S TRENNA 2008

by Pascual Chávez Villanueva

EDUCATING WITH THE HEART OF DB

EDUCATING EVANGELISING

“Our art as educators is pastoral in character not only in the sense that on the part of the educator is flows from and is explicitly nourished each day by apostolic charity, but also in the sense that the whole educative process with everything it contains and in all its methodology is directed towards the Christian goal of salvation and is permeated by its light and its grace.”¹

For Don Bosco religious instruction was the foundation of any kind of education. Although a little simplistic, perhaps the formula that best expresses his thought is: upright citizens and good Christians. In other words, the values of our holy religion ought to inspire and guide the development of all the potential of the young person until he becomes a individual. But in the context of the evolution of modern societies it is not clear that education and evangelisation should be united and have an influence one on the other. “Today the tendency is to present the educational situation in prevalently secularist terms.” … It is easy to interpret the ‘professionalism of educators’ by reducing them to the level of simple teachers. “The danger of our cultural task becoming disjointed from our pastoral commitment is a very real one... Educating and evangelising are two activities which in themselves are different (…) but the essential unity of the young person requires that they be not separated.”² Educational activity finds it place in the area of culture and forms part of earthly reality; it refers to the process of the assimilation and the combination of human values that are evolving, with a specific goal and its own justification that should not be exploited. Its aim is a person’s human development, in other words for the adolescent to learn the art of being a person.

 It is a question of a process of growth that is long and gradual. “It is concerned not so much with the imposition of norms as with rendering freedom more responsible, with developing individual enterprise with reference to his conscience, the authentic quality of his love, and his social dimensions. It is a true process of personalisation to be brought to maturity in each individual.”³ Education cannot be reduced to simple method. Education is essentially linked to the evolving process of the individual. “It has something in common with fatherhood and motherhood, as though sharing in the process of human generation for fundamental values (truth, freedom, love, work, justice, solidarity, sharing, the dignity of life, etc.). And for this very reason it is concerned with the avoidance of whatever is degrading and deviant, the idolatries (riches, power, sex), marginalisation, violence, selfishness, etc. Its aim is to bring about the growth of the young person from within, so that he will become a responsible adult and behave as an upright citizen. Education therefore means sharing with a fatherly and maternal love in the growth of the individual concerned, while fostering collaboration with others to the same end: educational relationships presuppose, in fact, a number of different agencies working together.” “Evangelisation on the other hand is directed, of its nature, to the passing on and the fostering of the Christian faith; it belongs to the order of those salvation events that flow from the presence of God in history; it aims at making them known, communicating them and making them come alive in the liturgy and testimony.”⁴

 Having noted this distinction, we would say that in all circumstances we ought to consider as fundamental and indispensable the interdependent relationship between the process of maturing as a human being and growing as a Christian. In his address at the GC23, John Paul II said: “You have chosen well: the education of the young is one of the key issues of the new evangelisation.”⁵ And the then Cardinal Ratzinger in the meeting for European Provincials, recalled that it was up to the Salesians to continue to be “prophets of education.” For this reason we speak about “evangelising by educating and educating by evangelising,” convinced that education ought to take its inspiration from the Gospel and that evangelisation needs to be adapted to the evolving situation of the one being educated. Our way of evangelising aims at forming a person who is mature from all points of view. Our education aims at opening people to God and to man’s eternal destiny. To be evangelising, education needs to take into consideration some factors: the priority of the individual in respect of other ideological or institutional interests, care of the environment that ought to be rich in human and Christian values, the evangelical quality and the consistency of the cultural proposal that is offered through the programmes and activities; seeking the common good, commitment towards those most in need; the question of the meaning of life, a sense of the transcendent and openness to God, the provision of an education that fosters in the young the desire to progress in their formation and to be involved as Christians in society and on behalf of others. The Christian educator in the Salesian style is someone who takes up the work of education seeing it as a way of collaborating with God in the growth and development of individuals.⁶ 