CONSECRATION

The Lord consecrates us with the gift of his Spirit.
The Spirit moves the human story towards a relationship with God through a dialogue with man’s heart. Abraham and the Prophets, with their exemplary lives, listened to the Spirit within them that guided them into a total submission of faith in God, hence enabling them to pass over a message of hope, light and love for all mankind. Consequently, God’s intervention came to be realized and fully revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. Currently, the Spirit, which operates through each person and the community is experienced through; the Church, charismatic saints, religious thinkers and pastors etc. As consecrated persons whom God takes initiative, we are animated by the Spirit of God in our lives. The consecrated person socially ought to be a special sacred person who works hand in hand with the Church’s actual vision of salvation.
Vita Consecrata expresses the fact that we do not consecrate ourselves but rather, as religious, we are consecrated by God. Consecration as a grace, is a gift of God and not from our merit. Our expectation is to relive God’s gift of hope as a testimony through a radical choice of our total donation in following Christ. Nevertheless, Consecration is not just an element of Salesian life or taking vows, but rather, it accommodates all aspects of the entire personality that begin and end in God who has chosen us to follow him. Our call to Salesian life is not a one day answer but rather a daily response towards living and actively cooperating with Christ in our everyday mission towards the youth.
I am impressed by the fact that Don Bosco lived with a conviction that he was chosen by God for a mission as even expressed right from his dream of 9 years. He spontaneously worked among the poor youth in their social ambient but with an aim of winning their souls for God. SDB Constitutions 3, reminds us that God consecrates Salesians as a gift of his Spirit, inviting us to be apostles of the young. Besides, the FMA Constitutions 5, points out on how God consecrates us with the gift of the Holy Spirit and invites us to live our baptismal experiences. We are encouraged to leave our pre occupations and compromises and follow the Spirit and the will of God in faith. In Christian Spirituality, the fundamental way is that of charity. Our consecration is expressed in Love for creation and for the Creator. We ought to live a life of gratitude for all the good which we receive from God and which eventually returns to him, in glory.
The Synod reflections on Vita Consecrata, in emphasizing the primacy of God, affirmed that religious life is not only an educative, organizational, ritual or social work, but an integration and involvement of God through God and for God in whatever we do and whatever we are. God is our protagonist. God sanctifies and accomplishes our work. It is the Spirit in a consecrated person that drives a religious in discerning and responding to God’s call to faith and love in a manner that brings hope to oneself and to others.
Consecrated life is a link between faith and our daily mission to the youth. It is an agreement and a manner in which God communicates to his people. As Salesians, we assume a concrete project of bearing witness to God through the community, journeying and developing together in our deeper understanding of Christ as we share and become the light to the world, that is exposed to lots of hopeless situations that have been brought about by some unhealthy ideologies of selfish nature. SDB C25 affirms that the action of the Spirit is for a professed member a lasting source of grace and a support for his daily efforts to grow towards the perfect love of God and men. The witness of the Spirit of the beatitudes as we imitate Christ, is the most precious gift we can always and everywhere offer to the young as consecrated Salesians.
Wanjala Moses