All those who have responded to the call of God and joined a religious congregation to live their lives for God and his people might be fully aware that they were not the best of candidates for the congregations or for religious life. One of the paradoxes of religious life is that all those who are considered the best candidates either do not fit into the way of life or find their vocation elsewhere. Those who are most talented and could be assets to the congregations do not survive in their vocation, and it is most often the so-called second grade young men and women who find themselves best fitting into the expectations of religious life and their particular congregations.
Often it had been believed that each of the religious congregations would choose the best of young men and women to fill their ranks, so that their charism could be carried forward uninterrupted. Unfortunately at the end of the vocation camp and numerous trips to promote vocation, the people who land up postulancy and candidacy are the people who might not be intellectually alert, character-wise agile and personality-wise promising.
But that is where God works miracles in every person who joins consecrated life – God molds and shapes the unworthy men and women into the corner-stones of religious life. Those who were hitherto powerless and incapable of many of the things that the worldly-wise might do easily, might suddenly become so smart and intelligent that they might defeat their friends back at home on several grounds. This is a wonder that most of the religious may find it hard to believe, but a hard reality that several centuries have witnessed.
Honestly speaking just a handful of men and women may consider themselves worthy of answering the call of God to join religious life. They might have truly given up something worthwhile, wealth, riches, promising career, loving family members, and this process of giving up and embracing the cross of Christ might not have been an easy task. But for most of the religious, we cannot boast of giving up anything worthwhile. What we have given up back at home was our poverty and bleak future.
Instead of losing something we have only gained a lot in religious life. The security and comfort that we receive in religious life cannot equal even the best of insurance companies. Our friends and family members back at home might still be living their lives with so much of insecurity, uncertainty and privation which might accompany them wherever they go.
Thus it is important that the religious become conscious of their requirements to become part of the special family of God; to become aware of their unworthiness to become sons and daughters of God and serve him through loving service to his children.
Those who fail to acknowledge their unworthiness to be called members of these religious congregations may end up putting up too much weight on themselves, their achievements, and what they are capable of. They may imagine that it is their right to be part of a congregation and therefore might put their trust less and less on God and his loving providence. Such men and women may do what they want in a religious house and not what God wants of them. In the final analysis it might be noticed that such people may not survive long in religious life.
After the initial years of formation, the religious might become so fit to continue the mission of the congregation that they might fall into the temptation of imagining themselves as super powerful and that the power coming from their own personal achievement and not from God. Some may even imagine that they are indispensable for the congregation and may think the congregation may end up in troubled times if they were to walk out of the institute.
It is a dangerous symptom if members of a religious congregation were to imagine they are indispensable for the life and mission of the Institute. This would imply that they are the epicenter of the mission of the Institute and not God, and therefore such people may turn the focus light on themselves rather than the saving plan of God for his people. Therefore the so-called indispensable may land up in such miserable situations that they might not experience the joy and peace that comes from the Lord.
While in active ministry, several of the religious men and women tend to think that they are absolutely indispensable for that particular mission of the congregation; they may not say this in words, but their action would speak louder than their words. They might skip the non-negotiable aspects of their religious life, and would claim that they are required to take care of such and such things, and without their presence things might not go well.
These are the ones who imagine they are indispensable and it would not take them long to realize that they had been only living in a fool’s paradise, while the congregation or God would show them that the mission of the congregation would continue without their help and intervention.
The indispensable religious would turn the focus light on herself and not on God, who is the real doer in and through them, and those who consider themselves dispensable would tend to put their trust in God, especially when they find the journey of life tough. While the indispensable might put all their contacts, resources to find solutions to all their problems, those who consider themselves dispensable might put their trust in God’s providence, so that God may intervene in their lives and resolve the problems and difficulties.
Many of the religious congregations have been there for several centuries, which only shows that the hand of God had been guiding the members of the congregation through successive generations and therefore it would be erroneous for some of the members to imagine that without them the institute might fall into pieces.
Jesuit Fr Anthony D’Mello would remind retreatants and those who attended his seminars and workshops that no one is indispensable on earth, except God. The world can continue to exist without our being present here and now. We should consider it our special privilege to be part of this wonderful world and to be the faithful servants of God in his great mission. If there is anything great taking place, we cannot take credit for them, because it is the hand of God that is leading them through.
God would rather entrust his humble institutes and congregations in the hands of the religious men and women who consider themselves dispensable, because they are sure to turn to God when they are in need, and would seek his help and guidance when needed.