I AM BACK: a reflection- on the importance of integral humanity

1.0 INTRODUCTION The concept of “going back” signifies retreating oneself. Allusions could be made to the scripture where Jesus withdrew to a lonely place to communicate with God. (cf. Mt 14:23) Certain questions become very pertinent in the course of this reflection. To say “I am back”, connotes a place- place of happiness, place of love, place of spiritual life, place of sadness, place of holiness, place of sin, a place of pleasure, place of learning pastoral and missionary spirit and zeal, a place of wisdom and intellectual activities. It is to be noted that ‘a place’ has a relative influence on specific individuals. This signifies that certain individuals would even be corrupt and unholy at the spiritual and calm environment, inversely, people could be even holier in the most corrupt places-take Ajegunle as a case study.
2.0 THE CONCEPT OF ‘PLACE’ The concept of place denotes space which correlates with time. At this juncture, we are dealing with three ambiguous concepts which include place, space and time. In the world of philosophy, certain difficulties are noted in the discourse of time, space and place. Space-time relationship is concerned with the issues surrounding ontology (the study of being as being) and epistemology (theory of knowledge). It forms a central idea for the early analytic philosophy. The philosophy of space and time has an ancient probably Greek thought. Plato, in the Timaeus, conceived time with the period of motion of heavenly bodies and space as that in which things come to be. Aristotle in Book IV of his Physics defined time as the number of change with respect to before and after and the PLACE of an object as the innermost motionless boundary of that which surrounds it. St. Augustine in his book XI of Confessions, would ask, ‘what then is time? If no one asks me, I know not’. Unlike the ancient Greek Philosophers who view the universe as possessing an infinite past with no beginning, the medieval developed the concept of the universe having a finite past with a beginning. I would at this point let me be slow in recounting the opinions of philosophers on time, space and place but Immanuel Kant is mostly influential on this issue in his book “critique of pure reason”. He describes time as an a priori notion, together with space, and as such they allow us to comprehend the sense experience. They are not substance according to Kant but they structure our experience. God as well cannot be defined in space and time. They are only categories to understand our being. From the foregoing, a place could be easily said to be a point in a space which exist in time. Otherwise stated, a place is reduced to a mere spatial concept. It would mean ‘a location in space’. Anaximander would conceive “Place” as prior to all things. This follows from the assertion that ‘to be is to be in place’. Such thought seems to be flawed, because “place” would not exist if it is not in place. For Descartes, Space is occupied by extensional entity (Res extensia) and as such place is viewed as an extensional entity. For Philo, the term “place” has 3 meanings, one physical and two theological, but we are interested on the third definition which denotes place as God himself. God Himself is called a place, by reason of His containing things, and being contained by nothing whatever…for He is that which He Himself has occupied, and naught encloses Him but Himself. Certain places are sacred. Places are sometimes referred as a “dwelling” (Deut 33:27). With this, we replace ‘place’ with ‘dwelling’ because dwelling connotes “home” and sacred places. Certain question would simply arise to clarify our notion of ‘dwelling’. For Heidegger, we build because we dwell, we do not dwell because we have built. Certain questions become an imperative and significant, “what is the relationship between ourselves and our places, particularly our built places? How do our places show us for what we are? And how do we show them for what they are? 3.0 MY MISSION AT THIS PLACE Another complement to the assertion “I am back” is simply “for what?” Put simply, what am I here for? Just I have said, the concept of dwelling signifies rationality. Therefore, for a rational man, he reasons out his activities. As a matter of speculation, I believe that our focus of coming here is generally to become a Catholic Priest. Priesthood is all our secondary reasons at least. What really inspired you to come back here on 8th day of October, 2012. The answer which is very objective-considering other vocations, is all about integral humanity. Hans- Georg Gadamer is with an opinion that “no one speaks from nowhere”. This implies that one’s actions and probably thoughts are always contextual. We are simply influenced by the place we live. The environment modes human integrity. We are in God-Place because he created the earth and as such we are godly and should be influenced by godly qualities. Specifically, we arrive here to dwell or live at a certain location called St. Gabriel Spiritual Year seminary. Do you think your existence here is by chance or spontaneous? What do you think? Do you think we are here only to fold our hands probably ‘praying’ even when we are sometimes not deeply communicating with God? Or do you think we are here to learn sociable qualities, maybe to meet people and chat away our time? Maybe we are all here to learn how to learn leadership skills and probably how to arrange our parishes as Parish Priests even at the expense of our personal encounter. These are all one-sided and unbalanced aspect of living and would mean nothing to our existence. Integrity in human actions is as a result of the components of human being. Man is a component of body, soul and spirit. Certain scholars and anthropologists would limit it to body and spirit, while certain theologians and seminary Formators would include ‘pastoral zeal’ as integrated aspect of man (seminarian and priests). 