CONSECRATION
Introduction
Talking of consecration, or of the “consecrated”, it comes natural to refer to the vocation of the “religious”, men and women who, answering a personal and specific call of God, accept that particular plan of life He proposed and progressively unveiled. In conclusion, we are thinking of those who assume a particular way of living the common and essential baptismal consecration, that is that particular “kind” of discipleship, which historicizes itself and expresses itself in different forms and modalities, according to the particular charisms and to the changeable situations of times.
Then, it is important to ask oneself what is the meaning of and above all what follows the baptismal consecration, and, obviously, whether and how Father Louis Palazzolo talked of it, even in the language of his time, clearly preceding the Second Vatican Council of almost a century.
Baptismal consecration
Laid the condition that the consecration, the one which is fundamental for each Christian and the one which belongs to the religious, is still a free gift of God, Palazzolo tries anyway to make people understand how this divine gift should be accepted and cultivated.
Gift and engagement
Baptismal consecration, then, is first of all a gift of God and becomes engagement for those who receive it.
The verbs and the substantives Palazzolo and Gabrieli use more to express the consecration as a gift and engagement, are: “to sanctify one’s life and… to answer”. So, the holiness as a fulfilment of baptismal consecration; the answer as personal engagement and free answer of the Christian person, and, obviously all the more so, of religious men and women.
“… how the Lord loves us, how much care he takes for us! How many favours he grants us, how many means he gives us for us to be able to go easily the way of our sanctification” (T.G., 11-1-1895, n° 712).
“God loves you and grants you favours, so answer…” (L.P., 8-11-1869, n° 10).
“I came to a firm decision better to answer for the future. The Lord help me with his Holy Grace…” (T.G., 6-25-1874, n° 60).
“Enthusiasm, good Mother, time flies, poor us if we cannot sanctify ourselves” (L.P., 7-4-1872, n° 19).
“What are we doing here in the world, unless to strive to sanctify our lives, in that way God wants from us?” (T.G., 10-16-1877, n° 140).
Serving God, as He likes, is the answer of the believer to the gift of divine consecration.
“Firmly resolved to serve God as He wants to be served by me, not paying attention to any sacrifice” (L.P., Spiritual Exercises, Ep., page 1.149).
And it is an answer which requires in itself totality and reciprocity.
“Resolution to be faithful to God’s grace, and not to serve God with control, for God to be liberal with me” (L.P., Spiritual Exercises, Ep., page 1.160).
“I am very happy, I want to love God and to serve him as much generously and perfectly as possible for me” (L.P., 9-23-1874, n° 35).
God, calling us to Christian life, supports us in the way of concrete and daily answer:
“Come on, good daughter, what we have not done, we will do it with the grace of the Lord who loves us very much and will not turn his back on us” (L.P., 8-30-1877, n° 294).
But from the consecration God makes in us by the baptism, what follows for each Christian?
God’s Word, confirmed by the whole doctrine of the Church, assures us that baptism makes us pass from death to the new life; it makes us pass from the old to the new man, from darkness to the light of the Kingdom; it joins us to the Body of Christ: to his head and to all his limbs; it makes us sons in the “Son”; it introduces us in the Church, we become “living stones” of it; the members of the new People of God in Jess Christ; listeners and accomplishers of God’s Word.
“I do not want the devil, very serious foe, to make you lose yourself in a lot of trifles and so to keep you from going on in the hard and merry way of the deprivation of yourself to be covered with God” (L.P., 11-27-1867, n° 3).
“That good Jesus rise again in our hearts with his divine Grace; let’s deprive ourselves of the old man too, that is of our faults and of our predominant passion, so we can be covered with the new man, that is with holy virtues, above all with Holy Humility and Obedience” (T.G., 4-1-1894, n° 654).
Palazzolo (and Mother Gabrieli is almost an echo of him) has understood that being consecrated by God involves the entrance in a deep communion of life with Him, just as St Paul rightly says: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2,20).
“Pray for heaven’s sake, pray Jesus and the Virgin Mary for me too because I want to be completely of my God” (L.P., 11-27-1867, n° 3).
