A pedagogic note

20.   Formation action is the help offered to persons journeying in the maturation of their own

identity as “new persons” in Christ, as members of the Church; it is a help that aims at the integral development of persons in all dimensions, according to their vocation in the people of God and in society.

            Formation action is always an “event” of grace, which expresses the progressive fulfillment of the plan of salvation in each one and incarnates the love of the Father for each person. Our role is one of “participative mediation” in the Father’s action, who “through the unceasing gift of Christ and the Spirit is the educator par excellence of those who consecrate themselves to him.” ³³ That requires being persons who are experts on God and attentive connoisseurs of the contributions of human sciences.  In addition, it requires, especially relative to youth, a specific witness; that is, knowing how to face today and look at the future. For new generations it is an immediate criterion of truth of the Gospel and its power to transform persons and society.  Formators, in fact, are reference points close at hand, as is also the religious family in its creed and with its choices.

            We must journey with the young people, held within our inner silence, in order to lead them to Christ Jesus, the Master.  As Andrew did with his brother Simon and Philip with Bartholomew.  They led them to Jesus:  “Come and see!”.  In the encounter a relationship with the Lord was triggered, which developed with time, led him to share his mission, then to build the young communities of believers witnessing to the love of Christ, who was sent by the Father and gave his life for the mission. Even the Samaritan woman, in telling about her experience, directed her co-citizens to Jesus so that they would meet him. Formation begins in and with this meeting and unfolds while staying with him, in the school of the Word and of service. ³⁴ The event of the encounter  with the person of Jesus, the only true rooted motivation for a response of discipleship, transforms each person’s journey into “a story of friendship with the Lord” ³⁵ which gets set into the story of universal salvation.  The person grows in a sense of responsibility and commitment to be fulfilled in all dimensions of life, living with brothers or sisters and continuing Christ’s mission with them.

            We are in the order of realities proper to the Kingdom into which the Father has transferred us, to use the language of Paul to the Colossians. ³⁶ The work that reveals Christ present in history, and the love of His Father and ours, is becoming persons who are whole, solid, confident, open, courageous in our fragility, in solidarity with all, who are able to give their life daily, docile to the action of the Spirit who transforms every desert into life.