2.2—Mediation that forms

It is not enough to educate; we must also form, propose a precise model, as a new way of being or a “form” that constitutes the new identity of the consecrated person, the one that is called to be his ideal ego.  That form is constituted by the life of the Son, by his passion for the Reign, for the Father, for all of humanity, by his sentiments. But an authentic form of life becomes also norm, it is embodied in precise and concrete norms: it does not remain on just an ideal or emotional plane, but dictates a corresponding existential style, a “rule of life”, an “ordo” that gives steadfastness and coherence to the person and his activities. A form that does not become a norm risks remaining airy and meaningless. A norm that does not inspire is soul-less and generates legalism and moralism.  It is important, then, in the initial formation journey to be precise and not confuse horizons. CL does not aim at self-realization, as though the first and only commandment were that of being affirmed in life, even in competition and to the harm of others, and without any newness for an ego destined to repeat itself ad infinitum. The project of consecration aims at an overcoming of the human, which while it provokes the individual at the highest level of his own possibilities, also gives him a great deal; it attracts him because it is the source of his truth while it suggests to him a freeing (even costly) journey of conversion. ⁷

Thus, if education is evocative of a person’s truth, formation brings a pro-vocation of the person. It is a proposal which, precisely because it asks one to give the maximum of self, at the end reveals what the individual is capable of. In any case, an authentic formation activity has disruptive effects: it is a newness that surprises and at times frightens, creates new expectations and challenges, brings tension and also dissatisfaction. It calls for changing habits and old styles of life, sets the equilibrium of a person forward toward unthought-of horizons, opens a new phase of life but also solicits resistance and defenses…  If to educate is to plow the terrain, forming is to place in it the vitality of the seed, as disruptive force and herald of new life. The seed which falls to the earth dies and brings fruit.

Again, if to educate is the task of the Father, formation seems to be the main task of the Son, obviously without any rigid and exclusive attribution. The typical model of CL, in fact, as we have already indicated, are “the sentiments of the Son”.  Who, therefore, better than the Lord Jesus can carry forward this patient work of formation in the heart of the young consecrated person?

It is very important, not only fascinating/attractive, to feel the relationship with Christ in that way, the true (father) Teacher of life, the way, the truth and the life, the only one who can truly transmit and “plant” his feeling into one’s heart, to make one vibrate with his love, to make his passion for the reign contagious… If he and his sentiments are the final objective of formation, only he can be the potter of whom the prophet Jeremiah talks, who works with infinite and stubborn patience around his clay and works and  chisels it, changes and perfects, corrects and beautifies it… until it becomes “as it looks right in his eyes” (Jer 18:4).  “Lord…, we are clay and you are the one who gives us form.” (Is 64:7)

A crucial point in the formation journey is the moment in which the consecrated person recognizes in Christ his/her own identity.  The truth-beauty-goodness of the value then become progressively the truth-beauty-goodness of the subject, the sentiments of Christ become ever more the sentiments of the young person. It is the crux of the whole pedagogic process, to be lived with the totality of psychic powers: with the heart so that it falls in love with God, with the mind so that it contemplates him, with the will so that it learns to desire his desires. For a journey that will have to continue all one’s life, but which, with difficulty will be able to be there if the spark did not flash during early formation.

In concrete, it will be a matter of taking up again the journey from that point where the educational action had arrived, from that basic misunderstanding or that inconsistency that give life a mistaken and illusory direction. With the formation process the person ought slowly to replace the mistaken base with a new basic option, this time modeled on the decision to follow the Lord Jesus and his passage of death and resurrection. It is like a journey of climbing up again and starting from a new center, which is the cross of Jesus, who imprints a new form and motivation, sentiments, attitudes and behaviors. It is the birth and growth of the new person.

Formation, understood thus, is truly freedom which is born of truth: freedom to let oneself be attracted by the beauty of the Son and his sentiments, a freedom, therefore, that overflows into mysticism, and then freedom to let the self be molded by the Spirit of the Father, and therefore freedom that becomes asceticism.  The consecrated person is an aesthete of the Divine to the point of knowing how to design him in the human, even in that so deeply human reality, the sentiments.