God gave man a duty to conquer the earth and rule the living things that he had created (Gen. 1:29). This means that man is meant to be a change maker. To be so requires careful planning and the execution of what is planned, so as to make a difference in the world. To do that, a person has to have a cutting edge, that is, an active incisiveness (penetrating keenness) in shaping events. In truth, not all people have that capacity. Well, to be fair, we are gifted differently, and some people will succeed better than others in that task of giving reality a new shape and creating a better outcome for the benefit of all. This is to say, although God created us to be agents of change in our environment and the society, not all people manage to do so even when they have good faith. Most of us have the good will, but the good will is never enough, if it is not accompanied by good measure of self-confidence and self-assertiveness.
Usually, since change is not always appreciated, a capacity to disturb the peace when that is necessary is required for one to be a change maker. That quality is what makes a person a go-getter. i.e. one who is not cowed by challenges that may come along his way. This explains why we refer Fr. Allamano as a go-getter and an achiever. Up to now, we have described a man whom many people would have easily written off as an invalid who would never become a priest owing to his weak health, but a man who through thick and thin fought his way to priesthood against all odds. We have seen a man who fought his way to be instrumental in many causes in the diocese, without leaving behind bitter and resentful people. And that is what Fr. Allamano was: a silent strong person who went through and over many obstacles to become a Founder amidst doubting Thomases. His courage to petition the Holy Father left many dumbfounded if not shocked. Fr. Allamano was not the kind of a person who could just let things flow. He knew he had to make a difference in the world and that could not be done by people who were not in contact with the reality, or by cowards.
Today, the life of Fr. Allamano challenges us to avoid the two temptations of religious life which hinder people from becoming agents of change. These are passivity and perfectionism. Passivity is the tendency of people to take off their hands from the “steering wheel” of their lives, that way allowing the texture of the road to dictate the direction to be followed. Such persons cannot mold or shape events. They only react to what happens. They rationalize away the responsibility for the turn of events, or simply deny it. In other words, the passive persons allow whatever is happening to take place then spiritualizes everything by attributing it to the will of God. This is why such passive people appear very holy – because instead of being realistic they attribute everything to the will of God (which is escapism). Does this sound familiar? I knew it! Passive persons are great procrastinators. When there is danger lurking around, they console themselves and others by saying that nothing will happen. As things get bad, they begin saying “may be something is going to happen but we should not do anything about it”. Then things worse and they change their tune. They begin saying “maybe we should do something about the situation, but there is nothing we can do. Only when things get out of hand they say “maybe there is something we could have done, but it is too late now”.
In truth however, such persons are often very good people, who avoid conflicts at all cost. They do not want to offend anyone. They try to please all people by not taking decisions that touch other people in a not-so-sweet way. There is a joke that says “if you want to please everybody you better become an ice cream vendor and not a leader”. This is not meant to undermine ice cream vendors, but to underline that a leader must have a stand in things. That is, he can’t just be swayed by whatever comes his way and still claim to be a leader. Anyway, when passive people fail, they suffer inside a lot and shift the responsibility of what happened to others (by blaming someone). Although Fr. Allamano’s life would have easily turned passive because he was sickly and he was always at the Consolata Shrine, he chose to be an agent of change not only to the people of Turin who were coming to him for help at the Consolata, but also to Africans whom he was forming from a far through his missionaries.
Fr. Allamano knew that if everyone folded his hands and claimed that evangelizing Africa was not his responsibility, then Africa would remain in darkness for some more time, and the European Church would be failing in its call to go out to the whole world to make all people disciples of Christ. Fr. Allamano did not need to be told that such a behavior would be tantamount to hiding one’s heads in the sand and finally ending up becoming victims of circumstances and never agents of change. It is for this reason that Fr. Allamano refused to be passive. Today, the Founder encourages us to avoid passivity, also because passivity is a sign of deep entrenched fear. Fear is a strong emotion which has power not only to disrupt our lives, but also to make us inactive. This explains why Jesus told his disciples “do not be afraid” many times in the gospel. He knew that fear could immobilize them, and that would be the beginning of their failure as his witnesses. That is why he said categorically that we should only fear God who has power not only to kill the body, but also to throw the soul in hell fire (Mt. 10:28). In that passage, Christ made it plain that even those who have power to kill only the body can do so only if allowed by God. That is why Jesus said that even the birds of the air that may appear cheap to us do not just fall down and die without God knowing (Mt. 10:29). Today, we don’t need to be told why fear is something to avoid like a plague. First, in addition to making us passive, fear hinders our possibility to progress. Even in ordinary life, many people who would have been rich and wealthy fail to achieve that wealthy due to their fear to invest. They fail to invest the money they have due to the fear of losing it. What if the investment does not work out well? What if I am not able to run the business? What if thieves come and steal? These kinds of thoughts keep them from investing.
