By Rev Dr Armando Carandang
To be formed a priest is to become configured to Jesus Christ, Head of the Church. It is not to become “another Christ”, as in “another king”. There is only one Christ-King.
To be formed a priest is to learn first to acknowledge one’s sinfulness, deny one’s self-importance, live the truth of one’s own “nothingness” and put on instead more fittingly Christ Jesus, the one true Prophet, Pastor, King. He “came to serve”.
Yet to be ordained priest is to be placed in the forefront of the Church. Accordingly, years of wise and prudent formation are needed in all areas of a seminarian’s being and activity.
“May the God of peace make you perfect in holiness,” St Paul prays. “May he preserve you whole and entire, spirit, mind, and body for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1Th 5.23)
Mind and body take time and space to form. Spirit as such is not thus constrained. Mind and body, as with pets, can be trained to perform and entertain. But seminaries do not train. They e-ducate. Seminarians are not there just to conform but to be assisted to form themselves from within; to have their deep potentials and gifts “led-out” (e-ducere), that is, actualized and developed from within. And always they seek to be transformed in body, mind and spirit by the Spirit of Jesus and the Wisdom of God. Without this deep formation of their spirit they would become empty preachers, heart-less pastors, modern-day scribes and bureaucrats, or mere sanctuary priests.
Spiritual formation means living intimately united [on the same road] with Jesus Christ in his Spirit- that is, to be on the same journey with Christ, himself the Way, while being guided, prompted in silence by the Holy Spirit. “I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (Jn 15.5) And “he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.” (Jn 20.22) Word and Breath together transmit the Voice that wills and enables the one mission journey.
Spiritual formation, ultimately means intimate communion with the [Triune God]. It is the centrality which unifies and gives life to one’s [being] a priest and [acting] as a priest… Without this unique and important [center point] of a seminarian’s education the [three areas] of formation would be left without a foundation, order and unity.
It is from this personal spiritual core that men within formation exercise their spiritual intellect to reason and understand, their spiritual power of free will to make intelligent choices in both calm and turbulent times, and their creative power or spiritual energy to regulate mental and bodily drives.
Those gifts of intellect, free will and creative ability reflect respectively the Wisdom, Love and Power of the Triune God, in whose image humankind was made and into whose likeness human persons are to become.
To be formed spiritually in the seminary is to remain open (to the true, the good, the beautiful) and freely flowing from this wellspring towards an intellectual-moral-practical development.
In turn those three areas of formation must each be directed back and ordered towards the core’s spiritual growth, with all due prudence in timing and placement.
The intellect’s search for truth throughout a full, well-ordered academic program of Philosophy first (along with adjuncts: history, literature and the arts, human and natural sciences, etc.) –and only thereafter Sacred Theology, is ultimately the will and desire to grow in wisdom…to know God.
As St Thomas avers, this function of free will is love. So only a person who is free and loves will find [A artistic, B philosophic, C religious] wisdom and God. Intellectual formation thus begins and culminates in the spirit of freedom and love. And always at attendance is the human spirit of obedience to truth, i.e. humility, for only the lowly can under-stand.
Likewise in the spirit of the ancient Latin saying, Sapientis est ordinare (“It is the mark of the wise to put things in order”), the timing and placing of academic subjects is absolutely necessary for ensuring the best education of future vanguards of the Church and messenger-followers of the Spirit and the Word.
The same is true with the seminarian’s need to grow in moral wisdom through the (psycho-social) “human” formation – the “old” moral dimension of seminary community life. One is most affected on both levels of sense (“emotions”) and “intellectual affectivity” (“good or ill will”) within a human group.
Education of moral conscience is an on-going task of formation of the moral will-to-good which arises from a person’s spiritual core and unfolds only within a community.
The minimum love of neighbour as [also love of] self demands further affective maturity involving among others development of true friendship with both male and female of the species.
But even more, out of the Triune God’s love the future priest needs to progressively embody Jesus’ manly, fatherly confidence, care and communication. Regarding celibacy, more aptly termed “total chastity”, it can only be “for the sake of the kingdom” here and hereafter.
That means the seminarian and future priest, lives complete chastity with himself and with others, not because he is in constant state of withholding, or could not care less about sex, or because there is a Church law on celibacy, but simply because he chooses to love as Jesus loves and throughout his life continues to learn to love communally as in the Trinity.
“As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love…just as I remain in His Love”. (Jn 15.9-10) In all his relationships throughout his formation the would-be priest is thus “educated” to direct all his conscious affections towards this core spiritual maturity and integrity.
Created in the image of the Creator God, the seminarian with his creative energy needs also practical, “pastoral” formation. This means seminarians are informed and formed in the ministry of the word, of worship and sanctification through sacramental celebrations, and in every practical application of pastoral [theology] through involvement in certain services …All this in deeper communion with the pastoral charity of Jesus.
[Like the human intellectual and the human moral formation, the human pastoral] is rooted in the spiritual which is the hinge of all and the force which stimulates and makes it develop. Sacrament is therefore not mere ritual, or an overladen one to catch the eye, enchant the mind, entice emotions and spur drives.
Creative celebrations and works are to be ordered primarily to the spiritual growth of one’s core, the transcendent spiritual “heart”. In it dwells the Spirit, who quietly gathers into one same mission road, his own “many gifts”, Christ’s “many “ministries”, the “many workings” of the Father.
Pastoral formation thus aims at deepening and enlarging communion with the Triune God and His people through embodied spiritual actions that match spiritual vision and passion.
In sum, spiritual formation is the centrepiece of seminary education. Under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration it proceeds from, and refers back to, its ever-enlarging centre point or “heart” of freedom.
It moves on a different dimension from the space-time of the three human areas of formation, even while it underlies and overlays them all.
In his spiritual formation the seminarian applies his enlightened goodwill and creativity to every and any relation: personal (to self), social, cosmic, divine.
Trusting in, and guided primarily by, the Spirit of the Divine he shares with his trustworthy and trusted spiritual director the “ins” and “outs” of those relations in order simply to discern the Spirit’s movements and his own response-choices that mark his spiritual growth.
But always, the future priest sets off from and unites back the three areas of his formation to, his own personal, spiritual centre point of a loving-peaceful-joyful union with the Triune God of love, wisdom and might.
The Vocations Director who meets the applicant, prays with, tests and guides him possibly to the seminary entrance looks, if possible, into the applicant’s state of spiritual maturation.
This, above all, is his concern even while he verifies the applicant’s willingness and readiness for intellectual, moral and practical growth. (Is he teachable? Is he free? Is he called?)
Seminary formators, of course, (including the primary one, the local ordinary) who assume the most consequential task of a lengthy priestly education along with spiritual directors and instructors would have attained, and been graced with a certain degree of spiritual, mental and behavioural integrity—or just plain holiness—along with expertise and true humility to be veritable role models to seminarians and future priests.
The latter would then treasure them, seek them out on the same mission road as friends for life and into eternity.