In the middle of Christmas time, on January 4, Pope Francis dedicated an address to an important group of Italian Catholic educators, based on what he called "the most important and most important of the Italian Catholic educators". Pedagogy of God. With quick strokes he outlined a program for Christian-inspired education. A program that we could call pedagogy of hopeand that illuminates our path in the Jubilee year.
"¿What is -Francisco wondered. God's educational method?"And the answer was: "It is that of proximity and closeness". The trinomial that he usually repeats resounded in the background: closeness, compassion and tenderness. And this may lead us to ask ourselves: how should we Christians deal with a pedagogy of hope?
The curtain opens on the divine pedagogy: "Like a teacher who enters the world of his students, God chooses to live among men in order to teach through the language of life and love. Jesus was born in a condition of poverty and simplicity: this calls us to a pedagogy that values what is essential and places humility, gratuitousness and acceptance at the center.".
In contrast," the Pope explains, "pedagogy that is distant and distant from the students is neither useful nor helpful. In fact, Christmas teaches us that greatness is not manifested in success or wealth, but in love and service to others.
The pedagogy of God
"God's -he shelled out- is a pedagogy of gift, a call to live in communion with Him and with others, as part of a project of universal fraternity, a project in which the family occupies a central and irreplaceable place.".
Let us note how this orientation resonates with the main chords of Francis' teachings, whose center is communion with God and with people. And which leads to praising and thanking him (Laudato si'(the gift that has been given to us in the Heart of Christ (Dilexit uswho loved us). Such is the horizon of Christian proclamation (Evangelii gaudiumof the joy of the Gospel). A proclamation that implies, in fact, the project of a universal fraternity (Fratelli tutti, all siblings), in which the family plays a nuclear role (Amoris laetitiathe joy of love).
For this reason, he continues, God's pedagogy is "an invitation to recognize the dignity of every person, beginning with the discarded and marginalized, as shepherds were treated two thousand years ago, and to appreciate the value of every stage of life, including childhood. The family is the center, let us not forget it!"
The Declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith should be mentioned here, Dignitas infinita (April 8, 2024) which underlines the value of human dignity, easily recognized by the believer, since God loves every human being with an infinite love and "...".thereby conferring infinite dignity" (Fratelli tuttiThe expression is from John Paul II, Message to the disabled16-XI-1980).
With regard to the family, and in order to invite communication in the family, the Pope stops to recount an event. On Sunday, someone was eating in a restaurant. At the next table there was a family, the father and the mother, the son and the daughter, each one attentive to his cell phone, without talking to each other. This gentleman got up and told them that since they were a family, why didn't they talk to each other. The result is that they sent him on his way and went on with what they were doing....
Our hope, the engine of education
In the second part of the speech, Francis placed himself in the the way of the jubilee we are beginning. With the Incarnation of the Son of God, the hope has entered the world.
"The Jubilee -noted- has much to say to the world of education and schools. In fact, 'pilgrims of hope' are all those who are searching for meaning in their lives, and also those who help young people to walk this path.".
That's right. A parenthesis. In the Global education pact that Francis has been proposing, and whose launch was interrupted by the pandemic, the issue of the address occupies a central place (cfr. Instrumentum laboris(2020) In outlining the general lines of the educational task we need today, Benedict XVI is quoted in his Letter to the diocese and city of Rome on the urgent task of education (21-I-2008) when it states: "There is talk of a great 'educational emergency', confirmed by the failures in which very often end our efforts to form solid people, capable of collaborating with others and giving meaning to their lives.".
In fact, the increasing numbers of suicides among young people only confirm this urgency (in 2023, a study showed that in Spain, suicide is the leading cause of death in young people and adolescents between 12 and 29 years of age).
Let us continue with Francis' speech. He maintains the evidence that education has to do in a central way with hope: the hope, supported by the experience of human history, that people can mature and grow. And this hope sustains the educator in his task:
"A good teacher is a man or woman of hope, because he or she is committed with confidence and patience to a project of human growth. His or her hope is not naïve, it is rooted in reality, sustained by the conviction that every educational effort has value and that every person has a dignity and a vocation that deserves to be cultivated.".
In this regard, the Pope expresses his pain when he sees children who have no education and who go to work, often exploited, or who go to look for food or things to sell where there is garbage.
Small and big hopes
But, he asks, "How can we not lose hope and nourish it every day?"
