To accompany

34. "That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognising him" (Lk 24, 13-16).

In order to describe the pedagogical expressions of accompanying, educating and forming, we are choosing the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. It is a significant passage, because, in addition to the wisdom of its content and the pedagogical method followed by Jesus, it seems to us that, in the two disciples, it is possible to see the image of so many young people today, a little saddened and betrayed, who seem to have lost the desire to look for their vocation.

The first step in this journey is being present: the sower, or the one who has awakened in the young person the awareness of the seed sown in his heart now becomes accompanier.

In the theological part of the present reflection the ministry of accompaniment was indicated as typical of the Spirit; in fact it is the Spirit of the Father and the Son who remains beside the person to remind him of the Word of the Master; it is also the Spirit who dwells in the person to stir up in him the awareness of being a child of the Father. The Spirit therefore is the model to which the older brother or sister must aspire who accompanies a younger brother or sister in the search.

a) Vocational itinerary

Having defined the pastoral vocational itinerary, we can now ask: what is a vocational itinerary on the pedagogical level?

The pedagogical vocational itinerary is a journey towards maturity in the faith, like a pilgrimage towards the adult state of a believing being, called to decide about himself and his life in freedom and responsibility, according to the truth of the mysterious project willed by God for him. This journey proceeds in stages in the company of a bigger brother or sister in the faith and in discipleship, who knows the road, the voice and the steps of God, who helps to recognise the Lord who calls and to discern the way to travel towards God and respond to Him.

A vocational itinerary, then, is above all a journey with Him, the Lord of life, that "Jesus in person", as Saint Luke notes with precision, who comes down to man's path, makes the same journey and enters into history. But the eyes of flesh often cannot recognise Him; and then human progress remains solitary and the discourse useless, while the search risks perpetuating itself in an interminable and at times narcissistic procession of experiences, even vocational, without any final decision. Perhaps the first task of the vocational accompanier is that of indicating the presence of Another, or of admitting the relative nature of his closeness or his accompaniment, in order to mediate that presence, or an itinerary towards the discovery of the God who calls and comes close to every person.

Like the two men of Emmaus, or like Samuel during the night, our young people often do not have eyes to see or ears to hear He who walks beside them and, with insistence and delicacy at the same time, speaks their name. The brother or sister who accompanies is the sign of that insistence and delicacy; his task is to help them to recognise the source of the mysterious voice; not to speak of himself, but to proclaim Another who is also present; in the same way as did John the Baptist.

The ministry of vocational accompaniment is a humble ministry, of that calm and intelligent humility which is born from freedom in the Spirit, and expresses itself "with the courage of listening to love and of dialogue". Thanks to this liberty, the voice of He who calls rings out with greater clarity and strength. And the young person finds himself before God, he discovers with surprise that it is the Eternal One who walks beside him in time, and calls him to a definitive choice!

b) Wells of living water

"Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well" (Jn 4, 6); this is the beginning of what we can consider an unedited vocational conversation: Jesus' meeting with the Samaritan woman. The woman, in fact, by means of this encounter, maps out an itinerary towards the discovery of herself and the Messiah, immediately becoming, in some way, His proclaimer.

Jesus' sovereign liberty in seeking His messengers everywhere and in everyone also shines out from this passage; but He who is man's way to the Father also takes excellent care to meet the person in her everyday life, or where her expectations are most evident and intense. And how much we can deduce from the symbolic image of the "well". In ancient Jewish society, wells were the source of life, a basic condition for survival of a people always short of water; and it is precisely around this symbol, water for and of life, that Jesus constructs His approach to the woman with finest pedagogy.

To accompany a young person means knowing how to identify the "wells" of today; all of those places and moments, those provocations and expectations, where, sooner or later, all young people must pass with their empty jars, with their unspoken questions, with their obstinate, often only apparent, self-sufficiency, with their deep-seated desire for authenticity and the future.

Pastoral work for vocations cannot follow a policy of wait and see but should be active on the part of the one seeking and should not give up until it has found, and found at the right place or well where the young person will plan his life and future.

The vocational accompanier must be "intelligent", from this point of view, one who does not necessarily impose his own questions, but begins from those, of whatever type, of the young person; or he is capable — if necessary — of "stirring up and uncovering the vocational question that dwells in the heart of every young person, but waits to be discovered by real vocational formators".(⁹⁹)

c) Sharing and con-vocation

To accompany someone's vocation means, above all, to share: one's faith, one's experience of God, the difficulties of the search, to the point of also sharing one's vocation: not in order to impose it, obviously, but to profess the beauty of a life lived according to God's project.

The manner of communicating typical of vocational accompaniment is not didactic or exhortational, and neither is it friendly, on one side, nor is it that of the spiritual director on the other (understood as someone who imparts a precise direction to the life of another), but it is in the manner of the confessio fidei.

One involved in vocational accompaniment gives witness to his own choice, or rather, his own being chosen by God, he recounts — not necessarily with words — his own vocational journey and the continual discovery of his own identity in the vocational charism, and therefore recounts also or allows to be understood the difficulties, the newness, the risk, the surprise, the beauty.

This gives rise to a vocational catechesis that is person to person, heart to heart, rich in humanity and originality, in passion and ability to convince, a wise and experiential vocations promotion. A little like the experience of Jesus' first disciples who "came and saw where he was staying; and they stayed with him that day" (Jn 1, 39); and this was obviously a deeply touching experience if John, after many years, could remember that "it was about the tenth hour".

Vocations promotion is done only through direct contact, because the heart is full and the experience of its beauty continues to charm. Young people are very interested in the witness of life of people who are already on a spiritual journey. Priests and religious must have the courage to offer concrete signs in their spiritual journey. Hence it is important to spend time with young people, to walk on their level, where they find themselves, to listen to them and answer the questions that arise in the encounter". (¹⁰⁰)

Precisely because of this, the one who accompanies a vocation is also enthusiastic about his own vocation and the possibility of transmitting it to others; he is not only a convinced witness but a content witness, and therefore convincing and credible.

Only in this way can the message reach the spiritual totality of the person, heart-mind-will, proposing something that is true-beautiful-good.

This is the sense of con-vocation: no-one can pass close to someone proclaiming such "good news" and not be touched, "totally" called, at every level of his personality, and continually called, by God, certainly; but also by so many people, ideals, new situations, different provocations, human mediations of the divine call.

And so the vocational sign could be better perceived.