Consecration to God is connecting to the Creation

and not disconnecting

Today is the feast of Presentation of our Lord. All the first born male children were supposed to be presented in the temple. So, it is not a unique celebration only for Jesus. And we celebrate the same as the day of the consecrated life, a day where we appreciate the consecrate their lives for God in a special way. As Christians, in a deeper way, all baptized are consecrated to the Lord by their baptism.

Consecrate = Set Apart

When we hear the word set apart, what is our first sentiment? Unique, special for some special reason/purpose. All these are true, but another word that goes with it is power. For example, the English word power can be translated as pouvoir or puissance in French. Now, pouvoir is more a kind of power which I also exercise over others. Puissance can be more understood as a capacity or capability to do something (I can sing/love etc). I think the power that can be associated with consecrated or set-apart is puissance (and not pouvoir).

Yes, each consecrated person is blessed with certain talents, and invited to build the kingdom of God in certain ways. This is not by exercising one’s power over someone (and something), but by using one’s capacities to coordinate with others’ capacities to build the kingdom of God.

So my consecration is intimately connected with the consecration of the other persons and other things. St Ignatius might put it very succinctly, “Finding God in all things”. Or a modern day mystic like Richard Rohr would day, “love is the ability to find the divine in everyone/everything”. Or the entire creation is filled with that presence of God (creation is not God). And thus my consecration, being unique, special, awesome is never an invitation to boss over others, but to collaborate with other and their consecrated capacities in building the kingdom of God.