Consecrated Life Today: Trends and Challenges in Society and Church

Paper presented at the National consultation Organized by Streevani, Pune, 24-25 January 2009
Shalini Mulackal pbvm

Introduction
Dear friends, allow me to begin this presentation on a personal note. I want to begin with a story, the story of myself joining a religious order thirty three years ago. In fact I never dreamt of becoming a religious while I was growing up. On the contrary, I was very critical of the way religious life was lived out by those called themselves as consecrated persons. Even with my limited knowledge of the Bible, of Jesus, his Mission, the significance of his proclamation about the Reign of God, the meaning of Christian mission, the meaning of religious life etc., at that time, I still felt that something was wrong in the way religious sisters lived. I was very much critical about their attitude especially towards the poor and their special concern for the rich, be it in the parish or in the school/college. I felt deep down that they were not living the Gospel way of life.

On the other hand I experienced early in life a special concern for those who were suffering, those who were poor and neglected. I expressed my concern to those who came regularly to my house to beg. There were occasions that I even had to go against the wishes of my parents in order to be good to the poor. I remember even challenging my mother when I was studying in 9th standard using the quote from Luke: “if anyone has two tunics he must share with the man who has none...” (Lk 3: 11). In the context of my parents' injunction not to give rice or other things to those who came to beg but only give them ten paise, I asked my mother whether we are expected to live by the Gospel or not. She made me to understand that as parents their primary duty was towards the upbringing of their children and not to take care of the poor who came to our door. She said that it was only their second priority. I remember making a decision at that time saying to myself that in order to live the Gospel radically, I should not get married and have children of my own. Even then I did not think of joining a religious order in order to be at the service of the poor and the suffering.

I also remember questioning my cousin sister who had joined religious life about the credibility of their life as religious whenever she came home for holidays. Once after listening to my criticism she told me: ''Presentations are not like that.' Eventually it is that phrase that made me join the Presentations! My story is not over. I remember getting very frustrated as a novice, realizing gradually that Presentations too are in the same boat. I struggled for days accusing myself for joining the convent and making such a blunder in my life. But during one of those days I opened the Bible and found the following: “You did not choose me, no, I chose you...” (Jn 15: 16) and that verse struck me so powerfully at that time that I said to myself, “If God has chosen me for this life then I am not responsible for the mess I find myself in!” That's why I decided to stay on ever since...

Now after thirty three years where do I find myself? How do I understand this life which I am called to live? What are the challenges facing us as Consecrated people? This paper is a moderate attempt to answer these and similar other questions. To do this, first I shall dwell on the meaning and purpose of religious life as I understand it today. In the second part I wish to look at the challenges that are facing us both in the society and in the Church. In the light of these challenges I would like to look at consecrated life as it is lived today and indicate some possible shifts and U turns we need to take if we want to be authentic to what we profess ourselves to be.

1. Meaning of Religious Life

For Christians, religious life is not a renunciation of the world but a deeper immersion into the world as radical disciples of Jesus. It is not a way to self-realization through isolation but it is a call to live in communion with others and to build communities of freedom, fellowship and justice. The ancient Christian tradition of the imitatio Christi, “the following of Christ,” the seeking and going after Jesus, remains today the supreme reason for which Christians freely choose Consecrated life. In the Gospels, “the call of the disciples appears as a two-stage process of leaving and following, the second of which constitutes discipleship.” Following meant technically “walking behind.” Elisabeth A. Johnson unravels the following five elements from the discipleship stories of the Gospels:
 Being a disciple of Jesus depends first of all on his call. The response must be given in all freedom. Jesus chooses his own disciples. So from the beginning discipleship is a gift.
 Jesus' call to a person is a call to “follow me” (Mk 1: 17) involving the disciple in a unique attachment to his person. In other words following necessarily entails personal bonding and self-commitment to his person.
 It brings an extra ordinary demand: that the response be wholehearted and total. One has to abandon everything else in order to be a disciple. This is at the heart of the following of Jesus. Discipleship engages one in radical personal transformation, in a conversion process, so that one turns from egocentricity to letting go, dedication and self-gift.
 Discipleship in the company of Jesus brings the follower in association with Jesus' own mission. That mission is to proclaim the nearness of God's powerful and loving reign and to reach out in a healing, liberating way to overturn oppression and to reconcile all creation in the light of this reign of God. Jesus makes his disciples co-workers in this service.
 Following of Jesus introduces the disciple to a certain kind of open communal life. No one is a follower in isolation; but is supported and challenged by others with a similar commitment.

