To form

36. "When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognised him; and he vanished out of their sight. They said to each other, 'Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?'" (Lk 24, 30-32).

Formation is in some way the culmination of the pedagogical process, because it is the moment in which the young person is proposed with a form, a way of being, in which he himself recognises his identity, his vocation, his norm.

The Son is the image of the Father, the formator of men and women, because He represents the image according to which the Father has created them. Therefore He invites those whom He calls to have His same sentiments and to share His life, to have His "form". He is, at the same time, both formator and form.

The vocational formator is such insofar as he is the mediator of this divine action, and places himself beside the young person to help him "recognise" in it his call, and to allow himself to be formed by it.

a) Recognition of Jesus

The decisive moment in the Emmaus story is undoubtedly when Jesus takes the bread, breaks it and gives it to them: "And their eyes were opened and they recognised him". There is here a series of "recognitions" related to each other.

First of all the two recognise Jesus, they discover the true identity of the traveller who has joined them, precisely because only He could make this gesture, as the two well knew.

In the vocational perspective this highlights the importance of making strong gestures, unequivocal signs, high proposals, projects of total commitment. (¹⁰²)

The young person needs to be stimulated by lofty ideals, considering something which goes beyond him and is beyond his capacities, because of which it is worthwhile giving one's life. Psychological analysis also reminds us of this: to ask of a young person something that is less than his possibilities, means offending his dignity and impeding his full self-realisation; in a more positive way, the young person should be asked for the best he can give so that he may become and be himself.

And if Jesus is recognised "in the breaking of the bread", the Eucharistic dimension must underlie every vocational programme: as the typical "place" of vocational encouragement, as the mystery that speaks the general sense of human existence, as the final objective of every pastoral work for vocations that would be Christian.

b) Recognition of the truth of life

At this point in an authentic process of formation for the choice of vocation there comes a second "recognition": the recognition-discovery, within the Eucharistic sign, of the meaning of life. If the Eucharist is the sacrifice of Christ who saves humanity, and if this sacrifice is His body broken and blood outpoured for the salvation of humanity, then the life of the believer, too, is called to model itself on the same correlation of meanings: life, too, is a good received that tends, by its very nature, to become a good given, like the life of the Word. This is the truth of life, of every life.

On the level of vocations, the consequences are clear. If there is a gift at the beginning of a person's existence, that constitutes him in being, then life has its path marked out: if it is a gift, it will be fully itself only if it is realised in the perspective of self-giving; it will be happy on condition that it respects its own nature. It can make whatever choice it wishes, but always in the logic of the gift, otherwise it will become a being in contradiction with itself, a "monstrous" reality; it will be free to decide its specific orientation, but it will not be free to reflect on itself outwith the logic of the gift.

The whole of pastoral work for vocations is constructed on this elementary catechesis of the meaning of life. If this anthropological truth is accepted, then we can make any vocational proposal. Then even the vocation to the ordained ministry or to religious or secular consecration, with its weight of mystery and mortification, becomes the full realisation of the human and of the gift which every person has and is in the depths of himself.

c) Vocation as thankfulness

If it is in the Eucharistic gesture that the two on the road to Emmaus "recognise" the Lord, and every believer the meaning of life, then vocation is born of "thankfulness". It is born of the fertile soil of gratitude, because vocation is a response, not an initiative of the individual: it is to be chosen, not to choose.

It is precisely to this interior attitude of gratitude that the reading of one's past life should lead. The discovery of having received, in an unmerited and generous way, must "force" the young person psychologically to consider the offering of self, in the vocational option, as an inevitable consequence, as a certainly free act, because it is determined by love; but in a certain sense also compulsory, because in the face of the love received from God he feels that he can do no less than give himself. It is beautiful and totally logical that it be so; in itself, it is nothing extraordinary.

Pastoral work for vocations is aimed at preparing this logic of thankfulness-gratitude; it is much healthier and more convincing, on the human level, and more theologically founded than the so-called "logic of the hero", of the one who has not sufficiently matured the awareness of having received and feels himself to be the author of the gift and the choice. This logic has taken very little of the sensitivity of modern young people, because it subverts the truth of life as a gift received that tends naturally to become a good given.

It is the Gospel wisdom of "You received without pay, give without pay" (Mt 10, 8) (¹⁰³) addressed by Jesus to the disciples-proclaimers of His word, which speaks the truth about every human being: no-one could not recognise himself in it.

It is from this truth that life derives the form that it is then called to assume, or it is from this unique figure of the faith that are then born the different vocational configurations of the same faith.

It becomes possible, then, even to request somewhat strong and radical choices, such as a call to special consecration, to the priesthood and consecrated life. Therefore God's proposal, because of how difficult and excellent it may seem (and is in reality), also becomes an unexpected promotion of authentic human aspirations and guarantees the greatest happiness. The happiness, full of thanksgiving, that Mary sings in the "Magnificat".

d) Recognition of Jesus and self-recognition of the disciple

The eyes of the disciples of Emmaus are opened at the Eucharistic gesture of Jesus.

It is in the face of this gesture that Cleopas and his companion perceive also the meaning of their journey, as a journey not only towards the recognition of Jesus, but also towards their own recognition: "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?" (Lk 24, 32).

There is not simply a commotion within the pilgrims who listen to the explanation of the Master, but the sensation that His life, His Eucharist, His death and resurrection, His mystery will always be more than their own life, eucharist, death, mystery.

In the heart that burns there is the discovery of vocation and the history of every vocation. Always related to an experience of God, in whom the person also discovers himself and his own identity.

Forming for the vocational choice means showing more and more the connection between experience of God and discovery of self, between theophany and self-identity. The affirmation of the Instrumentum laboris is very true: "the recognition of Him as Lord of life and history, brings with it the self-recognition of the disciple". (¹⁰⁴) And when the act of faith manages to connect the "Christological recognition" with the "anthropological self-recognition", then the seed of the vocation is already mature, indeed, it is flourishing.