FIRST COMMANDMENT
Go beyond the narrow-minded ideas that dominate the environment you are in
There are so many issues that portray narrow mindedness attitude in the world. Sometimes traditions and cultures are involved, other times a general ignorance and lack of information is the cause of such narrow mindedness. In the time of Fr. Allamano, the fear of diocesan priests that the diocese would lack ministers if many young priests were taken up by the missionary calling was unfounded. Fr. Allamano knew that such a fear was just an obstacle in the minds of the clergy. In other words, it did not have basis in reality. Today, we know that that kind of fear is usually the beginning of racism, tribalism and all sorts of discriminative groupings in the society. The first commandment of Fr. Allamano is an invitation to acquire a universal dimension of life, to feel the duty or responsibility of learning, understanding and caring for humanity today, more than ever before. We must abandon the old mentality that is still present among many people: that of rejecting other people who we do not know or who we perceive differently. We must open ourselves to the universal language of love - which is a fruit of the Holy Spirit to the whole world. It is natural to fear, to suspect and sometimes to dislike that which is different. For a missionary however, to be a real tool in the hands of God, one must overlook petty created narrow mindedness of his surroundings. Causes of the fear of the unknown
(a) Bad experiences
Usually it is understandable when we meet people who fear strangers, not just because they are strangers (after all we are all strangers until we meet and start relating), but because they have had bad experiences with strangers, and especially with that given category of strangers. (This is the reason we hear people saying that I would not like to live or work with Italians, the Russians, Nigerians, Congolese, etc).
(b) Bad notions and prejudices
Many time we fear others and avoid them because of what we have heard about them. Sometimes even the hearsays are not founded or confirmed, yet because we have heard that Nigerians are conmen, Germans and Italians are racists, Muslims are terrorists, and Americans are proud, etc, we end up looking at them in the same light. Sometimes we even go to the extent of not just looking at them like that, but also treating them as if we have confirmed the rumours. These kind of notions are exaggerated generalization. This is what Allamano said that we should go beyond the narrow minded vision of the world. We cannot evangelize a person whom we are prejudiced against.
(c) Lack of being informed
The fear of the unknown is most of the time a sign
of lack of being informed. We fear, suspect and dislike what we don’t understand until we understand it. The ancient people worshiped the sun and the moon because they believed that they were gods. Today we know better and that is why it will be folly for anyone to worship
the sun or the moon. Fr. Allamano aware of this, always encouraged his missionaries to prepare thoroughly. Many times he said that an ignorant priest was a recipe for disaster. It was better for the people of God to have no priest than to have an ignorant one.
SOLUTION TO FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN AND NARROW-MINDEDNESS
(i) Being open
Relating with people is like learning to cook or driving. Regardless of all the theories one may have, at the end of the day such things are learned by doing. That applies to relating to other people. To overcome the fear of strangers one must by all means try to meet as many different people as possible, because that reveals gradually that after all people are the same. We may be different here and there, but essentially all people strive for happiness, try to avoid pain, are ready to cooperate with the one who is ready to cooperate with them, etc. Since a smile is contagious, one should be ready to share a smile, then a handshake, then some sharing about the environment, then some sharing about oneself, then a hug, and that way we learn to trust others just as they have to learn to trust us. As much as this is something that touches all human beings and everywhere, it is particularly crucial in religious life where people have to live in communities. It is fundamentally important in formation, whereby the formators can only know the candidates and how to assist them if they are open. When candidates see formation as an invasion of their privacy they tend to hide things by ensuring that dialogues are vague, abstract and general. Others just become evasive when asked about their motivations or when inconsistencies in their lives are pointed out. Openness helps the fornator to know which aspects a candidate needs to improve, change or maintain.
(ii) Endurance
The fact that it is possible to learn to trust others or even to tolerate them does not mean that things will always work out in the first attempt. Even though different people have different personalities and some people are more receptive than others, in truth, learning to be open and to accept others is never automatic. It is always a difficult task in the beginning, but gradually it becomes easier as time goes on. There is therefore the need to be patient and persevering, because our fears will always be on the look out to identify the things we have always heard or believed about others. Furthermore, the fact that one is trying does not mean that he always makes progress. Some people will misunderstand the effort to be near them, others will reject any nearness, reinforcing our fear more, and worse still some will hurt us in the process and leave us regretting why we made the first move in the first place. That is why endurance is a key quality here - especially because we are not the only ones having fear of the unknown, others have it too. Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but also to turn it into glory. This is why I never stop telling anyone who cares to listen that “endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty”. Without patient endurance, even the smallest thing becomes unbearable. Endurance is therefore paramount in missionary communities where many times people will be from all sorts of backgrounds, something which can easily turn out to be a source of many conflicts. As disciples of Christ, we must have trust in God and in the goodness that exists in each person. That trust is the one which makes endurance possible and meaningful.
(iii) Be informed
To avoid accumulating fears that have no basis, and which only exist in our minds, it is important to be informed. Being informed means being aware of what is going around us. It also means having a wide general knowledge about many issues. That does not mean one has to be a genius, but that one is not totally ignorant on important issues affecting humanity. It is that knowledge that makes us not to “worship the sun or the moon”. Such knowledge helps one to come out of the ignorance that enslaves many people in the name of tradition and culture. Being informed helps us to reject prejudices whose aim is only to cause suspicion and fear about others and about certain situations. It is not a surprise that Fr. Allamano was always saying that an ignorant priests is an idol of sadness and bitterness.
