SFO International Council - Weekly edition
Volume: 2 - N. 50 - 1996 - December - II
From: Letter to the Assistants, 1996, N. 4
The Law
The boy or girl needs a norm beyond self and others, in order to identify himself in it, for an ideal, for a consistent line, for a relationship of equality with others and reassurance.
The Law of the "Juniors" is this:
1. I am on the way to discovering God my Father with the help
of Jesus Christ who reveals the Father to me in his Gospel.
2. I want to welcome and to use all the gifts that God, the Lord of
my life, gives me (the Word, Sacraments, prayer; relations
with others, with Creation, with God).
3. I put all my commitment into overcoming my selfishness and
in being simple and humble, generous with others and welcoming
them, respecting my home which is Creation and my body which God
has given me.
4. I seek every day to do something good for others and with
others, even if they do not ask me to do so.
5. I am always loyal and truthful with myself and with everyone so
as to merit their trust.
The boy or girl seeks a norm to appeal to in order to strengthen
his rights. It is a very limited and utilitarian concept of law
from which one must release him to have him acquire a norm which is
a plan of life, a moral norm to guide the growth in relationships
that every person has with God and neighbour, even when he rejects
them. Since it is a question of a norm and plan, a positive
formulation is preferred, to retrace the commitment.
The Animator, particularly in his dialogue directly with the
"Junior", must stress this commitment, retracing, with examples,
the gospel commandment of charity, in order to animate him,
particularly with regard to his more needy aspects.
But also with the whole group the discourse of the Law must be
continually presented, as a purposeful stimulus and as a reference
for checking.
Naturally this Law does not take the place of the Ten Commandments
and much less of the gospel Commandment. It is intended to be a
translation of the one and the other that reaches the "Junior" in
his or her psychological and moral reality. On the other hand, it
is not an exhaustive translation, but it stresses the aspects that
need stronger stimulation.
The Promise
The Promise is the commitment to live the Law. Thereby the will
becomes effective. In substance it is the commitment to allow
oneself to be led along the paths of the spiritual experience of
Francis of Assisi.
It is to be made after a suitable period of preparation, in order
to have first an exact intuition of the commitment - adapted to the
age, but real - that it allows. In this period it must be explained
to the "Junior".
Possibly the Promise is to be made not beyond a month after the
acceptance of the candidate. If he comes from the group of
"Children", the time can be shortened by half.
The contents of the Promise expresses the commitment to observe the
Law of the "Juniors" and places the accent strongly on Christ, the
Lord of life and of Creation and on availability to others.
The Promise should be personalized with regard to both the
preparation and the date. But in any case it is a great event for
the whole group.
The Good Deed
The love that Christ gave witness to and to which we want to
initiate the "Juniors" has the spirit of service as its essential
component. A service that can be carried out also with great acts
but which above all is made up of daily acts and so of small
attentions, acts of sensitivity, occasional helps, etc. Through
these small things they can be habituated to an attitude of
availability to their brothers. We cannot ask more of a boy or girl
than this start. However, it will contribute to creating a new
mentality, that of Christ. This gesture is called [in Italian "Pace
e Bene", because it is a gesture of peace and a gift of good, and
because in this way the Franciscan greeting and best wishes takes
on substance.
The "Juniors" must be continually stimulated along these lines,
with imagination and creativity.
Our Motto
The "Juniors" also have a motto of their own: a word that sums up their commitment. They can use it in a thousand ways: as a shout to begin their games, as a motto to display on their notebooks and drawing pads, as a word of recognition among themselves, etc. It is Always better! . It indicates a commitment not to grow tired of improving and growing. It is along the lines of the reference that Luke's gospel makes to Jesus, who "increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favour with God and men" (Lk 2,52).
Exercise of responsibility
Formation towards conscious participation -motivated,
constructive, competent - towards the promotion of duties towards
God, neighbour and creation, comes about through everyday things
and through experiences commensurate to the intellectual and
psychological capacities of the person.
The group of "Juniors" must make this experience live in order to
"initiate" the boy or girl to the sense of responsibility. Many are
the duties that he can carry out within his group so that it may be
like a body with many members, each of which has its own precise
function. At this age, it is good that the tasks be stable or that
the turn be rather long (for example, lasting a month).
In the check-up of the group, besides the observance of the Law,
the carrying out of the assigned tasks must also be treated. Not in
order to hold a trial, but to identify the helps to be given to
anyone in difficulty and to modify the task itself in order to make
it more useful and more efficaciously exercis-able.
Here, still more than in the "Children's" group, the Animator must
not function as a magician who provides last-minute remedies to the
negligences of the "Juniors". The discomforts arising from
someone's lack of responsibility must be supported with patience
and serenity, applying a remedy if possible, but without the
extraordinary interventions possible only to adults. It is
necessary to get used to carrying the consequences of one's actions
without getting angry. These consequences are already a quiet and
peaceful punishment of pride and fickleness.
Poverty
Franciscan poverty is not flight but a loving choice: Christ
chose it to be near us and Francis made it also his choice out of
love for him. Through gospel poverty everything is evaluated in
relation to God, the only Lord of all. So, through evangelical
poverty we understand better the value of well-being itself and of
wealth because we understand that we are stewards of things and not
owners of what belongs to God, which God provides for
everyone.
If the heart is not stripped of power and possession, it does not
know how to love. If it loves to possess, it is not free from
material conditioning, from consumerism, from conformism (the alibi
of calling necessary what everyone runs after even without needing
it).
We must stimulate the "Juniors" to appreciate and actuate the
essential (a significant aspect of poverty) in what is needed, and
in the use and choice of things.