SELF-TRANSCENDENCE
AS ESSENTIAL COMPONENT OF CONSECRATED LIFE
Fr.Basil
Tirkey
INTRODUCTION
We
are living in a fast-developing
world. It
is influenced by the social-media,
mobile, politics, economy etc. Such
developments have changed the life style of people in the family, community and
the society. Some
are being carried away by them while others make use of them in order to make
their lives happy. At
the same time others feel that all these things are momentary, so they begin to
seek meaning beyond these passing things.
They search for God by listening to the inner voice.
It is here Vocation begins and candidates receive
God’s Call to serve Him and
His people. It
calls for Self-Transcendence.
It is a life-long
journey, a journey to Self in order to establish God’s
Kingdom.
I
will be focusing on candidates who come to follow Jesus Christ from the
different places, social background and ethnic groups.
The topic of my dissertation is “Self-Transcendence as Essential Component of
Consecrated Life.”
Reason why I chose this topic is to make Christ’s
values living experience and example, in order to serve His people, not to own
interest. At
times through Christ’s
values consecrated persons serve themselves not to his people.
In such situations, they are not able to change
themselves and remain as they were before.
I
have divided it into three Chapters. First
Chapter is titled as “God’s
Call to the Consecrated Life.” In
this Chapter I will be dealing with vocation, how God calls individually and
consecrates them for a purpose. Candidates
respond to God’s
Call by joining the seminary or the convent.
The Second Chapter is titled as “Self-Transcendence
in the Life of a Consecrated Person.” In
this Chapter I will be talking about the Self-transcendence,
a change of oneself so as to put on Christ.
I would like focus on the challenge and the sacrifice
of candidates so as to serve Christ Jesus and the Humanity. And the Third
Chapter is titled as “Challenges
to Self-Transcendence
and How to Face Them.” I
will be emphasizing on challenges towards self-transcendence,
for it is an ongoing process.
Chapter
I
God’s
Call to the Consecrated Life
Introduction
God
calls human persons to follow him more closely every day.
He sanctifies them, sets them apart so that they may
transform their thoughts, actions and feelings like unto his.
As I have chosen “Self-Transcendence
as an Essential Component of Consecrated Life”
for my dissertation, I would like to build a foundation for the theme in this
chapter. Candidates
receive calls from God and respond to the call.
In this process they have to give up their comfort
Zones so as to fit into God’s
call. This
calls for the Self-Transcendence
of the candidates as they begin their journey.
Vocation:
as a Call from God
The
term vocation comes from the Latin word Vocare which means “to
summon,” “to
call someone over.” Religious
vocation is a call by which a person shares in the life of Christ and is
incorporated into the Church. Therefore,
every religious is called to sanctity and union with God through living the
Christian life.In
the Bible, vocation is not the privilege of a single individual but is a call
to a mission. It
is never an imposition but it contains a freedom to respond to the call.
The call to mission demands involvement and a
conscious response. This
call is dynamic, open to change in accordance with a new understanding of
growth and maturity.
Call presupposes a total commitment and the reorientation of personal and
communal lifestyle. It
is an ongoing progressive activity. This
capacity for being called by God, for the candidates are the sign of Self-
Transcendence and of free will.
God’s
selection is absolutely gratuitous and stands in contrast to human
understanding of selection. In
human selection, the rational aspect always dominates.
Humans choose as a result of reasoning on the
choice, place, race, language and the people.
Whereas the Divine Selection, on the other hand,
transcends and upsets all logical conclusion.
For God’s
call produces favorableness, goodness and worth in the one chosen.
He does not see the appearances of the candidates but
their inner disposition. With
the help of God’s
grace candidates are able to change lifestyle and the behaviour patterns.
Vocation:
as a Response of the Human Person
As
we know that the religious call is a particular way of perceiving God’s
purpose for the person and it relates to what the Lord desires him or her to
be, how that person is to become the unique individual that God has created and
what God is sending him or her to do. God
wills the called one to become transformed through a certain lifestyle and
wills him or her to accomplish a particular mission.
A life in conformity with the will of God is the royal road to divine intimacy
and gives its meaning to religious life.
In the words of St.
Paul “Let
the same mind be in candidates that was in Christ”
(Phil.2:5).
Christ came to serve not to be served.
Candidates are called to model their service in a
total availability to God and to people.
In serving the neglected and suffering people
candidates express their love and total commitment to Christ.
This service and commitment to others in one area or
another is a source of personal and communitarian fulfillment.
Therefore, personal accountability and commitment
are the core of person’s
response to God’s
election.
Entry
into Consecrated Life is a Call to Conversion
Religious formation is concerned
with the growth of the whole person. Consecrated
life as a witness to search God and render service to God’s
people is a gift to the Church. The
multiplicity and diversity of the forms of this life are signs of the richness
of God’s
gift and evidence of the continuing inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the
hearts of Men and women.Consecrated
life leads to a purification of the heart and spiritual freedom and is an
ongoing process.
God chooses the person and sets him or her apart from others for himself, to be
with him and to be sent out (Mk.3:13-15).
Consecration to religious life is a response to God
and entery into a special relationship with him and to share in his holiness
through a life of love and service.Formation
seeks to develop the candidate to acquire his or her identity as a religious
and to deepen and mature his or her own personality.
Formation is designed to enable the candidate to
dedicate himself or herself to God in an effective and meaningful way and to witness
to the world. Candidates
begin to accept themselves and others and have capacity for the personal
initiative and work, a sense of responsibility, self-control,
ability to live and work with others, openness to new ideas and values and
faithfulness to one’s
own vocation.
The capacity to live with failure is one of the marks of maturity.
Instead of being devastated by failure the mature
person learns from his or her mistakes and moves away from them growing in an
attitude of not always requiring to succeed.
Human
Formation
Formation should seek the
development of the human qualities of a candidate in order to assist his or her
spiritual development.
Qualities such as to love the truth, to be loyal, to respect every person, to
have a sense of justice, to be true to their word, to be genuinely
compassionate, to be persons of integrity and especially, to be balanced in
judgment and behaviour. It
is through his or her human qualities that a candidate relates to the world and
to other human beings. If
the human qualities are lacking in the life of a religious who is supposed to
witness to Christ, he or she will fail in his or her mission.
Candidate has to show maturity in his or her
thinking, feeling, being and acting suitable to the age and situation of a
normal person.
Formation must be directed towards the development of a healthy affectivity,
responsible freedom and a mature moral conscience.
Human formation should bring growth in the knowledge
and acceptance of the self, steadiness, responsible use of one’s
own freedom, the capacity to relate to others, the ability to live together
with different people or persons of other generations.
Cultural
Formation
The word culture comes from the
Latin word colere meaning to nurse, to cultivate, to care for.
Culture is something living, something which gives
meaning, direction and identity to the way in which people live.
It includes their beliefs, customs, rituals,
ceremonies, habits, art, architecture and music.
Culture may be considered as a product of human
actions which influences the behavioural pattern of the person.
Culture is created and handed on by persons for
their growth and perfection through freedom, and leads to the development of
their identity and thereby helps them to grow in maturity.
Persons are shaped by the culture transmitted through their elders.
Hence for a candidate in religious formation, there
needs to be an understanding of his culture, language and family background.
Through cultural education, the candidates become more understanding of others,
their circumstances and of nature.
Intellectual
Development
Education involves acquiring
information, learning facts, learning ways of reasoning as well as acquiring
basic skills like reading, writing and speaking in fact every means to
encourage personal growth and preparation for effective ministry.
Proper intellectual formation should enable the candidates to look beyond and
to communicate the mystery of God to people and to be pastorally effective, it
must be integrated with the personal experience of God.
The prime motive of the study of the candidates are
to actualize Christ’s
ideals in their life and prepare for apostolic activity.
The formation and the development of
the will, help the candidates to act with freedom and responsibility.
This faculty assists the candidates to have mastery
over self and relate to others with freedom and generosity.
Real freedom is not a license to do what one wants
but achallenge to test one’s
responsibility. The
more person is free, the more responsible he or she is and thereby heor she
becomes mature in his or her day-to-day
life.
Moral
Formation
Human formation necessarily includes
education of the moral dimension which makes a human good.
The core of this dimension is moral conscience.
To form one’s
conscience is to prepare oneself to encounter God and to listen to His voice.
Within them echoes the voice of God by whom they are
created. Conscience
is not a faculty distinct from the intellect and reason.
The functions of the conscience can be divided into
three complementary acts; to perceive, to evaluate and to choose. A candidate’s
formation must include the way he or she deals with others, his or her way of
presenting himself or herself and his or her general social behaviour.