SECOND COMMANDMENT
Love a religion that offers the promise of the other life and that makes you happier in the world
As in the times of Fr. Allamano, we live in a period in which the dichotomy between spiritualism and materialism is very evident. Fr. Allamano, I believe, did not just come up with such a commandment if it was not out of what he was seeing in the society. Many people must have been living “inside the bible”, ending up cheating themselves. True, God created us for himself, and we can only live well if we cooperate with him. Our faith should not be a kind of escape when things don’t work, even those which need our human effort. Our faith should project our lives to the life after this life, but it must also enable us to live fairly well and especially serenely even here in the world. A faith that makes man inactive, indecisive and fearful of the future is not worth believing. We must realize that if the promise of another life is true, then happiness must begin in this world for all.
In other words, on one hand, this means that our faith should be balanced. It is not true that the world is a bad place to be. The fact that God created this material world, created man as a material creature in spite of creating him in his own image and likeness, and finally send the messiah in a bodily form, shows that the material world is not evil - as the Manicheans used to believe. We should not therefore live as if we are in prison in the world. Some Greek Philosophers used to teach that the human soul is imprisoned in the body, and that the aim of existence is to escape from the body to the spirit world. As Christians we have no doubt that God created us to search for him, to know him, to love him and serve him, so that at the end of time we may be with him. We are therefore to serve God through his people here on earth, take care of his creation and wait for our union with him at the end of time. Our being in the world is not a punishment - we can find a good degree of happiness here in the world, but only if we live as our heavenly Father expects. On the other hand, this means that a faith that only focuses on this world is not only short sighted, but also dangerous and false, because it is not different from cheating oneself. Christ taught us that everything will pass away, only his word will not pass away (Mt. 24:35). We should not spiritualize everything.
THIRD COMMANDMENT
Choose meekness as the way of transformation
Every day and every minute we find ourselves before a dilemma: a path that is called violence, use of force and competition, and another called meekness, humility and honesty. As the saying goes, change is not naturally accepted – hence a degree of coercion is inevitable. Fr. Allamano’s style of operation proves his words. He never used crude ways to achieve something. He knew that dialogue, discussion, and sharing were the best ways of letting the other person see not only the point we are talking about, but also our genuineness. The third commandment of Fr. Allamano therefore discourages us from:
a. Aggressiveness
The aggressiveness that we are called to avoid is not just the physical one, but also the indirect or cunning one, like indifference and competition against others. It is told of a dream of Don Bosco when he was a young man. In the dream he was playing with other boys, but they were using very foul language that he began beating them to change. At that moment an old man appeared and told him that he could convert them not with blows but with patience and love. Naturally, we tend to get agitated when we try to correct a person, but the person either doesn’t change, or takes longer time than we had anticipated. Even for ourselves, we get agitated when we find ourselves not achieving the resolutions that we set for ourselves. That anger is not the best thing because it doesn’t change anything - instead, it only makes us to feel frustrated and hopeless, leading to giving up in the name of having failed. Change can be achieved through aggressive means but also through peaceful means.
Given that naturally people will always object, reject and even resist change, it may be understandable when the aggressive means are used as the last option. Even then, the aggresivity here does not mean literary the use of force and violence, but being assertive, insistent and uncompromising in what needs to be done. That is what differentiates people who are aggressive (dominant) and passive (compliant). Assertiveness is flexible firmness. This is evident from Jesus’ action of removing people from the temple (Jn. 2:13-16). When it is possible to achieve change through peaceful means, it is highly recommendable that that route be used. This is because, when change is brought about through violence, hostility and force most of the time the change is usually superficial, and sometimes short lived. When change is achieved through peaceful means however, usually it is profound and long-lasting. This is why it is always advisable that if it is possible to insist, persuade and convince people to see the importance of a given change, then it is better to choose this route. This is because when people are convinced of the importance of something, even if it requires sacrifice and unfathomable personal commitment, they will still do it. On the contrary, when violence is used to achieve change, people are most likely to sabotage the achievement of the intended change. This therefore explains why Fr. Allamano demanded that his missionaries should favour the use of meekness or humility in bringing change wherever they were: he expected deep genuine transformation of people, and that could only be achieved peacefully and through development of trust.
b. Competition
In a world in which people are valued for what they do and not for what they are, it is obvious that everyone will struggle to get what they can by whatever means. It is not a surprise that many people will use force or dishonest means because we live in a competitive world where the mighty is believed to be right. The world today tries to show us that nothing comes easily and therefore if we just sit, we will not only die poor or become irrelevant but also we will end up in oblivion of being forgotten. As a result of this kind of thinking, we see push and shove in all sectors of human existence - each person trying to outdo the other. Businesses are competing for profits, students are competing for better grades, and citizens are competing for employment just like trees in a thick forest compete for space and sunlight. Competition hindered the apostles from understanding what Jesus was teaching them when he spoke for the second time about his death. They had been engulfed in useless arguments of who among them was the greatest (Mk. 9:30-37). Even today, competition continues to ruin lives of many people. In the work place it creates animosity, hostility, hatred, malice, and even tragedy. In families it leads to bitter fights over property and inheritance among siblings.