Each of the four Gospel writers focuses on a special aspect of discipleship. These four aspects “throw light on the four dimensions of religious life in so far as the religious have to be totally committed to Jesus, the guru (John), learn from the guru (Matthew), walk with the guru (Luke), suffer with the guru (Mark) and there by find the meaning of their discipleship. It is this personalism and commitment which constitute the essence of religious life as the Bible understands it.”

Vat. II repeatedly stresses the 'following of Christ' as the fundamental characteristics of religious life. The following of Jesus is the special “profession” of religious life (Perfectae Caritatis 5) or their particular vocation (PC 8) whereas all Christians are called to follow Jesus through their professional life. “Religious life is thus a living out publically, professionally, institutionally (and therefore in community) of the following of Christ as proposed by the Gospel, and so of the Gospel values that are implicit in all Christian life.”

Following Jesus means “recognizing him in those who are poor and those who are suffering.”
Discipleship engages one in cooperating with the power of God in transforming the present. It carries a practical and critical edge. It involves both, the mystical and the political, worshipping praise of God and action on behalf of justice, personal conversion and critical engagement on oppressive situations, spirituality and the work of re-creation. All these are profoundly integrated when the life called “religious” is imaged as the life of discipleship.

2. The Purpose/Function of Consecrated Life

As radical followers of Jesus, religious throughout the centuries played certain specific roles. It is precisely through these roles that they made an impact in society and in the Church. For instance,
Benedictnism became the social fly-wheel of Europe providing education for the citizenry, spiritual support for the State, social welfare programme for the poor, order and organization to the region for centuries. Cistercianism reforested and reclaimed huge areas of land all over Europe. Franciscans walked the dirty roads of Europe, into the centre of the noisy, smelly cities, to the hovels of the slums to minister to the poor. Dominicans provided itinerant theological education for people who could not read, never went to school, had only the most rudimentary knowledge of the faith but deserved the right to theologize about their lives.

Women's orders from the earliest periods of religious history in Europe provided shelter, education, social development and catechetical direction for women, whom no one considered worth serving. They nursed the indigent, housed the abandoned and protected the orphan from a culture of child labour, poverty, starvation and abuse. They did it with care and conviction. They did it despite public opposition and political threat. They did it without resources and without support from either the church or state. In each of these areas, religious orders did what no one else was doing at that time or considered worthwhile to do. Religious orders were each of them founded in a flurry of social needs to meet them, so that the blind could see, the lame could walk and the poor -the women, the children, the outcastes- could have the 'good news,' the notion that God valued them, too, demonstrated.

The above brief historical over view of religious life may give the impression that there is very little difference between a religious and a social worker/social activist in terms of their activity. How do we distinguish between a social worker and a religious person in terms of their role and function in the Church and in society? I consider the following as some of the distinguishing characteristics of religious men and women.

2.1 Called to be Committed God Seekers

Seeking God is a universal human quest. It is common to all cultures. It is the only reason that makes any sense whatsoever out of religious life. Therefore the first and most essential purpose of consecrated life is to be committed God-seekers. Without a committed pursuit of God in contemplation, all kinds of good service activities lose all purpose and relevance. This all important purpose of single-minded search for God is beautifully expressed by Joan Chittister when she says: “For the person who cannot find God here, staying here is a mistake. For the person who does not seek God here, leaving here is an imperative. For the person who can seek God better some place else, leaving here is grace.”

According to Sandra Schneiders, religious must recognize once again the “naked God–quest in the centre of their hearts.” In other words, religious life is not just another way of life but it is a way of life intentionally organized to pursue the human quest for God. Ultimately, it is the search for God in dailiness and the daily search for God in everything that marks the religious person as 'religious.' It is the seeking of God and God's reign that marks religious activity really religious.

