Consecrated life shows beauty of authentic love, trust in God, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — All human beings need consistent, lasting and healthy experiences of authentic love, Pope Leo XIV said.

Consecrated men and women, who abandon themselves “like children into the arms of the Father,” spread “the ‘fresh air’ of authentic love throughout the world,” he said in his homily during Mass in St. Peter’s Square Oct. 9, marking the Jubilee of Consecrated Life.

Thousands of men and women religious, monks, contemplatives, members of secular institutes, consecrated virgins, hermits and people belonging to “new institutes” came to Rome from all over the world for their Oct. 8-9 Jubilee.

God is “the fullness and meaning of our lives,” said the pope, who joined the Augustinian religious order in 1977 and served as its leader, or prior general, for 12 years in Rome.

“For you — for us — the Lord is everything,” he said. “Without him, nothing exists, nothing makes sense, nothing is worthwhile.”

“He is everything in different ways: as Creator and the source of existence, as love that calls and challenges, as the strength that impels and inspires us to give,” he said. “Living out your vows means abandoning yourselves like children into the arms of the Father.”

The Catholic Church “entrusts you with the task of being living witnesses to God’s primacy in your lives,” the pope said.

“By stripping yourselves of everything, you help the brothers and sisters you meet to cultivate this friendship themselves,” he said. “After all, history teaches us that an authentic experience of God always gives rise to generous outpourings of charity.”

Some people believe that “it is vain to serve God,” he said.

“This way of thinking leads to a genuine paralysis of the soul,” the pope said. “We end up settling for a life made up of fleeting moments, superficial and intermittent relationships and passing fads — things that leave a void in our hearts,” and do not lead to true happiness.

“Instead, we need consistent, lasting and healthy experiences of love,” he said, and members of consecrated life have a role to play in that through their example.

“Dear brothers and sisters, the Lord, to whom you have given everything, has rewarded you with such beauty and richness, and I would like to urge you to treasure and cultivate what you have received,” Pope Leo said.

“Do not seek to be numbered among the ‘learned and clever,'” he said, quoting St. Paul VI’s 1971 apostolic exhortation “Evangelica Testificatio.”

“Be truly poor, meek, eager for holiness, merciful and pure of heart,” he said, quoting the late pope. “Be among those who will bring to the world the peace of God.”

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