Formation: To Swim and To Fish

After the pleasant experience at home with the family, I was returning by bus to the community after my holidays. While cherishing the memories of the by gone days just then, I felt a nudge and I wanted to say that I already bought the ticket thinking that it was the conductor. Instead, it was from my neighbor who asked me, “Where are you going?” I replied that I was going back to duty after my holidays. This middle aged neighbour who asked me was curious in knowing about me and so I revealed my identity saying I was a catholic religious preparing to be a priest. He continued the conversation with interest since he was a past pupil of a catholic institute. Gradually, he drew my attention to the Bible although he was not a Christian. He quoted verses and explained them in his own terms. I was sure that he did not understand the value of Catholicism as he was skeptical about some of the devotional practices of piety. Then he posed an interesting question, “You are very young now. Won’t you later regret for your decision of abstaining yourself from the world’s pleasures and going against the human nature?” I understood his intention of pointing out to the renunciation of marriage.  I quoted a few scripture passages and explained that the decision is beyond human nature and not against human nature. Neither did he understand nor was I satisfied.

Deo gratias! I was reminded of my village experience with the fisher folk who taught me fishing in the middle of the sea. I asked my neighbour, “Say for example, if you do not know swimming will you go with the fishermen for work?” “Certainly not”, he continued, “I am afraid of sailing on the sea itself.” “Since it is dangerous according to you, will you persuade the fishermen not to go fishing?” In other words I meant whether he would stop them from their livelihood. The conversation ended because we reached our destination and we got off the bus with exchanging smiles.

Later, I gave a thought to this conversation. In fact, sailing on the sea can be an apt metaphor for religious life. It needs courage; it demands commitment and requires caution. A fisherman needs to know the two rudiments to go fishing namely to swim and to fish. Swimming guarantees his safety to a certain extent and fishing gives meaning to his journey on the water. I feel it is the same in religious life too. As the fisherman practises swimming and fishing in order to make it a profession, a religious needs to equip himself or herself for the profession by being formed well. Therefore the initial formation may be seen the practice to swim and to fish.

My neighbour on the journey was right in a sense; it is difficult in the early stage of the religious life to be sure of perseverance till the end in the religious order; it is known that some priests leave their priesthood even at advanced age. It is also true and we hear news about the fishermen who are good at swimming but have gone missing for years.

These are not obstacles for an ardent follower of Christ in the religious life. They give a witness to the world. On the contrary, priesthood or religious profession is not the culmination of this special vocation. It is the beginning of the extraordinary journery, an everyday endeavour like that of a fisherman who has to cast the net at every dawn in the middle of the sea.

Religious commitment is not an overnight venture and it needs practice. And so the Catholic Church suggests years of preparation at different phases of formation for the future ministers of the Church. For such, is the responsibility of each individual. Once a superior from the formation department of the Salesian congregation said, “If formation does not bring transformation it remains only as information.” Who makes this transformation – formator or formee? Certainly, it is in the hands of the formee who should learn to swim first that is to persevere in this way of life. Gradually, the meaning of priestly or religious life is realized in the mission and so the people of this special vocation need to know the different skills of fishing as Jesus called us, priests and religious, to be fishers of MEN.

This twofold nature of religious life may also answer those who think that priestly and religious life is meant to serve people alone forgetting the holistic formation.