Ad Honorem Immaculatae Conceptionis Mariae Oblatio

79 context of ongoing formation as a formation of faith and in the context of many departures from the religious state caused by problems with faith or the loss of it. A strong ecclesiological accent is necessary to see consecration in its fullness: God consecrates through the Church, in the Church and for the Church and her mission. In recent years, there have been many remarks from consecrated persons who feel that they are being marginalized in the Church or deem that their vocation is not understood. On the other hand, voices were heard claiming that some consecrated persons seem to be al- ienated from the life of the universal and local Church, as if they constitut- ed some parallel reality. The vocation to accept a new and special consecra- tion is not only a reality in the Church, but an organic reality of the Church herself. As Vita Consecrata emphasizes: The consecrated life, present in the Church from the beginning, can never fail to be one of her essential and characteristic elements, for it expresses her very nature. [...] The idea of a Church made up only of sacred ministers and lay people does not therefore conform to the intentions of her divine Founder, as revealed to us by the Gospels and the other writings of the New Testament (VC, 29). 15 Recent documents of the Church, as well as other publications, draw special attention to the eschatological nature of religious consecration . 16 In this context, St. John Paul II taught in Vita Consecrata (26): In fact it has constantly been taught that the consecrated life is a foreshadowing of the future Kingdom. The Second Vatican Council proposes this teaching anew when it states that consecration better “foretells the resurrected state and the glory of the heavenly King- dom,” (LG, 44). It does this above all by means of the vow of virgin- ity, which tradition has always understood as an anticipation of the world to come, already at work for the total transformation of man. This reminder is even more significant in the religious life, “since the demands of the apostolate today are increasingly urgent, and since involve- 15 See X. Larrañaga (ed.), La vita consacrata nel mistero della Chiesa , Ancora, Milano 2017. 16 See A. Cencini, “Guardate al futuro”. Perché ha ancora senso consacrarsi a Dio . Paoline Editoriale Libri, Milano 2010; E. Bianchi, Non siamo migliori , op. cit.