Archbishop Timothy Costelloe ended the first half of his recent keynote address to the religious of the Archdiocese of Perth reminding them to be as open and attentive as possible to the power and wisdom of God’s Spirit. He encouraged them to make a new beginning and to set out on a new journey with the echo of the Lord’s voice repeating, “Arise and have no fear” as spoken to the disciples present at the Transfiguration.
In this second part of a report on the Archbishop’s address, he makes reference to how incidents within the Gospel narratives might relate to our lives today and then offers some final reflections on religious life.
Facing our fears
“Arise and have no fear” is a theme, the Archbishop recalled, which recurs time and again in one form or another throughout the Gospel stories. “When the angel Gabriel greets Mary… we are told that she was deeply disturbed and in fact terrified.
“If we are going to be able to respond in faith as Mary did,” said the Archbishop, “then we need to allow ourselves also to hear the assurance that comes to Mary from the angel and ultimately, of course, from God.
“In all that lies ahead for us as religious in this time and place, the angel’s words hold true: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”
The Archbishop went on to say that, as the first disciples were called, “their self-assurance crumbles” as they “follow the word of Jesus and make their miraculous catch of fish”. Jesus does not question their ability but rather says to them, “do not be afraid, because from now on you will be fishers of people”.
“The Gospels are not just a history of Jesus dealing with people in the past,” he said, “but a window into Jesus’ dealing with us as well,” and that we too, in “hearing these stories, can be filled with the same assurance”.
Losing our way
Archbishop Costelloe then shared with the religious that, “in spite of the assurances of our faith, we still get frightened [and] lose our way”.
He spoke of Mary losing Jesus in the temple and searching desperately for him (Luke 2:49-51). “We, like Mary, have tried to respond to God’s call,” the Archbishop said.
“We, like her, have tried to make the following of Jesus the centre of our lives. And we, like her, sometimes discover that we have lost or are losing Jesus.”
In the midst of uncertainty and questioning, the Archbishop urged the religious to “keep alive the sense of Mary’s presence as a companion on our journey”.
He then spoke of Peter’s encounter with Jesus on the lake. The sudden and violent storm that overtakes the disciples, declared the Archbishop, “parallels the mystery of our own lives”.
“Things may seem to be going on quite well when all of a sudden, for no immediately apparent reason, we are overtaken by a storm – of doubt, of confusion, of exhaustion, of sinfulness. And like the disciples we can easily become disoriented, afraid and unsure if we are going to survive.”
It is here, “terrified, both by the ferocity of the storm and by the unexpected appearance of a vision”, that Jesus comes to his followers in their hour of need.
“Here is the same message of assurance,” the Archbishop pointed out, “…in the midst of a crisis”. To mirror Peter and to move towards the Lord, he said, “we are filled with a new courage, a new determination, a renewed enthusiasm. And like Peter, we spring out of our boat of safety and comfort and security and set off ready for anything”.
Archbishop Costelloe then warned the religious not to be dependent solely on their own strengths, faith and gifts, even when their eyes are firmly fixed on Jesus.
“We will often, in the journey of our religious lives, both as individual religious and as members of communities, provinces, and congregations, find ourselves battling against heavy winds and violent storms,” he shared.
“We should not be surprised or ashamed by this, or allow ourselves to doubt the truth of our vocation.
“What we should do is allow ourselves to be addressed by Jesus: have courage, I am with you, do not be afraid. We can be sure, we can afford to trust, that Jesus will reach out and take us by the hand and lead us to safety.
“In the challenges that lie ahead for us, and this applies not just to religious but to every Christian, let the words of Jesus to the disciples after the transfiguration become a source of hope: Rise up, do not be afraid.”
Final reflections
“I have been speaking quite directly to those who are living the consecrated life,” began the Archbishop. “Our way of life is special, but it does not make us better, superior to, or holier than, those who are called to other ways of life.”
He went on to speak of how each religious family is given “gifts to be shared for the good of all”, and not hoarded for their own benefit.
“The mystery of Christ is so vast,” he explained, “that it cannot be fully expressed by any one individual or any one group. We need each other if we are to understand and embrace this great mystery of Christ and live it out as fully as we can.
“Religious life keeps before the eyes of the whole Church… some fundamental dimensions of the Christian way of life. These,” he said, “are encapsulated in the three vows: obedience, chastity and poverty.”
Every baptised person, exclaimed Archbishop Costelloe, is called to be obedient to God, to live a life of chastity and to live a life of simplicity and poverty.
“The lives of obedience which religious live are their gift to the whole Church,” he proclaimed, “a powerful prophetic call to us all to be faithful to the God who gives us life.
Secondly, “the celibate chastity which religious profess and live is a clear, and for many startling and perplexing, sign of and witness to this determination never to treat people as objects but always to treat them as persons. It is a special gift of religious to the whole Church – a powerful prophetic call to all of us to love one another as Christ has loved us.”
And thirdly, the Archbishop shared that “in a world and culture in which the accumulation of things can easily become one of the most important goals of our life, the vow of poverty which religious profess and live by becomes a living and powerful sign of our need to make Christ and his kingdom the treasure on which we set our hearts”.
“The radical, and total, giving of their lives to Christ in such a clear and unambiguous way makes religious a very powerful reminder that a life in which God is relegated to the margins or completely ignored is really only a life half lived.
“In this way too the life of religious is a precious gift to and for the whole Church – it is the way in which we religious really can “wake up the world”.”
Finally, Archbishop Costelloe invited married people and single, young people and older people, and others present to ask “what aspect of the rich mystery of Christ our particular way of life puts powerfully before the Church”. He also posed this question to “people with chronic illness, people who are battling life-threatening diseases, people coping with all kinds of disabilities, people who work in different fields of human endeavour”.
“All of us,” he ended, “no matter our particular life situation, have a precious gift to offer the whole Church.”