2.2 Called to be Prophets

“True prophecy is a dynamic movement that combines criticism of the oppressive present, graced remembrance of the past, and the liberating exhibition of alternative futures to convert potential destructive energies into the saving waters of life,” says Thomas E Clarke. In many of the great world religions, the ministry of prophecy belonged to individuals, e.g. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Mohammed… In the New Testament times we see the prophetic focus shifting from the individual to the community. Some of the prophetic characteristics are:

• To criticize while, at the same time not de-energize people
• Read the signs of the times and evaluate what is oppressive and unjust
• Articulate alternative futures to the status quo and existing power structures
• To help people confront the numbness of death
• Empower people to engage in history
• To promote justice, compassion and love
• To foster hope by negotiating growth and encouraging perseverance

Over the long history of religious life, two roles have been appropriately the domain of religious: the prophetic and the pioneer, says Catherine Harmer. Chittster too agrees with the same when she says that the purpose of religious life is not survival; it is prophecy. In the NT, the concept of 'following' is always connected with the historical Jesus who was considered as a prophet by his contemporaries (Mt 21: 46; Lk 7: 16). Jesus himself compares his destiny to that of a prophet (Mk 6: 4). He played his prophetic role, according to Brueggemann, in solidarity with the poor and in conflict with the powerful. Both these dimensions point to the emergence of an alternative consciousness, a new life. Vita Consecrata recognizes the prophetic role of religious life when it states, “there is a prophetic dimension which belongs to the consecrated life as such, resulting from the radical nature of the following of Christ and of the subsequent dedication to the mission characteristic of the consecrated life” (VC 84).

According to Virginia Fabella, “Religious are called to be prophets of the Reign of God.” Prophets were people who were entirely taken up with their loyalty to the covenant. They were deeply hurt when they saw Yahweh's privileged people living in abject poverty due to systematic exploitation and marginalization by the avaricious rich. They burst into criticism of this situation, both by the quality of their live (Jer 16: 1-9; Ez 4: 1-5: 12) and by their fierce and courageous preaching. They reminded the establishment of Israel continually the original purpose of her call “to live in covenant love with her unique God, and at peace with one another” (Am 2: 6-16).

Religious life therefore as its history bears out, is at heart a prophetic presence in the church. It is meant to be at the centre of the system, raising its voice on behalf of the oppressed, crying for justice for the poor, refusing to be silent in the face of social sin, calling the church to put the Gospel above the system, building a better world in the midst of misery so that the entire world can rise from graves of injustice and be glad.

2.2.1 Prophetic tasks

In the OT, the King was the guardian of the status quo, the existing socio, economic and political structures. The task of the prophet was to continually question the underlying assumption, the strategic value of the status quo and to generate powerful movements of innovation and renewal. Abraham Heschel, a Jewish scholar describes prophets as sharing in the intense feelings of God’s heart. The prophet’s essential task is to declare the word of God here and now. This means a prophet is first of all a contemplative- a friend who shares heart to heart with God in prayerful intimacy and who sees and hears from God’s point of view.

Further, the task of the prophet was to criticize, enable, empower and energize people to rise above their human and spiritual plight. It was their task to read the signs of the times which implied a critical evaluation of what was unjust, oppressive, manipulative, and consumeristic. They were to help people to revolt against the causes of pain, hardship, suffering and injustice. Prophets sought to promote justice and compassion, with out which love could not become the binding and healing force of the world. The prophet was thus an extra-institutional, charismatic leader. According to Brueggemann, “the task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us.” The prophetic mission of consecrated persons demands that their concern should not be merely to avoid evil but to oppose evil in its roots.

Even though every healthy organization needs a prophetic dimension, in reality, organizations by their very nature, tend to subvert and even suppress the prophetic. Many institutions are uncomfortable with the suggestion that an important dimension of Christian mission belongs to the extra-institutional sphere. We need prophetic groups to mirror to institutions their limits and their possibilities. Religious life is primarily a call to prophetic ministry. Religious are called to be ‘shock therapy’ for political structures, economic systems, ecological concerns, enterprises pertaining to health and education, scientific pursuits and ecclesial institutions. A perennial challenge facing religious life throughout the world is to explore an alternative context for its life and mission.

2.2.2 Prophetic role within the Church

'Religious Orders and communities have something like an innovatory function for the Church. They offer productive models for the church as a whole in the business of growing accustomed to living in new social, economic, intellectual and cultural situation. They are a kind of shock therapy instituted by the Holy Spirit for the church as a whole.' Religious as prophetic wing of the Church must stand in challenge to the status quo while the church leadership has a role in preserving. Using a geographical image Jon Sobrino says that the vows allow the religious to live in the 'desert' (religious goes where no one else is), in the 'periphery' (religious is not at the centre of power but in the place characterised by powerlessness) and on the 'frontier' (religious exists where risks may be greater), where there is need of prophetic activity.

