Evidence of a decline in religious life is dramatically apparent today, and yet Diarmuid O'Murchu finds great reason to hope. He offers an empowering vision for consecrated life in the twenty-first century. After first tracing the history of religious life, O'Murchu launches into an assessment of its evolution focusing on the way that it came to be associated with “fleeing from the world” in order to achieve holiness and oneness with God. He calls for the emphasis to shift from individual heroic holiness to empowering community wholeness. The gospel call to announce the advent of God's kingdom emerges as the “Companionship of Empowerment” expanding the understanding of God's reign to all of creation. It is not by escaping the world, but by embracing a deeper engagement with God's creation, that religious are called. The result of this prophetic approach to religious life extends its horizons beyond creed, denomination, or ethnicity.
O'Murchu, whose early scholarship examined religious life and the need for refounding, in this work focuses his attention on what he sees as the place that religious life must take at this juncture. He uses the concept of liminality to position religious life on this broader horizon. Liminality designates a threshold connecting both sides of a boundary. It is a marginal space, a new frontier, the cutting edge. Rather than immortalizing history and the way that religious life has functioned, it calls for making all things new. Liminality and the vowed life bridge the gap between the secular and the sacred.
Vowed religious are called to serve the wider community rather than to be apart. Engagement in the mission of the kingdom of God implies the embrace of daring horizons. It requires a desire to witness the presence of God in the world. O'Murchu's vision of religious life involves a prophetic call. Prophets are able to read the signs of the times and to interpret their meaning through the framework of God's will for humankind and the world. It is the role of religious, positioned at the threshold, to incarnate the values of the “Companionship of Empowerment” and to live them overtly with passion. For O'Murchu, the threshold predominates, and the Spirit is at the helm.
What of the vows that have traditionally been associated with consecrated life—chastity, poverty, and obedience? The vows are revisioned as a set of values, which radiate into the world and the culture. Celibacy involves inner transformation, being overwhelmed by the divine embrace. This is the vow of “Liminal Releatedness” that expands beyond humanity to the entire universe, the heart of the Godhead intimately bonded with all creation.
Obedience is reframed as “Mutual Collaboration,” suggesting a group that is committed to reflection and discernment on alternative ways to empower life. This understanding of obedience involves three key elements. First, the primary obedience is to God. Second, to be obedient is to give allegiance to prayer, study, and reflection; and third, to be vigilant against the abuse of power.
Poverty is revisioned as “Mutual Sustainability.” This approach places a preferential option for the poor at the heart of every decision. Contrary to the consumerism that dominates our world, this vow of sustainability means care for all, a nonviolent approach to life, and a prophetic witness to the world.
As a vowed member of a religious order, it was exciting to read this book with its liminal vision for consecrated life. It accurately assesses the pitfalls of the evolution of religious life and presents a new vision for reclaiming the original call with a new expansiveness making religious life a witness in the world not set apart from it. O'Murchu highlights the need to return to a transforming response to the signs of the times. His vision of the kingdom, as the “Companionship of Empowerment,” demands a reappropriation of the founding charism of our congregations and a renewal in life, and prayer, and above all, a faith centered on Jesus. This book will be especially helpful to congregations focused on refounding their communities in response to God's call in the twenty-first century.
