It is possible to say our vocation is the vocation of mutual love between God and us. Indeed, God calls us out of love to share God’s mission of love. In return, out of love, we respond to God’s and enter the formation in which we continuously dialogue with God. Thus, whenever we stop to say ‘yes’ to the Lord or to dialogue with Him, we stop to love and our vocation is perished. In other words, to respond to God’s call, one must be undergoing the unfolding formation process. This unfolding formation process is composed by three main elements, namely: the call and response, the passionate dialogue, and sending to the mission. Indeed, these three elements cannot seemingly separate from one another in any stage of formation before we were born until we die as Jeremiah had experienced, Jer. 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nation”.
Looking back on my vocation journey and reflecting on the verse of Jeremiah, I realize that out of love God has been calling me. When I am responding to God’s call, I am really entering the unfolding formation process. The formation was started when I learned how to be a good child, a good student, a good Christian. Those undergoing formation brought me to God and started to dialogue with Him by telling Him with I like for myself and my family. At the same time, I has questioned him the meaning of life, what I have encountered, especially in the suffering and trial circumstances. Sometimes, it had appeared in my mind and heart the desire to become someone like a hero or superwoman to help the poor and the oppressed. In the beginning, this formation came to me in the very natural without consciousness. But it is a very important and basic stage of my formation for me to courageously respond to God’s call until now. Thus, it is possible to say that God did call us from our beginning of life and we also did respond to God and did dialogue from the very early of life.
However, love of God not only lies in way of calling or choosing us and find the way to help us through our family, our school and the Church but also events of life until we listen clearly His call and know Him personally. For me, I really realized God called me after graduating High School. When I was confused to choose for my future, my neighbor invited me to her to watch religious movies, “The Passion of Christ and the Conversion of Saint Paul. After that, I chose to respond to God’s call by entering the Lovers of the Holy Cross of Thủ Đức congregation. What I am trying to say is God has used many people, many ways, and events to teach and form me. For me, when God calls me, God also enters the unfolding formation process with me both the Teacher and Learner. God becomes a Learner in the sense of trying to find the way to express his love so that I may realize His will and love. At the same time, God needs to learn how to teach me and attract me. This formation process is unending. Meaning to say, God continues to call me, to help me answering God’s call, to be faithful with him, and persevere in mission, and maintain my relationship with Him until I die.
Thus, it is a big mistake to think that our formation process is just limited from aspirant stage to the perpetual vows or becoming a priest. That is, the religious formation is ended or closed when seminaries have a perpetual profession for sisterhood or brotherhood or become a priest. Perhaps, many religious men and women and clergy have mistakenly thought in such a way, it has caused so much problems in the religious life and the Church. Indeed, many have negatively changed after perpetual profession and priest. As being parish priests, they become little kings in their parishes or big Bosses in their mission. How can they serve people effectively without understanding them, immersing in their lives, and listening to them? For the boss or the king are very good at commanding but very bad in listening, especially difficult to live out of their comfortable zone. For the reason, Pope Francis constantly calls us to be a learner and listener always, even we must “smell sheep or fish”.
Therefore, ongoing formation after being perpetual profession or priest is not less necessary than any stage of formation. First, it is because the formation stage is just the academic level. In this sense, I just know God and other people even ourselves in the head, not much in heart and personal experience of life and mission. Thus, my relationship with God seems just in the sense of imagination or ideal, not much being formed in the severe hardship of life. In short, in this stage, I found difficultly to be mature in relationship and dialogue with God and other people. Indeed, I cannot learn many important lessons of life in our school. I mostly take place in the real experiences and encountering of life. Simply, there is no book and no teacher tell me all about people I are serving and all things I have encountered. All of these realities I have to learn in doing my mission. Therefore, the stage of mission is the heaviest formation that the religious and clergy need to undergo. It is simply because the world, people, circumstances are continuously changing. Whenever I stop to learn, I would be left back. In short, the longer I serve in mission, the heavier I should learn. The longer I live, the more difficult I encounter, the more confusion of life I have, the more I need to dialogue with God, his grace and love, the more patience and perseverant I need.
In conclusion, in every stage of life, one needs to learn to find God and His will, to respond to God’s call, to dialogue with God and others, to be witness of God love, to proclaim the Good News, to serve God and people, to express and experience the love to God and to others, to persevere and faithful to God in our life and mission. It is possible to say that to be a religious is to enter God’s unfolding formation process to learn and become perfect lover of God Son Jesus Christ. With such idea, I would like to summarize this reflection in the chart below:
THE UNFOLDING FORMATION PROCESS OF THE CONSECRATED LIFE
Sr. Hồng Ngân, MTG.Thủ Đức