itself by the ties of complete and indis-soluble love directly to God, or more exactly, to the God-man Christ Jesus. All that she has received to be wife and mother, is offered up by her as a whole burnt offering upon the altar of entire and perpetual renunciation. In order to be united directly to the heart of God, to love Him and to be loved by Him in return, she does not advance toward Him by means of other hearts, nor does she linger to converse with other creatures like herself. Nothing is allowed to intervene between herself and Jesus. Even though marriage is a aacrament, a channel of grace, even though it cements a real union of lives and destinies, still there remains something that is not actually given, or at least not wholly given. It is only virgin souls that make the offering of self which for other loving creatures is an unattainable goal. For them the first step on their ascent is also the last; and the end of their ascent is at the same time a summit and a profound abyss? Thus, virginity must alwa] love for a Person. It is turn~ charity and divine love to a: form that is directed immedi is the reservation from all m of oneself in order to open Christ. That is why the lathe: fountain that is sealed up or or the sanctuary of God who so that it will not be profane Of itself, virginity is indiss~ with the God-man. And if it its earthly condition. It is so~ comes not from the bond itse the part of the bond. Rather who can fall from the perfect engagement with Christ just fection of charity. Thus, the of any weakness on its part tion or way of life that is b~ reason of some defect on the account of the hardness of h mitted or indirectly allowed nant to practice divorce on their hearts, so too does the dissolution of the vow of virgil of man in the face of the pet Thus the mission of the s Church as a sign or symbol, a her entire life is meant to be in her there has become lif, what in all other women is or that tends to come to the surf~ desires to be kept secret and nermost in the Church of Go~ case, the City of God which lie a town that is set on a mount; ately to all who lay eyes on he completely to God, that she with Him. This she signifies as or as the plate of pure gold wo ~ From Pius XII, Address to Nur in Gaston Courtois (ed.), The Newman, 1962), pp. 287-8. ~ be seen as a preference of ag away from one form of sume a higher one, a total ately to Christ Himself. It en of the personal mystery r offer this mystery only to ’s speak of the virgin as the !hat garden that is enclosed ~e gate must be kept closed d. luble because it is marriage is soluble this comes from nething accidental to it. It [ or from any deficiency on it comes from the person, on and commitment of her s she can fall from the per- ,ond is soluble not because r by reason of some condi-tter than virginity but by part of the individual--on er heart. Just as God per- :he Jews of the Old Cove- :ccount of the hardness of 3hutch, His Bride, allow a tity because of the weakness fection of heaven. ster is to be given to the ad it is because of this that a picture or parable. For like and instantly visible ty invisibly present. In her :e which in so many others ridden. In her what is in-is turned outward. In her ; hidden in others becomes tin. She publishes immedi-r that this woman belongs 1es only for Him and only a brand indicates its owner :n by the priests of the Old :ing Sisters, April, 1957, quoted es ol Perlection (Westminster: Religious Sisterhood VOLUME 23, 1964 167 + ÷ ÷ . A. Schleck, C.S.C. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 168 Covenant pointed out that they were set apart for the Lord. Thus, if a woman goes out of the world (and this is the very essence of the religious consecration according to a greater or lesser degree), she does not do so arbitrarily. For she is not free to leave the world any more than a child or pupil is free to run out of school before the bell rings. No, she leaves because an interpersonal dialogue has begun, the first act of which is a word spoken in the depths of the soul. A word has broken the silence: "Arise, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come." The voice of the beloved has pierced the night. For a moment the beloved was quite close, and it is this voice which the person called wishes to hear not occasionally but as often as possible. Indeed, every vocation is merely a re-enact-ment of the poem and drama of the Canticle taking place once again in the Church in the hearts of certain of her members, the more "illnstrious portion of the flock of Christ." This is the drama of the mystic life which the sister is called upon in the language of symbol and sign to re-enact in every period of the Church’s existence as she makes her way to the Lord. Her Vocation Does Not Isolate Her from the World But this being a sign of the Resurrection, this being a sign of the marriage which every creature is called to enter into with its God does not at all remove the person from interest in the affairs of the world, any more than the Resurrection of our Lord or the Assumption of the Mother of God removed their interest in the affairs and doings of man. No, the sister is like the Lord of the Resurrection: "Resurrexi et adhuc tecum sum." "I have arisen," she can say, "and yet I am still with you" (Introit, Easter Sunday). Or she is like the figure of the woman of the Apocalypse who even though she has been taken out of the struggle continues to be with the sons of men, still in childbirth, as it were, for the members of the Body to whose Head she gave birth. Although the sister by the