Our endless need for formation

OUR march toward full development and maturity, human and not to mention Christian, never ends in this life. It’s supposed to be an ongoing affair, a work in progress. We should never say enough.

The duty to take care of formation is coterminous with life itself, which will always give us lessons. And that’s because the basics and essentials, the absolute, old and the permanent truths, which we may already know, will always have to cope and somehow need to get enriched by the incidentals in life, by the relative, innovative and changing things.

In his second letter, St. Peter urges us to go on with our formation: “Strive diligently to supply your faith with virtue, your virtue with knowledge, your knowledge with self-control, your self-control with patience, your patience with piety, your piety with fraternal love, your fraternal love with charity.” (1,5-7)

And as we all know, charity is a never-ending affair, ever making new demands on us, and introducing us to more aspects, dimensions and challenges in life. It will always push us to do more, to give more, to be more.

Besides, given the rapid pace of developments in the world today, can we think that we can afford to sit pretty and rely simply on what we have learned so far? Not only that. If we realize more deeply that our ultimate goal is communion with God and with others, can we ever think that we already have enough formation to reach that goal?

We should never feel that we already have enough formation because we may have acquired some academic attainment and professional accomplishments. That certainly is a wrong move. In fact, we should cultivate the hunger for continuing formation, knowing that many factors connive to put it to a halt.

Number one danger is pride, the feeling that we are already ok because we know quite a lot to get by in life and even with some assurance of earthly success and prosperity. We can think, with some pieces of evidence to boot, that we are the leader of the pack, or at least are ahead of many others.

We have to be very careful with this danger that can give a fatal blow to our need for continuing formation. That’s why we have to always deepen our humility. Let’s imitate the humility of some great men like Aristotle who said: “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.” Or Albert Einstein who said: “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.”

Another danger is the information overdrive and the many other distractions we have nowadays. They can give us a false sense of formation, because with all the data we have and since we can appear busy with so many things, we can think that we are already ok.

This is where we have to be most careful in distinguishing between just knowing and accumulating a lot of information, and real formation that makes us a better person, which is measured by a growing love for God and for others shown in deeds and not just in intentions and words.

Some of St. Paul’s words can be relevant in this regard: “In the last days shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud…ever learning and never attaining to the knowledge of the truth.” (2 Titus 3,1ff)

And, “Know also the charity of Christ, which surpasses all knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.” (Eph 3,19) In other words, we should not be contented with accumulating knowledge only, which tends to lead us to self-centeredness. We have to aspire for charity as the be-all and end-all of our formation.

This anomaly, sad to say, is what we are seeing these days. The world is practically glutting with data and all kinds of information, but instead of better understanding among ourselves, and more unity and social justice, what we see is a lot of injustice and inequality, misunderstanding, division and strife.

We need to correct this drift and see to it that our understanding of formation that is proper to us must be based on a living relationship with God which should have, as a necessary consequence, a growing love for the others.

We need to be wary of the subtle forms of self-centeredness that can characterize our formation. We have to see to it that our formation should lead us to a growing love for God and for others. We need to rectify our intentions and ways in every step of our formation.