Consecrated Life: A Perfect Holocaust
[A consecrated person is one, who] truly has the disposition of the heart … to offer his whole self to God as a perfect holocaust for the glory of God, … and the salvation of souls. (OOCC, II, p. 278)
Living a life for God alone, for St. Vincent Pallotti, entails a perfect holocaust. The consecration a person makes in the community amounts to a personal giving of himself to God as an oblation. The total self- surrender involved in living for God alone is a perfect sacrifice of the consecrated person to God and for his glory. This holocaust, involved in the consecration of a person to God in religious life, is not a burnt offering in the physical sense, but the holocaust consists of the consecrated person living a life of committed faith and a life of loving submission to God’s plan for him. Such an oblation calls for a person to dedicate himself to God and conform his will to that of God’s will. In this way, the consecration made in the religious life is a personal consecration made to God. As a result, the person is no more his own person, but belongs to God. He cannot claim any right of his own except that of the right of God. Thus, the consecration in religious life makes a person totally God’s own, which implies the consecrated person’s giving himself to God as a burnt offering in the spiritual sense. In this manner, the act of consecration dedicates a person to God and sets him apart for the service of God, i.e., for the building of the kingdom of God here on earth.
Do I acknowledge that my consecrated living implies the offering of myself as the perfect holocaust? Do I live a life of committed faith and a loving submission of my will to that of God? Is my consecration a personal choice of God or an ideology? Do I realize that by my consecration I belong to God? In which way do I build the kingdom of God here on earth as a person set apart for God?
He who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. (Mt. 10: 38)