A candidate needs to learn to deal with everyone,
respecting and loving them as they are seeing person as a member of Christ’s
Mystical Body. The
goal of social in the religious life is not only real self-actualization
in the humanistic sense of the term but a formation which assists the
candidates in integrating their human nature with the gift of grace and prepare
for the mission. According
to Rogers, the self-actualized
person is creative, healthy and an example to others who can create optimism
and enthusiasm among those around him or her striving to attain their own
development (Anatharackel,2001).
Adaptation
Adaptation
to religious life takes place throughout the entire period of formation.
The candidates adapt to religious life in so far as
they progress in their relationship with God, in personal conversion and
openness to the members of the community.
In the beginning candidates find very difficult to
adjust with the new place and with candidates of different parts of the country.
Basic questions which usually hinder candidates are:
will I be able to cope up in this new place? Am I
like those who gave up? Have I adopted the same attitudes? Will I have the same
difficulties? What will my future be in the Congregation or Orders or Diocese?
In the long run, will I be accepted with all my limits, my concerns, my
temperament, and my manners of acting and of thinking? The Vows and the temptations of the world,
will I be able to keep going? So many questions arise in their minds and at
times they are confused.
In
community life living in relative seclusion will be a disconnecting experience.
At the time of a first meeting they are provided
with a certain amount of information. Now
they have to live up to that. The
loss of freedom can lead to certain sadness and dissatisfaction.
No more deciding their own activities; these are
just some of the limits that the candidates discover a day after.
This freedom will be seriously put to the test on
the level of culture and ideas. The
candidates who embrace Consecrated life confront a new reality, concerning
culture and other practices. The
structure can support the frailty of the person if they can use it with
flexibility and understanding. To
be flexible does not mean to abandon requirements.
Courage is needed today to leave all that the world
has to offer in order to become part of a regulated life apart from all that
had been previously known. That
does not mean to learn the familiar visual environment, the multiple
activities, the friends and the parents who are not there anymore to share
their life.
They go through a time of strange relationship with their new environment.
All is new, the habits, the buildings and the
surroundings. New
interests have to become their own. It
is necessary that they remember the reasons which guided them in this desire to
give themselves to the Lord. Why
am I here? What am I doing here? Such questions and reflection could strengthen
their vocation.
Reformation
The call to religious life is a free
choice and candidates should recognize the validity of this gratuitous gift and
at the same time, appreciate every Christian vocation.
The candidates need to have both an interior and
exterior psychological freedom and to acquire the necessary emotional
stability, so that, they can lead a life of consecration to God and to His
people as an expression of a loving sacrificial gift, a fulfillment of their
whole person.A
vocation develops when candidates feel the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and
respond to it through their life. Formation
seeks to help the candidates to acquire their identity as a religious and to
deepen and mature their own personality as they begin to internalize Christ’s
values in their lives. Formation
is designed to enable the candidates to dedicate to God in an effective and
meaningful way and be a witness to the world.
Discernment
in the Face of Positive and Negative Experiences
Candidates
carry with them a baggage full of guilt, fear, shame, inferiority, hurt, anger,
rejection. Some
of them come from highly dysfunctional families with alcoholic parents; a
significant number of candidates are victims of sexual as children due to which
their sexual identity gets terribly disturbed.
There is need for competent professional guides to
deal with such serious psychological problems right at the initial stages of
formation.Of
course, negative past experiences are important and deserve consideration,
since they influence their lives. Yet,
negative experiences in themselves should help the candidates to build their
future and prepare them to live moments of joy and gladness, not the other way
around. Candidate’s
past is significant but the future must also be built on positive elements
since these elements too are part of one’s
own personal history. If
candidates come to join the seminary and the convent with negative experiences
they will end up with negative attitudes towards themselves and therefore
formators help them to have a positive approach so that candidates will impart
positive experiences and commit themselves totally to God.
The
Fear of Commitment
As
I have mentioned above that at times candidates come to join with their
personal wounds so if proper atmosphere is not given to then they lose their
hope and trust. Formators
can therefore expect disturbances on the psychological as well as on the social
level. For
commitment creates moral obligation.Habit
or regularity of the practices and customs remain excellent means to forget
identity, to support enthusiasm, to develop a feeling of belongingness, to
answer the needs for beauty and uniformity leading to solidarity.
They want honest, frank, open, joyful and positive
statements. Discernment
is to be exerted which must be done in humility and truth.
The purpose of such a process is to discover God’s
will. The first person responsible for discernment
is the candidate himself or herself. To
discover their vocation means to find out what they are meant to become
(Lespinay, 2009).For
socio-political,
cultural and ecclesial conditions in which they live have greatly conditioned
their overall outlook and their reactions to the world, the church and the
priesthood, Nun, as well as their aspirations, hopes and fears.
Therefore, attention is to be given to the quality
of their motivation and to the stability
(Synodus Episcoporum VIII,1990).
Accompaniment
of the Formees by the Formator
Formator
is the one who becomes mediator between God and the Candidate to help him or
her to recognize God’s
call, both human and divine heart. Formator
has to learn how to discern in the formee the presence of conflicts and
immaturity even those are not immediately evident
(Olinda 2017).For
candidates thirst for the absolute and have desire to give themselves to God so
that they search for life’s
meaning, truth and authenticity.
Formator helps candidates to balance between being and doing.
He insists on quality of life rather than quality of
achievement. He
helps them to know themselves better and to accept their talents and their
weaknesses so as to appreciate themselves as they are
(Religious Life, 296).
Psychological
Accompaniment
In
order to guide the candidates, the formator should have sufficient
psychological awareness and maturity. They
need to be aware of them own personal gifts as well as the positive and
negative aspects of their personality. Such
psychological maturity implies a mature control of the emotions, a realistic
self-concept
and ability to form interpersonal relations and a mature self-confidence.
Spiritual
Accompaniment
Spiritual
formation is at the heart of the whole formation process.
It entails above all an education in prayer which
introduces candidate to an ongoing and familiar relationship with the Father
through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. Spiritual
formation concerns the whole person, as the candidate identifies himself or
herself with Christ and seeks to be united with him.
Religious spirituality should lead to a deep,
personal and intimate relationship with Christ.
Spiritual formation for the candidate is a period in
which there is special attention to growth into life with Christ, assimilating
the word of God and reflecting on the charism and spiritual tradition of their
institute. Spiritual
formation is an ongoing process, it is not something instantaneous process
which has its ups and downs and its moments of rising and dying.
In the process of spiritual
formation, the word of God is the first source of all Christian spirituality.
It gives rise to a personal relationship with the
living God and with His saving and sanctifying will.
To acquire the habit of listening and understanding
the word of God, there must be a genuine interior silence.
Interior silence helps to foster an intimacy with
God; it is a profound attitude of the Soul that seeks everything from God and
is entirely turned towards Him. It
helps the candidates to grow in intimacy and dialogue with God through the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
The
Eucharist
The
Eucharist is the means of sanctification of all in Christ and the glorification
of God, the end of which all the activities of the Church are directed.
The centre of all liturgical life is the celebration
of the Eucharist through which each Christian receives the saving power of
redemption, beginning with the mystery of baptism in which they are buried into
the death of Christ in order to participate in his resurrection.
The Eucharist gives strength to remain faithful to
the Lord. During
formation, the candidates should be encouraged to find a deep satisfaction in
being with Christ during the Eucharist. The
Eucharistic sacrifice is a means by which the religious renews his or her self-offering
to the Lord each day. The
Eucharist is also the source through which the whole religious community is
strengthened and helped to flourish in the Church.
The Eucharistic life clarifies in depth the meaning
of religious vocation and the great need of making Christ present in the world.
A religious is called to witness in person and as a
member of a community to the holiness of Christ.
Through the sacrament of
reconciliation, the candidates encounter with the divine mercy that pardons and
assures them that they are children of God.
To experience the need for reconciliation is to
become conscious of the unconditional love of God.
By frequent experience of God’s
mercy, candidates should try to purify their hearts, recognize their
shortcomings and achieve an openness and freedom in their relationship with God.Through
an examination of conscience, candidates submit their day today experiences to the
Lord, to become free to and be open out to Him and to learning how to reach out
to others in their concrete life situations.
Prayer
Prayer
is an opening of themselves to God who comes to them and transforms their total
existence. To
develop a life of prayer there must be inner quietness and a constant awareness
in faith that God is close and working deep within the person and in the world.
Success in prayer is not brought about by a
preoccupation with human endeavors but attain to God’s
to grace; such grace is granted when the person empties himself or herself and
allows God to be the centre of his or her life.
Gradually the soul becomes more deeply related to
God and more aware of God’s
light and slowly grows in perfection. The
practice of personal prayer is the responsibility of the candidates; it should
become a regular practice as he or she lives the life of a professed religious.
Formation houses should be schools of prayer, places
where a community of religious pray. Formation
programmes must covey a sense that each candidate has an inborn spiritual life
and that is possible to make progress through prayer.