2.3 Called to be Pioneers

It is clear from the history of religious life that various religious founders and foundresses at different historical periods initiated something new. They were pioneers in many fields. Consequently, religious are not meant to be builders and maintainers of institutions but are to be pioneers of the new approaches, the responders to the new needs, and the developers of alternative ways to meet needs.

2.4 Called to be Liminal Groups

Liminality is an anthropological concept denoting separation of a person from family or society (Arnold Van Gennep, 1908). This term has been used to explain features of small groups and communities in their relationship to mainstream society (Victor & Edith Turner). Every society has a structure and liminal individuals, communities and groups. The liminal person/group does not exist for its own sake but for society at large. It embodies and articulates for society at large the deepest values and ideals the society holds sacred. We can therefore say that Liminality is the human tendency to marginalize certain people to live out the values more intensely for the community

Liminality and Religious life

Religious communities as liminal communities are located on the borderline. As liminal groups we are supposed to belong to the charismatic rather than the institutional pole of religious institutions. Liminal status gives us the freedom to be prophetic. By being liminal we are neither fully in nor fully out. Being liminal means religious are constantly reading the sign of the times and are alive to new cultural and religious movements of people. They are with the people and sensitive to emerging situations and needs. They feel and are free and courageous to take new and bold initiatives.

Religious life is not about special holiness or about attaining perfection, but it is about being liminal persons in the society. It may well be the primary and most authentic expression of liminality. Do we as religious serve a liminal purpose in today’s world? How does our close association with the institutional Church help or hinder our liminality? Only when we address the world, sensitive to its needs and evolution, and respond appropriately can we hope to be liminal. When religious life fails to be counter-cultural, liminality does not die. It shifts its focus elsewhere e.g. ecology groups, feminism, or new age movements.

Reading some of the recent news reports about “Our Unsung Heroes” convinced me that today liminal function is shifting to individuals irrespective of their religious, class or caste affiliations. Fro instance, Babar Ali, the 16 year old boy, who is a class XI student from Berhampore, in West Bengal turns the courtyard of his house into a make shift school for nearly 600 children soon after he returns from school. It was Prof. Shekhar Raghavan’s Akash Ganga Trust that eventually led to rainwater harvesting becoming compulsory for all buildings in Chennai. Similarly we hear of Jayati Chakraborty giving up her secure job with Tisco and opting to work with poor people in a godforsaken village. She tried new things- linseed and tomato farming- finally deciding the area needed a school and started with 66 students in 2001.

Having seen the meaning and purpose of religious life we now move on to look at our present context that presents many challenges for us as religious.

3. Impact of World/Indian realities on Consecrated life

Today the world economy is guided largely by liberal capitalist theories. The capitalists have almost turned the world into a global market. A lot of wealth is produced in the world today but it is unevenly distributed. This has resulted in an unbridgeable gap between the haves and the have nots. The globalization of market economy has given birth to “new victims” like the new poor created by the recent financial crisis, persons with AIDS/HIV, child prostitutes, street children, child labourers, undocumented migrants etc. New forms of poverty will continue to be created in the wake of increased globalization if the present trends are to be believed. Poverty is always dehumanizing. Hence, whatever its form, it will always pose a challenge to religious who are committed to a “mission of promoting fullness of life.”

Our society is fragmented and divided in various ways by ethnicity, race, caste, gender, culture religion and the like. Growing individualism is breaking up communities including religious communities. Families are becoming more and more dysfunctional. Since persons are born in particular historical situations which are often broken and fragmented, they grow up with various psychological burdens. Many are victimized due to social evils such as child abuse, rape, prostitution, domestic violence etc. There are many in today’s world who experience a sense of being alone, lack of self-respect and self –acceptance. Many have internalized negative attitudes like anger that is directed against oneself or others. Some people even seek evasion in drugs, alcohol or violence. Amidst all these, there is a growing search by many for interior peace.

Culture as a way of life gives meaning to reality and it is a source of individual and group identity. But today culture is under attack from various directions. A consumerist and materialist monoculture seeks to dominate the world, helped by the mass media. Subaltern cultures are struggling for recognition and autonomy. Religion is the deepest element in culture as it offers answers to ultimate questions of meaning that concern life and death. Religions tend to legitimize the existing structures in the process of socialization. Today fundamentalism and the political use of religion have resulted in inter-religious conflicts, more or less violent, all over the world. None of us can easily forget the recent violence unleashed against Christians in Orissa and in other parts of the country.

