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A reflection on Ongoing Formation PDF Print E-mail
Written by Fr. Stefano Camerlengo, IMC   
Friday, 18 May 2007
“Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Ps. 90:12)

The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest”. So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place (Mk 6: 30-32).

We all recognize this evangelical episode. The scene is familiar to us. Jesus is inviting us to reduce our work pace. Why not ask ourselves this question today and take the time in order to resolve when and how to follow this counsel?

We have our own habits, our way of combining periods of rest and relaxation in our life. We have adopted a rhythm of daily prayer, retreats and annual spiritual exercises, we set up for ourselves periods of regular vacations, we read books and watch movies, we do some sport and take time to go for a walk or have some other recreation. All these activities contribute to have a balanced missionary life.

But it is also possible that we may resist to an interior renewal, an in depth assessment of our life, a serious sabbatical period. Such initiative is not a luxury. Rather, those who had never experienced the need for “coming away so as to rest a little” should ask themselves whether they may have some problem.

The X General Chapter stated: “ The General Government in its work plan, and the Regions in their Conferences, promote an energetic plan of renewal for all missionaries through an ongoing formation, which will not restrict itself to updating, but to motivate again the persons through an increased knowledge and assimilation of the charisma, the spirit of the Founder, the ideals of consecration, communion and mission” ( XCG, p.47)

And the following XI General Chapter states again: “Since the persons are the most important goods of the Institute (cf. Cost. 30), its inalienable task is attention towards every missionary, in order to better the quality of his physical, psychological, affective and spiritual life. This task is achieved through an integral program which embraces the being, understanding and acting of the persons”. The development of the Institute “depends on the renewal of each missionary and the quality of the communities” (n. 92, p. 74).

INTRODUCTION

1. Generally speaking everybody feels the need for ongoing formation and above all for a sabbatical period to review one’s own life. But it is also true that in as much such needs are felt they are also neglected when contrasting difficulties arise. That is so both for the lack of patience of the individual missionary and for the Institute’s objective deficiency.

2. It is important to recognize that after the Ecumenical Council every Institute has felt the need for promoting initiatives of ongoing formation, commonly called “year if ongoing formation” or similar expressions. Often the good will shown has not coincided with the right conditions to bring about in a concrete and efficacious way an appropriate program.

3. In some periods of one’s own life everyone experiences some difficulties and that seems to be blocking the normal flow of life. That may be the case when there is a new assignment, perhaps not wanted nor accepted, an illness, the death of a dear one, an unexpected shocking event which causes a life crisis, a friendship which may cause a moment of weakness, calling us back to conversion. Life’s flow is brought to a sudden turn or a break which makes it difficult to start again and forces a person to reconsider everything.

4. This is the time when Divine Providence is calling us to become aware that we must step forward, overtake ourselves and grow. This is not a small request. One starts asking himself new strange and unusual questions on the meaning of life, consecration and mission. One perceives that something must change, some new reality is coming around. It is a moment of suffered anguish which, if it is accepted it can lead to a growth, whereas if it is rejected it can cause a dangerous set back.

5. These are the moments when an offer of a special ongoing formation must come into play. It would be a great fault if at this time help would be lacking. Common course of action, usual proposals, spiritual exercises, renewal courses would no longer suffice… There is need for time, stimuli, welcoming and capable people, who know how to analyze and guide reactions and decisions.

6. Ongoing formation, therefore, cannot be limited to attending study courses. It must be characterized by confronting and comparing one’s own experience, life, Gospel principles, with those of other people.

7. In the end, what differentiates a period of academic ongoing studies and that of ongoing formation is the presence of a person with whom to relate and confront, periodically and systematically, our life, experience of God and future expectations, a person who may help us to understand ourselves and know where God is leading us to at this juncture of our life. A study course, properly chosen, has its own value and it is useful to well employ one’s own time. But if this aspect prevails over time to be devoted to silence, knowledge of oneself, then it will prevent us from seriously tackling our real issues.

8. This process of ongoing formation must be global, encompassing the whole person with his human, Christian, religious, missionary history, that is, all his dimensions. A sabbatical period should not limit itself to the “doing” of the person, but it should address his “being”. And just because no two people are the same and in order to avoid the temptation of running away from one’s own problems, personalized courses should be offered, respecting and helping the personal journey of each person.

