The Evangelical Counsels.

According to the Code of Canon Law, the Evangelical Counsels, based on the teaching and example of
Christ the Master, are a Divine gift which the church received from the Lord and which by his grace, it
preserves always. (Can. 576)

According to Lumen Gentium, the teaching and example of Christ provide the foundation for the
Evangelical Counsels of chaste self-dedication to God, of poverty and of obedience. The apostles and
the fathers of the church commend them as an ideal of life, and so do her doctors and pastors. They
therefore constitute a gift of God which the church has received from her Lord and which by his grace
she always safeguards. (LG 43)

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the state of life which is constituted by the
profession of the Evangelical Counsels, while not entering into the hierarchical structure of the Church,
belongs undeniably to her life of holiness. Christ proposes the Evangelical Counsels in their great variety,
to every disciple. The perfection of charity to which all the faithful are called, entails for those who freely
follow the call to consecrated life the obligation of practising chastity in celibacy for the sake of the
kingdom, poverty and obedience. It is the profession of these Counsels, whithin a permanent state of
life recognized by the church, that characterises the life consecrated to God.

Therefore, Evangelical Counsels, which entails the vows of obedience, poverty and chastity, distinguish a
consecrated person from others. These vows help them live an almost perfect Christan life, as it guides
them according to Christ's own standard of 'if you wish to be perfect'.

Now we can see that the practice of the Evangelical counsels is for the sake of the kingdom of God. But
that does not ipso facto mean that the Kingdom of God is meant for only the consecrated persons who
live by the Evangelical counsels. The kingdom of God is available to any baptized Christian who fulfill all
the law by practising love of God and love of neighbour.***

Fulfilling that law of love makes one acceptable in the sight of God just as Christ commended the Good
Samaritan, who was neither a priest nor a Levite, but was able to fulfill the law by loving a neighbour in
pain, even a stranger he didn't know.

In as much as Christ approved this 'love' as the fulfilment of the law, he still added, "if you wish to be
perfect", and that is where the Evangelical counsels come in.

The Vow of Chastity.

Chastity refers to the decision not to make use of one's reproductive faculty for the sake of the kingdom
of God. The religious who is under the Vow of Chastity refuses to indulge in any amorous thought, and is
forbidden to have any romantic relationship or marriage.

This vow enables them to give their minds totally to God. According to Paul in I Cor. 7:32-34, he said, "
The unmarried man gives his mind to the Lord's affairs and to how he can please the Lord but the man
who is married gives his mind to the affairs of this world and to how he can please his wife, and he is
divided in mind. So too, the unmarried woman and the virgin, gives her mind to the Lord's affairs, and to
being holy in body and spirit, but the married woman gives her mind to the affairs of this world and to
how she can please her husband.

What is more, chastity frees the mind of the religious from worries. He/she is not entangled to some
other person in a romantic way, and so dedicates his/her mind totally to God.

To live this life to the fullest, Perfectae Caritatis advises that those who profess this vow should rely on
God's help, should not presume on their own strength, and should practise mortification and custody of
the senses. This entails that living a life of Chastity has its challenges which could come from false
doctrines or from what the person sees.

Perfectae Caritatis goes further to say that candidates should not be admitted to the profession of
Chastity except after really adequate testing and unless they are sufficiently mature, psychologically and
affectively.

The Vow of Poverty.

The Vow of poverty helps religious men and women to renounce certain goods and desist from
materialism. They are detached from worldly possession for the sake of God's kingdom. In the gospel of
Matthew 19:21, Jesus told the young man who questioned him, "If you wish to be perfect, go and sell
your possessions and give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come and
follow me.

Giving away all he had entails total poverty. We were told that the young man went away sad, for
voluntary poverty is a hard decision to make. There is a hymn that portrays this kind of poverty: Rock of
Ages written by Rev Augustus Toplady.

Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to Thy cross I cling;

Naked, come to Thee for dress;

Helpless, look to Thee for grace;

Foul, I to the fountain fly;

Wash me, Saviour, or I die!

You come to him with nothing after you must have given all you have to the poor, and then you follow
him by clinging to his cross, and that means mortification.

Elements of Christian Poverty

2. Giving: The vow of poverty compels us to give. Giving, according to the prophet Isaiah is a kind of
fasting. (Isaiah 58:6-7). The woman of Zarephat also gave, with the kind of courage expressed in
Habakuk 3 and we were told:he, she, and her household ate for many days, the jar of meal was not
spent, neither did the cruse of oil fail. (1Kings17:16)

When Elijah fed 100 men in 2Kings 4, it was out of the little that a man from Balshalisha brought.

Christ commended the widow who gave her mite.

What about Abraham? He had only one son, yet he did not hesitate to give him to God who gave it to
him in the first place.

If only we understand that all we have is from God, we would not hesitate to give. This reflects the
prayer of David 1Chron. 29. He said:

Thine O Lord is the greatness for all that is in heaven is thine, thine is the kingdom o Lord

14 but who am I, and what is my people that we should be able this to offer willingly, for all things come
from there, and of the own have we given thee.

Giving back to God is all about giving to the least of his brothers ie the poor, the needy,the sick, even our
enemies whom we most despise.

3. Hard work: Consecrated men and women must work hard. St Paul rightly expressed this in his 2nd
letter to the Thesalonians. He said: 'We did not eat anyone's bread without paying but with toil and
labour we worked night and day, that we might not burden any of you... If anyone will not work, let him
not eat.' 2 Thes. 3.

In 2 Kings 4:1-7, Elisha saved a widow through hard work. First, they borrowed vessels and poured;
second, he asked them to sell.

Ruth also had to work in the field of Boaz in order to feed herself and mother-in-law.

In Leviticus 23:22 it says, 'When you read the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field to it's
very border, nor shall you gather your gleanings after your harvest. Leave them for the poor, I am the
Lord your God.
Welfare programs should not encourage the needy to sit inactive while others harvest, winnow and
cook their own food. They should participate in God's provision for them.

4. Conservation: Wastage and extravagant are not encouraged. Christ ordered the disciples to gather
the food remnants after feeding the multitude. Elisha cured the poisoned pot instead of wasting it.

The Vow of Obedience.

With the vow of obedience, religious men and women generally submit their will to God. They promise
to be directed by their superiors in the ways of perfection according to the purpose and constitution of
their order.

After this wilful sacrifice of their will to God, religious men and women are united permanently and
securely to God's salvific will, the same way Christ was only bent to doing the will of the Father.When
Christ told that rich man to "follow me", he expected obedience from him,she expected that young man
to forsake his will and submit to his (Christ's). But the young man could not. Follow me means: obey me,
do what I ask you to do, there are things you want to do and places you want to go to, but no, leave
them all, do my own bidding and tread my own path; your will no longer matters, disregard it therefore,
sacrifice it, and get it subsumed to mine. Follow me, means, come to me and I will direct you.

Obedience is aided by humility and faith. Abraham abandoned his people and went to a place he didn't
know. (Gen.12) Saul lost his kingship because he failed to obey. Mary submitted her will to God by her
Fiat. Moses did not enter the promised Land because he failed to obey. Matthew left his table and
followed Christ when he was called.

Conclusion

The Evangelical counsels are almost interwoven. There seems to be a link in the chain. Let's look at the
call of Elijah in 1Kings 19.

19 So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen,
and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him.
20 Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,” he said,
“and then I will come with you.”

“Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?”

21 So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the
plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow
Elijah and became his servant.