Two special areas that need our prophetic intervention today are the empowerment of women and the protection of nature. Not only women’s labour exploited, but their dignity denied and their contribution not recognized starting from families to other areas of public life. The oppression of women often seems go hand in hand with the destruction of nature and environment. It is exploited, not only for human benefit but also for human greed. This is well reflected in the present situation where 20% of the world’s population consume 80% of its energy. The resources of the earth are also depleted without concern for the future generations. We are also witnessing an unprecedented level in the pollution of atmosphere, water bodies, depletion of ozone layer, destruction of the forest cover of the earth making the earth more and more of a hot- house. The challenge then is how can we respect and protect nature not only for ourselves but for future generations as well. In the light of all that is happening in our country and in the world at large, let us now have a critical look at consecrated life as it is lived today.

4. Religious life today

It may not be an exaggeration to say that Religious life is in a state of crisis. While appreciating the many positive changes, in recent years, we cannot deny the fact that there is an erosion of credibility in the way religious life is lived in India. Absence of a vibrant spirituality can be sensed everywhere. Often the deliberations of General and Provincial chapters which reflect a high degree of radicalism and hard options remain so only on paper for many religious orders. The vast majority are cocooned in comfort zones of security. This has resulted in a lot of cynicism and disillusionment both with in and outside religious life. Widespread malaise of individualism, consumerism and careerism has considerably weakened the spirit of commitment and availability among many religious. The words of Chittister seem to suit most of us well when she says, “Francis of Assisi was a scandal; Teresa of Avila was a scandal; Mary Ward was a scandal; Mother McAuley was a scandal; Benedicta Riep was a scandal; Charles de Foucauld was a scandal; Vincent de Paul was a scandal. We, on the other hand, have become the most proper of the proper. We scandalise few, least of all the mighty.” The following are some of the trends and major challenges facing consecrated life in India today

4.1 Shallowness of God Experience

Religious life on the whole seems to manifest shallowness of God experience. Way back in 1975 Vandana Mataji opined that the religious do not have enough spirit of contemplation and serenity to enter into relationship with others and to grasp what reality is. Further she says that “religious give themselves entirely to works or services at the cost of their contemplative dimension.” She describes religious life as a smooth and easy life, an uninterrupted enjoyment of the goods of providence, full meals, soft raiments, well-furnished houses, the pleasure of senses, the feeling of security, the consciousness of wealth and power, these and the like have choked the spirit of Indian religious today.

Excessive institutionalisation has sucked the spirit and vitality of religious life today. Increasingly, security of the institution has removed the basic insecurity demanded by the Gospel. Though religious life is of its essence prophetic, prophecy has become easily institutionalised by achievement. Religious are no longer seen as the people on the cutting edge, but rather are viewed as people intimately connected with maintaining the institutions of society.

4.2 Mission and ministries

Today a good number of us religious are somewhat removed from the sense of mission, and are deeply immersed in the institutional form of ministries that we have started in order to carry out our real mission which is the furthering of the Reign of God. For us in India, where vast majority are pushed to the periphery because of their socio-economic and political powerlessness, promotion and furthering of the reign of God necessarily involves taking the side of the oppressed and working with them for their integral liberation. Unfortunately today, the sense of mission is gradually replaced by professionalism and worse by careerism and pursuit of personal ambitions. Today how many or what percentage of over one lakh women religious in India are burning with 'passion for Christ and passion for humanity'? May be we can count on our fingers.

Religious life intended to be an “institutionalised form of a dangerous memory for a Church over-adapted to the world... to be a shock therapy instituted by the Holy Spirit,” says Johannes Metz.
According to him, religious belong on the fringe at the point where social change first becomes noticeable and causes suffering. He asks “have not religious orders moved too far into that middle ground where everything is nicely balanced and moderate..., so to speak, tamed by the institutional church?”

Religious living and working in institutions where the rich are served are influenced by a particular mentality. There is an inevitable impact on the Religious men and women living and working there. They are by no means examples of poverty. This is expressed in many different ways. Mode of transport used; the type of clothes worn and medical help sought to, the mode of celebration etc. They may still be helping some poor people. But they give counter-witness to the Good news of Jesus. There are individual religious who dedicate themselves for the poor. But they are often marginal in their congregations and are marginalized too in such situations.

