The theme of the adult in today’s cultural and social context presents itself as an area of research, provocation, and question that involves many aspects: anthropological, existential, social, philosophical, and theological. The question of the adult and her maturity questions the theological horizon. In the Christian life, the main reference is the “full maturity of Christ”, proposed to every believer at every stage of life. In the context of the Christian spiritual experience, according to tradition, the theme of maturity has been declined through the instance of spiritual progression, marked by passages (degrees and paths) oriented towards an adult figure or the pinnacle of Christian identity.
Adults in Christ. Human maturity and spiritual maturity” is the theme of the seminar-laboratory proposed by the two-year license – specialization in spiritual theology of the Theological Faculty of Triveneto, in the academic year 2023 (possibility of enrolling as auditors), with the guidance of Fr. Antonio Bertazzo, professor of general psychology and religion, and Sister Marzia Ceschia, professor of spiritual theology.
Professor Antonio Bertazzo, The figure of the adult today appears to oscillate between experiences of crisis and the search for meaning. Where does this crisis come from?
In the last ten years, the theme of adults has occupied the interest of many: pedagogists, sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists in general, but also educators, pastoralists, and numerous other figures. Even those involved in politics are necessarily becoming increasingly interested in this category, evaluating the demographic statistics that show, not only here in Italy, an increasingly wider decline towards a group of adults, corresponding to the decrease in births. It’s strange, but true: being an adult today has become a difficult task as the “certainties guaranteed” by the social, economic, and political context are not so clear: work, family, relationships, and future. The adult today is looking for a “balance above the waves”.
Among contemporary religious and cultural changes and transformations, what do adults question most?
From a social and economic point of view, having security often appears to be a chimera or a mirage. The stages of life seem to fluctuate, favoring increasingly blurred boundaries between different ages. The phases of adolescence and youth seem to continue in an endless adventure. The result is also a cultural model of the adult, considered “always young”, and of the young person, considered “always an adult”: these are transformations that touch the root of the way of thinking about the person. Never before has life been conceived as a great theater of individuality: with required and complete freedom, each person can experience personal and private choices, no longer regulated by custom and therefore by social responsibility. This creates great instability, and it follows that adulthood appears to be a non-age, where adolescent or typically youthful aspects can be experienced. Adulthood no longer coincides with maturity.”
How does a man move in the search for meaning? Today the proposals, but also the “mermaids”, are many and different…
The man in search of meaning is the man of every era. It is his “natural” condition. When cultural and social references, transmitted in intergenerational passages, are missing, man finds himself experiencing precariousness, uncertainty, and even emptiness. In our era, we see this. Uncertainty is a dynamic that shows a characteristic of existence, that of transition. In this experience of passage, I do not become someone other than myself, but I arrive at another me. The search for meaning necessarily leads to living transitions.
How do you stay afloat in these times of transition?
Duccio Demetrio, an educationalist attentive to the dimension of adulthood, is convinced that today we should go back to looking at the future by recovering the meaning of our memory: not just “I” but “we”; not only my freedom but also my responsibility. What is necessary is the recovery of an ethical sense and awareness of one’s potential: a way to stay afloat amid continuous changes. The other/me represents this new relational dimension of the adult: I am for the other and this defines personal value.”
Among the phases of life, in the current time, adulthood is the one which, more than others, is forced to review its language of faith and the understanding of its cultural categories, which comes to terms with reality and goes into crisis on a of ideals. Is it a question of maturity?
Crisis and incompleteness. This is the stimulus that urges us to continually renew our life plans. In this way, we can explore the possibilities that existence offers, even in times of change, like ours (cf. Pope Francis). This transition dynamic can lead, but is not guaranteed, the individual to a mutative experience: it is the encounter with the new that transforms. This can be considered as the transcendent perspective, since it invites us to go beyond the present condition, but not necessarily religious: the solution to the crisis or the search for meaning can also be resolved in a religious sense, but it is not a given.”