4.0 INTEGRAL HUMANITY It should noted here that at the inception of the modern epoch in history, there is a paradigm shift from theocentric notion of man to anthropocentric notion of man. Therefore, man is studied from the point of view of man. He is the terminus ad quem and terminus ad quo. For modernity and some part of contemporary scholars, they insist that humanity characterised man’s existence on earth. Man’s actions are distinguished psychologically into three aspects of life, id, ego and super-ego. This is otherwise noted as three level of existence. Aristotle also pointed 3 levels of human existence, they are appetitive (nutritional), sensitive and rational modes of living. Aristotle who informed Aquinas defined an organism as a unity and not as a divided being. For Aristotle, there existed three levels. Nutritional level was mainly possessed by plants. It was the driving force for growth, namely, what led a seed, a potential matter, to reach its actualised form as a full-grown tree. Without the dynamic, directing and guiding force of the nutritive soul, the existence of a being may not be possible. The second stage is the “sensitive level”. This force is inherent in animals which are conscious of their surroundings, an ability that plants lack. Animals have sensation and even feelings due to their more developed form of the soul. The third and final stage is the “rational soul”. This is unique to humans as they have the ability to think and reason and to gain abstract knowledge. All of this is denied to animals and plants and gives humans the power for logical reasoning, creative thinking and imagination. In epistemology, there remains a tension between rationalism and empiricism, thus creating a distinction between rational man-soul and the empirical man-the body. In the study of man, Aquinas established the fact of unity in human nature. Thus, it is a call for human integration. Accordingly, there is no matterless form or formless matter. Human integrity consists of intentionality (concept in phenomenology). It is therefore a situation where one consciously exhibits the characters of his composition in a balanced and consistent way. Here, the emphasis is on intentionality. As such, it is prerogative to human beings. The full awareness of our personality acting is very important and crucial in building an integral life. 5.0 FOUR ASPECTS OF HUMAN FORMATION The four aspects of formation as emphasised in the seminary are acronymised with SHAP. They are as follows: Spiritual formation, human formation, academic formation and pastoral formation. Across the seminaries in the world, some limited it to three while others four. In St. Paul’s seminary Ukpor, they have them as Learning, Holiness and skills (LHS). They omitted the pastoral aspect of formation probably because it is still a junior seminary. Virtually all the senior seminaries imbibe the four aspects of formation as the key to human integrity. For secular life, two basic aspect of life is an imperative. They are spiritual and human formation. Therefore, we combine transcendental life with immanent life. 5.1 SPIRITUAL INTEGRITY Our spiritual integrity is seen from the perspective of our life in Christ. Jesus Christ is our role model and we ought to be like him. St. Paul in his epistles clearly elucidated on this spiritual integrity (cf. Rom 8:1-13, Rom. 12:1-2, Eph 4:17-32). Simply put, it is our personal relationship with Jesus. This particular encounter is real and deep otherwise, it is pseudo-encounter. All our life should be modelled towards Christ who loves us. Dallas Willard writes that “spiritual formation for the Christian basically refers to the Spirit-driven process of forming the inner world of human self in such a way that it becomes like the inner being of Christ himself.” He went forward to distinguished three different meanings or moments of spiritual formation. First, identifying certain activities as ‘spiritual’ work or exercise, one can think of spiritual formation as training in these special spiritual activities. This is a large part of what is found in many cases to mean “priestly formation” or the spiritual formation of the priest, as spoken in Catholic literature. Secondly, spiritual formation may be thought of as the shaping of the inner life, the spirit, or the spiritual side of the human being. The formation of the heart or will of individual, along with the emotions and intellect, is therefore the primary focus, regardless of what practices may or may not be involved. What is formed is explicitly the spiritual dimension of the self. Thirdly, spiritual formation may be thought of as a shaping by the spirit or by the spiritual realm, and by the Holy Spirit and other spiritual agencies involved in the kingdom of God especially the word of God. Spiritual life consists of life of holiness. It really counts on our efforts to be holy. Holiness is realised in our humanism. Therefore, they are two faces of a coin. This informed the book of C. P. Varkey which he entitled Be human, be holy. 5.2 HUMAN FORMATION Fr. Brian has as the topic of one of his article to be “it’s better to be human than ‘holy’”. As noted by the diocese of superior, the