step she takes at profession does in a sense leave behind herself the world of men and her own family, still in another sense she does not at all withdraw from them. Rather, she brings them with her into religion in a much more sublime sense than she could through any other vocation. For she brings them to the altar with her on the day of her profession so that they, in and through her, can offer sacrifice to God. For she is the fruit of their love, she is their flesh and blood. And as she approaches the altar throughout her life, she always brings something of them to the altar; and they are always present before God whenever she stands before the Lord. They can truthfully say when she makes that offering, which is always, just as they could have said when she came into existence: "This is my body and this is my blood." Certainly they could not offer God any more perfect stipend, as it were, beyond, of course, ’ them-selves, their own persons. She is left there at God’s altar to burn for them as a votive offering, a vigil light or candle; but in her case this offering is one that never goes out. It is one that burns for them constantly, always making known their petitions to God with an eflficacy that no other offering could possibly have. Whenever she stands before the Lord (which she does in a sense, always), she brings their longing to be with God also; for they are present constantly in the work of praise and worship of which she has become the enfieshment in and through her profession made to the Lord. Thus, what every person desires deep within the heart, she alone is privileged to possess and to present--the longing to be always with God. By her profession the sister is set aside for the service and worship of God. That is why she is religion incar-natewsomething like the candles ,that are blessed on the feast of the Purification or the paschal candle on the night of the Easter Vigil, which burn to nourish and to keep before men the light of Christ. Her life under obedi-ence is to reflect the action of the pure wax of that candle; the sight of every candle and votive light should become for her a reminder of her vocation and mission to warm and illuminate in imitation of the Holy Ghost, in keeping with the feminine nature that God has given her. For like the Holy Spirit whose person and activity she was meant to reflect and continue, she must burn silently and deeply within the sanctuary of the Church, dispersing the darkness and mist which so easily settle over the minds and hearts of men. In the exercise of her apostolate, then, she is primarily a sign, a sign of the paschal mysteries, of mankind’s death to sin and resurrection unto God, but a resurrection which is not so much unto light as unto the perfection and totality of love, in keeping with the very nature God has given her. Nor Deprive Her ol Motherhood Nor does this special incorporation into the mystery of the Resurrection and eschatological marriage with the Lamb make the sister unconcerned with the needs of mankind. Just the opposite is true. The role for which God has fashioned her--motherhood--is not at all de-stroyed; rather, it is given a new horizon and a new dimen-sion, a new vision. The end for which the vow of virginity is taken is to seek the perfection of divine love which has God and our neighbor for its object. By the very fact that one intends the perfection of divine love, she also Religiot~ Sisterhood VOLUME 23, 196~. 169 ÷ ÷ C,. A. Schleck, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS intends that perfection according to its all-inclusive ob-ject. Virginity is undertaken to teach the sister how to love with a love that is far more universal than that possible between two individual human beings. It allows her to fulfill her mission which is to reflect the mission of the Spirit, to be love at the heart of the Church, a love that acts as a quickening force of the family of God. I think that this can be seen beautifnily and in a most concrete way in the Easter Vigil service of the blessing of the baptismal font. There the Church is said to have come forth from the pierced side of Christ on Calvary, and she proceeds from Him as bride and llfe-giver or mother. She is the new Eve of the New Covenant coming out of the side of the new Adam, joined to Him in His Resurrection. And coming from Him, she receives His life as the old Eve received the life of the old Adam. And it is His life, His glory, as John has it, that she in turn communicates. Thus her love is meant to assume the dimensions and depth of the love of Christ, for she is flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone in the most pro-found sense of these ideas. It is this same Church which prays on the night of the Easter Vigil that the Holy Ghost° the Spirit of Jesus, by the secret infusion of His grace and light might give to the font the power to bring men to life, that a generation of immortal and eternal children may rise from the spotless womb which God has placed in His Church, that the Church, together with Christ through the power of the Spirit overshadow-ing her constantly, might beget the people which is the People of God. Something very similar is true of the religious sister; she is always compared to Mary the Virgin Mother and to the Church whose continual sacrament she is meant to be. The role of mother for which God has fashioned her is not only not destroyed or left unfulfilled but is brought to its highest possible achievement; for she ex-ercises this motherhood over a greater number of souls and with respect to the highest life that can