Celebrating Consecrated Life: the vows

One of the essential elements to consecrated life is the vows that each member makes. In fact, it is the making of these vows that suggests the term “consecrated life” and designates someone as a recognized member of a religious order.

To consecrate is to dedicate something formally to a religious purpose. The original meaning of the term “sacrifice” also points in the same direction. To sacrifice is to offer or dedicate something or someone to the service of God. In a sense, we have all been “sacrificed” at our Baptism. All baptized irrevocably belong to God. So what can be added to this dedication?

The choice of how one lives out that sacrifice or dedication is often referred to as a person’s vocation–the personal response to the call already offered at Baptism. Those who choose to respond by living a consecrated life officially formalize that choice in making the vows of poverty, celibate chastity and obedience.

The vow of poverty offers to God our human right to personal property and control of our financial standing. Every family experiences a dynamic similar to the basics of religious poverty. Any material goods one receives or “earns” is put to the use of the whole. Any need of one member is provided for by the whole. The combined resources are put to the use of the community and its mission; the designated authority makes final decisions.

Poverty focuses past the distractions of material goods to community resources that include far more than physical wealth; resources, such as the gifts and talents of the individual, the combined abilities of all members to contribute to community life and community mission, the wealth of relationships that abound in community. In this way, poverty frees the individual and community to be more conscious of relying on God’s providence rather than wealth.

The vow of celibate chastity is a variation of the chastity that all Christians are expected to live. Chastity, as safeguarded by the sixth and ninth commandments, addresses the proper use of the gift of sexuality according to one’s life vocation. Chastity for those in consecrated life includes the commitment to celibacy. Through this vow, the human right to belong to a supportive community is experienced through relationships in and availability to a group larger than the family unit. This vow offers God the love and energy usually expressed in the exclusive intimacy of marriage and children so that they can be dedicated to other expressions.

Celibate chastity focuses beyond the small community of the family to the larger community of the Church. Free from the responsibilities involved in providing a stable home for children, the vowed member is available to go where his or her gifts are most needed, and perhaps to spend more hours in the day in that needed service.

The vow of obedience involves the human right to self-determination. The making of this vow is the individual’s self-determination of the life that is to follow. This vow offers to God the person’s availability to serve in the way that is most needed by the community and the Church. It requires the individual’s conscientious contribution to the process of decision-making, as well as acceptance of the final decision made by the leadership who carries this responsibility.

Obedience focuses beyond the individual view to a broader vision. Personal preferences and comfort zones must sometimes be put aside out of concern for the needs of community life or mission. Such a response often frees the individual from limited expectations of self and calls forth unsuspected talents.

Poverty, celibate chastity, obedience; these three vows can be misunderstood as merely cases of self-denial. Yes, in every Christian life, self-denial is an element of the expressions of love. But to consider the vowed life as only a life of self-denial is to miss the bigger picture. Living these vows whole-heartedly is living a life of freedom, often a life of adventure and discovery, always a life of love.