9. Ongoing formation, beyond the person, it should address also his religious world, the charisma of the Institute, the objectives of the activities carried out in the local community. In fact everything goes into crisis and it should be again thought and located in the new and correct perspective.

10. Ongoing formation should help a person remain in silence and in solitude so as to be able to look at himself and allow to be questioned by the Word of God and the analysis of his life experience, against the temptation of living his vocation more in his head than on the road of life.

1. THE MEANING OF TIME PASSING

For us who line in time, history’s happenings constitute the place where we can glean something of the mystery of God and of his projects on us. As a matter of fact, while our existence grows and develops, we find in it events and situations who have a special meaning for the understanding of ourselves. These trying situations, and for that reason also difficult, are commonly called crisis, though it would be better to consider them as challenges which cause people to reflect, summons to look ahead, to go beyond and grow in one’s own interiority; they are moments of maturity, true KAIROI, important and pregnant moments which reveal our real being, where we are heading to and how should we respond. Many are the biblical characters we may refer to: Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Jeremiah, Elijah, Mary, Peter, Paul and Jesus himself.

Nicodemus, for instance ( John. 2: 23-3: 15), can be taken as an icon of reference.

1. Struck by the preaching of the Lord, he feels he has to do something; he goes to Jesus not to change, but to be confirmed in his self-assurances.

2. Instead Jesus challenges him to change, to be reborn in the mystery of the incarnation and of Easter.

3. Nicodemus has difficulty in believing and abandon his self-assurances in order to accept the new proposals; being old he thinks he has already done the necessary journey; He does not think it possible, he does not wish to abandon his self-assurances in exchange of the risk of faith.

4. But his salvation hinges exactly in doing what Jesus asks of him and, in the end, he must have done so, recognizing Jesus as King of Israel, buying for him a regal measure of perfumes: “ a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes” (Jn. 19: 39).

These trying transitions of our life must not be considered negative, but posotove, stages of the process of our human growth.

2. LIFE AS GROWTH

Growth and their accompanying crisis are realities inscribed by the Creator into human nature. It is a law which even Jesus wished to obey, “growing in wisdom, age and grace” ( Lk. 2: 52). To grow is man’s first vocation, his ongoing task. Little by little we become what we wish to be. It is the road drawn for man by God’s plan: “To all who received him, he gave the right to become sons of God” (Jn. 1: 12). All that grows and bears fruit, even through the cross, gives glory to God; whereas all that prevents growth is sin, refusal of God. Growth is not just becoming bigger, but transformation, a painful process which demands efforts and risk, change and, in a certain way, even death. Not everybody accepts the Easter law of change and transformation, of pruning (Jn. 15), up to the death of the grain of wheat, to be born again multiplied in the ear (Jn. 12: 23-25).
The history of salvation is filled with examples: from Israel who does not want to walk in the desert and therefore complains (Ex.16) to Nicodemus who does not want to be reborn (Jn. 3); from Peter who, after believing, yields to fear (Mt. 14: 22) to the young rich who does not dare to venture with Jesus and goes away sad because he refuses growth, the risk and the journey ( Lk. 18: 19).

He who refuses the effort to grow remains in the illusion of keeping the present calm, or he let history go by while he lags behind hiding himself in forms of neurosis marked by egocentricity, flight from responsibilities, childish search for easy pleasures, like dandling or attracting attention. Or one falls into legalism, dreams, aggression, in order to compensate for the missed growth, or into pessimism and, very often, into depression.

Saint Gregory Nissenus defines spiritual growth as a transition “from one beginning to another beginning, till the never ending beginning of eternal life”. At the level of spiritual life those who do not accept the fatigue of growing and starting again, they lock themselves and condemn themselves to sadness and mediocrity (Ap. 2:4-5; 3: 15-16). They prevent themselves from attaining “to be mature men, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” ( Eph. 4: 13).

3. LIFE’S CHALLENGES

Every stage of life is placed in motion by an event or by an interior situation which leads to a period of anguish, during which a choice or a different definition of oneself is reached. Such events set life on a course which is new and different from that of the beginning. Usually is an unexpected and traumatic event, a new situation which comes to interrupt the journey: an illness, a death, a change of activity which was not expected nor wanted, detachment from a dear person, the awareness of the time passing, the discovery of an important truth, the weakening of the initial fervor. All this causes shock, discouragement, along with feelings of fear or anger, refusal or run-away, which are usually lived as forms of tiredness or depression, persistent doubt and uncertainty, which cause the dangerous temptation of giving up, abandoning everything.