be given. In fact, all divine life would seem to be communicated to men only on condition of the existence of virginity. And we might note that in the course of the history of the Church her strength and influence has usually been pro-portionate to the strength and vitality of the institution of virginity. When that suffers, so too does the life of the Church; and when that flourishes, so too does the life of the Church. Thus the Church and its role--the communication of divine life in union with Christ--is intimately connected with virginity and rises and falls with the growth or decline of this institution. Seen in this light, the mystery of virginity in the case of the woman includes as one of its highest perfections and its crowning glory the privilege of motherhood, the begetting and nurturing of the God-life in others, such that the virgin of Christ can be likened to snow on a mountain peak. Its purity and whiteness are constantly being supplied by an invisible divine activity. And yet it is constantly melting under the warming action of God to bring life-giving water to refresh those living in the valleys below. It is in the institution of virginity where we can find the highest activity and outpouring of fem-inine nature. There is something that is put into her life which was not there and which could not be there before. While she severs herself from physical procreation, she does this only to enter into the spiritual procreation of human persons unto the life of God. Nor is this procrea-tion static. It is rather dynamic, occurring whenever she turns to Christ, which is always, and surrenders herself to His every need and request--to the neglected, the sick, the poor, the newborn child, the cancer patient, the ignorant, to whatever human need asks for a response of love and mercy. The woman who is called sister is a mother in the full sense of this word because her every activity has become a form of motherhood nurturing Christ in the souls of those who form her family in God: "Having the honor of virginity she has also the joy of motherhood." While virginity is often associated with impotence, we might better say that it should be associated with omnip-otence. There is a virginity about God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Never is woman more womanly than when she gives her virginal person to God. Behind each of the active and contemplative sisters in all the countries of the world, there is one single inspiration-- the mother-love of the Mother of God or that of the Church for Christ. And if this involves difficulties, the woman who is a sister knows that she has chosen suffering and silence. For she knows that it is only at the foot of the cross that she, like Mary and like the Church, will be en-larged in heart and mind to moth6r the world for Christ. Once she realizes this truth and lives by it, her life like that of the Church after the Easter Vigil and that of Mary after the Resurrection will become a quiet alleluia, a gentle song of joy which meets the rise of day in the suf-fering night of time. It is only where this reality truly shines forth in a re-ligious sister that her vocation will become truly attrac-tive and serve to correct so many of the aberrations and sins which are part and parcel of our present day. For her fruitfulness is unlimited. It is like a radiance emanat-ing from her soul, and those who approach her are em-balmed with the good odor of Christ. There is a kind of VOLUME 23, 1964 171 C. A. $chleck, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS divine virtue or power that goes out of her to touch souls to make them show forth the glory of her Spouse. It is in this way that virginity is essentially linked with motherhood and that the very nature of the woman which is mother-love finds its perfect flowering in the institu-tion of virginity. As she grows in her love for God, her heart widens still more; for her home is God, her children, the whole of mankind, the world. Conclusion It always helps us in striving after a goal as rich as this to have a picture or concrete representation of it constantly before our eyes. And I believe that we have this in the figure of the woman of the Apocalypse. She is described there as the woman clothed with the sun, having the moon under her feet, and wearing a crown of twelve stars on her head. Under each of these headings, this woman symbolizes the sister’s vocation and mission in the Church. She is clothed with the sun, John says; and by this he wishes to indicate that she is filled with holiness, she is a sign of that holiness which God wishes to confer on every single creature. For the sun, according to ancient tradition, is merely a sign of the divinity, a sign of the glory of God. The sister’s mission is also similar. For she is to be a sign of holiness, the continuation of the mark of holiness which is proper to the true Church; and she is to be a sign of what God wishes to do with every human soul--to unite it to Himself in a union which can only be signified by that existing between man and wife in marriage. She is said to have the moon under her feet. And to understand this reference again we have to revert to the symbolism which the moon expressed for the ancients. It was synonymous with time, with the temporal, with change and motion and vicissitude. The woman set over the moon is then a sign of one who is above all this, of one who somehow or other pertains to eternity rather than to time, of one who is above all change and motion and trial. The sister’s mission in the Church is symboli-cally similar. For by