First and
foremost, they should be in constant union with God in Prayer.
Candidates for religious life must learn to
cultivate silence and solitude; silence is the language through which God
speaks to believers. Prayer
in common calls him or her to build thirst for the prayer of the universal
Church. Through
this the candidate pray for the sanctification of the faithful and for one self.
For God calls each candidate to religious life to
participate in his glory and goodness.
Spiritual direction is the
interpersonal relationship through which one person assists another to reflect
on and to enrich their personal experience in the light of who they are called
to become in faithfulness to the gospel.
It is an accompanying of a person who is striving to
deepen his or her faith. Spiritual
direction is an aid to spiritual development and for a religious candidate a
forum in which to clarify his or her vocation.
The central element of spiritual direction is
listening both to each other and to God.
Spiritual direction assists a candidate to pay
attention to and to share his or her personal experiences of God and to learn
how to discern what is genuinely an experience of God from what is not.
It refers also to all ways means instructions and
disciplines intended towards the deepening of faith and of spiritual growth.
Spiritual
Direction
The
director encourages and directs the candidates towards the goal theyhave
chosen, helping them to discern God in themselves, in others and in the world.
The candidates listen to the word assisted by the
spiritual director. Hence,
spiritual direction takes place in the context of prayer.
Spiritual direction seeks to encourage in candidates
a deep prayerful relationship with the Lord who has called them.
This awareness of the Lord will hopefully encourage
an appraisal of the compatibility of the candidate’s
life with the call of the spirit. Spiritual
direction seeks to facilitate the presence of God in candidates, deepening it
or renewing its dynamism if it has withered away.
Such direction should help the candidates to acquire
an openness to their own failures and to recognize and work through their
shortcomings instead of becoming fixed on guilt feelings.
This process of growth helps the candidates to be
more responsible and committed to their call and to conversion.
Spiritual direction aims at helping the candidates
to allow himself or herself to be helped by God, rather than fostering
dependency. It
aims at assisting the candidates to become more mature, responsible and free.The
formator should seek to make the candidates aware of their inborn talents and
encourage them to appreciate their own gifts.
The formator must encourage them to develop their
talents for attentive listening, speaking with clarity, being and to the needs
of others (Anatharackel,
2001)
Self-Transcendence;
the Goal of the Consecrated life
When
a person enters into union with God through a loving relationship, the person
is enabled to come to full potentiality and thus becomes fully human.
This transformation in Christ presupposes a free
response to God’s
transforming initiative. Commitment
to a vocation calls on the person to surrender himself or herself in faith,
hope and love to the Father, Son and Spirit.The
goal of a vocation is transformation and personal sanctification in God.
Every person has a unique vocation with a specific
destiny-happiness
in God. Each
person is ultimately being transformed into a whole person, deified in the
Father, the Son and the Spirit, as a fully realized individual transformed by
God. God calls everyone to
personal divinization in a certain way of life and to accomplish some mission
for the growth of the Church. Religious
vocation is an inner call and it is realized only through long years of prayer
and reflection. The
ultimate aim is to realize oneself in Christ.
Each person’s
movements towards God is a movement towards transcendence.
All humans seek to fly above their material reality
to be with the Absolute. The
degree of transcendence and the emotional or mystical experiences that
accompany it vary in different persons. Self-Transcendence
implies a moving beyond the human limitations.
The candidates achieve authenticity through self-transcendence. Transcendence
confers peaceful strength and a simple accepting presence of self, others,
events and things as they truly are.Essential
to religious, value is a certain quality of totality and transcendence more so,
than in the case of moral value so that what stands in the foreground is no
longer human activity but supreme reality on which depends the whole destiny of
man and the universe (Rulla,
2004).
In
conclusion, human existence is Self-Transcendence
because person’s
primary concern is not limited to self-actualization
but includes the realization of the values.
Values are the norms, goals or purpose that one
chooses in order to give a sense of direction and meaning to one’s
life. Values
involve a commitment to a transcendent authority, God.
In other words, a person’s
deepest conscious tendency towards transcendence or self-realization
is in Christ. In
seeking this self-realization,
the authentic person ultimately looks for God, the supreme good.
In religious life the formator should assist the
candidates to move towards realization in Christ.
In this understanding of the personality,
authenticity needs to be seen in a theological perspective; authentic Self-
Transcendence is
revealed in the personality of Christ in whom the human and the divine come to
full realization.
Through
the years of formation, the candidates need to be able to integrate their human
and spiritual development. It is an awareness of the divine in the
persons that enables them to see everything from a divine perspective which is
the realization of the personal call from God. Self-Transcendence
is the final result of a personal conquest which can be reached only gradually
by a long personal journey of active co-operation
with divine grace. So
Self- transcendence
is the movement in which the candidates go beyond themselves systematically to
put on Christ and his values.
Chapter
II
Self-Transcendence
in the Life of a Consecrated Person
Introduction
In the first Chapter, I have dealt
with the call that individuals receive from God.
It is a call to new-existence,
not for the job or function but to a new obligation to holiness by self-transformation.
It is a gradual awareness of the Divine within
persons who have a capacity to go beyond themselves systematically in the
aspects of spirituality, psychology, humanity.
In this Chapter I will be reflecting on the Self-
Transcendence and my focus will be on the Self, the
core being of a person.
A consecrated person is called to change his or her way of life not people
around. It
is a process whereby he or she has to give up his or her own self in order to
put on new self, Jesus Christ.
The
Significance of the Term “Self’’
Self
refers to the very being or core of a person.
The actualization process is a directional movement,
positive forward-moving,
constructive and self-enhancing.
For Rogers, there is no primitive beast in the
person but he claims that human nature is in-heredity
good and has the capacity to move forward towards maturity.
An individual’s
self-concept
is mainly conscious and consists of his or her thoughts and feelings about
himself or herself both as an individual and in relation to others
(Anatharackel, 2001).
And transcendence refers to the aspect of a God's
nature and power which is wholly independent of the material universe, beyond
all physical laws. This
is contrasted with immanence, where God is said to be fully present in the
physical world and thus accessible to creatures in various ways.
In religious experience transcendence is a state of
being that has overcome the limitations of physical existence and by some
definitions have also become independent of it.
Transcendence can be attributed to the divine not
only in its being, but also in its knowledge.
There are two fundamental ways of being human in the
world; trusting in our human resources and abilities or a radical trust in God –
being like Jesus-
until they are awakened at the deep levels of their
being to the essential reality. We
might describe these two ways of being in the world as the “true
self” and
“false self.” God’s
purpose for us is not simply to forgive sins but to transform our false self,
to clean all it unrighteousness, to make us righteous, to restore us to our
true self in loving relationship with God and in being Christ-like in the world
(Mulholland,2012).When
consecrated persons identify their self as separate and apart from God-
the essence of the false self-they
also identify their self apart from everything else.
They orient their self at a distance from others.
The history of human life on this planet is a long
example of what happen when a person lives out of a posture of separateness
with respect to others. This
pasture reduces others to objects to be manipulated for their purposes whether
those purpose be political, economic, social, cultural, religious, ethnic or
whatever. When
they meet resistance to their manipulation they respond with violence of some
sort that in turn results in a retaliatory violence by those on whom they
inflicted our violence. The
placing of their self in radical separation from God, others and creation which
is the essence of the false self- becomes
a pervasive reality that poisons their life with God, with self, with others
and in the world.
A consecrated person is called to become aware of the false self.
The
False Self is a Fearful Self
When
a false self is lived they fear that their lack of a true center for their
identity will be revealed. One
of the ways their false self tries to compensate is to find their identity in
performance. “I
am what I Do”
is one of the primal perspectives of the false self.
The only way
they know the true nature of their gender sexuality and roles is by being in
loving union with God at the core of their being.
Once that loving union is broken, their
understanding of gender, sexuality and roles are self or culturally generated
constructs designed to identify themselves in contrast to all that is not us
theirs.
As
their false self manages their life, they fear that they might not be valued.
If their false self’s
identity is rooted in their performance then their value must necessarily be
rooted in how well they perform. Consequently,
their false self, attempts to perfect their performance at least in their own
estimation if not in the estimation of others.
Their performance may be affirmed by the community
or over against the community, it does not really matter which.
All that matters, is that their performance achieves
that measure of success that provides their false self with the necessary
affirmation of their value. A secondary
aspect of their false self’s
fear if anger. When
they find themselves unable to maintain a satisfactory matrix of identity
meaning value and purpose in a world that constantly threatens to destruct that
matrix, their false self is frequently angry at anyone or anything perceived to
be thwarting their agenda. While
such anger is usually directed at the perceived threat to their false self, it
can also become a seething hostility that remains hidden beneath the surface of
the false self, held in check by the need to maintain their false self’s
façade of control of their world. When
triggered by a sufficient threat of control of their anger boils to the surface
in a rage often totally out of proportion to what triggered it.