Among religious people, competition continues to wreak havoc in communities, disrupting their daily activities and ruining their apostolate. One thing that is always clear is that such competition is never about battle in becoming better persons. It is always competition for money and other resources, more power and authority, or recognition and popularity. As a result, the religious lose their testimony and end up becoming similar to the people they are supposed to correct. This trend of things in the world is killing two important virtues: honesty and humility. The “cut-throat” competition for this and that forces many people to use any means so as to get at the top. Any means of course means also crooked means, which could include cheating, stealing, bribing in all manner of ways, slandering others in order to appear better, corrupting those in power, humiliating and oppressing the weak, etc. Such “cut-throat” competition also is a fruit of the “mighty is right” attitude.
As such, it is a product of pride and chest-thumbing. Fr. Allamano’s naturally calm temperament and respect for authority teaches us that in order to counter the aggressivity and inhuman competition in the world, we need to know the following:
(i) Patience pays
It is not the rain that pours all at once that makes the crops to grow, but the one which drizzles gradually for a long time. In fact, the rain that pours all at once only destroys the crops and causes terrible soil erosion. Similarly, change in our hearts needs time, serenity and unforced effort. If we want to change from a bad habit, we should begin leaving it slowly and give ourselves time. In the process, we should be patient with ourselves because being human we will likely fail here and there, but that should not be the end of the story. We should be strong enough to start anew. This is even more important when dealing with other people, because different people have different paces of thinking and acting. We should be patient with the persons, in humility offer them advice, and avoid getting worked up when they fail (because that is bound to happen in the process of learning to live differently).
(ii) Humility as medicine
The successes that Fr. Allamano got in his life probably show us that humility and honesty are the pillars of true, genuine and authentic achievement. His respect for authority for example could be seen as letting himself be dependent on others, something which many people would easily see as a weakness. Fr. Allamano however knew the secret power of humility. The importance of this virtue is made clear by Jesus when he puts it as a condition of entering heaven: I tell you solemnly, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of God (Mt. 18:3).
- Humility makes us to be loved by all. Everybody loves people who do not uplift themselves, and especially at the expense of others. Nobody likes people who make others feel as if they are not important or as if they don’t belong in a given forum. The humble are loved by people of all categories, because humble people do not discriminate, or emphasize a given aspect that alienates others. Those who are humble are accepted by all.
- Humility raises what we do to an extra-ordinary level. It is the virtue of the saints. If a person does a good thing but he lacks humility, all the good done returns to waste. Humility raises ordinary activities to holiness, and lack of it makes even the good done to be seen as vice, because it becomes a show.
- Humility reveals the depth of the heart. It is the virtue which reveals the true intention of a person, and that way reveals his inner self.
- Humility makes us to be listened to. Even the most tough leader/superior will be disarmed by a humble request. If however one goes to the other asking for something as if demanding, even the most loving leader will think twice before granting the request. Humility makes us not only to be listened to but also to be understood even if we make mistakes.
FOURTH COMMANDMENT
Aim at the transformation of the environment not only of the people
Fr. Allamano, aware that the environment influences or affects people positively or negatively, encouraged his missionaries to put effort in changing not only the people, but also the environment around them, or better, their situation. The catechism of the Catholic Church concurs with this in that in evaluating the morality of an action one has to look not only at the object (act done) and the intention for the action, but also the circumstances around it. In the gospel, there is an incident in which Jesus healed a man and thus touched him deeply. Although the man begged Jesus to allow him to join in his mission, Jesus refused, choosing to send the man at home to proclaim what the Lord had done for him (Lk. 8:26-40 [39]). Jesus knew that by doing so, the fellow would become a carrier of good news, create curiosity in the hearts of people to meet him (Jesus), and that way be a catalyst of change in his society. This shows that person can influence the surroundings, just as the surroundings can affect a person. Fr. Allamano in the fourth commandment expects us to see the wider picture. Although evangelization is the proclamation of the gospel of Christ, sometimes it demands improving the situations of the people if they are to benefit from the preaching. In other words, in addition to preaching to a person, sometimes it will be necessary to change the circumstances around which the person finds himself or herself.
For example, instead of just preaching to a hungry person, it is necessary to offer the person something to eat. This has three important benefits. First, by offering the person what he needs, we improve his disposition to the preaching. That means the person becomes more attentive now that what was disturbing him is eliminated. He no longer just hears us speaking, but listens to us talking. Second, the person sees the hand of God through the people offering the help. In other words, through the generosity of those offering him help, the person sees God in action. For missionaries who are genuine, this must be the goal. The person should not be left seeing the giver of the food, clothes, money, etc. If that happens, especially intentionally, the missionary is just building a monument of pride and not evangelizing, since his goal is praise, recognition and popularity. That is what happens when missionaries build schools, Churches, and hospitals as a way of being noted. Even when building of schools, hospitals and other social amenities is done with a “good” motive, if that motive is not the reflection or announcement of Christ the pastor, then the propagators of that kind of human promotion are not different from Red Cross or other Non-Governmental Organization that offer humanitarian services. This means that when human promotion becomes or takes the place of evangelization, the alleged evangelization loses its goal. The goal of the missionary when doing human promotion should always be letting Christ shine through him. As such, human promotion is supposed to be a means through which evangelization is done. It should never be the goal of evangelization. Lastly, the other reason why it is necessary to improve the situation of a person whom we wish to preach to is that sometimes it heals the person spiritually. For example, a person who is stealing due to poverty, when he is helped to start a small business and trained how to run it profitably, he stops stealing. He is no longer a thief.
