Get Rooted in Religious Life

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we heard one phrase repeatedly: “Get used to COVID-19.” While the virus demanded adaptation, this language of accommodation revealed something deeper about our times. We have become a generation that gets used to things rather than one that gets rooted in enduring values. This shift affects every dimension of our lives, but perhaps nowhere more significantly than in our consecrated life. As religious who have dedicated ourselves through the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, we must ask ourselves: Are we merely getting used to religious life, or are we truly getting rooted in it?

The Core Difference

Getting used to something means accepting it without deeper engagement or conviction. We tolerate it, adapt to it superficially, and carry on. Getting rooted, however, means drawing nourishment from deep wells, establishing firm foundations, and allowing our lives to be shaped from within by the values we profess.

Think of a tree. A tree that is merely propped up against a wall may stand for a season, but it draws no life from the soil. When storms come, it falls. But a tree with deep roots weathers every tempest, draws water even in drought, and bears fruit in due season. Our Lord himself used this image when he spoke of seeds falling on shallow ground versus good soil. The question we must honestly face is this: In our communities today, are we deeply rooted or merely propped up?

The Silent Erosion

Consider a person who pitches his tent near an open drain. At first, the smell is unbearable. He has three choices: work to clean and cover the drain, move to a healthier location, or get used to the stench. The third option requires the least effort, but it comes at the highest cost. Over time, his sense of smell dulls, his health deteriorates, and he loses the very capacity to recognise that something is wrong.

This is precisely what happens in religious life when we adopt a posture of “getting used to” rather than “getting rooted in.” We gradually accept what once troubled our conscience. Practices that contradict our vows, attitudes that oppose Gospel values, behaviours that diminish community life: we learn to live with them rather than address them. Vita Consecrata (VC 103, 109) warns that consecrated persons must guard against worldly cares and self-centeredness, bearing witness to the authentic search for God.

Casteism creeps into our relationships, and we barely notice. Conversations become dominated by money and material concerns. The pursuit of power and position feels normal. Groupism and regionalism fracture our unity, yet we carry on. Transparency and accountability fade away. Excessive ambition begins to resemble corporate careerism more than religious mission. In accepting these realities without resistance, we risk becoming naam ke vaste religious: religious in name only, going through the motions without the substance.

Challenge of New Generation

Our younger wo/men who join religious life today bring with them the experiences, stories, and values of their generation. This is both a gift and a challenge. Their presence brings fresh air and new perspectives that our communities genuinely need. Yet integration requires more than simply adding new members to old structures. Two opposite dangers present themselves. The first is that newcomers merely get used to “how we’ve always done things” without understanding the deeper values these practices express. The second danger is that they live as they did at home, with little realisation that religious life calls for a fundamental reordering of priorities and practices. Neither getting used to our ways nor remaining unchanged in their own ways leads to authentic consecration.

What is needed is genuine rooting: a process by which both the individual and the community are transformed through encounter with the living charism of the congregation. As VC (92) reminds us, the community dimension of religious life holds special meaning, as fraternal life becomes both the privileged space for discerning God’s will together and the particular sign of obedience before Church and society.

The Why Behind the What

The question that cuts to the heart of our consecrated life is deceptively simple: Do we act from conviction or from habit? Do we rise for morning prayer because we are convinced of the value of beginning our day with God, or because it’s expected? Do we live simply because we have chosen poverty as a way of solidarity with Christ and the poor, or because we lack resources? Do we gather for community meals because we value fraternal communion, or merely because it’s the schedule? When we stop asking these questions, we drift from conviction to routine, from mission to momentum.

VC (39) speaks powerfully of this need for authenticity: Consecrated persons cannot possibly be content with a mediocre life. “Today, a renewed commitment to holiness by consecrated persons is more necessary.”

Being in the World but Not of the World

Our Lord prayed that we would be in the world but not of the world. This ancient wisdom offers us a way forward. We are called to be present to our times, attentive to the signs of the times, responsive to genuine human needs. But we are not called to uncritically absorb the values of our age. This requires becoming what we might call “counter-value proofs”: like waterproof watches or weatherproof paint. Just as these items resist the elements that would compromise them, we are called to resist the cultural forces that would erode our consecrated identity. This is not rigidity or defensiveness; it is integrity and faithfulness.