And he advises: "Keep your gaze fixed on Jesus, teacher and companion on the way: this allows you to be truly pilgrims of hope. Think of the people you meet at school, children and adults.".
It was already said in the Bull for the convocation of the Jubilee: "Everyone hopes. In the heart of every person nestles hope as a desire and expectation of the good, even in ignorance of what tomorrow will bring." (Spes non confundit, 1).
This is an argument that had already appeared in the encyclical Spe salvi (cf. Benedict XVI, nn. 30 ff.): there are the small or greater human hopes (which everyone has, in relation to love, work, etc.), depending also on the times of life. And then there is the hope proclaimed by the Christian faith: "the greatest hope that cannot be destroyed even by frustrations in small things or by failure in events of historical importance." (n. 35).
Well, Francis says: "These human hopes, through each and every one of you -educators-, can find Christian hope, the hope that is born of faith and lives in charity.". He adds: "let us not forget: hope does not disappoint. Optimism disappoints, but hope does not disappoint. A hope that surpasses all human desire, because it opens minds and hearts to life and to eternal beauty.".
How, then, can this be done in schools or in Christian-inspired colleges?
An incisive and articulate proposal
Here is the proposal of Francisco: "You are called to elaborate and transmit a new culture, based on the encounter between generations, on inclusion, on the discernment of the true, the good and the beautiful; a culture of responsibility, personal and collective, to face global challenges such as the environmental, social and economic crises, and the great challenge of peace. At school we can 'imagine peace', that is, lay the foundations for a more just and fraternal world, with the contribution of all disciplines and the creativity of children and young people.".
Let us note some elements of the proposal. First of all, the Christian educator does not fly over human hopes in order to take a shortcut to the only important thing, which would be Christian hope. To understand this would be a mistake. Christian hope assumes human hopes, whether personal or social, as long as they are true, good and beautiful, even if some of them can be considered as more small by its scope or duration. "Christian hope assumes all hopes". that we have today, such as peace, although its achievement may seem difficult or distant.
In the second place, the great Christian hope, on this path of assuming the smallest - if we want to speak in this way - human hopes, is making a new culture, to be "a culture of personal and collective responsibility".precisely through education. But this requires an effort, in the personal and social field, in the direction of encounter, inclusion, ethical responsibility.
Third, teaching, not only at the university level but also in schools and colleges, needs the interdisciplinarityThe work of bringing together the different subjects of the curricula so that each one contributes its best in dialogue with the others, thus enriching education and helping students in their personal growth.
In its apostolic constitution Veritatis gaudium (2017), on that anthropological or cultural basis of interdisciplinarity, Francisco proposes a further step: the. transdisciplinarity, understood "as the location and maturation of all knowledge in the space of Light and Life offered by the Wisdom that flows from the Revelation of God". (cfr. 4 c).
Fourth and last, all of it asks, from school or college, discernment and creativity. First, in the teachers, in their minds, in their work, personally and as a team. And then, they must teach the students these fundamental attitudes: to discern the true, the good and the beautiful; and to encourage their creativity. And not to lose themselves in useless imaginations or daydreams, but to "laying the groundwork" of a more just and fraternal world; for a more just and "meeting the challenges" both personal and global.
Hope is not mere utopia
Someone might ask: aren't these too many goals? Isn't this educational project proposed by Francis somewhat utopian, perhaps attractive, but unattainable in reality?
And just before this question, at that moment, it is when our hope is testedthat of each educator. And, before that, that of each family. And, afterwards and at the same time, that of each educational center.
So we could say or tell them, or tell us: you have (have) so much hope, you will have (will have) so much engine, for your (or your) educational task.
For the rest, the Pope does not abandon realism. He says: all of this (imagining peace with realistic dreams) will not be possible if the school allows the "wars"between educators or the bullying Then peace would be unimaginable, as would be all the dreams of education.
The end of the speech is near. What is important in a school or college is not the building, but the people. By its very nature, the educational task involves a path and a community, a place for the testimony of human values.
This was known to the great promoters and educators of educational institutions in which those who listened to the Pope that day were working. Those of us who are now reading this speech know it and wish to take advantage of it to continue in the educational field or to regain new impetus.
Francis knows this well. And he offers, in conclusion, a few pieces of advice or suggestions that, in their apparent simplicity, deserve to be meditated upon and worked on. They appeal both to the "educational passion" and to the responsibility and discernment of educators and school administrators.