Their false self develops a treasury of material
resources that again serve not only as an affirmation of their identity and
value but also as a hedge against a loss of resources which would severely
threaten their well-being.
Since knowledge is power, their false self seeks to
acquire as abundance of intellectual and informational resources.
This
essential nature of their false self is a primary factor in the modern economy
of the west and increasingly in the economy of the world.
Whenever something of their identity and value is
grounded in their possessions, those possessions must always enhance their
false self and its position in the world.
Merely having the old model is never enough when the
new improved model is now available. The
production industry’s
policy of planned obsolescence is based on their false self’s
need to always have the newer better improved product.
The advertising industry is based largely on their
false self’s
need to discover what they lack and their desire to have it.
When they identify themselves with the knowledge, wealth, position and power
then forget God who has called them and in the name of God they serve
themselves not God’s
people.
The
False Self is a Destructive Self
When
they operate as a false self they become destructive to themselves to others
and to the world in which they live. Jesus
said: “For
those who want to save their life will lose it”(Mt.16:25).To
construct for themselves an entire world of being alienated from God is to
create a façade with no viable center. It
is possible for their false self to gain entire world for itself and lose own
soul. To
be such a hollow person is to destroy their true self-
a self-created
to find wholeness in a life of loving union with God that is at the same time a
life in whom God’s
presence dwells for others. Not
only does their false self-contribute
to the gradual deterioration of their deep inner life with God, it also
contributes to mental, emotional and physical deterioration.
When they take the place of God at the center of
their life and world, their false self always promotes them and their agenda
above all others. The
best of their behaviours become stained with the need for approval; the
ultimate goal of the action is not the purpose integral to the action itself
but the promotion of their value. Their
false self may enter enthusiastically and vigorously into projects, join
movements, serve on committees, run for office, but always their focus is on
how such activities will enhance their prestige and solidify their identity.
Their false self, having removed the roots of their identity, meaning value and
purpose from loving union with God, sinks those roots into multiple alternative
soils where they seek to find their identity, meaning, value and purpose.
Among such soils are their possessions, status,
profession, performances, relationship, woundedness, resentments, bitterness,
culture, ethnicity, place, intellect, and education.
Detachment is the ongoing process of disconnecting
their false self from all their life-support
systems. Their
false self will resist such detachment with unbelievable power.
They will even become fanatically religious as long
as we don’t
have to lose their self.
They
will never experience life in loving union with God as long as the roots of
their identity, meaning, value and purpose are grounded in something other than
God. Detachment does not
mean the abandonment of most of the relationships, structures and activities of
their lives. It
means, in those very relationships, structures and activities of their lives to
do for Jesus’ sake
what formerly they did for own selves. Such
a radical reorientation is, at one and the same time, both the putting to death
of their false self of the putting on of their new nature hidden with Christ in
God. The root of their new
nature is a radical abandonment to God for others.
Racial, religious, cultural, social-
economic and they could add age, gender, ethnic,
political and so forth. Such
distinctions simply have no function in their life hidden with Christ in God.
For
as long as they live in their exterior consciousness alone and identify
themselves completely with the superficial and transient side of their
existence then they are completely immersed in unreality.
And to cling with passion to a state of unreality is
the root of all sin: technically
known as pride. It
is the affirmation of their non-being
as the ultimate reality for which they live, as against the being and truth of
God. Hence, they must become
detached from the unreality that is in order to be united to the reality that
lies deeper within and is their true self-
their inmost self-in-God.
The
Actual Self and the Ideal Self
The
self-concept
is the self as it is currently experienced, whereas, the ideal self -concept
is the one that an individual would most like to possess.
A mature religious is loyal to his or her commitments, he or she knows when and
how to sacrifice certain things for the sake of his or her ideals.
As a result, the religious would be able to live a
unified and well-integrated
life. And
this is always a source of inner joy and strength which more than compensate
for the sacrifice made. An
immature religious on the other hand may act in a way inconsistent with self-ideal.
The
Nature and Development of Self-Actualization
Self-actualization
is a life-process
of self-
improvement which will end only with death.
Self-
actualization implies also that one lives in the present and is primarily inner-directed.
The self-actualized
person has formed correctly his own convictions and has a clear idea of his or
her ultimate goal. He
or she is channeling all his or her energies towards the achievement of his or
her goal. In
this endeavor, he or she thinks of others also and strives to help them to
achieve what he or she values and considers very valuable for them.
This is of inner growth in the person leads to a
better knowledge of his or her own strengths and weaknesses and to a fuller
self-acceptance.
Growth in self-understanding
leads to further maturity in the personality.
The self-actualizing
person focuses his or her energies towards the attainment of his or her goals
and tries to help others to achieve their goals.
The self-actualized
person can form warm and intimate contact with others and knows how to live
effectively.Authentic
person interacts with others directly without any mask or lives according to
one’s own life principles
rather according to the expectations of others.
Roger’s
convictions that there is an inherent tendency in human beings to move towards
growth, health, adjustment, socialization, self-realization,
independence and autonomy grew stronger.
Human life can be considered to be at its best when it is a flowing, changing
process in which nothing is fixed. The
tendency of the self is to continue and to accomplish its goal of self-
maintenance even when the normal way to that goal is
obstructed. This
implies an innate drive towards self-actualization
though it needs to be understood as a directional term, for the organism
realizes itself through increasing self-regulation
and autonomy.Consecrated
persons always struggle in between true self and false self.
The
Inconsistency between Self and Experience
Though each person has the capacity
to move forward and actualize his or her God-given
talents and potentialities, there are obstacles which stand in the way of this
growth process. These
obstacles can arise from within the person or from his or her family friends or
society. Unless
and until these obstacles or blocks are not removed the person will not reach
the goal of being a fully-functioning
person. A
consecrated person must check himself or herself where do they stand in their
service to the humanity. In
this process they struggle with the following things:
The Mask
When candidates behave in a way
incongruent with their true self, they are said to be wearing a mask or in
other words, they pretend to have true self but in fact they do not have.
Wearing a mask is an acquired habit usually due to
lack of positive regard and support in the childhood.
For a child who has not been genuinely loved and
valued by his or her parents or teachers does not develop his or her self-esteem
and as a result he or she is dissatisfied and creates a false self as a defense. To experience
the real self a person has to accept his or her positive and negative sides of
personality.
Living
according to the Expectations of Superiors
When
a candidate directs his or her actions according to the expectations of others,
he or she cannot become fully actualized.
Of course, every society, congregation and community
expect from their members a certain code of conduct which they are expected to
follow for the welfare of the society. However,
this is reasonable providing that each person can enjoy a reasonable freedom of
thought, expression and decision-making.
But if a candidate lives only according to the expectations of others he or she
cannot become a fully actualized and a fully functioning person.
Such a candidate does everything to make others like
him. He or she wants to be
loved and appreciated. As
a result, he or she does certain things which are contrary to his or her
personal convictions and viewpoints and this behaviour may lead to inner stress
and confusion. Such
candidates will only please the superiors throughout their lives and there will
not be any self-transcendence.
They remain the same and at the end they are
frustrated with their lives.
Attention
Seeker
There
are candidates who try to please others with their words and actions.
A person’s
actions and mode of life need to be seen and valued and appreciated by others.
It creates in the candidate self-confidence
and acceptance from others. In
a way, it is a healthy dynamic of human growth process.
But if a candidate is not congruent to himself and
the situation he or she lives, he or she acquires an unbalanced personality which
thirsts for acceptance and recognition from others.
Such a person tends to be superficial by giving
importance to externals only. The
candidate has little depth in thinking, acting and is governed by external
forces such as; encouragement, admiration by way of good words and actions.
In order to get the attention from others he
performs things which are diametrically opposed to his personal convictions and
viewpoints, causing inner conflict and tension
(Mulholland,2012).
The
Self-Transcendent
Values towards Theocentric Love
Self-transcendent
values of Christ should be presented as the supreme ideal, the most important
ideal to live by to which everything else must be subordinated.
One must “lose
one’s own life for Christ’s
sake in order to find it” (Mt.
10:39).
One must transcend oneself in love of Christ so as
to be transformed in Him. One
must make a total gift of oneself to the Other and to the other.
The self-transcendent
values of Christ should be presented in way that is clear.
Self-transcendence
must have God as final Object and must find it principle expression in the self-
transcendence values of Christ(religious
and moral) rather
than in natural values of a political, economic, social or artistic kind etc.
It is only through losing itself in the self –
transcendent values of Christ that human existence
acquires its full meaning and the human vocation its fulfilment
(Rulla, 2004).