To be counter-value proof means to live in such a way that our lives pose questions to the surrounding culture rather than simply reflecting it. When everyone pursues wealth, our poverty speaks. When relationships are commodified, our chastity witnesses to the possibility of love that is not possessive. When autonomy is the highest value, our obedience reveals that freedom can be found in surrender to God’s will. VC (73) eloquently describes this prophetic dimension: “Consecrated life has the prophetic task of recalling and serving the divine plan for humanity, as it is announced in Scripture and as it also emerges from an attentive reading of the signs of God’s providential action in history.”

From Fragility to Fruitfulness

We often speak of the “fragility of vocations” today: the reality that many who enter religious life do not persevere. While the reasons are complex, surely one factor is this culture of “getting used to” rather than “getting rooted in.” If our life together is shallow, if our practices are merely habitual rather than deeply meaningful, if our communities lack authentic fraternal communion, why would anyone persevere? People will endure great hardship for something they believe in deeply, but they will not endure even minor inconvenience for something that lacks substance.

The solution is not to make religious life easier or more comfortable. The solution is to make it more real, more authentic, more rooted in the Gospel and in our specific charisms. As VC (58, 60) emphasises, formation for the consecrated life must respond to modern needs through a holistic approach encompassing human, spiritual, theological, pastoral, and professional dimensions.

Practical Steps to Rootedness

Here are concrete ways to shift from complacency to being rooted in our values: (i) We must recover the “why” behind our practices. Every community exercise, every tradition, every expression of our charism should be periodically examined: What value does this express? How does it serve our mission? Consecrated persons are sent to imitate Jesus and continue His mission by making Christ present through personal witness. This is the primary challenge and task of consecrated life (VC 72).

(ii) We must create space for honest dialogue in our communities. When something troubles us, when we see values being compromised, we need the courage to raise questions. Silence in the face of erosion is not charity; it is complicity. As fraternal life is fundamental to the spiritual journey, renewal, and mission of consecrated persons, they need to strengthen it by following the example of the first Christians (VC 45).

(iii) We must accompany new members with genuine formation rather than mere socialisation. Formation is not about teaching people “how we do things here.” It is about helping them discover the deep wells from which our way of life flows and inviting them to drink deeply.

(iv) We must ourselves undergo ongoing conversion. Veteran religious are not immune to the disease of getting used to things. We, too, must regularly examine our lives and ask: Where have I become numb? What have I simply tolerated that I should address?

A Call to Witness

The world does not need more religious who are merely getting by, going through the motions, living religious life naam ke vaste. The world needs witnesses: wo/men so rooted in God, so convinced of their calling, so alive with purpose, that their very existence poses a question and offers an alternative. This is not a call to perfection but to authenticity. It is not a demand for heroic virtue but an invitation to honest, rooted living. It is the difference between a cut flower in a vase, beautiful for a moment but soon withering, and a living plant with roots in good soil, drawing life from hidden sources, growing steadily, bearing fruit in season.

VC (20, 25) beautifully captures this call: the primary duty of consecrated life is to reveal God’s wonders among humanity, witnessing through transformed lives rather than words. This witness reminds the Church that serving God freely through Christ’s grace is most important, embodying belonging to Christ in every situation. Our times are challenging as secularism, materialism, and individualism press upon us. Yet this is precisely why deeply rooted consecrated life is urgently needed: to be signs of contradiction, demonstrating that another way is possible.

Let us not settle for getting used to things. Let us commit ourselves anew to getting rooted: in Christ, in our charisms, in authentic community, in genuine service. Only then will our lives bear the fruit that our vocation promises and the world so desperately needs. As Scripture reminds us: “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit” (Jer 17:7-8). May we be such trees: deeply rooted, constantly nourished, abundantly fruitful, choosing roots over rot, depth over drift, conviction over convenience. For in the end, only what is deeply rooted will remain standing when the storms come. And they will come.

Blurb

What is needed is genuine rooting: a process by which both the individual and the community are transformed through encounter with the living charism of the congregation.

The question that cuts to the heart of our consecrated life is deceptively simple: Do we act from conviction or from habit?

Every community exercise, every tradition, every expression of our charism should be periodically examined: What value does this express? How does it serve our mission?

Let us commit ourselves anew to getting rooted: in Christ, in our charisms, in authentic community, in genuine service. Only then will our lives bear the fruit that the world so desperately needs.