It would be fatal to take decisions in such state of mind. It itself, this is not a negative reality, but an invitation to go ahead and look for a new interior attitude. It is the so called crisis, that is a moment of transition marked by difficulty and dismay. It is a time of test, of search, discernment, pain, but also of growth, newness, Easter hope.

It requires the attitudes of one who goes into the desert: constancy in walking silence for listening, the help of a guide for orientation, the inner freedom and poverty for hoping and be willing to accept help. Coming to a crossroad, called upon to choose whether to proceed towards a new fidelity and new horizons or to remain where one is, without running any risk, he who accepts the crisis is reborn and starts a new life. The crisis is solved when one takes a decision. This is the moment of truth and freedom according to the words of Jesus: “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (Jn. 8: 32).

4. “A HEART OF WISDOM” (Ps. 90: 4,12)

Ongoing formation in general, and the sabbatical period in particular, hare meant to help the missionaries achieve a journey of purification in order to arrive at the “wisdom of life”, at the quality of being. It requires a radical change of our relationship with things and people, passing from possession to contemplation, to listening and free giving. Thanks to self listening one is able to evaluate his own life in a deeper and truer way, in the face of evil he does not despair, but finds the courage to change and the serenity of accepting what cannot be changed. We consider ourselves “poor men”, though happy because we have entrusted our life into God’s hands and he, Good Shepherd, knows us personally and is ready to offer his life for us (Jn. 10: 11-14).

This journey of renewal is imbued with trust because we can say with Saint Paul: “Who can separate us from the love Christ? Tribulation or anguish or persecution...? In all these we are more than victors through him who has loved us” (Rom. 8: 35.37). This is the fountain of wisdom and the reason for our peace.

5. ALLAMANO AND OUR FORMATION

Though its denomination and actualization is new, ongoing formation is not absent from Blessed Allamano’s concern. His attention to the situations of the missionaries, especially in Africa or at the war front, dealt with their physical safety, health care, food, but above all with their “morale”. Hence his constant presence, in all possible forms, to encourage, support, reminding them of the greatness of fidelity to their vocation. He does not tire to suggest spiritual means and the brotherhood: “When you can – he writes to young Baldi during the war – get together with your dear colleagues and comfort each other in doing good”. It is clear for him the positive meaning of the critical moments of life. Again to the same person he says: “I hope you will pass the test, and return strengthened in body and soul”.

On this topic he continuously returns in his letters and personal meetings. But it also can be said that he had thought of a special period of “aggiornamento” or of uplifting, as we understand it nowadays. He was aware of the fact that the first missionaries who had left for Africa had received a hurried formation and he was thinking of making up to that with a new period of formation, almost a second year of novitiate, when they returned. He also found an appropriate house in Turin. But the project, even for him, was a failure. The missionaries did not yield to his wishes. According to Fr. Nepote, this was one of the sorrows they caused to him.

What Allamano saw as lacking and which he wished to make up for, today is an unavoidable need on account of the world situation. Confirmation comes from the last General Chapter:

“The changes and present day socio-political and cultural complexity demands a new understanding of the local, national and world reality, aimed at making better our service according to the IMC charisma” (XI CG, p. 75, n. 5).

But it is first of all necessary to go on with personal ongoing formation: “It is necessary to allocate time for ongoing formation, understood as care of one’s own life and personal preparation, in order to respond with competence and efficacy to one’s own tasks”, taken up with God, one selves, and the Mission carried out in the Institute (XI CG, p. 75, n. 2).

What the Founder used to say about himself regarding progress and qualification of the members of the Institute, becomes a commitment for each one of us: "I shall not be tired to exhort you to well consider the topic f your vocation, so that you may esteem it ever more, thank the Lord every day and try to correspond to it with a strong and constant soul ". For this we need commitment, determined will, but also ongoing formation.

Fr. Stefano Camerlengo, IMC
Vice General Superior
Last Updated ( Thursday, 17 May 2007 )