Self-Transcendence
and it’s
Goal
In
the theocentric approach the final objective of self-
transcendence is God.
One becomes detached from self and transcends the
self in order to reach God. So, the true and
ultimate meaning of a consecrated person is God himself; God is the only being
capable of bringing person to the full realization of himself or herself.
And this certainty of Christian faith is not in
conflict, but in perfect harmony, with the investigations of human reason which
finds the same certainty in studying the universal experience of self-
transcendence. In this regard St.
Paul would say that “Do
not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by renewing of your minds so
that you may discern what is the will of God-
what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Rom. (12:2).
Furthermore,
a person is called to have a right motivation in life.
Motivation
To
act they need a motive a person to justify their aim.
Every meaningful behaviour has a reason, something
that directly or indirectly inspired it.
The word motivation covers a series of common
expressions; intention, desire, end, interest, motive choice and preference.
They all show that the behaviour follows a direction
that was impressed on a person before it is manifested.
Motivation is what is capable of moving the subject.
It means all the motives and expectations that urge
towards action. It
is the answer to the question “why
this action?” in
the double sense of “what
originates it?” and
for what purpose? Motivation, in fact, has two aspects:
an activating one(readiness
to action) and
a directional one (directs
towards a particular). A
consecrated person has God as his or her ultimate mover in daily lives.
Compliance
According
to this process the person adopts an attitude with the purpose of getting a
reward or avoiding a punishment from one’s
group or from another person, without any conviction of the content of the
behaviour itself. The
reward-punishment
are not necessarily physical in character but often psychological; withdrawal
of love, lack of consideration, hardened guilt-feeling.
If you act like that you make me die of sorrow is
one of the most powerful conditionings. From
a structural point of view the compliant person is inconsistent.
One who is pulled by values into one direction is
pulled to the opposite direction by his or her own needs and lives in a state
of contradiction. In
order to maintain his or her attitude he or she needs an external support.
If the support becomes less even the attitude may
collapse.
Identification
According
to this process one adopts a behaviour because it serves him to maintain a
gratifying relationship in the sense that it helps him or her to preserve a
positive image of himself or herself. The
relationship may be established in reality or fantasy.
This is always done in relation to Jesus’
life style.
Internalization
Internalization
describes the psychological outcome of a conscious mind reasoning about a
specific subject; the subject is internalized, and the consideration of the
subject is internal. Internalization
of ideals might take place following religious conversion, or in the process
of, more generally, moral conversion. In
sciences such as psychology and sociology, internalization involves the
integration of attitudes, values, standards and the opinions of others into
one's own identity or sense of self. In
psychoanalytic theory, internalization is a process involving the formation of
the super ego. Internalization
is how man is a product of society. In
sociology internalization is the last step
(https://en.wikipedia,2017).The
ability for internalization gives a specific tone to the life of an individual,
corresponding to the three components of the internalization process:
realistic style, ability to tolerate tension and
efficacious exercise of activity.
First: Realistic
expectation
One
who lives by socially independent convictions sees himself or herself in right
dimension, without despising himself or herself or exalting himself or herself;
and he or she also does not perceive enemies in other people or see them as
things at his or her service. He
or she goes to meet life with the same realistic attitude, without expecting
gratification of all his or her needs from it. He or she will
not take on an attitude of one who expects always to receive, but of one who is
disposed to give. The
deep perception true values make him or her true, that is, honest and
objective, in imagining and programming his life.
When one is realistic, one is also particularly
efficacious because when something perceived is announced as true in itself and
also experienced perceived is announced as true in itself, and also experienced
as such in one’s
own life, one becomes credible.
Second: Tension
of renunciation
Capacity
for internalization inevitably brings with it a tension of renunciation:
an emotional state recognized as an apprehension and
uncertainty, not obstinate or influencing the behaviour, derived from the lack
of satisfaction of a present need but not functionally significant.
In other words, it signifies an endurable sensation
of suffering, determined by the renunciation of the gratification of need but
it is not so important for the psychic balancing of the individual and is not
at the centre of his or her emotional attention.
The internalization of a value has in fact the price
of the renunciation of a need contrary to it, which they have called dissonant.
The problem is not the renunciation but the reason
for which renunciation is accepted; renunciation does not create frustration
when it is motivated by the ideal self; a consecrated person recognizes himself
or herself in the value he or she has chosen and above all feels the attraction
which gives him or her double strength to tend towards value and to control the
needs opposed to them. The
process of internalization is an experience of a strong attraction; it is
really the attraction that agrees to support the tension of the renunciation.
So here the sacrifice is conscious freely accepted
and causes suffering, but it is insistent but always controllable.Renunciation
means the feeling of an emptiness that cannot be filled in any other way, and
which weighs on the general functioning of the personality, disturbs the
attention and at times the activity and is rarely controllable.
Third: Exercise
of Roles
A
subsequent consequence of the internalization process is the ability to give a
harmonious and unifying direction to the various activities and roles that make
up one’s
own way of acting. They
all exercise a plurality of roles; some are not chosen others are chosen some
felt as more important, others less important.
By definition he or she who has the ability for internalization
identifies himself or herself on the basis of convictions.
As they direct his or her life, how will know how to
organize the various roles among them, give the importance they merit, order
them and live them as more less direct means towards the realization of his or
her ideal option. Ability
for internalization gives a style to the person and facilitates the efficacy of
his or her work; every activity is used as a means to express and realize
values that transcend it, and in function of them the activity is chosen. There is thus a
precise rapport between the basic value option and various intermediary roles;
the first is the aim, the second are the means.
Value points to conviction and offers motivation;
the roles are ways to manifest them and make them operative.
Convictions are stable by nature and reveal the
identity of the self. The
concrete modes of actualizing them could change.
In short value transcends a person but the role does
not do so always or necessarily. The
opposite to value is orientation to the role; activity is lived as an end in
itself for its ability to offer gratification and as the seat of one’s
own identity.
What is done only for oneself even if it
is the most gratifying of activities becomes boring.
It is a pschic law.
If there is not a superior motive that exalts the
ideal self and respects the intimate conformation of person, even the role ends
up deluding and creating frustration. Everything
still is to the damage of efficacy and perseverance in the transmission of value
(Cencini and Manenti, 1985).
Human
Integration, Emotional Life and Sexuality
Self-actualization
is the growth motivation in every candidate and every person has an innate
drive towards his or her own self-development
and inner growth.An
individual who does not trust himself or herself is always suspicious of others
and incapable of loyalty is only in accepting the real experience of the self
that the person is able to understand reality more clearly and accept his own
limitations and talents. Self-awareness
helps a person to make responsible decisions with regard to his or her way of
life. An
individual who has affirmed his or her own personal experience has the capacity
to admit the past and deal with the present.
For
it is a life-long
movement towards self-improvement.
To be a self-actualized
person means knowing one’s
strengths and weakness and accepting oneself with these limitations and
potentialities. As
a result of this personality growth the person becomes willing to change, to be
a process solved but a person in the process of becoming
(Mulholland, 2012).
In
conclusion, Self- Transcendence
is a journey of discovering Christ in oneself, one’s
community, society, work and in the world of cultures.
Through one’s
community, trained guides, study and work, candidates are called to growth and
to explore their own faithfulness to the gospel message.
It is process of letting go of oneself, one’s
kith and kin, language and culture and allowing Christ to take place in the
body, mind and soul. It
is call to work for the greater glory of God not for the glory of oneself.
The growing or maturing person is engaged in the
task of building his or her real self, the unique self he or she is meant to be
God’s plan.
This is a task that calls for constant search, adjustment,
organization, integration. He
or she who succeeds in this turns out to be a well-organized,
unified, integrated, strong person, with a sense of orientation and of mission
in life. His
or her approach to life will be in general optimistic and constructive.
Chapter
III
Challenges
to Self-Transcendence:
How to Face Them?
Introduction
In
the first two chapters I have dealt with the call that individuals receive and
respond to it personally. They
change their old self by reforming themselves in the process of self-transcendence.
They give up the old self and put on new self thus
they become a new creation in Christ. But
in this process, they face challenges. in
this chapter I will be dealing with, first of all, the challenges, then
perseverance, detachment, and after that, about the community life that helps
consecrated persons towards self-Transcendence.
Self-Transcendence
in the Process of On-going
Formation
Ongoing
formation is intended to foster a continuous process of personal maturation in
faith, hope, charity and growth in the likeness of Christ, the Good Shepherd.
God’s
Salvation is made known to the consecrated persons in the gradual unfolding of
their lives and the happenings which they experience individually or in a group.