Still in the ordinary life, fear hinders many people’s social life from flourishing. How many people are single and would have wished to get married or to marry, but fear continues keeping them single? Generally, such people ask: what if the relationship does not work? What if I end up in a bitter divorce like my neighbour? What if I end up with a person with whom I am not compatible? Such thoughts cannot allow the person looking for a life partner to settle. As a result, even when such a person enters into a relationship, he or she remains on the lookout for signs of being played or cheated. With the attention so high on the possible negative outcomes of relationships, the person misses the chances of meeting prospective life partners. In other words, such a person forgets that the word “FEAR” could mean either “Forget Everything And Run” or “Face Everything And Rise”, and that they have to make a choice between the two. Similarly, many young people would easily become great missionaries, but fear prevents them from entering houses of formation. They admire and praise missionaries who work in different parts of the world, but they themselves are not able to decide to be missionaries. Why? Because sometimes deciding to decide is also another difficult decision. Indecision leads to passivity, procrastination and an endless agitation or restlessness.
Such young people ask questions like “what if I don’t make it to the end of the formative journey?” How can I get a guarantee of success? What if the “feeling” of having a vocation disappears along the journey? Such questions make many young people afraid of joining religious life. They forget that most of their fears are not really realistic, but only naïve doubts and improbable worries. In other words, they forget that the word “FEAR” could also mean “False Evidence Appears Real”. As a result, they choose options that they think to be less risky, either because they do not need a long time to mature or because the possible negative outcomes are “accommodatable” according to their judgement. Second, fear hinders us from living our faith well. How many times have we found ourselves afraid of making the sign of the cross in public. How many times have we hidden our Rosaries so that people may not know that we are Catholics? Fear can make us fail to live our faith appropriately. Third, fear pushes us to sin. We can reflect on many aspects of our lives, but just think about lying. Most of the time when we lie, it is because we are afraid of the consequences of our actions. We lie to protect ourselves, to save our reputations, to protect our careers or vocations, to appear good, to avoid getting into trouble, etc. Even King David killed Uriah out of fear of being discovered to have impregnated his wife (2 Sam. 11:14-17). In other words, fear makes us break God’s commandments, traffic rules, and regulations that govern our lives and association with others.
Fourth, fear kills our self-esteem. In truth, behind low self-esteem and low self-confidence is fear. People with low self-esteem are usually full of fear. They think that they are not as good as others. They avoid speaking in public due to the fear of being laughed at, fear of being seen as foolish, or simply fear of making a mistake. What they do not know is that in truth, fear kills more dreams than failure. Fifth, fear makes us unable to fight for what we are convinced of. As such, fear hinders our capacity to fight for our own rights and the rights of others. This means that fear can become an obstruction to justice. Finally, fear prevents us from correcting others. Instead of correcting others, due to fear we keep quiet in order to appear good or in order to avoid being accused of meddling. The result of this is that evil continue because those who are supposed to fight it fear appearing bad. From all these scenarios, it is clear that fear is something to be avoided. We cannot forget that fear made the disciples of Jesus not to ask him explanation of what he had been teaching them (Mk. 9:32), it made them to run away when he was arrested (Mk. 14:50-52), and made Peter to deny the saviour (Mt. 26:69-75). This explains why Fr. Allamano aware of the power of fear in immobilization of people, encouraged his missionaries to overcome it as a way of being active and never passive. The words of Fr. Allamano could never be clearer than this:
Be active. Be active because the time is short! … If you are active, you will always have time for everything, with some time left over. Our Lord gives grace according to the effort one puts forth… (and note) When someone is in charge, he has to be more courageous than the rest. (SL. 402)
Fr. Allamano’s words were a real representation of himself. The courage to petition the pope was quite a landmark action. It was a deliberate decision not to remain passive. In truth, even today, few people would be willing to risk that much. Looking at that disposition of Fr. Allamano, it is not difficult to see that if there is something we are supposed to fear, it is fear itself.
We mentioned that the second temptation that our Founder would wish us to avoid is perfectionism. Fr. Allamano was never a perfectionist. True, he demanded things to be done in the best way, but he never cultivated exaggerated expectations. Granted, the petition to the pope was rather a very high goal. However, the fact that Fr. Allamano was able to accept and live with a middle ground proved that he was not really a perfectionist who would get out of control when things did not work out. While many people would have emotionally collapsed due to the knowledge that their failure was written all over the Italian Church to see, Fr. Allamano took everything gracefully. Probably the Founder knew what we know today: perfectionists start everything with a very high energy and passion, but soon they discover that reality is different and that their dreams may not at the end be fruitful. They have an inflated self-esteem so they think they can do everything and perfectly. When that does not happen, they feel as failures. That failure makes them to lose the will to try again. If Fr. Allamano had been a perfectionist, he would not have struggled for ten good years to start the missionary Institute. Instead, after the second or the third year of trying and waiting he would have said “it seems that it is not the will of God for me to start this congregation”. The attitude of Fr. Allamano makes him a go-getter and an achiever. He was balanced enough to avoid sitting and eating provided he said the mass and confessions – as many priests did. He also avoided having his head in the air. He knew that many truly gifted people ended up not fulfilling anything in reality due to inflated egos.