FRATRUM MINORUM - OFM

186 AN. CXXIV – MAII-AUGUSTI 2005 – FASC. II
what the “pedagogy of consolation”
does46. It is necessary to overcome,
through an experiential formation,
the so called “white schism”, with
which a language is created in contradiction
with what one really feels
and, many times, lives. This implies a
step forward:
– Forming ourselves and forming
others so as to pitch our tent with the
have-nots, the defeated, the excluded,
allowing ourselves to be seduced by
the forgotten cloisters, the inhuman
cloisters where the beauty and the dignity
of persons are constantly blemished
or stained. In this way our option
for the poor will go beyond the proclamation,
beyond words and will
lead us to be poor as they are, to exercise
a prophetic defense of human rights
and be active agents of peace and
justice47.
3. To Form the person to love life
The passion for God and the passion for
humanity leads us to a different vision of
ourselves which has nothing to do with the
anthropological “vision” which was inculcated
in an already obsolete formation, at
least in the documents or with the “vision”
which is presented to us today from the
post-modern culture.
In fact, during a long time, both in permanent
and initial formation, a certain spiritualism
was stressed, and this led to neglect
the integral development of the person and
even to consider the body as the “place” of
sin, forgetting that we have been created in
the image and likeness of God (cf. Gn 1,31),
and to enjoy life as an evil, forgetting that
we have been created to be happy.
On the other hand the post-modern culture
propagates the values of health, the
worship to beauty and of the body, the decisive
character of appearances. We form
part, whether we want it or not, of the kingdom
of the physical and of marketing.
Everything, thanks, at least in part, to the
mass media (mediatic).
Keeping in mind the context of yesterday
and that of today, it is urgent to form
ourselves and to form others in:
• A positive vision of the body, giving it the
depth of “sacrament” which, according
to biblical revelation, it has, in so far as it
is in the “image” and “likeness” of the
Creator without making an idol of it.
Starting from the Mystery of the Incarnation
in which the Son of God took a
body like ours, we consecrated persons
want to form ourselves and form others
to make visible the beauty of the masterpiece
of God, assuming our own corporeity
as ”temple of God” (cf. ICor 3,16).
It is only by integrating the biological,
psychic, social and existential levels and
working tirelessly for interior unification
that we will be able to make visible the
beauty of God’s masterpiece. And, only
in this way, will we be able to show “the
beauty of the following of Christ and the
value of the Charism in which it becomes
concrete”48.
• Affective freedom, “thanks to which the
consecrated person loves his vocation
and loves according to his vocation”49.
At this present moment when consecrated
life is a “counter-cultural” project, it
is important to form ourselves and to
form others to “accept consecration as a
true, beautiful and good reality, which
communicates truth, beauty and goodness
to one’s own existence”50. In order
to attain such a beautiful, as well as difficult
goal, it is necessary to have a specific
formation of affectivity which is far
from a narcissist-adolescent, rigorist or
laxist attitude, and will lead us and our
candidates to feel the call to consecrated
life as a valid and beautiful reason to live.
3. Some pedagogical notes
Reading here and there in the different
conferences of the Congress we can find
some important pedagogical notes.
1. To work beginning with what is lacking
The Samaritan woman as well as the
Good Samaritan are sinners, but in them,
availability to do good is not lacking. Con-