For the divine will to be known and followed,
consecrated persons have need of prayer, an openness to the word of the God, a
faith-filled
reading of his gifts and the diverse social and cultural circumstances in which
they live, and a wise spiritual guide. Ongoing
formation extends throughout the life of the consecrated persons and is
intended to develop further the human, spiritual, doctrinal and pastoral
aspects of the consecrated life.
The human aspect ought to give the consecrated
persons the capacity to understand others and to be sensitive to their needs.
It ought to give them the ability to evaluate
properly all that is true, just and beautiful in human life.
Formation to human sensitivity and responsibility
make it possible to join the demands of the spiritual life a sound life of
human experiences with the attitude of Christ who participated in the joy of
friends at the wedding of Cana.
Spiritual
formation is intended to increase a faith which is both personal and active.
Thus, consecrated persons, renewing their
consecration to Christ, become, evermore, aware that this bond furnishes them with
the reason for their poverty, chastity and obedience. The spiritual
help which the consecrated persons receive becomes the stimulus to further open
their heart to the call of Christ and to the needs of the Church.
Such a consecrated disposition is extended to all
persons and expresses the freedom of the Holy Spirit which is based on an
increasing consciousness and conviction that they take the place of Christ and
act in His name especially in the preaching of the Word of God and in the
administration of the Sacraments.
Pastoral
works are the reflection and the sign of how much the consecrated persons made
the charity of Christ and the Church a part of themselves.
True formation nourishes a life which is freely
given to Christ and the Church without any limitation or reservation.
It is a life of continuous participation in the
cross and resurrection of Christ and in his redemptive charity. Ongoing
formation seeks to respond to the vital questions which arise from real needs
and from the personal aspirations of realizing one’s
destiny according to his or her vocation and the actual circumstances in which
the Lord calls them. What
applies to all the consecrated persons is of particular value in their case,
for example, the need of frequent contact with priests as well as a spiritual
guide who can offer direction and encouragement in the spiritual life and
pastoral activity.
Particular attention should be directed to consecrated persons who through
weariness or sickness find themselves in a state of debilitation or physical or
moral fatigue.
They must never forget that they themselves
have the obligation to give attention each day to every aspect of their
spiritual life so as to remain faithful to the Lord and so as not to neglect
the gift of their vocation(Anatharackel,2001).
For in their Commitment to God and service of the
Kingdom, they may lack a deeper experience of God.
They often seen as managers of efficient educational
and charitable institutions rather than persons of God-experience;
besides their dwellings are not perceived as centers of spiritual energy.
They must become aware of their witness to the
universality of the Gospel message which goes beyond differences of any kind
based on race, culture, tribe etc.,
and through their solidarity and availability to all especially to the very
poor. They
create bonds between the church and those marginalized groups which frequently
reached by ordinary pastoral activity. A
correlation between the interior life and exterior action or in other words a
harmonious blending of contemplation and action that corroborates the very
objective of the existence of the consecrated religious as followers of Christ
can offer a solution to the shallow God-experience.
It is an invitation to exercise perfect charity by
building communities especially with those who are excluded from community and
at their service. This
profound significance of the expression religious life calls for a self -emptying
process, leaving the comfort zones and going out in order to meet the broken
hearted in the world (Dantis,
2012).
In
the process of ongoing formation.
they face the following challenges to self-Transcendence.
Consecrated
life:a lifelong option or a part time Job
Option
for a religious commitment; be it in married life or consecrated life is
increasingly becoming a very hard option for theconsecrated persons for whom a
way of life without an instant sensual gratification is unthinkable.
Since, it is a life long journey, not a part time
job and they feel regraded for not making a clear decision in life.
This becomes an obstacle and there is no healthy growth
to self-transcendence
in the life of a consecrated person.
Vocation
Promotion or Recruitment
Another
major challenge is the promotion of vocation to Consecrated life or priesthood.
Many of the youth do not find any challenge that can
satisfy their aspirations by opting for consecrated life or priesthood.
And as a result, vocation promotion has become a
strategy for recruiting young men and women for careers, as a labour force
(Benedict 2015.
In the long run, having completed their career
successfully they feel content with what they have done.However,
this does not give full satisfaction.So
they feel emptiness in their life and they begin to ask themselves, is this the
life I am supposed to live? This becomes
another challenge to self-Transcendence.
The
Vowed Life:
a call for
apostolic availability for Universal mission or an option for comfort Zone
Three
vows through which they consecrated themselves supposed to make them free and
available for the universal mission of Christ.
The challenge for the consecrated persons to become
the anawim the little ones, the people of beatitudes; through chastity
to be passionate lovers of Christ for compassionate service of God’s
people and through obedience discern what God expects of them today in response
to the signs of the time. In
practice the vows seem to protect and safeguard the consecrated persons in a
comfort Zone, disconnected from the problems and difficulties that their
contemporaries face. When
they are not able to leave their own comfort Zone and are attached to their own
culture, language, kith and kin then this becomes another challenge to face it.
Identity
of a Consecrated person as Disciple of Christ or Careerism
There
is a strong temptation to relate one’s
identity to one’s
functions; such as educator, social worker, professor of philosophy, theology,
scripture, counselor, etc. These
functions require special training, skills etc.
based on human sciences.
One can be qualified in all these areas without a
manor woman of moral and spiritual integrity.
Hence, it is the need of the hour that they as
priests and religious are clear of their identity:
disciples of Christ.
That is only identity, rest are all functions.
Therefore, they are called not to identify
themselves with their functions but rather with Christ.
Pope Francis reminds us time and again, on the
importance of being men and women who are deeply rooted in God, having an
intimate personal relationship with Christ.
Only this God-experience
will eventually help us to evolve a nourishing spirituality that will motivate
our attitude and actions that will resonate with Gospel values radiating the
mind and heart of Christ. And
this in turn will influence the functionaries as teachers, social workers,
professors with greater apostolic efficacy.
Otherwise consecrated persons will be mere
functionaries, bureaucrats and all their works however good and beneficial they
maybe or they will be mere social workers for which they need not be priests
and religious (Benedict
2015).When
they begin to identify themselves with the functions not with Christ the poor
this becomes another challenge to self-Transcendence.
The
post modernism built on philosophy of hedonism and relativism is making inroads
in all spheres of human life. The
science, technology and industry are all at the service of free market economy
where self-fulfillment,
instant gratification have become the main criteria for human happiness and
freedom. From
the womb (abortion)
to the tomb (euthanasia)
self (make
believe and based on a virtual reality) is
the focus, the self that is being bolstered by the latest, seemingly gives one,
a status in the modern society, disregarding totally what for centuries have
immensely helped to safeguard the pillars of human civilization, family,
marriage, culture, tradition, religion, respect for life, etc.
Disciples of Christ and leaders of the Church have
the unpleasant task of upholding the sacredness of man and woman, endowed with
dignity and honour befitting the children of God as revealed in the scriptures.
This is precisely what Pope Francis is doing in a
very remarkable way and is making an impact on the world scene in spite of many
opposing views coming from groups with highly vested interests that often go
against the teachings of Christ and the teachings of the Church.
In the second chapter it mentioned about the true
self and the false self. True
self is always identifying oneself with Christ while false self is always
identifying oneself with one’s
own functions or things.
Persons
of Moral and Spiritual Integrity
In
the wake of scandal of pedophilia, the sexual abuse of children and youth by
clergy the image of the Church, particularly of the consecrated persons is
tarnished. The
credibility of consecrated persons especially in the West is at lowest ebb.
This is because of lack of moral and spiritual
integrity. People
expect consecrated persons to be persons of character.
Character is formed through cultivation of virtues;
truthfulness, honesty, transparency, love, compassion, simplicity, gentleness,
mercy etc. In
the absence of character, temperament takes the upper hand. One of the
negative outcomes of globalization is that relationships have been stereotyped,
mechanic and pragmatic. People
have become commodities to be used and thrown away.
In this context,they have to uphold the great gospel
value-communion
which is first of all built on their communion with God and from this intimacy
with God they reach out to form a network of communion in their community and
also with people in various ministries.When
the psychosexual integration does not take place properly then consecrated
persons face challenges to self-transcendence.
Collaboration
between Consecrated Persons and the Laity
There
is an appreciable improvement with regard to the spirit of collaboration among
consecrated persons in diverse ministries of the Church:
pastoral, educational, social, medical, formation,
etc. However, one must admit
in all honesty that there is increasing number of situations where the
consecrated persons face at times very painful conflicts that adversely affect
both interpersonal relationships and also the effectiveness of their ministers.
Leadership style with undue emphasis on religious
discipline, inward looking, maintaining ‘status
quo’ resulting into a ghetto
mentality. The
consecrated persons on their part fail to recognize and appreciate the distinct
charisms of the Congregations and also the space and time they need to pursue
the specific goals and life style demanded by the very nature of Consecrated
Life.
