How to develop a realistic knowledge of self
March 2, 2025—Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Sirach 27:4-7, Psalm 92, R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.; 1 Corinthians 15:54-58: Gospel–Luke 6:39-45
Today’s Gospel gives us wonderful and helpful “tips” for formation. The first is the need for authenticity and integrity. The second is the importance of the environment where the person is to be formed. Third, we are shown the importance of the formation of the heart.
“Can a blind person guide a blind person? Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.” (cf. Luke 6: 39-45)
The initial thoughts that come to mind with these lines is one cannot give what one does not have. This invites us to aspire to be a person of authenticity and integrity if we are to influence others.
One could consider authenticity and integrity as key or central formation goals. These qualities of a person represent character and wholeness.
In the process of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, a realistic knowledge of self is the starting point. This comes through self-awareness and self-acceptance, knowing one’s positives (the blessings, talents, goodness, etc.) and negatives (the flaws, shortcomings, sinfulness, etc.).
This is the first stage of formation that leads to authenticity, accepting oneself with honesty, humility, and integrity, and experiencing a sense of wholeness in the awareness and acceptance of who one really is.
Thus, we can relate with others in an authentic manner that comes from our integrity. We regard and treat others with respect and openness.
Solidarity
The term in Filipino beautifully captures these qualities of authenticity and integrity in our relationships with others—pakikipag-kapwa-tao. Pope Francis often refers to this as solidarity and fraternity.
Imagine how much better our communities, our world will be if they are marked by pakikipag-kapwa-tao, solidarity and fraternity.
The second formation “tip” is the importance of the environment. The Lord used the image of the tree and its fruits to emphasize this. “A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.” In Filipino we say, “kung ano ang puno, siya ang bunga.”
Both sayings tell us how important the environment is in forming a person. Chris Lowney, in his book, “Heroic Leadership,” concluded that a caring environment coupled with opportunities to develop one’s full potential formed persons who excelled in their fields.
Crucial role of family
In the schools, students who have very stable and supportive family settings are the ones who do well both in academics and deportment.
Nel Noddings, who developed the ethics of caring in education, pointed out that care in the home is very important.
Many other advocates across disciplines also emphasize the crucial role of the family and the home in the formation of its members, especially the youth. The home and family must be a safe and sacred space. What lies at the center of this caring environment, this safe and sacred space is love. It is loving that nurtures and inspires the heart.
“A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.”
In our formation work with public-school principals and teachers, one of the goals of the program is to form them into caring leaders who will build caring communities in their schools and will love their students into excellence.
In our first stage of formation as seminarians in the novitiate, our formators emphasized that it is the schola affectus, the formation of the affect, of the heart that will be the foundation of our prayer and spiritual life.
My novice master then and my spiritual director until he passed on, Fr. Benny Calpotura, S.J., considered formation as the healing of the eye of the heart .
In the classic work of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, “The Little Prince,” one of the most quoted lines, if not the most quoted line, is “it is only with the heart that one can see rightly.”
Today’s Gospel is a very relevant reminder to us of the importance of formation. Over the past two decades of our work in public-school formation, we have seen how institutions, both in education and in the labor market or corporate world, have put a premium on character formation.
This is a source of hope for us that we can dream of a better world through pakikipag-kapwa-tao, solidarity and fraternity, and the building of caring communities that will nurture the heart into a loving heart from which would come loving service.