Furthermore, although to change the environment of a person is crucial for his conversion, it is also important to realize that sometimes changing the “environment of the person” means changing the “environment in the person”. Certainly, eliminating poverty that causes people to steal, to do prostitution, to defraud others, etc., is important. However, sometimes it is more necessary to change the attitude of the people. By so doing, we change “the environment in” them. Many young people continue living in sin and crime because they are born and brought up in informal settlement (slums), but especially because they have not been helped to realize that they can too rise above their situation by first believing in themselves. This means that to convert such people one needs to go beyond seeing the sins and crimes they commit. One should also go beyond the fact that they are born in a milieu that is corrupting. The remedy in such situations usually is to free the person from himself, for example by making him believe that being born in a slum is not the end of the road. When this is done, the person’s eyes are opened to see possibilities he never saw before, helping him to relinquish a previously dormant energy to achieve goals he previously thought to have been impossible.
This commandment of Fr. Allamano therefore touches these two aspects: changing the environment in which people live and also changing the environment in them. The first aspect was implemented by the Missionaries through what came to be called the Consolata Method. It involved going in the villages to live with the people, educating them to read and write by building schools, and taking care of their health by building health centres. The second aspect was implemented by the missionaries through psychological and moral support. Today, it is normal for missionaries to evangelize through human promotion. At the beginning it was not that easy. The method that Consolata missionaries were using looked queer to many people, gradually however, it was accepted in the whole Church. Today, all people accept that it could be waste of time to preach to a hungry or sick man, if you don’t do anything to alleviate his suffering. It is through seeing the needs of the person and “sorting them out” that we make the man to realize that God acts through the people around him.
FIFTH COMMANDMENT
Be strong, manly and energetic in your apostolate
In the missionary apostolate, like life in general, great spiritual gifts only are not enough to confront and solve difficulties; there is the need to add to ourselves that energy and that fantasy that come directly from the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. This does not mean that the spiritual gifts are useless. On the contrary, even the goal of becoming spiritually upright means a certain degree of struggle and effort. The commandment only reminds us that it is not enough to be prayerful, or meditative if that’s the far we can go. The Virgin Mary demonstrated this by not just praying for Elizabeth, but by going to visit her. Most of the time, it is easy to sit down and pray without doing much. The true authenticity of those prayers appears when we are able to do concrete deeds that take our time, energy and sometimes even money.
The fruit of that prayerfulness and holiness should be clear in the day to day life, in the choices we make, in our relationship with others and with God. This is another way of saying that faith without action is dead (Jas. 2:1426). Even Jesus demonstrated that by not only teaching, but also healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and raising the dead. This is another way of saying, good intentions, good will and good resolutions may be good, but if they are not concretely put into action through service, sacrifice and self-giving, they only remain as such - good intentions. Of course, this is the most difficult part of being a Christian, yet it is the standard through which the genuineness of our religiosity is measured. Fr. Allamano, knowing the kind of environment his missionaries were to work, he demanded that even the Sisters were supposed ‘to be manly’. In other words, Fr. Allamano knew that missionary life was never meant for weaklings. Even today, missionary life requires people to be strong, because the challenges of language, cultural shock, food, different climatic conditions, situations of war and scarcity of basic needs, etc., are not theoretical realities. These are real life situations that need a strong will to confront them and to remain focused on achieving the intended goal. This is where being strong is a real treasure.
SIXTH COMMANDMENT
Be reservoirs and not canals of spiritual gifts, canals and not reservoirs of material gifts
Fr. Allamano says we should be reservoirs as far as spiritual gifts are concerned, but canals as far as material things are concerned. Reservoirs are containers, which accumulate something, while canals are conduits through which something passes. Fr. Allamano wants us to be pools, sources, or fonts of spiritual gifts. In other words, we are supposed to be full of the gifts of the Holy Spirit: love, peace, kindness… because “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Lk. 6:45). That way we can be able to offer them to others. Being spiritual reservoirs means having the capacity to edify the people of God with what we possess. It means being spiritually rich and therefore having much of what the third person of the Trinity offers. Fr. Allamano does not wish us to be canals of spiritual gifts, because that would mean passing them to others while remaining untouched. In addition, a canal is tiny thing compared to a reservoir. As such, the canal has nothing much to offer. It only communicates its contents, ending up dry when nothing flows from the reservoir. The problem of not being a reservoir is that soon we become dry. And woe to us if we have nothing to offer as missionaries! Our identity remains just the name. The biggest problem with being just canals of spiritual gifts is that the risk of drying up raises the possibility of turning into reservoirs of other things. The space that should have spiritual gifts is easily taken by other competing things, turning what was a canal into reservoirs of other things.
