Apostolic Religious Life in America Today: A Response to the Crisis

5. Relearning the Language of God: Obedience, Forgiveness, and Love

101 Five Relearning the Language of God Obedience, Forgiveness, and Love Bishop Robert Morlino Listening, watching, and reading media reports these days, in terms of the recent economic crisis in the United States, we find that one particular power group suggests that the plan proposed is a “bailout”; a bailout for the wealthy and the greedy—that doesn’t sound very good. Another group says that it’s a “rescue plan” for the tax payer—that sounds very good. Which is it? Is it a bailout or is it a rescue? Is it negative or is it positive? This is known as “spin.” What the representatives of these different power groups are trying to do, by repeating it over and over again, is to teach others a language. Some want the country to speak the language of “rescue”; others want society to speak the language of “bailout.” They are trying to teach a new language; people learn language by repetition. An awful lot of money is being spent, so certain political figures can repeat regularly, what they repeat, and teach society a new language . When someone is trying to teach a new language, repetition obviously works. There is nothing new about that. As Saint Ignatius 102 Robert Morlino Loyola said, repetitio est mater studiorum: it’s the only way to learn. The sentiments expressed by Cardinal Rodé in his essay in this volume give one hope regarding the future of religious life. I could not be more in agreement with his concrete recommendations, especially regarding formation and continuing education. Since the Second Vatican Council people have been taught a language, but people, especially middle-aged people, need to learn a new language . In the case of people my age, it’s really profoundly difficult, because they have to unlearn a language, one with which they have become very familiar since the Second Vatican Council. A good illustration of the difficulty with language is my own challenge to learn Spanish. I can read Spanish, but I cannot speak it, because I have to unlearn Italian, in order to do so. Today, it’s more important for me to speak Spanish than Italian. But for me Italian is more habitual. So, it’s very difficult for me to speak Spanish, without defaulting to Italian, each time I pause to take a breath. It’s very hard to learn a new language, if we have to unlearn another language to do so. Since Vatican II the language that many have learned is that of the discontinuity hermeneutic, the language of rupture between pre–Vatican II and post–Vatican II. As expressed in the essays herein, a new language about the Church and religious life arose after Vatican II. Clearly the new language has not worked well, as evidenced by the state of religious life in the United States today. It is necessary, therefore, to listen to the language offered by recent popes. But in order to learn the language that Pope John Paul the Great and Pope Benedict are trying to teach us, we must unlearn the language that we learned. That’s very difficult, and I try to remind myself every morning in prayer how difficult it is to unlearn a language, because I seemingly cannot unlearn Italian in order to speak Spanish. Thus, I truly sympathize with those who are called to unlearn a language, in order to learn the one needed. However, the reality remains that religious need a new language in order to follow the correct interpretation of Vatican II, as they move toward the future. This language is needed by all, but especially for younger people, including sisters, priests, and seminarians, because they are Relearning the Language of God 103 not battle-hardened the way some older religious are. It would be better for their spiritual formation not to face the daily experience of battle; that’s a hard way to wake up every morning. Like all good fathers and mothers, we want to leave our spiritual sons and daughters , our spiritual grandsons and granddaughters, a better sense of life in Christ, and in the Church, than we experienced. Some reflection on language taught to older religious is essential . In essence religious life comes down to obedience. Poverty is an instance of obedience, when you live the religious life; it is obedience to a particular rule or constitution. Celibacy, celibate chastity, is an instance of obedience...