Religious life as it is lived by the vast majority of us seems to be rather irrelevant in the present socio-economic, religio-cultural and political situation of India. The living out of the vow of poverty seems to have lost its witnessing value and it does not enable many religious to be in solidarity with those made poor. This does not mean Consecrated life is no more relevant but it points clearly to the fact that the response religious make to the stark Indian reality is inadequate. We have failed to be the conscience of the rich and the voice of the poor. Therefore we must strive to rediscover the essence of religious life and its demands in today's India.

Building community was an important aspect of Jesus' vision and mission. When the institutional church lost this vision, it was religious who upheld the value of community for all these centuries.
Today we are far from this vision both in the Church and in the society. We experience divisions of all sorts everywhere including in religious communities based on caste/class/language/rite basis. Our religious communities are far from model communities or Kingdom communities. Dialogue and discernment has not become a way of life for us though we have all these beautifully said in various documents of our religious orders. Today it is out of fashion to spend time to build our own religious communities, leave alone the wider communities. We are not making sufficient efforts to make our schools/hospitals/social centres to be centre for communities of teachers, parents, benefactors etc.

4.3 Cultural Alienation

There can be no authentic Christian consecrated life without its being rooted in the Gospel and in the culture of the people. Consecrated life continues to be of predominantly Western, European, and of North American expressions. It remains very much foreign. It is an imperative that Consecrated life needs to be inculturated. India is known for its spiritual experiences and wealth. It has developed a style of consecrated life many centuries before Christianity... yet, it is unfortunate that Christian consecrated life in India has largely ignored the religious traditions of this country.
Deeply religious values of this country like simplicity, hospitality, silence, sense of the sacred, contemplation, community etc. has not yet become the indigenous expressions of consecrated life for us in India.

5. Shifts and U turns we need to make

The double Gospel icons of the Samaritan Woman and the Good Samaritan can be sources of inspiration and challenge for us religious today. The Samaritan woman met Jesus at the well. She felt an attraction for his person, his mystery, and his message in her heart. She abandoned her water jug, that is, her former life, for him and became a witness to and sower of good news (Jn 4: 5-42). One day a Samaritan man met another human being, half dead, a victim of robbery and violence. He felt his heart moved to compassion. So, he changed his journey because of this person; he became his “neighbour” and took care of him with great generosity (Lk 10: 29-37). Both these are symbols of the pathway along which the Spirit is leading consecrated life today and symbols of the love and compassion that the Spirit is arousing in our hearts. Both these Gospel characters were ready to make U turns and they urge us today to make the much needed shifts and turns in our own life.

Majority of consecrated persons go through life either mechanically or indifferent to the realities outside or are satisfied with the minimum. There are others who seek comforts and convenience all the time. In a story about the Desert Fathers, a disciple said to Abbot Joseph: “Father, I fast a bit… I pray and meditate. As far as I can, I try to live in peace. I work at purifying my thoughts. What else can I do? Joseph stood up and stretched out his hands towards the heavens. His fingers became as ten flames of fire and he said: “if you want, you can be on fire.” The shifts and U- turns the Spirit urges us to make at this time in history are nothing other than to be ‘on fire.’ In order to be on fire, in order to be relevant and meaningful we need to make shifts from dualism to wholeness; from hierarchy to mutuality; from ghetto mentality to open system; from security to ambiguity; from conformity to risk taking and from uniformity to pluralism. To be on fire also means to go out into the streets and town squares to listen to the clamour of real people and to broaden the range of our contacts with them. It means not to avoid dangerous roads knowing that new things always emerge off the beaten path, away from safe, protected everyday places.

According to O'Murchu, we anticipate the future of religious life co-creatively by befriending in a more discerning way the decline and death of the old model, and by courageous risk- taking with new experiments, and by embracing with deeper wisdom and insight the new world order struggling to unfold all around us. In order to make this to happen we need to continue or start the practice of “re-reading” of the charism of our particular religious orders through the “optic of the poor.” Such reading has effected significant shifts already among some religious – “from working for the marginalized to being with, being evangelized by, receiving from and working with them.”