her profession she has died to the world and risen with Christ. She is a sanctuary made not by men’s hands, but by God Himself. God has entered into her and made her His sanctuary alone. What the woman of the Apocalypse proclaims is the Easter of the Church, the Easter of the world. She cannot be the per-fect bride unless she is virginal in the deepest sense, un-less she lives wholly by a life from on high and not from below. While this is usually accomplished at death, in the case of a religious it is symbolically accomplished at the moment of her religious profession. The Church must have her Pasch and she must pass through death so that a body that is wholly pure is given to her making her fit to be united to God and to receive Him as the temple and bride of the Lamb of the Apocalypse. Thus the sister by a special call of God has stepped into eternity and placed herself beyond the conditions of time, change, and motion. Like the woman of the Apocalypse, she stands as a great sign in the heavens indicating and pointing to the eschatological life, to the universal long-ing of all mankind, to the life of one who has already gone home. And finally, the woman is pictured as having a crown of twelve stars on her head. By this John wishes to indi-cate that she has not abandoned her interest in mankind even though she is living the life of the resurrection. Rather, she has assumed a place of greater vantage in order to fulfill her maternal role more perfectly. No longer does she fulfill this task with the weak vision of faith but rather with a vision whose proper dimensions are those of eternity, those of the Lord of History Him-self. Again, the sister’s mission in and to the world at-tempts to keep this mission of the woman of the Apoca-lypse constantly present before men. For although a sister has died to the world, although she pertains to the resurrection, still it is with something of the way in which Christ did immediately after His own Resurrection-- with a definite interest in mankind. She has died and entered into marriage with the Lamb only to come back to the world with a much greater vision of its needs, His vision, and with an all-embracing love, the love of a mother who regards the whole of mankind as her family in God. When the sister has fulfilled this role faithfully and death comes to her, she shall no longer be in the shadow of the Lamb but in the light of the Lamb. The morning star shall find its flame and its light, and then it shall know no setting. For she will be in that city which is hers since she helped to build it. And when she sees Him as He is, she will have no sorrow or mourning any more; for all the former things shall have passed away and she can walk and talk with Him in the cool of the eternal evening, passing with Him up and down the height and breadth of the eternal and everlasting hills. Religious Sisterhood VOLUME 2~, 1964 EUGENE C. BIANCHI, S.J. Religious Life and the Paschal Mystery Eugene C. Bian-chi, S.J., a staff member of America magazine, resides at Campion House; $29 West 108th Street; New York 25, New York. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS The supreme moment of the liturgical year is at hand. Since Advent, all has converged on the paschal mystery of Easter; all the feasts after Easter will flow from it as from a source. The Church in its liturgical life relives the death-resurrection mystery of the Lord. She commemo-rates in rite and sacramental sign that hour towards which the whole life of Jesus of Nazareth pointed. "And Jesus knowing that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father .... " St. John tells us (13:1). This was the hour He had foretold, the hour that would give ultimate significance to the works of the Son of Man. It was the hour of the new Passover which had been typified in the Jewish Passover when Yahweh led the Israelites out of the land of bondage, Egypt, into the Promised Land. By passing through His death to the Father, Jesus led mankind out of the land of slavery, a slavery to sin, to Satan, and to self. Through the Holy Spirit He raised men to a newness of life in His Mystical Body. It is vital for the religious to understand how his consecrated life is an entrance into the death-resurrection mystery of’ the Lord. Death in the New Testament is more than a biological event; it is mainly the result of sin; it is the last strong-hold of Satan. Christ took upon Himself weak human flesh that was hopelessb] vowed to death. By succumbing to the anguish of His own death out of love, He breached the fortress of the powers of darkness and carried off the victory. In the moment of death, 6f abject failure, He conquered. For once He had broken through the bonds of the flesh, the Father raised Him up to a new and trans-formed life, that of the Lord, the Kurios. Thus, as Lord of glory at the right hand of the Father, He was capable (as He was not capable of doing as flesh-bound Man in Palestine) of sending the Holy Spirit upon the apostolic Church. The Resurrection is much more than an apologetic proof for the divinity of Christ. The very transformation that took place in Jesus at His Resurrection is a most essential part of His redemptive work. Precisely because He was transformed into a newness of life at His Resurrec-tion, He is able to transform us through His Spirit into a newness of life: the life of grace. Christ saved us not only by His death on a cross but by His death and His Resu City of Saint Louis (Mo.), http://www.geonames.org/4407084 http://cdm17321.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/rfr/id/479 |