2.1- Mediation which educates⁴

The first mediation is that of e-ducating, in the sense of to e-duce, to pull out or e-voke the truth of the person, that which she/he is, at the conscious and unconscious level, with her story and her wounds, her gifts and weaknesses, so that she can know herself and fulfill herself to the best of her possibilities. ⁵

It is an intervention, therefore, directly on the current/actual ego of the individual. And which absolutely must precede the formation real and proper. If first we don’t discover the truth and provide for freeing the subject from what impedes his self-realization in the truth of the ego, the subsequent formation intervention will not take effect.

To educate, in that sense, is typical of the Father-creator, who in creating educes, pulls out things from chaos and creatures from nothing, to give order and transmit life.  Or, God Father is also the model of this pedagogic process when he educates his people, pulling them out from the slavery of Egypt with his strong hand and outstretched arm, attracting them to Himself with bonds of goodness and tenderness, but also reproving them and correcting them as a father does with a son. (cf. Dt 1:31; 6:21; 9:26)  To educate, then, always means participating in the creative and constructive action of God; it is something that regularly extends over long times, means letting oneself continually be scrutinized by his eye and by his word, or the constant courage to pull out one’s own truth, without being satisfied with sincerity.

It will, therefore, be important that early formation suggest a method that permits watching over the self, in an intelligent and sharp way, to reach discerning the presence of immaturity, and especially to identify precisely one’s central conflict.  So, it is not enough to learn to observe external behavior, nor be satisfied with what is noticed within oneself.  The only one who really lets himself be educated is the one who knows how to perceive beyond observable conduct and habits, his attitudes, or his predisposition to act, or his lifestyles ready for use as a fixed pattern (e.g., how he reacts when offended, or his criteria for judgement, his tastes and finally his conscience); in order then to move to sentiments, to the identification of what he feels in various circumstances of life (e.g., it does not suffice that he forgive, you need to see what he feels inside himself toward the other); and finally to reach motivations, to the effort—in other words—to move from the thing I did (=behaviors) to how I acted (=attitudes and in part feelings), in order to understand finally why and for whom I acted, what is the root of the feeling and acting, of certain decisions or of the vocational choice itself (love of God or other objectives? The abandonment into God’s hands or the expectation of self-direction, or various fears?…)

These operations aim to discover the so-called central inconsistency (or immaturity) which, when it is unconscious, takes the center of the psychic life and from there, like a pump, “sucks” a significant amount of energy. It is indispensable to be able to recognize it as soon as possible, in order to intervene in a timely way on it and not lose precious time and energy, and to prevent that problem’s becoming chronic and insoluble, creating a sort of deaf-muteness in the person which prevents him not only from communicating, but also from availing himself of the many occasions that life offers for continuing the journey of self-knowledge, never-ending by nature.  Or, again, that inconsistency is or creates a type of basic misunderstanding; it confuses and distorts the judgment of the mind and heart, deceives the individual and prompts him to seek his good and happiness where he will not be able to find one or the other. It is a misunderstanding that causes an incredible waste of energies along with, then, vexing disappointments.

A good education is always preventive, but is also one which puts the young person more in condition of “doing on his own”, proposing a method to him thanks to which he learns and continues to know himself and decipher his soul states. He learns not to lie to himself and understands the source of his problems, his fears and defenses, his perceptive distortions and unrealistic expectations. Here the freedom of the person always begins and re-begins from the start, from the hard work of telling himself the truth! We might say it is the intelligent and humble method of an exam of consciousness or of an exam of conscience…

We do not pretend, let’s make clear, that early formation eliminates all the inconsistencies of the subject, but that it helps him to identify them, to face them with a sense of responsibility, in order to find the way the allows him to be ever less dependent on them, and to prevent—especially—that they falsify his relationship with himself, with others, with God and his Word.

If this interior freeing does not happen during initial formation, it will be very difficult for the subject to be open to learn or let himself be formed, or “educable”, in subsequent phases of life. Because something that he does not know and still lives inside him conditions his being at all levels, from loving to deciding, from perceiving joys and toils to interpreting nervousness and fears. The subject may have many experiences and weave an infinity of relationships, possess a certain level of education and have profitable opportunities, etc.; but if he does not know himself sufficiently, especially in his own immaturity and its consequences, he is as though blocked interiorly, “tied up” inextricably around them. Inconsistency, in fact, creates a corresponding way of seeing things and dealing with events; it generates attractions and repulsions, orients one’s sensitivity and even conscience.  In the extreme, it makes the subject blind and deaf, or too susceptible and with a guilty conscience…⁶ And naturally, it distances one more and more from the truth about himself, impeding the person’s benefiting from others and from interpersonal relationships to advance his educational journey toward truth. In face of slander or an offense in his regard, for example, this person will react feeling offended and resentful, taking revenge or feeling victimized, but in any case, without the courage and freedom to discover the truth of that content, even partially. Those who have learned to know themselves in their truth benefit also of painful situations (slander, failures, insuccess, relational problems…and subjective reactions to these situations) to continue in this pilgrimage toward the root of the ego.

But there is another very important objective which early education must tend toward, and which is still part of that healthy method that the person must learn: that of learning to live the awareness of ones own weaknesses before God and the Son’s cross. These weakenesses are the mysterious instrument through which one meets and experiences divine mercy and overcomes and abandons the pretense of meriting divine love for himself. He learns to recognize and accept his brokenness, understands and accepts also others’ weaknesses. Early education does not aim to create supermen of the spirit, but individuals who, like Paul have the courage to…go down to the nether world and grasp the root of their ills. They arrive at experiencing their powerlessness before them, and in that weakness accepted and experienced before the cross of the Son, they experience a radical liberation, a freedom from invasive narcissism.

To educate, then, in this phase, means educating for the discovery of self and the acceptance of the other; it is passage from sincerity to truth.  It is education to prayer “in spirit and truth”; (Jn 4:24) to oration as the ideal place where this truth about self resounds before the truth of God, where the believer can listen to and recount to God the “whole truth” (like the woman with a hemorrhage when she finds herself caught), and seeing herself accepted, can open up---in turn—to welcome the other and that one’s whole truth.