Another shift we need to make is in the area of our imagination. Because the prophetic vision arises from the imagination rather than from rational, liner thought, the creation of new symbols and education in symbolism is a prophetic task. Without appropriate symbolism humans can neither dream nor imagine a depth that celebrates appropriately the ambiguities and challenges of life. As prophets we need to cultivate the use of our imagination and re-claim the importance of symbols and rituals in our life. Moreover we need to recover the creativity of our charisms: we need to look into today's world with the eyes and hearts of our founders. Then new forms of consecrated life will emerge which are simple, radical, ecumenical, inserted among the people, flexible in structure, welcoming, attentive to symbolic language and to the present rhythms of life (VC 12, 62)

In addition, we as religious should feel very much at home in an atmosphere of change as we are essentially change agents and social catalysts whose task is to loosen up congealed systems that hinder people in their growth and development. Further, to live our charism in the context of the Earth community in the 21st century is a big challenge facing us. As consecrated persons we need to ask time and again: Are we a group which constantly revitalizes itself or are we LLMS (Low Level of Minimal Survival)?

Option for the poor today demands working for systemic change, right based approach to development, and for sustainable development. We need to make the shift from developmental and charily model approach to that of transformative model. Though there is a lot of talk about systemic change, religious on the whole have not given sufficient reflection on what it means to have a right- based approach to development, neither are we clear about its consequences. Most of us withdraw from the scene when we are faced with opposition from the powerful. Even if there are individuals who are ready, they do not get the needed support and encouragement from their institutes.

Option for the poor today also leads us to a serious option for the non-poor. In an unjust situation of inequality and oppression what is necessary is a more just distribution of goods. This cannot happen unless the rich are converted and are willing to share or are ready to give to the poor what is there just share. The rich also needs to be conscientized. For this we need to work for structural changes. The economic and political structures that perpetuate poverty for the majority and affluence for the minority must change. All these will demand that “the religious, not only opt for the poor; they also opt to be poor.”

There is a prevailing sense of meaninglessness among people and also among many religious. Values have declined. Liturgical practices have become meaningless for many. What does it mean for Religious to be in mission in such a situation? They have to show in their lives that another way of life with other goals, values and priorities is possible. They have to witness to a mystical dimension of life, where God is not alienating, but enriching and ennobling our existence. Religious need to become “friends of Jesus,” like Abraham who spoke to God face to face. Asian people expect religious to be “spiritual guides” “holy ones” who show “the way”. They want “humble, happy and prayerful religious rather than just achievers, specialists or professionalists.” Their holiness however will not alienate them from deeply human concerns. There is a need to realize rooted ness in God, God as one's deeper and truer self and not as the other. Such rooted ness in the divine leads to integrating with everything-with one's body, with one's emotions, with nature, with others. They find God in all things and all things in God.

Another shift we need to make urgently in the present context is from individual to team approach. We need to seek greater inter-religious cooperation for the sake of the survival of the planet and of humankind. We need more collaboration, more communication, net working and interrelationship among various religious orders and with other NGOs and GOs. Another aspect of this shift would be our integration and immersion in the local church and society. For example attending the Sunday Eucharist with the people of God, being immersed in a Basic Christian community, using more the public transports of travelling, mingling with the laity in the feasts and celebrations away from the special stands, being more engaged in movements for justice and peace, especially those related to women, tribal and Dalit liberation are all expressions of our collaboration and solidarity.

Conclusion
Though religious life as it is lived today is in crisis, we cannot doubt its relevance in the post modern world. It is the responsibility of each individual consecrated person to make the needed shift in her/his life in order to be an authentic follower of Jesus in the 21st century. I like to conclude this paper recalling to our mind the commitments AMOR made in the beginning of this century on behalf of each consecrated person in this vast continent. My wish and hope is that each of us will make this commitment our own.
We commit ourselves to:
 persistently proclaim the truth for the cause of justice and promote right relationships
 live a non-consumerist simple and joyful life style
 promote fair trade, where the profits are divide justly and which promotes human relationship between consumer and producer
 socially responsible investment that supports people's cooperation and initiatives
 networking at all levels, building solidarity for life and peace
 respect and reverence for creation
 prioritize the empowerment of the weak and marginalized
 examining closely our part in maintaining the unjust structures of dehumanization