basic principle of human formation constitutes a bridge and not an obstacle for others in their meeting with Jesus Christ the Redeemer of the human race. The human formation of candidates for the priesthood aims to prepare them to be apt instruments of Christ’s grace. It does so by fostering the growth of a man who can be described in these ways: • A free person • A person of solid moral character with a finely developed moral conscience • A prudent and discerning man • A man of communion, truthfulness, humility, integrity, affability, generosity, kindness, and prudence. • A good communicator • A person of affective maturity, good self-knowledge, self discipline and self mastery including emotional self-control • A man who respects, cares for, and has vigilance over his body • A man who relates well with others in a positive manner and the ability to get along with others and work with them in the community. • A good steward of material possessions, and capacity to receive and integrate constructive criticism • A man who can take on the role of public person 5.3 ACADEMIC FORMATION Wisdom and understanding are gifts of the Holy Spirit. Before now, the academic life is not taken so serious in the formation of priests because it is misconceived to be worldly and mundane. But now it is taken as a strongest tool to combat the present complicated conditions of the world. Academic formation initiates a lifelong search for a deeper understanding of divine mysteries, an understanding that enriches the faith not only of the priest, but of the community he serves. A priest must be able to relate the intellectual heritage of Catholic teaching and tradition to the concrete situations of the people they are serving. This signifies that intellectual life is one the basic formation in the seminary. Since, priests represent the universal church, they are called to be effective preachers and teachers, understand the laws and regulations that bind the community together, be skilled in various techniques and theories of pastoral care and counselling, possess an understanding of leadership theory and practice and be sensitive to the catechetical concerns present in their communities. It is worthy to note that the intellectual life go a long way to inform or influence the pastoral zeal or care of a priest. 5.4 PASTORAL FORMATION The concept of ‘pastoral’ is derived from Latin word ‘pastores’ which simply mean ‘shepherd’. This is an extra formation which subjective to the life of priest. It is aimed towards developing within each seminarian the ability and heart of “true shepherd of souls”. This development calls for the priest’s personal commitment to develop the knowledge and skills to teach and preach well, to celebrate the sacraments both properly and prayerfully, and to respond to people’s needs as well as to take initiatives in the community that holy leadership requires. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has written: Ministry is the task and responsibility of all baptised members, and not the sole possession of one part of the church. The reality, the tensions, and the opportunities of the “one and many”, operate also in the mystery of the church and her life and mission. The Church expresses its one ministry in a multiplicity of ministries. In that context, a primary responsibility of the priest is to call forth leadership from that community. The priest encourages, enables, and supports the laity in offering their gifts or charisms in service to others. In the wide sense, pastoral formation coincides with spiritual formation; it is formation for an ever greater identification with person of Christ. In the strict sense, pastoral formation develops by means of specific theological discipline and a practical internship. (Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Diaconorum Permanentium). Practical internship should be provided for each candidate to permit him to meet in the field what he has learned in his study. It must be gradual, tailored to the individual and under continual supervision. Such formation gives aspirants to become familiar with pastoral needs of their parish community and to assist the pastor in his endeavour to service his people through the ministries of charity, word and sacrament. 6.0 EVALUATION AND CONCLUSION The wholeness of a person aspiring to priesthood requires integration of the afore-mentioned virtues. It is an imperative to note that all these goods do create an exhaustive list of all the values of human wholeness especially in seminarian and priests, but the above formations are basic goods because they are irreducible to any other value. For one to disregard one at the altar of the other is to ascertain an incomplete personality. Integral humanity consists in having as whole these four qualities at the same level. In the qualification of human beings, certain aspect of their lives in one way or the other portrays dominance in one attitude, thereby recessing the others. As a human being, we do not need those who are highly spiritual but do not relate well with other people and vice versa. Finally, the formation in the seminary is entire and as such needs a calm attitude and happy minds to receive and internalize such formation. As we have commenced the year of our spiritual formation, which includes other formation, we call for the zeal and spirit of fraternal solidarity to envelop us and help us to succeed in St. Gabriel spiritual year on this 2012/2013 academic year. God bless us all. Amen. Obi, Stanley Kenechi

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