Fr. Desiderio García Martínez, O.Carm.
3. What is the task of the formator
It is about adopting some kind of mystagogical itinerary [colloquially speaking, a "route plan"] (cf. RIVC 58), which gradually directs the candidate towards freedom (cf. RIVC 13; 16; 22; 56), thereby leading them to unity in love with God. The significance of this itinerary can be summarized in three words: educate, transform1 and accompany. These three missions should not be understood in isolation; they cannot be severed from each other as we separate a string of sausages. Neither is it necessary to presume that the given order is strict. We know that one who educates simultaneously transforms and accompanies. And one who transforms also educates and accompanies. And one who accompanies, simultaneously educates and transforms.
3.1 – Educate
On January 12, 2007, the Washington Post conducted a unique experiment aimed at assessing the artistic taste of the average North American citizen. The experiment sought to reveal how an ordinary person can perceive beauty. They persuaded Joshua Bell, one of the most famous violin virtuosos of our time, to dress in worn-out jeans, put on a baseball cap, and play several passages from an extraordinary concert at Boston’s Symphony Hall in the entrance of one of Washington’s subway stations as a street beggar. His subsequent reaction is very well-known: “It was a weird feeling,... those people totally ignored me.” When asked what impressed him the most, he added with a smile: “That morning, the Stradivari violins, estimated to be worth $3.5 million, earned a total of $32.17.” Not only did this experience leave him unmoved, but it also made him realize that often: “the most extraordinary things happen just around us and we don’t pay any attention to them.”
Only the formator – educator, who allows the gospel to guide his feelings, can perceive the beauty of God that is reflected in the inner self of the candidate. He will perceive beauty even in a person who does not have a particularly attractive appearance.2 If the formator is to be a mediator, he must become a contemplative person, which carries great responsibility. He must be contemplative enough to discern and reveal (cf. RIVC 58a) the presence of God’s action among those entrusted to him with certain spiritual prudence. “Beauty and Ugliness went for a swim in the sea one day. They both stripped off and left their clothes on the shore. Ugliness came out of the sea first and slyly dressed in Beauty’s clothes. Beauty, after emerging from the water as the second, was left with only the rags of Ugliness. Since then, Beauty and Ugliness walk around the world disguised, and only contemplative eyes do not confuse the two.”3 Ugliness can be hidden under layers of makeup and other cosmetics, or plastic surgery can be used on it (cf. O. Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray). How many of those entrusted to us conceal the beauty of our Lord under an apparently ugly shell of sorrow and suffering! We need to look at them through God's lens.
The primary task of the formator – mediator is to educate. The formator educates (in the original sense of the Latin verb educare / to educate means to lead out / e-ducere). The formator "draws out, extracts, brings forth" from the depths of the person entrusted to them beauty, goodness, and truth. All the valuable aspects, which the individual is, whether they realize it or not. In their specific life story, in their wounds and weaknesses, in their abilities, talents, and gifts. The formator acts in order for the other to delve deeper into themselves, to understand themselves, and gradually aim towards freedom. To educate means to teach the other the skill of looking inward so that we “walk in truth” (cf. 6 H 10,7). Saint Teresa states that: “there are souls so sick and used to dwelling only on external things that there is no cure for them, and they seem incapable of entering into their own selves. (...) And if these souls do not make an effort to understand and correct their great misery, they will most likely harden like salt pillars because they did not turn their heads toward themselves...” (1 H 1,6.)
