D) Testimony and reflection

It must be said that my meditation was followed by four testimonies, which were all of a very high standard, and which certainly impressed the young people much more than my profound meditations! Independently of what my ego could have felt or not felt about it, this led me to reflect - precisely - on testimonies and reflection. Young people show a great sensibility, a great capacity to let themselves be moved, roused to enthusiasm; but much less to make a deep reflection, either on what is said to them or on life itself.

This is doubtless due to the present-day culture. They stop at what touches them, what moves them; they analyze but little. This is probably due also to the formation they received, which perhaps went too far in this direction. Perhaps we ought to reflect on the idea of "testimony", which is being talked about so much these days. Paul VI said that the present world had more need of "witnesses" than of "preachers". But there is witness and witness, testimony and testimony.

The testimony of a person with whom one lives, whom one sees every day, and whose unshakable fidelity to a mission and a commitment through all the difficulties and tensions of life one can observe, even though this person never tells us what he is experiencing, is one thing. Quite another thing is an autobiographical narrative lasting a quarter or half an hour, called a "testimony", in which a person recounts what he experiences - and which may be only one part of the numerous aspects of his experience.

Once again, I have to say that the testimonies we heard at the Congress were, on the whole, excellent, and enabled us to see young people who seemed to be living their religious life authentically in often difficult situations.

To listen to these descriptions is captivating and encouraging, this is obvious and a very good thing. But, except in rare cases, will it have a lasting influence on the lives of the young people, without some effort of reflection? And, obviously, the reflection cannot focus on the experience itself that one has just heard described and which one can only know partially - the testimony of those who live with the witnesses has not been heard - but on the basic questions posed by these witnesses.

Now, I did not perceive in these young people at the Congress - and this is probably characteristic of young (and not so young) people in general today - a great capacity for reflection, for analysis of situations and aspects of their religious life. It seems to me that we have here an important concern for formators. The support and encouragement that comes from examples and testimonies is important, but it is no longer enough in times of great difficulty. It is necessary to habituate young people to analyze situations and constantly reflect on the meaning of what they are experiencing, so that they can continue to experience it when perhaps they no longer feel anything.