He writes to his sisters:
“Go on, be faithful and burn of Divine Charity” (L.P., 3-5-1886, n° 635).
“The Lord give me the grace to be… fired by love for Him and that is enough for me” (L.P., 3-19-1878, n° 107).
To be “delivered” to Christ, means to rely on Him and to trust in Him;
“Be all of God and only trustful in Him and relying on Him. From men do not hope anything and so die but don’t upset God” (L.P., 10-9-1884, n° 550).
To believe, for the baptized man, is to live an incessant life of faith, a life “on stand-by” following what the Father’s benevolent Will proposes.
“God… wants a life of faith from those who serve him. Let’s follow the Lord’s instructions, but with a generous soul” (L.P., 12-5-1868, n° 713).
“Everything coming from God is good” (L.P., 10-16-1874, n° 36).
“To make any possible effort to decide on any sacrifice, and willingly and without hesitation to do God’s holy Will, that I want to be only one with mine” (L.P., Exercises, Ep., page 1.160).
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“I am disposed to everything, but I want to be completely of my Jesus; I have always lived in fear, and you, my good Jesus, who have always protected me among so many occasions, protect me even in the future” (T.G., 11-26-1873, n° 49).
Then, on the strength of the baptismal consecration there is a universal call to holiness, which consists essentially in being in communion with God and in communion among us.
The love of the Christian, as an answer to the Love of God the Father, comes true and becomes effective in staying within the divine Will at all costs, since true communion is to do what the beloved person likes.
“God’s Holy Will be always blessed. To die but never to do anything against the Will of the Amiable Infinite” (L.P., 1-8-1885, n° 561).
“Pray for me to be able to be only one thing with the very blessed Will of my dear Jesus through and through” (L.P., 3-12-1886, n° 640).
“Let’s be all of Jesus and Mary and let’s not break away from them, but let’s live with them and tight and let’s not do anything without asking the Holy and Blessed Will of God. Let’s always look at Him and not at the world and at the accounts of the world which do not agree with the Genius of the Amiable Infinite” (L.P., 10-11-1882, n° 149).
“Live happily and make up your mind more and more to be completely of Jesus. Let’s die for Him” (L.P., 7-4-1868, n° 814).
“Live cheerfully and happily in the Lord and try to be dear to Him, the rest does not matter at all (L.P., 7-31-1878, n° 353).
The baptismal consecration, inserting us in Jesus Christ and making us sons in the Son, calls us to become more and more disciples of Christ, similar to Him.
“It is just what leads to holiness: the imitation of Jesus” (L.P., 6-4-1885, n° 578).
“Work to raise Jesus in you and in the others” (L.P., 3-12-1881, n° 398).
“Live all in Jesus, for Jesus and with Jesus” (L.P., 8-2-1877, n° 288).
God’s free Love, and rich of benevolence, arouses, in the human heart that accepts it, an irrevocable answer: nothing can be refused to the One who loves us exceedingly.
“When I think of how Jesus loved me and of what he did for me, what could I refuse to him…? The thought which stroke me more during these days was the love Jesus feels for man, his life and his painful passion for me: it is a great lesson; that my good Jesus give me the grace to be able to penetrate it well and to imitate him…” (T.G., 9-24-1874, n° 62).
Consecration in religious life
Father Louis Palazzolo, as priest and then as founder of a religious Institute, often writes and talks of religious consecration, speaking to his Sisters, to brethren or to young people who are thinking of religious life.
In one of his homilies we can find a very meaningful passage to explain how the common and universal call to holiness, that is to the full realization of baptism, really becomes effective in the single persons in different “ways” or kinds of life:
“God in the creation ordered that all plants made fruits, but every one of them according to his genus… So each soul (person) must produce fruits of holiness, but every one according to her condition” (L.P., Excerpts of Homilies, page 66).
