The blog of the Alphonsian Academy brings this week the reflections of Professor Martín Carbajo Nuñez, OFM, on the practice of evangelical counsels in response to two great challenges of today’s world pointed out by Pope Francis. These challenges are the need for ecological conversion and the building of fraternity among people.
“The three evangelical counsels show the way towards ecological conversion and towards a balanced living of the three great human drives: the desire to have (poverty), the ambition for power (obedience) and the desire for worth (chastity),” – writes Professor Carbajo. And he continues: “These counsels are valid for all Christians, lay or religious, single or married, because all are called to evangelical perfection. Those who live them serenely overcome concupiscence, at all levels, and are able to establish gratuitous, oblative and free relationships.”
He concludes by affirming: “In a hyper-connected world, we often forget the importance of interpersonal relationships and are unable to “make direct contact with the anguish, with the trembling, with the joy of the other and with the complexity of their personal experience” (LS, n. 47). A balanced living of the evangelical counsels will make it possible to restore these fundamental relationships of the human being: with God, with oneself, with others and with creation, which correspond to the four levels of ecological balance: “The internal with oneself, the solidarity with others, the natural with all living beings, the spiritual with God” (LS, n. 210).
The full article is published on the Alphonsian Academy website.