When does the recovery of the experience of religious faith occur?
Reality profoundly challenges the person and, even through pain, can lead to a new beginning and to opening up to an experience of religious transcendence. In this sense, we recognize that certain religious conversions or a “restart” on the path of faith occur when it is discovered that the value parameters used are no longer sufficient. I am convinced that in this context the silence that questions, the suspension of the existential question that challenges us, is fundamental to allowing the Presence of the Spirit to emerge from personal interiority and intimacy which guides us to rediscover the relationship with the One who precedes and never abandons his creature the meaning of everything. This is what the recovery of the experience of religious faith consists of.”
Human maturity and spiritual maturity: what is the relationship between them?
The relationship between the two maturities is a dynamic balance. They complement each other. Living a religious experience, an education on a spiritual journey, made of trust, confidence, discovery, and exploration of interiority is always a journey of human maturity. The external signs of relationality, prosociality, and trust will be a visible expression of a good level of maturity, as will the serene ability to manage conflict, endure hardship, and look forward to the future. However, we approach spiritual maturity when we experience our littleness and poverty, but are open to the continuous Love and forgiveness that we receive from God, not for personal qualities or special merits or mental sanity, but for gratuitousness, for Grace, as creatures. At the same time, we can say that a path towards spiritual maturity should also be a path of rediscovery of human potential to be placed at the service of others and of the Other: even a single talent must be made fruitful.”
How can we help the person to mature and reach a full Christian identity?
It is important to understand what full Christian identity means. If this corresponds to a faith that we can define as an adult, then we can say that it is the transition from a functional religiosity, in which the relationship with God is a function of one’s needs, to the solution to the conflicts of life. A context in which the individual is at the center, in a narcissistic form. This form of religious narcissism always accompanies us in our relationship with God. One could say that it is a form of self-preservation. Differently, in a mature sense – better to say “in a sense of maturation” – the identity of the Christian faith is indicated when the person becomes a “collaborator” of God’s desire, becoming a participant in God’s desires for humanity, that is, in the passion of love for humanity and creation. What are God’s desires? Only the Son, the one who knows the Father, and desires to make him known, continually reveals all this through the Spirit given to his church, that is, to those who seek him with a sincere heart.”
What supports or identity formation paths can be offered for a path that leads to human maturity and the growth of spiritual experience?
I would like to list some elements, without going into their description, recalling the Confessions of Saint Augustine, in book X: returning to oneself, knowing oneself, transcending oneself. If the first two are for everyone, the third seems to characterize the path of a Christian spiritual experience that leads to identification with Jesus Christ, whose reference was the continuous reference to the Father”.
Which figures can accompany you on this journey?
We need not special, but normal people: they are those who know how to appreciate life in its different aspects and know how to rework even the most difficult situations in a resilient way. In other words, acting as “resurrected”, that is, as people who are not afraid to leave the refuges where fear can keep them in constraint, in a self-preservative way. Quality lies in the attitude that reveals the intention present in each person’s heart. And it requires cultivating, safeguarding and developing what makes the person grow as a value: it is a gift that we have received and as such it must be safeguarded.”
Personal freedom, internal affective states, factual experience: today we are witnessing a reevaluation of individuality. Is this a limit (and possibly in what sense, to what extent can it be), or is it a resource that leads the individual to become more active in the path of internal transformation?
«The revaluation of the individual as an autonomous, free subject, capable of uniqueness is the event of modernity. Important? Of course, as it can result in a more genuine self-knowledge and the formation of a conscience less bound by external influences, a clearer awareness. At the same time, the excessive form of individuality leads to amplifying autonomy which passes through the scrutiny of one’s subjectivity and the values that are proposed in the cultural and intergenerational context. One could say that the I does not exist without the You. But this also applies to spiritual dynamics, such as prayer, for example, as a space in which everyone places themselves in relationship with the Other rediscovered as a presence and source of life and/or identification.”