Each Christian must be careful to discern the “signs” God sows in everybody’s path, to indicate the “kind” of discipleship he is personally required of:
“God has decided to hold tight a soul till that degree which is according to his will. We must not cross the operations of grace, because the Lord could have fixed a very tight tie with Him” (L.P., 10-14-1868, n° 7).
Then, it is a question of being careful and ready to gather even the smallest indicating signs, among the several mediations:
“And if God would call you to be his in a very singular way and would prepare for you his comforts and joys and would work out in you very sweetly a plot of health, of which even this letter could be a thread?… How easy it is to break a plot!…” (L.P., 11-4-1861, n° 809).
The call to a life of ‘sequela’ of Christ in the total gift of oneself, realized in religious life, is for Father Louis a precious gift, and because of this he insists to “fear God who passes” (according to a meaningful expression by St Augustine) and then to “answer such a singular gift” .
God’s gift is so ‘pressing’ that the Founder makes us understand it in all its strength:
“The Lord overwhelms us with his benefices… woe to us if we do not let us be overwhelmed…” (L.P., 7-4-1870, n° 14).
The gift of being reserved for God requires responsibility from those who are offered it:
“God does not need you… If you do not want to accept this gift, mind that he can give it to others who will answer so good and promptly. They are bad manners, when a sir of this land offers you an apple, to be there undecided, without receiving it, and to think if it has to be accepted or not and in the meantime forcing him to feel uncomfortable with his outstretched arm and, as they say, making him do the arm of the pulpit, which is there day and night to bear something and never moves. That sir of the world can turn somewhere else and give the apple to another who is longing for it… You will understand well what I mean” (L.P., 4-21-1884, n° 710).
It is always a question of a resolute beginning, then God supports the way that becomes more quick.
“Given that in the condition that God gave to a soul, there are few dangers in comparison with the helps, because the Lord makes the way smooth and makes everybody walk on it, a soul that really wants to love Jesus Christ, known the path God wants for her, must walk, or better run, since God will be with her. (If we have God with us, whoever have we to be afraid of?)” (L.P., 10-14-1868, n° 7).
Before such an abundant grace, the person feels she is strongly called to a faithful answer.
“What will become of me if I do not answer so many calls and inspirations, so many prods God gives me, and I withstand these because of pure self-respect, because of pride, etc etc. Pray for this poor wretch so that she can answer to what the Lord wants…” (T.G., 7-15-1871, n° 4).
God the Father, who calls to follow his Son “more closely”, is generous in Love, giving us strength and light to overcome the inevitable difficulties in going along “the narrow path” (that leads to the full LIFE), but the “consecrated ones” need to trust in Him and rely on Him:
“If we insist on being hard in submitting or slow in trusting in Him or in having a worldly prudence in our obedience, it could happen that we get behind. The called ones are a lot, then the soul has to hope to be called by God to a high degree of perfection. But the chosen ones are few, then the soul must be afraid of getting behind because of its baseness, as it dares not take up arms against itself and fight itself related with God” (L.P., 10-14-1868, n° 7).
“Sisters, work with enthusiasm to sanctify your lives, since it is your duty, both for the gift the Lord has granted to call you at this state, and since you have had some great examples of our late Superior (Palazzolo)” (T.G., 7-16-1886, n° 438).
The fidelity in answering leads to holiness:
“… at last I can hear that your Sisters don’t do wrong, now it is time to behave oneself, in the end they all are of an age that can make them understand; if they have chosen to be religious the Lord has granted them this particular gift because he wants them to sanctify themselves and woe if they don’t answer!…” (T.G., 11-11-1889, n° 527).
With St Paul’s conviction: “I can everything in the One who gives me strength”, Palazzolo spurs to the total and heroic gift of oneself, because “God gives his grace to the humble” .
To the brothers of Holy Family he writes:
“Ah, blessed by the Lord…want to sanctify your lives and when the devil of freedom tempts you, tell yourselves: dying, what will console me more, obedience and poverty for God’s sake or freedom for self-esteem?… Go on with enthusiasm. You need heroism, but God called you and God will give you the Grace you need” (L.P., 7-1-1885, n° 743).