Our founder warns us about being reservoirs of material things, because that means being low or empty of spiritual gifts. The problem of material things is that they are like salty water: the more we drink the thirstier we become. As a result, existence turns into a cyclic event of consuming without getting satisfied. Consequently, one falls into consumerism; in the accumulation and assimilation of worldly goods without limit and without filling the human emptiness, but instead creating larger space and hunger for more things, for apparently better things, for deceptively greater things, for seemingly more sweet things, for more sleek goods, etc.
This is the reason Bd. Allamano always said that as Consolata Missionaries, we should be reservoirs of spiritual goods. In other words, we should be pools of such goods. It is another way of saying that we should be rich in spiritual gifts. The world today seems to have a great deficiency of spiritual gifts. Pope John Paul II used to say that the world has wars because of wars in our beings. He also said that desertification is increasing in the world because of the spiritual desertification in the hearts of people. It may appear as if the pope was just giving a poetic lecture to the world, but experience has shown that before battles begin anywhere, the relationship of people in that area goes bad. Before a man raises his hand to slap another, everything begins inside him as anger. That is exactly why Jesus said “it is that which comes out of the heart of a person that makes him unclean” (Mt. 15:10-20). So, spiritual dryness has adverse effects.
Instead of being reservoirs of material goods, our Founder said that we should be canals of material things. In other words, no matter how much money or property that passes our hands, we should not be pools but only conduits that pass them to the right use. This is another way of reminding us to be detached from material things that “dirtify” people’s names and reputations, eventually ruining their character and destiny. Becoming reservoirs of material goods is a recipe for down fall - not because money is bad, but because money opens rivers of temptations that few can withstand.
SEVENTH COMMANDMENT
Do good well without noise
Doing good means helping others using not just the heart (in which it is not about an emotion of the moment), but also with intelligence, fantasy, intuition and critical sense. It is useless to limit oneself to feeding the hungry without denouncing the economic system that provokes the situation that oppresses them. In this commandment, there are 3 important things to note.
(a) Do good
In the heart of every man there is a voice that says “do good and avoid evil”. That is the voice of conscience. It is the voice of God in each person. It is a voice which guides us before we do any action, and judges us after we have done it. For that voice to be able to guide us well however, we need to form our consciences so that they may alert us when we are about to do a bad thing. Only a well-formed conscience can guide a person well. Not forming one’s conscience when he has the possibility is a sin, because that is the beginning of spiritual blindness, and all the consequences that follow.
All the effort of the Church in the world is aimed at forming the hearts (conscience) of the people, so that they may make informed choices - because only that way can people become transformative agents in the society they live in. We form our consciences through the word of God, the sacraments, spiritual reading, spiritual direction, Christian formation and catechesis, etc. with the aim of making them points of departure in doing good. We can only do good if we are good inside. Jesus said a bad tree cannot produce good fruits (Mt. 7:15-20). We have to begin being good inside and doing good will become natural to us.
(b) Well
It is one thing to do good, and another to do it well. Doing good is ordinary to every person - but doing it well depicts goodness in the doer. In other words, it is common place for people to do good because they don’t want to be blamed, criticized or punished for doing bad. Only truly good people do good well. In fact, doing good well is a revelation of who a person is. Doing good well is therefore a window into the mind and heart of a person. It is a pointer to the serenity of the person, the gratitude of the person to God and to others and the self-acceptance and appreciation that one has for himself. It is another way of saying “I am not that rotten inside to produce bad things; I know God created me good so I can’t let him down by producing what is evil; I know that I am what I am because somebody somewhere has done well what he was supposed to do,...”. Doing good well is the vocation of Christians, for when God was creating in the beginning, he saw that “all was good”.
If we believe strongly in that fact of having been created good, then we can affirm that it would be inappropriate to claim or even think that people choose deliberately to do what is not good. The goodness in us would help us to see the good in others and in what they do – for people see in others what is in themselves. Even as insist on doing good, we should not forget that the human being is a complicated creature. In truth, no one wakes up in the morning and decides to be a drunkard, rapist, killer, liar, etc. Even those who end up so start life with blessed dreams of greatness and holiness. St. Paul gives us a glimpse of how complicated we are when he says that the things that he didn’t want to do were the ones he found himself doing, and the things he would have wanted to do were the ones he was finding difficult to do. In other words, he had discovered the inward struggle that many of us never admit. This is what he wrote to the Roman:
15 I do not understand what I do For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it 21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me (Rom 7:15-22)
This assertion tells us that first, if it is not automatic to do the good, it is even more difficult to do it well. Second, it tells us that we should not be quick to judge those who are not able to do the good well. Probably, if we understood the struggle within them to get things right (a struggle that we would have readily admited if were honest) we would pray for them and help them instead of condemning them. It is certainly that kind of understanding that saw Jesus embrace people that the society had already give up about them and most probably even written them off. Fr. Allamano’s call is to use the basic goodness in us to do what is good well.