The laity today is often well
educated, highly motivated and active in the mission of the Church.
Due to shortage of priests, many lay people have
begun to occupy ministerial and administrative positions which were once almost
exclusively held by priests. Lay
apostolate ever since Vatican II, functions on its own right, with the specific
mission of renewing the temporal order.’ This
has led to the emergence of new lay movements.
Partnership with the laity entails involvement in
the context of daily life situations of family children, school, neighborhood
and workplace. If
consecrated persons are not able to collaborate with the lay people in the
mission of Christ then this becomes a challenge to self-transcendence,
for they are not open to the mission of lay people in the church.
To
be Inclusive in the Approach
The joy of the Gospel is for all
people, no one can be excluded(EG.23).
Discrimination on the basis of caste, religion,
gender is anti-gospel
attitude. In
many ways patriarchal system both in the society at large and within the Church
in particular supported by a hierarchical system tends to alienate, isolate and
discriminate vast majority of people-laity,
consecrated men and women, poor and the marginalized
(Benedict, 2015).The
first chapter deals with the cultural background of the candidates.
They are shaped by their custom and society.
When they are not able to break this boundary to
include others for the establishment of the Kingdom of God then they give no
room for the self- transcendence.
Even though they face these few challenges on the
way to self- transcendence
they can still discern what is good in God’s
sight.
So, a few points are jot down here as to
how they can face the challenges during ministry on the way to Self-Transcendence.
Self-Transcendence
Calls for a Continuous Discernment
Discernment
is a gift from God before it is anything else.
It is the ability to distinguish the good and better
within us and around us. It
is about doing the best things for the other and giving the best things that
they have in themselves. It
is to prove, to test, and to check how much they can leave their comfort zone
for the sake of the other. In
this sense, discernment is understood as the process of taking on God’s
favour rather than our own favour. It
is seeking what God wants and not what they want in the given circumstances.
It is way of life, a desire to search for what is
pleasing to God in every detail of their lives
(Inigo,2017). It
is an on-going
search, a quest all through one’s
life like it was for Mother Mary. When they become
Christ-centered
persons they can reject prejudice, class, ethnic, educational barriers,
exclusiveness, and denominational warfare.
Discernment
turns the focus onto Christ, not persons, ideas, ideologies, organizations,
wondrous signs, or activities. It is truthful,
not rooted in a lie or distortion. They
are held accountable by specific trusted people, on small things as well as
large ones. The
key to live an uncompromising life lies in one's ability to exercise
discernment in every area of his or her life.
Discernment is the process of making careful
distinctions in their thinking about truth (https://www.christianity2018).
Three Blocks for Discernment
Discernment deals with a knowledge
of self in one’s
own truth, growing in the capacity to see oneself as God sees. Christ does not communicate to them something
abstract but a reality they are meant to experience, to taste, to live.
In the experience of forgiveness, they surrender to
Christ because they discover themselves in Christ, as if they are what Christ
is, as if they are what Christ experiences in his divine-human
love, as they were to now all they would have desired to be at the end of
creation.
God enters into their hearts through their thoughts and feelings in a tender,
kind way, seamlessly, without their feelings any force, any actions that are
foreign to them that might disturb, disquiet, sadden, or prick their
consciences.
Mental
Blocks:Prejudices and pre-conceived
notions about people become mental blocks.
Even if some good comes from Nazareth they will find
it difficult to acknowledge and accept it.
If they are caught in this sort of mind-set,
it is definitely against the freedom of the spirit.
They should be extremely careful not to allow such
prejudices to control their decisions.
Emotional
Blocks:
When they emotionally attached to or repelled by certain persons, they are not
in a position to make a discerned choice regarding them.
The process is similar in the case of a person they
dislike, perhaps due to personal hurts they have experienced from their
behaviour. If
they are involved in making a choice, they would tend to keep them out of any
responsibility, regardless of their merits and capabilities.
When emotions control them in this manner.
They cannot see the good in others in the mission.
In the process, it is the mission and the care of
the poor that suffer.
Attitudinal
Blocks:Prejudices
and negative attitudes about people will also prevent them from making
discernment with inner freedom. Such
attitudes may be about a person’s
age, background or opinions. Unless
they are able to go beyond these externals, they will not be able to see the
person inside and judge the person’s
suitability for whatever job is under consideration (Ivan 2002).
Detachment
Detachment
from the world, relatives, places, power, position, certain offices, persons,
money, dress, oneself and in general from all things and all things persons are
absolutely necessary to fulfill the God given task of the chosen ones.
To keep up the spirit of renunciation is important
to imitate and radiate Christ the merciful face of God.
Attachment to secular world may prevent them from
following the merciful heart of God and slowly destroy their innate tenderness
to fellow beings. To
practice detachment heroically and to witness the mercy of God radically they
need God’s
grace. Therefore,
they should zealously have recourse to God on their attachment and implore His
grace to get rid of this evil attachment
(Erambil, 2016).Such
detachment helps them to focus of Christ’s
mission than personal mission.
But how? through perseverance for this makes consecrated persons keep going in
their lives.
Perseverance
in the Process of Self-transcendence
Perseverance
originally comes from the Latin perseverantia which means to abide by
something strictly. This
makes sense, because if you're doing something in spite of all the difficulty,
you're being strict on yourself (https://www.vocabulary,
2018).Persistence
in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success helps
persons to become patient and not to give up hope.
It can be any be career, school, post, games, office
or any other areas of life. In
all these fields perseverance is must to reach the final destiny.
This applies for the consecrated persons also for
they make permanent commitment to God for the establishment of the Kingdom of
God, in the long run, they face with personal problems, community problems and things
of this world become an obstacle to their spiritual growth.
In such occasions they must persevere and continue to
progress in their lives. And
the main sources for the perseverance are the prayer, the word of God, the
Eucharist, charism, mission, spiritual direction, life of saints and the
personal attempt to change oneself for the conversion.
It can be examined as to how one can integrate the
founder’s
spirituality and the mission into one’s
life.
Mission and the
Spirituality of the Founder
The
word spirituality indicates a manner of life or life according to the Spirit,
to walk according to the Spirit. It
also refers to the inner life not in the sense of self-centeredness
but in an internal disposition, prompted by the Spirit which is externalized in
conviction, motivation and decision. And
so the permanent commitment for both Christians and consecrated persons flow
from their deep-seated
capability and is expressed in a willingness, generosity and faithfulness in
responding to the grace of God. Spirituality
embraces all that one is, everything one knows and all that one does in both
the private and social spheres of life. It
reflects a fundamental response to the presence of Christ and His Word, a
response made in faith, hope and Charity with all one’s
mind and all one’s
heart. Furthermore,
it is an ongoing process of conversion and formation, a continual process of
properly integrating the elements of human maturity into growth in the
Christian and the consecrated life. Through
the proclamation of the Word and the Mysteries of Christ to others, the work of
evangelization itself becomes for them a program of Self-evangelization.
Hence,
a consecrated person must imbibe the spirit and mission of the founder and the
foundress. For
founder and the foundress are the once who learned from Jesus and began to
follow him, so each person is called to live on the path shown by the founder
and the foundress. There
should be laws and suitable conditions for observing them. It is their
responsibility to firmly shut the door against all those modes of conduct which
gradually devitalize the strength of religious discipline and religious
practices. Religious
institutes will flourish and prosper so long as the integral spirit of their
Founder and foundress continues to inspire them for the apostolic works
(Pope Paul VI,1967).Having
integrated the spirituality and the mission of the founder and foundress they
pursue towards self-transcendence.
Even the evangelical counsels strengthen them to
dedicate themselves in the service of the people around.
The
Evangelical Counsels: Celibacy,
Poverty and Obedience
Celibacy
of religious life is the complete and exclusive mobilization of all passionate
and spiritual affection so that one can build up a relationship to oneself, to others
and to God for the sake of the Kingdom.It
demands a process of integration. Being
celibate is not merely something one does or does not do.
It has to do with being-
something a person is and is intimately bound up
with how a person integrates when challenges come.
The person who has achieved celibacy can be said to
be an integrated human being with knowledge of self and reality.
The use of his or her energies in the service of
life is consistent, transparent and its accomplishment is integrated into a
person’s
goals and meanings. The
focus is not the elimination of the senses but rather the establishment of a
life system and productivity that reinforce celibacy.
Encounter
with God brings with the relativism of everything that is not God; it brings detachment
from and freedom of spirit with regard to all that has been created.
This includes not only material goods but also
social standing, honors, one’s
own will, health and even one’s
very life. Religious
freely give up what they have, renounce what they possess and live in frugality
because of God, who is the one and the only Absolute Good.
Their relativism of possessions has a mystical sense
and is an act of homage to the all things.
