‘Wake up, Now!’

In 2015, the Catholic Church celebrated the ‘Year of Consecrated Life’. In his Apostolic letter (November 21, 2014) proclaiming the year Pope Francis wrote, “I decided to proclaim a Year of Consecrated Life on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, which speaks of religious in its sixth chapter, and of the Decree Perfectae Caritatis on the renewal of religious life. The Year will begin on 30 November 2014, the First Sunday of Advent, and conclude with the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple on 2 February 2016”.

In that profound letter he throws a direct challenge to religious, “I am counting on you ‘to wake up the world’, since the distinctive sign of consecrated life is prophecy. As I told the Superiors General: ‘Radical evangelical living is not only for religious: it is demanded of everyone. But religious follow the Lord in a special way, in a prophetic way.’ This is the priority that is needed right now: to be prophets who witness to how Jesus lived on this earth… a religious must never abandon prophecy!”

As we look back these ten years, can we truly say that we, as religious, have helped realise Pope Francis’ vision “to wake up the world?” We will never be able to wake up the world, if we ourselves are asleep or pretend to be asleep, ensconced in our comfort zones, in our highly institutionalised structures, far from the realities which grip our people today.

We are therefore called to:

Wake up to the vision, mission and charism of our founders and the pioneers. They were pathbreakers who allowed God’s spirit to lead them and to accompany them, on unbeaten paths.

Wake up to the signs of the times and as articulated in the resolutions of the recent local and General Chapters of our Congregations. Are we faithful in ensuring their implementation?

Wake up to the mandate given by the Church through the Vatican II, Synodal documents and other Papal teaching. They are directions for us today.

Wake up to the cries of the people for dignity and identity; that they are no longer exploited or excluded or disenfranchised; for roti, kapda, makaan; for their jal, jungle, jameen; The cries of the Adivasis and Dalits, the LGBTQIA+ community, the migrant workers, casual labourers, small farmers, refugees, the journalists, human rights defenders, minorities and all other marginalised people.  

Wake up to the Constitution of the country to the values enshrined in them: justice, liberty, equality, fraternity, the secular and pluralistic fabric, to the rights and freedoms of all.

Wake up to the person and message of Jesus; He lived and died for a more humane and just society; he clearly states this in his Nazareth Declaration. 

Wake up to be prophetic. Pope Francis reminds us that, “Prophets receive from God the ability to scrutinize the times in which they live and to interpret events: they are like sentinels who keep watch in the night and sense the coming of the dawn (cf. Is 21:11-12). Prophets know God and they know the men and women who are their brothers and sisters. They are able to discern and denounce the evil of sin and injustice. Because they are free, they are beholden to no one but God, and they have no interest other than God. Prophets tend to be on the side of the poor and the powerless, for they know that God himself is on their side.”

Do we have the prophetic courage to wake up NOW? A pledge for February 2!

(Fr Cedric Prakash SJ is a human rights, reconciliation and peace activist and writer.

Contact: cedricprakash@gmail.com )

Blurb

We will never be able to wake up the world, if we ourselves are asleep or pretend to be asleep, ensconced in our comfort zones, in our highly institutionalised structures, far from the realities which grip our people today.