(c) Without noise
People can do good well, but it is only the righteous man who does it silently. It is the upright man who does not need to sound a trumpet of his good deeds. It is the virtuous man who knows that God is a father “who sees all that is done in secret” (Mt. 6:5,6). Bd. Allamano added this part to tell us that we should not be showy, because it destroys all the good done. Doing good with a lot of noise is a pointer to pride. Fr. Allamano was categorical about this: it was not his style to announce, publicize, and advertise every good act. If the Founder resurrected today, probably he would be shocked back to death. We, his missionaries are advertising even the basic duties we do. Lay people produce children and educate them silently, but we announce every little act we do in the missionary field throughout the web. Certainly, we are in the era of communication, and it is appropriate to disseminate information. However, when the informing becomes too loud, it is no longer Christ who is proclaimed but ourselves. The noise is a bad sign. The fact that we announce and advertise everything we do in the internet raise fundamental questions. Could it be a sign that we have grown a very low self-esteem to an extent that we have to be affirmed by others through what we do? Could it be a sign that we know what we do is below standard, and that is why we try to pamper it up to increase its fake quality? Could it also be an insult to others in the sense that we do not believe they are wise enough to know what is of value or quality, until noise is made over it? In other words, these questions could go on and on, but the truth is that when noise is made even after a good piece work, the authenticity of the work is destroyed.
EIGHTH COMMANDMENT
Search for God only and his holy will
Whatever does not begin from or does not lead us to God soon or later falls. Fr. Allamano founded 2 missionary institutes and did great work because he always tried to look for the will of God and not his own. Jesus taught many times that he did not come to do his own will, but the will of his Father (Jn. 6:38). The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that God created us to search him, know him, love him and serve him, so that at the end of time we may live with him. It is the will of God that at the end of time we may reign with him. Although we have already said something about the will of God, it is important to note that Fr. Allamano was very choosy in wording these commandments. This commandment speaks of “searching” God and his will. People do not search for something that is self-evident. We search for things that are hidden, obscure or shrouded by a mystery.
Even naturally, when we talk about the will of a person we imply also his plans, intentions, desires, consent, etc. These are not things that are open to us at the moment we meet a person. The intentions as well as the desires of a person are hidden in his heart. In other words, the will of a person and all it entails is an interior thing. That means that it is not easy to know the will of a person unless the person reveals it to us or the will gets revealed to us in some way. If knowing the will of a human person is difficult, imagine knowing the will of God! We are not therefore mistaken to say that the will of God is a very complex issue, no wonder Fr. Allamano uses the word “search”. There are many reasons that make the issue of the will of God to be complex. First, we never meet God in person as we meet one another in the streets. This means that knowing the will of such an “elusive” person, who exists in a realm we have no experience of is not easy.
The second reason why knowing the will of God is hard is that it requires believing that first of all God exists and secondly that he continues acting and relating with creation. The entrance of the aspect of faith complicates the whole matter more, because faith matters defy our celebrated rational view of reality and our scientific experimentations. Third, the complexity about the will of God is also due to the fact that even when we think about it we use our criteria to discern it and therefore we risk seeing our plans, intentions and decisions as the will of God. Simply put, it is possible to attribute our own plans, decisions and intentions to the will of God, especially because God never appears to dismiss or affirm our claims. This also means that it is possible to take advantage of the silence of God to promote our agenda as the will of God. It is also possible to believe in fate in the name of believing in the will of God. For example, when things go on well we say that it is the will of God. But also when tragedies strike whether due to natural disasters, human error or technical breakdown, etc, we say it is the will of God, because if it was not the will of God the tragedy would not have taken place.
In other words, it is possible also to attribute whatever happens in life to the will of God as a way of bringing the fears of the uncertainties of life into perspective and calming ourselves. In as much as this works is consoling us and giving us hope, it is important to be aware that if our attribution is only an ascription it amounts to self-deception. Lastly, knowing the will of God is difficult because since God does not appear in person to us, he speaks to us through mediums. We believe for example that God speaks to us through the people around us, through histories of our lives, through daily events, through his word, through his chosen people in the Church, etc. These are means through which God speaks to us. To be able to speak about the will of God, we must first of all believe and be convinced that they represent God, or better that he, God, acts in and through them. Only then can we start speaking of and looking for his will. If that confidence and certainty is not there, the mediums become sterile and the idea of the will of God becomes futile. The problem becomes murkier when we imagine that our belief in those mediums may be mistaken, and that at the end of it all there is no measure of how true our convictions in the mediums can be guaranteed with certitude. That leaves us even more lost in the maze of confusion than ever.
Aware of the difficulty that knowing the will of God entails, Fr. Allamano chose the shortest route: surrendering before the divine being. According to him, simple faith is enough (SL. 175): the belief in the divine good, its personal concern for us and its ability to intervene for the good regardless of our situation. The Founder does not beat about the bush. He knows that “intellectualization” of the will of God and in fact of God himself leads to confusion and skepticism. This is why the Founder said, “those who begin to doubt everything, little by little come to doubt even matters of faith… This tendency to doubt things may lead to heresy” (SL. 176). Even today from heaven, Fr. Allamano tells us categorically that “the will of God for us is that we become saints” (SL. 173), and simplicity is needed to believe that. The tendency of our time to question everything is destructive. It creates cracks in serious things by destroying the demanded disposition of man before the supreme being: humility. Our inquisitive nature which doubts even the existence of the creator makes us proud and arrogant even to an extent of questioning the obvious: the existence of the world as a caused entity. The Consolata Missionary according to Fr. Allamano should not therefore struggle with the obvious. While others engage in those never-ending debates, our faith should be simple: God created us out of love, he wishes us well, and he is ready to help us to achieve it. On our part, we should trust that he knows what he is doing, put ourselves in his hands and live trustingly that he will lead us to that which he created us for.
