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The Light of the World: Consecrated Life in Liturgy and Reality On February 2, the Church commemorates the day that Mary and Joseph took the 40-day-old Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem. They presented Him in offering to God, in obedience to Jewish law which said that every first-born son belongs to Him. Mary bears the Light of the world in her arms and, resting on her heart, the Light manifests Himself to the devout Simeon and Anna. Also known as Candlemas Day, this feast’s liturgy includes a candlelit procession and blessing of candles during the Mass. As we enter the place of worship carrying a lighted candle we symbolize Mary, who carried the Light into the Temple. The events of the Presentation, and even its place in the calendar, are a bridge between Christmas and Easter. Christmas is a celebration full of light. Candles, stars, colored lights decorate churches, homes, even trees, stores, and office buildings. The Light of Christ has come into our world. Easter brings with it the brilliant flash of the resurrected Life triumphing over the darkness of the grave. And, at mid-point, the Presentation celebrates the infancy of Jesus with a look to His future suffering, death, and victory. It commemorates this first formal act of obedience and of offering to His Father while pointing ahead to His ultimate act of obedience and self-offering in the Garden and on the Cross. In 1997 Pope John Paul II declared the Feast of the Presentation the “Day for Consecrated Life,” “to give thanks to God for the great gift of consecrated life and to encourage ever greater gratitude and esteem for it.” (Homily of 2 February, 1997.) The law of the Church describes “consecrated life” thus: “Life consecrated through profession of the evangelical counsels is a stable form of living, in which the faithful follow Christ more closely under the action of the Holy Spirit, and are totally dedicated to God, Who is supremely loved…By vows or by other sacred bonds…they profess the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty, and obedience. Because of the charity to which these counsels lead, they are linked in a special way to the Church and its mystery.” (Code of Canon Law, excerpt from Canon n. 573.) Many forms of consecrated life have developed over the course of the Church’s history. Hermits; consecrated virgins; cloistered monks and nuns; priests, sisters, and brothers engaged in apostolates outside the cloister; and now consecrated laity—all equally fit the canonical definition, yet each in a distinct way. Our current Code of Canon Law, promulgated in 1983, recognizes the ongoing inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the Church by acknowledging a place for more types of consecrated life in the future. “The approval of new forms of consecrated life is reserved to the Apostolic See [the Holy See]. Diocesan Bishops, however, are to endeavor to discern new gifts of consecrated life which the Holy Spirit entrusts to the Church…” (From Canon n. 605.) Miles Jesu is one of the Holy Spirit’s newest gifts to the Church, a form of consecrated life for the laity, an Ecclesial Family, founded on the vision of the universal call to holiness. We have found the Light in the arms of Mary, the Star of the Epiphany and Throne of Wisdom. As laity, we are called to bring the Light of Christ to the world, letting Him shine even into its darkest corners. Consecrated to God, we are called to the total obedience and self-offering that Jesus taught from His infancy up to His death. As He did to Simeon and Anna, the Light has mercifully manifested Himself to us; like Simeon and Anna we are called to respond with joy and to spread this joy to others. We are called by our Holy Father to be witnesses to the Gospel and to entrust our lives to Mary: “Dear brothers and sisters, like lighted candles, always and everywhere shine with the love of Christ, Light of the world. May Mary Most Holy, the consecrated Woman, help you to live to the full your special vocation and mission in the Church for the world’s salvation. Amen!” (Homily of Pope Benedict XVI to all those in consecrated life, 2 February, 2006.) |