By educating, the formator also helps the candidate to see their human heart as a vast cave that can hold many things but was created purely for God and only He can fully satisfy it. What complicates the formator’s mission in spiritual accompaniment is the reality that we are largely unaware (since they are "unconscious") of all the substitutes for God (according to biblical terminology idols) or (if we use a term from psychology and anthropology of spiritual accompaniment) all needs. Recognizing, gradually accepting, and subsequently integrating them does not necessarily mean that we penetrate into the "deep center" of our being. This center belongs solely to God: “God is like a spring from which everyone draws as much as their own vessel can hold, (...) a vessel that is created to hold an infinite amount.”4 This wellspring of our life can be filled with many things – emotions, social recognition, personal independence, control, knowledge, order, manipulating others, satisfying one’s sexuality, pleasure, success. However, it is impossible – as Saint John of the Cross points out – to completely fill this “deep cave of meaning”, because “it is not fulfilled by anything less than the infinite” (ŽP 3, 18).5 Only God is infinite. To educate means to accompany the other to this realization. Educating also means creating a plan focused on the needs of the particular candidate that would uncover which needs are more common, which are constantly recurring, how they operate and co-operate.
As I accept the needs and integrate them into my life, I also realize that in many situations I do so unconsciously. And although needs partly limit my freedom in following Christ, my decision to live for Him does not objectively waver at all. By renouncing them through reason, tension is brought into my life. But this is not detrimental. On the contrary. Such tension is typical of a mature person who stands firmly behind their decision, as it helps them grow towards higher values. It happens that I am not responsible for everything that has happened to me in life. I grapple, for instance, with certain lability, compulsion, or volatility, which is likely a result of earlier wounds for which I am not to blame. What I am responsible for, however, is the current attitude I take towards my weaknesses – including those I carry from the past. To be able to be responsible carries the courage to accept one’s weaknesses one by one. This helps me to not overly dramatize my life story, heal many wounds, learn the truth, and be who I am. On the contrary, he who denies his weaknesses condemns himself to carry them further. He who ignores his weaknesses does nothing other than strengthen them.6
How to renounce what does not fulfill us? When we do not have solid "values" to attract us, we have practically no solid way to detach ourselves. The only escape (as we will see in the following paragraphs) for us will be the moment when something far better than what we are currently clinging to is offered to us, namely, the transforming love of God. Saint John of the Cross compares this idea to a situation in which a child is holding a dangerous object (a knife). It is completely unreasonable for the mother to lead long discussions or lectures about how the child could hurt themselves, about how dangerous the object is, and thus to force them to let go of the knife. Saint John concludes this image: it is better to entice the child with something better (offer them a sweet), as this way they will immediately let go of what they are holding and grab onto something else. “As when one needs to take something away from a child’s hand, one must engage them with something else, otherwise they would cry if their hands were left empty” (3V 39, 1). Saint John of the Cross provides another simple and illustrative example: “It does not matter whether a bird is tied with a thin or thick thread, for as long as it is tied by the thread it cannot fly, until it breaks it. It is true that the thin thread is easier to break; however, no matter how easy it is, if it does not break it, it will not fly. Such is the case with the soul that clings to something” (3V 11, 4).
In this sense, education (educatio) is inherent to the Father, the Creator (cf. Gn 1; Ps 139). He "leads out," "brings to surface," and to the level of consciousness what a person truly is. Looking at this from this perspective, educational action leads to knowledge and to complete self-realization of one's self. It leads to reconciliation with one's life and healing of wounds from the past. God educates His people by bringing them out of the slavery of Egypt with His “mighty hand, outstretched arm” (Dt 4,34 etc.) and drawing them to Himself with cords of goodness and mercy (Hos 11,4). Just as a father admonishes his son (cf. Dt 1,3), so God chastises His people to lead them into the promised land and to freedom. Thus, educating means sharing in God's creative work. Through education, we are transformed and changed. Similar to creation, we move from non-being to being. All this is grace given to us.7 However, when we try to extricate ourselves from God's hands, the "old man" in us rebels against the action of the Creator. Saint John of the Cross illustrates this in the following reflection. We admire as something difficult that God created man from nothing. Far more difficult is that God renews man. Unlike man, "nothingness" did not oppose the Creator: “... how much more God does when He cleanses and purifies the soul from these oppositions, than when He creates it from nothing” (1V 6,4)! We were created to "walk with God" in paradise (cf. Gn 5,24). Transforming – that is, "to create anew"8 – means leading towards participation in God's work.
Translated from Spanish by Jaroslava Kučerová