Even then, the search of the will of God does not become easy. This is because, it means trusting fully, completely and totally that God will act in our life. It means not manipulating or maneuvering our way to achieve anything. A student who searches the will of God will study and pray and then go to the exam believing that whatever results come out, will be the will of God. He will not cheat in the exam in order to get a certain grade. A woman who believes and searches the will of God will not trick a man into marriage, nor use crooked ways to end up in a happy marriage. A man who is looking for a job will not bribe to be given the chance if he is searching that which God wishes for him (i.e. his will). He will prepare for the interview and pray then go for the interview believing that if it is the will of God to get the job, he will definitely get it. Unfortunately, as human beings, many of the good outcomes of our efforts that we call the will of God are a result of our manipulation and maneuvering of the system and the people involved. People cheat in exams, get good grade that promote them to higher learning and say it is through the will of God that they have achieved that chance of higher learning when they actually know the trick they used. Many do the same to get job promotions, happy marriages, valuable properties, etc., and once they have achieved their dream, they proclaim everywhere that their achievements are the results of the will of God. This explains why searching the will of God is not a walk in the park. It means doing everything honestly from the means to the intentions, and doing so everywhere and always. The difficulty of this is what makes us realize that we cannot just walk into the kingdom of God. In other words, we need the grace of God to achieve anything worthwhile because by ourselves we cannot make it. This was why Fr. Allamano said in this commandment that we have to keep searching for God and his will. Our existence is a lifelong search for God and his will amid many things that present themselves. It is in finding God and his will that one can be sure of having found a treasure. This is also easier said than done, but the struggle is worth it.
NINTH COMMANDMENT
Give holiness priority in everything
Every time we talk of holiness the words that come in our minds include purity, integrity of moral character, freedom from sin, sanctity. But what is Holiness? Holiness is the fact of being set apart from what is common. It is to be different or unique from the world or from the rest. Although most of the time holiness is associated with moral uprightness, in truth it is not much about doing right or wrong but being set apart. Per se, holiness belongs to God (Isa 6:3), because he is the only one who is set apart from creation. In other words, he is the one who is separated from all that is human and earthly. However, holiness can also apply to people, things and even places. For example, Aaron was set apart (1 Chron. 23:13) and so were all the priests, kings and prophets. The room in which the ark of the tabernacle was kept was holy (Lev. 16:1-2) and so was the whole temple as a place of worship. Similarly, the ground on which Moses stood on the mountain when God appeared to him as a burning bush was holy (Ex. 3:1-6). In other words, holiness applies also to earthly things, but always in so far as they are associated with God. That is to say, that all these become holy when God who is set apart from creation sets them apart. For us religious, holiness expresses a relation which consists negatively in separation from the common use, and positively in dedication to the service of God. God wishes us to be as holy as himself. This is why he says “be holy for I am holy” (Lev. 11:44; 19:2).
Fr. Allamano spoke about holiness all the time. In fact, if there is something that our Founder repeated all his life was the fact that we are called to be holy. Our Founder’s call that we should be holy is not a misguided impossible demand for his missionaries. In truth, his call is scriptural. St. Paul tells us the same: it is the will of God that you grow in holiness (1 Thes 4:3). It is on this ground that our Founder hooks his desire to have holy missionaries. Although Fr. Allamano says that actual holiness is not a requirement for entrance to the religious life, (SL. 90), he points out that once in the institute, the first goal is to look for holiness. In fact, according to Fr. Allamano, holiness is our first obligation, the first goal our vocation, and the first means of apostolic work. (SL. 91). This means that first, it is a duty to be holy in the Institute, second, it is the aim of our vocation to be holy, and lastly, the acquired holiness becomes a tool through which we can perform our missionary apostolate effectively. As such, Fr. Allamano presents the second goal of our Institute as working for the holiness of other people, through our own holiness (SL. 85).
Even with the duty of working for other people’s holiness, Fr. Allamano was categorical that our holiness takes precedence in everything we do. That is why he advised us that we should not sacrifice our own holiness in order to save others. If as a missionary in the process of helping others one falls in the danger of losing his own holiness, then he should pull back (SL. 87). This explains this ninth commandment of Fr. Allamano. Our holiness should be the priority in all we do – not saving others, making their lives to be comfortable or even worse making ourselves mediocre missionaries. To the Founder, the way to attain holiness was as clear as ABC. Aware that holiness cannot be separated from relationship with God, Fr. Allamano noted that to be we need three things: having a constant will, trusting God and training one’s character. In other words, the Founder knew that holiness is not something for the fainthearted. It is a crown obtained through consistent struggling. Second, he was also aware that we cannot make ourselves holy, because as limited and weak being we need God’s help if we are to make any headway. That is why the founder said we must trust in God to attain holiness. Lastly, our founder also knew that holiness cannot be separated from one’s character. In other words, holiness is not a fruit of “turning chapels into bedrooms”.
