FORMATION AND STUDY

Dearest brothers and sisters,

we have come to discuss a concrete aspect of love that might not be considered the heritage of everyone, from the poorest to the richest. It is instead, in my view, an important dimension of our Christian life, if we want to mature in our faith and in our professional and working commitment, placing it at the service of love. To do this, it will be important to consider the close relationship that formation and study have with the wisdom that comes from God.

Thirsting for truth, I studied philosophy from a young age to seek whatever can be explored about the mystery of God and of the human person. Later I experienced an interior light that illuminated me and guided me on the path of wisdom, and I saw clearly that in human thought I can encounter true things, but not the Truth, which is God himself; this encounter is a gift of grace that gives order to life.

In the communion lived with those whom God has given me, I then experienced the presence of Jesus, living and active wisdom in the community united in his name.

The incarnate Word is, as Saint Paul says, “the wisdom of God” (1Cor 1,24); Christ crucified and forsaken is the revelation of the Trinitarian mystery, he is Wisdom itself.

There is no human knowledge, then, that should not be informed by the wisdom that comes from God, unless it is to dissolve into vain erudition.

The search for true wisdom coincides with living in deep communion with others, with the whole Church, with all humanity, knowing how to love to the point of giving oneself entirely like Jesus crucified, who in his forsakenness even experienced the loss of God, in order to make us sharers in the divine life, to make us children of God.

In light of what I have said, we can understand the importance of study, of every form of learning of human knowledge, if it is directed to leading us to wisdom, to an ever deeper knowledge of God, to an ever more mature love for God and for others. This is true not only of catechetical and theological studies but also of all other disciplines, because every field of human knowledge contains and reflects the beauty of the mystery of God and of the whole of creation.

Theology, medicine, literature, the sciences, art, computer science... everything helps us to better understand the reality in which we live and the eternal principle from which everything comes: God himself. A deeper human knowledge makes us more capable of living in relationship with God, with ourselves, with others, with creation.

I am not referring only to one or another specific course of study for obtaining qualifications and preparing for a profession, but also to study understood as a dimension of Christian life, to which we should constantly devote time, in the various phases of our existence, in order to deepen our knowledge of God and love him more, to deepen our understanding of the human person in all its aspects and of creation in all its components, to love our neighbor more and to responsibly care for creation, our common home.

We could say that communion with God also impels us to study, and study leads us to communion with God: “whoever does not love does not know God” (1Jn 4,8).

Even theologians, if they do not love God, do not know him. Study done for oneself, not informed by Wisdom, can distance us from God and from others.

It is also very useful, for those who have the opportunity, to compare with others who share the same love for truth the notions learned through study, in order to grasp in every piece of learning the golden thread of wisdom that underlies all human knowledge.

Jesus among us, present in the communion we live, is Wisdom itself; let us make sure we welcome it within us with faithfulness and love, and then study too will support what we experience or intuit in daily life.

Love for Jesus, and in a particular way for Jesus crucified and forsaken, is therefore for us a source of wisdom.

Such wisdom must inform our life and our thinking, whose main characteristic should be the communal dimension, that is, the capacity to think together, to dialogue, to relate the various disciplines of knowledge to one another. Mutual love, unity in Christ, is the foundation and the content of true wisdom, which embraces all fields of human knowledge; we must know how to dialogue together in order to arrive at a single thought on everything, while keeping the richness of the various facets that each one brings; in this way, as Saint Paul says, we come to have “the mind of Christ” (1Cor 2,16) on everything.

From this perspective, study is the road and the instrument for discovering wisdom in every area of reality.

I remember that, at a particular time in my life, after studying philosophy for years, I found myself, not without the help of a grace, experiencing a kind of interior light that illuminated in a new way what I had learned from books over so many years of study. I then saw, with renewed eyes, the very things I had studied before; I could say that in this way knowledge became a support for wisdom.

This is the meaning of any study that is not mere culture or erudition.

We must study, just as we must do anything else, that is, in order to do the will of God, without particular attachment even to study, because in everyone and through everything it is only love that we must seek, it is only love that fulfills us as persons and as Christians; study, at most, serves us in making this love mature and grow.

It is obvious that for a Christian it is indispensable first of all to have an adequate catechetical education, and then to move on, according to each one's possibilities, to a possible deepening of the faith in theology; for everyone, human and professional formation is also important for undertaking and carrying out one's work. Even professional studies, however, must not distance us from true wisdom, which is always at the service of love and is never an itch for knowledge in order to assert ourselves.

Keeping up to date in one's specific field in order to do one's work better must also be done in an evangelical spirit, without careerism or vainglory.

Those who are called, by vocation or ministry, to carry out particular services in the Church may find themselves studying theology to better sustain their life of Christian commitment; it will also be important not to neglect the teachings of the Magisterium.

If I may be permitted to conclude with a personal experience, I wish to mention here the importance of books and reading, never entirely replaceable by the media; to this end I personally started a library in the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Beautiful Love, which is gradually growing and being enriched by various contributions. In the history of the Church it was the monks who at times preserved history and culture with their splendid libraries.

In conclusion, it seems important to me to understand that formation and study should not be the heritage of a few, but a dimension of life that involves us all, from the street sweeper to the member of parliament, from the layperson to the priest, from the housewife to the woman religious. Each one must strive to do ever better what he or she does: the cook will learn ever more about the kitchen and its dishes, the teacher will deepen a sound pedagogy, the doctor will keep up with advances in medicine, the farmer will learn about new agricultural discoveries suited to cultivating the land better, the economist will explore new banking systems; but all, without exception, according to their possibilities and competence, will not cease to deepen their knowledge of the contents of their faith and of the mystery of God, placing their human knowledge at the service of love and of true wisdom.

 

Sr. Nunziella