P. Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm., General Prior
2) Self-Respect
When a person becomes aware of the problems and shortcomings that are clearly affecting religious life in general and also the life of Carmelites today, he or she can fall into the temptation of despair: the lack of vocations, the advanced age of brothers especially in the Western world, identity crisis, in some contexts also a waning acceptance in society, and even in the Church, as well as other more sensitive and painful problems. This despair is perhaps the most dangerous and intrusive temptation in the life of us believers. We fall into defeatism, systematic negativism, and it seems to us that nothing matters anymore.
There is no doubt that problems exist and that they must be addressed with seriousness, courage, and sometimes with unwavering resolve. But that does not change the fact that there are also many signs of vitality, many small Carmelite communities that humbly and authentically live their vocation and bear witness to the God of the Gospel in the world. Usually, what is positive attracts less attention than what is negative. Sometimes it seems that we religious men and women, but perhaps people in general, are more capable of perceiving what is negative than what is positive, beautiful, noble – and there is not a lack of that in our Carmelite life. If we are unable to see this humbly and with gratitude, if our brothers, our communities, and our lives have lost the capacity to amaze us, if in our everyday life we do not find stimuli for hope, courage, and gratitude,... something is not right. Perhaps we need to renew our capacity to see and to see spiritually, we must cleanse our vision and ask the Lord to grant us clear sight so that we may gaze upon our brothers with the same tenderness and mercy with which He sees us.
In this sense, I speak of self-respect. It is not about closing our eyes to problems or falling into foolish self-pity or unrealistic naivety, still less about losing the ability to critique and self-critique. Rather, it means using a different scale of values, measuring our work less by “results” but more by “fruits,” and finally, stopping with lamenting, sad, and unproductive speeches. And we will not accomplish any of this if we do not enter into the Easter dynamic, which theologians call the eschatological tension between “already, and not yet.” It is difficult to find balance between the two elements, but both are necessary. In certain phases of our personal and communal lives, we must emphasize the “not yet,” that is: what we lack, our weaknesses, criticism, and prophetic reproaches directed at our own lives. But at other times we must gratefully and joyfully direct our gaze to the “already,” to what we rejoice in and what we have. The consideration of Carmelites that becomes fixated on “already” inevitably falls into fragile pseudo-Pentecostalism and drifts away from reality. The thinking of Carmelites that becomes fixated on “not yet” inevitably degenerates into ideology, negativity, dissatisfaction, and false prophesying.
However, this dynamic will not be understandable if it does not spring from the Easter of Christ, or – let us say without fear – from the cross. And that is why it requires conversion. We can only appreciate and have respect for ourselves (for our brothers and sisters, our communities, and our provinces) if we illuminate our lives with the light of Christ, if we allow Him to enlighten and permeate our dark and sometimes stagnant corners. This is the self-respect I am talking about.