Even though I am using the term 'religious life' throughout this paper, I do not wish to use it in the canonical sense to refer only to the religious men and women. I wish to include in this term all those who are called to lead a Consecrated way of life.
This is in contrast to the Hindu/Indic tradition of Sanyas where the person renounces the world completely
John M. Lozano, Discipleship: Towards an Understanding of Religious Life (Chicago: Claret Centre for Resources in spirituality, 1980): 27.
See Elisabeth A. Johnson, C.S.J. , “Discipleship : Root Model of the Life Called Religious,” Review for Religious vol. 42, (1983): 866-867
J. Pathrapankal, “Religious Life As Radical Discipleship: Biblical and Indian Perspectives,” Vidyajyoti, 57 (1993): 400
George Soares -Prabhu, “Prophetic Dimension of the Religious Life,” CRI Bulletin (December 1986): 8
Alejandro Cussianovich, Religious Life and the Poor: Liberation Theology Perspective (Dublin: Gill and Macmillion Ltd. , 1979), 52
Elisabeth Johnson, “Discipleship” : 870
Joan Chittister, OSB, “The Prophetic Dimension of Religious Life,” Religious Life Review, Vol. 35, No 177, (Mar- April 1996): 79-87 at p.82.
Tom Kunnumkal, Talk given at CRI Assembly, Delhi, January 1996
Joan Chittister O.S.B. , The Fire in These Ashes: A Spirituality of Contemporary Religious Life (Herefordshire, UK: Gracewing, 1995), 45
Sandra M. Schneiders IHM, “Contemporary Religious Life: Death or Transformation?” Crosscurrents (Winter 1996-1997): 518
See Joan Chittister, Fire in these Ashes, 47-48
Talk given by Diarmuid O’Murchu during Consecrated Life Event at Heartbeespoort in January 2008
Catherine M. Harmer, Religious Life in the 21st Century (Mystic, U.S.A: Twenty-third Publications, 1995), 76
See Joan Chittister, Fire in these Ashes, 26
See Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978), 81
Virginia Fabella and Quirico Pedregosa, “Religious Life: A Service to Life in Asia Today,” FABC Papers No. 72 i (1995): 10
See Francis J. Moloney, Disciples & Prophets: A Biblical Model for the Religious Life (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1d980), 158
Joan Chittister, OSB, “The Prophetic Dimension of Religious Life,” 83
Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination, 13
J.B. Metz, Followers of Christ: The Religious Life and the Church (London: Burns & Oates/ Pulist Press, 1976), 11-12
See Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination
Jon sobrino, The True Church and the Poor, trans. Matthew J. O'connell (maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1981), 323
See Michael Amaladoss, SJ, “Religious Life in Mission,” In Christo, vol. 44 (January 2006): 21-22
See Times of India, New Delhi, (January 1, 2009): 15
Julma C. Neo, dc, “The Witness of Consecrated Life in Asia Today,” Religious life Asia, vol. 2, no.2 (April-June 2000): 23-48, at 30.
See Michael Amaladoss, SJ, “Religious Life in Mission,” In Christo, vol. 44 (January 2006): 10-11
Ibid. , 12.
See Joe Mathias SJ, “Has Religious Life a Future...?”Asia Journal of Vocation & Formation, vol. 27-28 (July- Dec 2004): 6-14 at 7

Joan Chittister, OSB, “The Prophetic Dimension of Religious Life,” Religious Life Review, vol. 35, No 177, (Mar-April 1996): 80
Vandana Mataji, “Formation of Asian Religious” (Delhi: CRI, 1975), 23-24
Ibid., 27
Ibid., 37
Joan Chittister, “The Prophetic Dimension of Religious Life,”: 79
Catherine M. Harmer, Religious Life in the 21st Century, 39-40
See Amaladoss, “Religious Life in Mission”: 21
“Pre-Synodal Document of CBCI in CRI Letter 4/1996: 11
See Passion for Christ, Passion for humanity, p. 134, Summary statement of the International congress on Consecrated Life, held in Rome, November 2004)
Julma C. Neo, dc, “The Witness of Consecrated Life in Asia Today,” Religious life Asia, Vol. 2, No.2 (April-June 2000): 23-48 at 29
See Amaladoss, “Religious Life in Mission” : 15
Ibid., 16.
Julma C. Neo, dc, “The Witness of Consecrated Life in Asia Today”: 36
See Amaladoss “Religious Life in Mission” : 17
AMOR XII final Statement, 2000 in Religious Life Asia, vol. 2, (October-Dec. 2000): 16-17