Certainly, prayer as communication with God is indispensable to attain holiness, but one’s character is similarly essential. Prayer no matter how honest it is cannot take the place of a person’s character. The character of a person is the totality of what he is inside. It is what we are in the eyes of God. Note that we are not talking about reputation, which is what people think we are (and which could be very different from what we really are!). Here we emphasize about the character. When the inside is fine the outside radiates the goodness from the inside of the person. The inside of a person is always hidden in his conscience where all intentions reside. A good person inside is one who does all things for the right reason. Such a person does not fear the opinions of others, because he is a person of integrity. In other words, a person who knows no duplicity. One who will still remain true to his character even in private. Such a person is honest, transparent and genuine in everything even when no one is watching him. That type of a person can be said to be holy. This is why Fr. Allamano insisted that holiness consisted in two things: to do nothing bad and to do much good possible (SL. 95). When it is attained, holiness keeps the wrong at a distance, produces the good, and inclines us to what is right.
TENTH COMMANDMENT
Never say that it is not my duty
Naturally, different people are gifted differently, and there is a tendency that people are comfortable working where they feel inclined to. It is of course understandable that when one works in what happens to be his inclination there is a natural force not only to give the best of himself, but also to do the given duty well. Aware of this, and the fact that in the missions missionaries are not likely to find only what they love, Fr. Allamano insisted that missionaries should not be choosy or indifferent to certain responsibilities. Obviously, the superior must uphold our Founder’s idea, but they must also be aware the opposite fact: if one works where he does not fit there is a danger of killing the person’s self-giving capacity, his effectiveness in the mission, the expected outcome of the task he is doing, and the expected harmonious coexistence of the person with his confreres and the people he serves. This does not however give any missionary the right to be choosy.
Although Fr. Allamano lived in a different time from ours, many of his exhortations are as valid as ever. Sure, we live in a time that emphasizes privacy and separation of powers, but Fr. Allamano’s well-intentioned advice remains crucial. Speaking to seminarians, the Founder once said, “Don’t say I am not made for this. Nonsense, you are made for everything. If one despises nothing, in the end he will be a good missionary” (SL. 159). It is therefore not difficult to see what Fr. Allamano demands in his tenth commandment.
First, the Founder wants us to see that no one should despise a responsibility because it appears lowly. To the seminarians he in fact added “everything is useful, from sweeping the floor to reading St. Thomas”. We may say that the Founder is cautioning us against despising some duties in the community. Of course, that has its effect: if we despise a given duty, the possibility that we also despise the people who do that duty is very high. And how would a community or Region go on well if some people feel despised due to the duties they do? Certainly, that becomes the beginning of discrimination. It is also the source of a negative attitude of missionaries towards certain responsibilities. It is the foundation of constant lamentations by the affected missionaries.
Second, our Founder calls for openness for duties, or simply availability. The possibility that the Institute will always have people for everything is very slim. As such, some duties will require not expertise but good will and readiness to try one’s best. That attitude is very positive. The availability of persons in given duties, not only show a good will for the common good, but also the spirit of learning. That is why the Founder told the seminarians that everything is useful for the missions. He was sure that if availability is coupled with adaptability, anyone can learn anything and end up performing exceptionally well. This explains why Fr. Allamano ensured that before the missionaries left Turin, they had a myriad of technical skills for practical purposes. They were of course not experts in all the fields, but the simple preparation in everything gave them the capacity to adapt anywhere, to improvise when it was necessary, and to be able to live fairly comfortable amidst scarcity of essential things.
Lastly, Fr. Allamano in the tenth commandment hits especially on indifference: the attitude of not caring for something because it is not directly under one’s call of duty. To Fr. Allamano, such a mindset is not only wrong but it also amounts to sin. This is because, saying something is not one’s duty means that even if he has the capacity, time and energy to do it he is not ready to offer the same. Fr. Allamano’s sentiments were not just his own. They were evangelical. One time, Jesus told his disciples that there was a lot of harvest, but that there were a few labourers. He went on to say, “pray then that the owner of the vineyard may sent people in his own farm” (Mt. 9:3538). If a farm belongs to someone else it is usually his business to decide what to do and when to do it. For Jesus to tell the disciples to pray so that the owner of the vineyard may send workers in his vineyard, it meant that they could not just fold their hands indifferently when things were not working. They too had to do something even if it meant only to pray.
Essentially, Jesus meant that having called them and made them partakers of his mission, they were now sons of the owner of the vineyard. As such, the vineyard was theirs too, because what is God’s belongs also to his sons (Lk. 15:31). This is why Jesus insisted that they had all the rights to get concerned that there were no labourers in the vineyard when the harvest was already ready. The tenth commandment of Fr. Allamano reminds us that if we have a strong sense of belonging in the congregation, we will not ignore things that are not working just because they are not directly under us. Instead, we will feel pain when money and other resources that are painfully earned by the benefactors and given to us are getting wasted in lights that are not turned off, in water that is running for no apparent reason, in useless trips and holidays, in unnecessary projects whose viability is not guaranteed, etc. May the Founder inspire us to be alert to all that needs to be done.