Their practice of poverty draws its deepest meaning
from their encounter with God.” Through
obedience they learn to listen to God, the Spirit and Superiors and at the same
to one another, so as to work for the growth of the society.
It is about the co-operation
among the members of the community in building up the relationships in the
process of working together. When
they are content of what they have given up for the sake Christ bring joy and
peace to society. Not
only this they become a source of inspiration for others.
The life of contentment lived by them draws people
closer to God.
Becoming
an Integrated Person
Consecrated life
outlines for all a process of transformation:
from sin to salvation; isolation to community;
sickness to health; selfishness to love; despair to hope; sadness to joy; death
to life; temporal to eternal. Following
the path of transformation means that they wrestle with their own
discouragement and despair, loneliness and doubt, self-seeking
and sadness- harrowing
experiences out of which they can understand and speak to other.
For the celibate, proclaiming truth is not an appeal
to external law of doctrine but an ever more refined witness to live values.
Embracing life is daily enterprise an investment in
living meaning life (Richard,
1996). The
merciful heart is not something that is ready-made,
it is a ‘becoming’
a human, social and mystical reality to be achieved
and to be a ratified by dint of daily choices.
Everything about one speaks.
They express themselves by the quality of their
presence, by their looks, by their tone of voice, by the things they insist on,
the things they express. They
give witness of their divine filiation, of their being a daughter or a son of
God to the degree that they offer signs that are meaningful for those who
witness them. They
shall escape more and more from the cast of the untouchables by inserting
themselves in real authenticity into the very heart of the miseries of mankind(Ivan
2002).
A consecrated person whose self is identified, healthy autonomous, capable of
advancement in the acceptance of self and of others.
They allow themselves to be fascinated, drawn by
Jesus Christ. As
a consecrated person moves from spiritual immaturity to maturity, experiences
the Father’s
love behind all material phenomena. One
would expect growing reverence for life and all that accompanies it such as a
deepening sense of gratitude, a desire to use wisely the gifts of creation and
a refreshing sense of responsiveness and responsibility as they become
integrated persons fully (Pais,
1985). However,
in order to become an integrated person needs consecrated persons need a place
to live which helps them to build revive their lives every day, as I have
mentioned in the first chapter that a candidate a seminary or a convent to form
oneself so also they integrated persons.
So, let us see the kind of community which can help
them towards self- transcendence.
Significant
Dimensions of Community in self-transcendence
of a person
There
are some important dimensions of community living to which they have to give
special attention in order to enhance the journey together, to make it more of
an intentional community than merely juridical.
Among these I would like to highlight six dimensions
that are considered essential to build togetherness and communion.
Praying
Community
On the journey together, a community
has to have its common ritual- prayer,
meals, recreation, meetings and so on. Among
these community prayer is the most significant.
It is the vehicle that carries the community on the
journey to God and facilities that journey.
It is important that all members of the community
come together to pray and consider this a sacred time which is not sacrificed
except for emergencies. We
have heard that a family that prays together stays together (Parappully, 2015).
So also a community that prays stays together.
However, in practice they so easily miss their
community prayer or interrupt it for the slightest of excuses and do not think
there is anything wrong in doing so, rather they find enough justifications.
If a Christian community does not turn to God and
ask for help in sustaining its vision, they do not ask the lord to change their
hearts and help them to overcome their weaknesses then no amount of talking or
planning or concerned action of its life and witness, prayer is the vehicle
that carries them to their destiny in God.
Playing
Community
There
is need for them not only to pray together as a community but also to play
together, to have quality time together.
Spending time with one another in healthy community
relaxation is good for the journey together.
It strengthens relationships, reduces tension and
energizes the members. However,
they can be so caught up in their assigned work or personal enterprises and
interests that they can consider time spent in community relaxation as truly
waste of time or a botheration. Another
factor that militates against community playing, today especially is addition
to social networking and television’s
and the internet’s
and invest more time in connecting with friends on Facebook, Whats-App
and other virtual networks than connecting with the community members.
With the twenty fours availability of the internet
on their laptops, and the constant companionship mobiles they have become
further isolated from their community members.
Affirming
Community
They
need to affirm each member’s
uniqueness and the contributions that he or she makes to the community’s
life and mission. Each
of them has certain basic emotional needs such as need for acceptance,
appreciation, sense of belonging and competence.
The community has to create an environment in which
each of them can have these needs fulfilled.
First of all, each of them needs to be accepted as
they are. It
is important that they do not keep another member at the fringes of community
because of limitations or past weakness and failures.
Second, they need to acknowledge and appreciate the
gifts and talents each one brings to the community, offering him or her
opportunities to develop and utilize those skills and talents.
Third, they need to recognize and appreciate the
contributions that each one makes to the life and mission of the community.
Acceptance, appreciation and accommodation to one
another’s
needs promote a feel at home atmosphere, one who makes them want to be in the
community and be their best for the sake of the community and its mission.
Without this, at home feeling, they may feel more
alive when away from the community, and may feel a heaviness when it is time to
return. They
may feel it emotionally and spiritually draining to live in community and
distance themselves from it and seek emotional fulfillment elsewhere.
Reconciling
Community
A
consecrated community is a human community.
To be human is to be weak, fragile, vulnerable and
sometimes even malicious. The
mystery of evil present in the world is part of the religious community too.
There is selfishness, cultural difference,
unpleasant temperaments, differing views on ministry, jealousies, egoism and
selfish ambitions and so on. As
a consequence, daily difficulties and failures in love and relationships occur.
They need to keep themselves disposed toward
repentance and reconciliation. Rituals
of reconciliation help to strengthen communion within community and will help
them to accept one another with love.
Caring
Community
Each
of them needs to be especially sensitive to the more needy persons in the
community and surround them with special love and attention.
Among these are the sick and the elderly.
Sickness, illness and the infirmities of old age are
particularly painful trials. They
need to surround these suffering members with affection and patient care in a
very special way. As
vita consecrata affirms “the
elderly and the sick have a great deal to give in wisdom and experience to the
community if only the community can remain close to them with concern and an
ability to listen” (VC,44).
Then there are those who are in doubt or are
struggling with specific issues. The
understanding, comfort, prayer and delicate sensitivity with which they treat
them can strengthen and enlighten those who are wavering in their vocation.
Consecrated
Community
They
have to be continuously conscious that they form a community of men or women
consecrated to God through the vows. This awareness
enhances the quest for God and helps them to deepen relationships and build
communion. Chastity
enables us to open their hearts to a delicate, unselfish love toward others.
By renouncing the intimate, exclusive companionship
of a man woman, they are made free to love the members of the community and be
available to them. And
Poverty leads them to a deeper sharing of life.
It makes them dependent on one another.
Though such mutual dependence a continuous movement
of giving and receiving circulate among the members and lead them to deeper
communion. Obedience
builds communion by leading them towards minds and hearts in the common search
for the will of God and its generous and courageous execution.
The well fitted community life helps every
individual towards Self- transcendence,
Jesus Christ (Parappully,
2015).
In
conclusion, Self-transcendence
is an on-going
formation that the consecrated persons make every day.
They make so many choices every day in order to
change themselves and to become another Christ.
In this process they
face so many challenges and at times they become more warried about what they
have promised to live.However, they
become strong and mature through these challenges as they persevere in their
vocation. Some
of the means by which they continue to make their journeys are prayer, Eucharist,
word of God, evangelical counsels and community life.These help them
to grow towards self-transcendence.
The more they become aware of it the more they
strive towards their goal, Jesus Christ.
CONCLUSION
Having
gone through books, articles and internet material I have dealt with the topic “Self-Transcendence
as Essential Component of Consecrated Life.”
God calls individuals to follow him.
He or she is consecrated, and set apart for God’s
mission. In
the process of mission, they must change their old self in order to put on new
self, Christ. It
is a journey of discovering Christ in oneself, one’s
community, society, work and in the world of cultures.
Through one’s
community, trained guide, study and work, candidates are called to growth and
to explore their own faithfulness to the gospel message.
It is a process of letting go of oneself, one’s
kith and kin, language and culture and allowing Christ to take place in the
body, mind and Soul. It
is a call to work for the greater glory of God not for the glory of oneself.
The growing or maturing person is engaged in the
task of building his or her real self, the unique self, he or she is meant to
be God’s
plan.
Furthermore,
it is an awareness of the divine in the persons who enable them to see
everything from a divine perspective which is the realization of the personal
call from God. It
is final result of a personal conquest which can be reached only gradually by a
long personal journey of active co-operation
with divine grace. Finally,
Self- transcendence
is the movement in which the consecrated persons go beyond themselves
systematically to put on Christ and his values.
In this process they face so many challenges and
however these challenges also help them to live what they have promised.
Some of the means by which they continue to make their journeys are prayer,
Eucharist, word of God, and community life.
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