By Rev. Fr. Peter Walusimbi
When I think of Seminary formation work today, the Mission of the Twelve in Luke 9:1-6 keeps coming into my head. Sometimes in a funny way and in many cases, in a serious way. I will start with the funny way. Can you imagine the faces of the Disciples as Jesus tells them to go and chase out demons, cure diseases, and heal the sick! Peter is my favorite among the Disciples. Not because I was named after him but because of how impulsive he can be, how ambitious he is, his self-assertive nature, how quick he was to commitment without even fully understanding the meaning of Jesus’ words or action, but above all, his determination to be Jesus’ best disciple. Regardless of how I describe him, I could see his jaw dropping. Driving out demons? He could easily ask himself. Who dares to confront a demonically possessed person. Would it be not fair for Peter to carry on his trade of fishing so that he can take care of his family! What would driving out demons pay him? Hearing what is involved in this mission for the first time, might have looked impossible for sure, although Peter and his friends had seen Jesus Himself chasing demons out.
In this passage, Jesus doesn’t stop there, He gives them more work that defines this mission; One had to be solely poor although they were going to preach mostly to the poor among the poorest; they were to move with nothing even though in many cases they were to meet those who need something from them, not a walking stick even though they could easily be challenged by wild animals and tiredness on their mission, no sack albeit they may be tempted to carry something with them as they moved on, no food, money or second tunic because they had to solely rely on God alone. The mission they were being sent out to, was not their mission but that of God and God had the responsibility of taking care of them.
I called the above thinking of this passage funny but it might be the realistic thinking of it. Could the disciples have not been engulfed with fear because of lack of security! To be with nothing but God only, is a challenging idea for man given the demands of life. Still, I can see some of the disciples looking at Jesus as though he doesn’t know what He is talking about. Some of them in their minds, might have thought that their master was cracking some sort of a joke, which would be funny because it would be funny if God would crack jokes really. These commands might bring out a moment of silence and reflection, yet at the same time, confusion. But on the serious note, Jesus gives them power and authority first before they go down on this Mission. The moment they internalize this, they go from village to village, proclaiming the good news and curing diseases everywhere, the passage concludes.
Isn’t what Jesus had to instill among His Disciples in this passage what Formators in the Seminaries do on a daily basis? To instill confidence, love for the mission and the sense of trust that, this sort of Mission is not based on human standards but it goes the way as God wills it. The challenge for students, or call them disciples, is to learn what self-surrender is and trust that God is in charge. Having gone into Seminary Formation myself not too long ago, and now being a Formator myself, I could say that the idea of self-surrendering and total trust in God as owner of His mission is a difficult one to many seminarians. It is hard to convince one that life will be okay, if they forget themselves and lived for the sake of the Gospel. The culture of individualism beats that out of them on a daily basis. It is hard to bring them to a point that living a poor life for the sake of the mission is okay. The worldly materialistic tendencies beat that possibility out of them every second they breath. It is a combination of these two forces; individualism and Materialism that it takes an enormous measure of energy to bring a Seminarian to an assurance that God alone will be able to take care of them as they take care of His mission once they are ordained priests. Many need some security and assurance that indeed food will be there and they will be clothed. Many wish that the Formators would give them assurance that life will be a little comfortable in some ways after all they left everything and followed Jesus.
Many of the students in the seminaries now are from a different generation from their Formators. There thinking might be very different, yet the Formator’s work is to bring them, to a thinking one like that of the Church. Some of the message brought to these students might even seem old fashioned, and therefore not attractive to the new generations. All these plus simply being books to be read and evaluated by students, Formators find it hard to form Seminarians with and to the heart of Jesus.
But in all this, Seminary Formators have to be careful not to lose the vision derived from the Council of Trent by the Fathers of Second Vatican Council II in their decree on Priestly Training, Optatam Totius [OT] proclaimed by His Holiness Pope Paul VI on October 28, 1965. The Council Fathers asks of priests, more so Formators “…to attract the interest of youths to the priesthood by their own life lived in a humble and industrious manner and in a happy spirit as well as by mutual priestly charity and fraternal sharing of labor” [OT 2] In this line, the hope would be that Seminarians in the Minor Seminaries would start “…to follow Christ the Redeemer with generosity of Spirit and purity of heart,” [OT 3] and those at the Major Seminary, orient themselves to being “true shepherds of souls after the model of our Lord Jesus Christ, teacher, Priest and Shepherd,” [OT 4] knowing and believing it in their hearts that the reward of fulfilling Christ’s mission awaits all of us in heaven [Mat. 16:27].
The writer is a Teacher and Formator at Sacred Heart Seminary, Mubende.
