I can’t imagine myself living alone or don’t have relationship to any individuals in the society. I don’t think so if how long I can survive it or maybe I can’t. As persons, we are created by God not to be alone in this world. If that was His purpose before, He never mind to make Eve for Adam. He made Eve for Adam, because God noticed that Adam needs to have a partner wherein he can union so that he will not feel alone and empty. He made Eve in the likeness of Adam so that they can be truly partners. God wants us, His children, to gather as one in Him, because we can only attain His promised kingdom if we are in union with one another and living the life that He wants us to have.
Max Scheler, on his theory of Person and Community describes that “Person” is universal. Therefore, by the term itself it is grounded to others or the community. For Scheler, the nature of person is always “communal” and he can never separate his self from the community because the community is already part of its essence. There are two parts that makes the personality of the person. The first part is what we call the “Phenomena”. A Phenomena means the actual or the outside appearance of the person (the way he looks or the structure of his body). But it is not only the Phenomena that could tell who really the person is, but it is also the “Noumena”. A Noumena means the ideas or the perspective of the person. It is more on the inside of a person. We can never say that the person is kind if we will just base it on his Phenomena. In knowing the person we should focus on its “Noumena”, because it serves as the very core of the person and usually the “Phenomena” will just follow it. For example, we can know that a person is a happy person (Noumena) when he is always smiling (Phenomena). The Phenomena is the reflection of the Noumena. These two are very important because they play an important role from one another. We can’t know the Nous of the person if we don’t have first his Phenomena and we can only know the person not only because of his Phenomena but also with his Noumena. Scheler also gives importance to the acts of the person. The effect of the acts is the revealation of the Noumena. And the proper act of person is relation or relating. The person is person only at the time of the act or when he is aware that he acts. Human person is a thinking relation and he must relate to other thinking person (community). The fruit of the thinking (the act) of the person is that he learns how to value or to label things around him. He knows his “likes” and “dislikes”. Since man is a rational being, he is expected to focus more on the highest value which is the Spiritual, because the higher the value that he perceives (acting morally), the more person he becomes.
Scheler would like to emphasize that a “Person” is grounded in the “Community” and he can never escape from that reality, because it is there in his nature to be communal to others. So I would like to relate this idea of Scheler in the context of the Seminary Formation. Here in the seminary we are living as one community. Therefore, everyone of us here is correlated to one another and to the rest of the community, as a whole. I can never say that, “I belong to the seminary community but I don’t want to correlate with them.” If I discriminate myself from the others, there will be no communion that will happen between me and my community. And there must be a problem within us if we are dividing ourselves from one another. Here in the seminary, a seminarian is not being formed to become a self-centered person, but he is formed to develop his communal thinking and to become an integrated person. Why? It is because we are living as one community. I can never say to myself that, “I am the seminary” but rather I will say, “We are the seminary”. I can never have a seminary formation if it is not because of my priest formators, my lay teachers, my classmates, and the rest of my seminary community. For all of them are parts of my seminary formation. They are my seminary formation. Since we are living here as one community, it would also mean that whatever I did, whether it is good or bad, has an effect or will affect the whole community, because I’m a part of this community.
As I reflect about it, I can say that it is really important in our formation here in the seminary to develop our sense of being communion with others. Why? It is because when we became priests already, we will serve as the image of “Communion of God” to all the people that we minister. We can never say that we can only be a priest for ourselves. Priesthood is not only for the sake of oneself. It is for everybody. In fact, it was a gift shared to us by Christ so that we could share it also to others. It is never ours alone. It is for the people whom we will serve later on our ministry. It is because of the people that we will become priests. If it is not because of the community, why will I become a priest? To whom I’m going to deliver my homily? How can I evangelize if there is no one who needs my evangelization? Who will be with me as I celebrate the holy eucharist? The good thing about communal thinking is that it promotes unity. If we develop it here in the seminary we can eliminate the existence of selfishness and ignorance about the others. And if that will be granted, I think our community will really progress in every areas of formation and maybe we can add more things in our formation that will help us to become a good community and institution.
Communion is innate in our constitution as persons. If we are not in communion, there must be something wrong that is happening in us, because it is not our nature to be divided from one another. And if this would happen it seems that we also forgot our essence being a person. We are in communion not only because we want to gather as one but we are gathered because we want to share from one another all that we have and we would to partake with them ourselves to become also a part of their lives.
Max Scheler, on his theory of Person and Community describes that “Person” is universal. Therefore, by the term itself it is grounded to others or the community. For Scheler, the nature of person is always “communal” and he can never separate his self from the community because the community is already part of its essence. There are two parts that makes the personality of the person. The first part is what we call the “Phenomena”. A Phenomena means the actual or the outside appearance of the person (the way he looks or the structure of his body). But it is not only the Phenomena that could tell who really the person is, but it is also the “Noumena”. A Noumena means the ideas or the perspective of the person. It is more on the inside of a person. We can never say that the person is kind if we will just base it on his Phenomena. In knowing the person we should focus on its “Noumena”, because it serves as the very core of the person and usually the “Phenomena” will just follow it. For example, we can know that a person is a happy person (Noumena) when he is always smiling (Phenomena). The Phenomena is the reflection of the Noumena. These two are very important because they play an important role from one another. We can’t know the Nous of the person if we don’t have first his Phenomena and we can only know the person not only because of his Phenomena but also with his Noumena. Scheler also gives importance to the acts of the person. The effect of the acts is the revealation of the Noumena. And the proper act of person is relation or relating. The person is person only at the time of the act or when he is aware that he acts. Human person is a thinking relation and he must relate to other thinking person (community). The fruit of the thinking (the act) of the person is that he learns how to value or to label things around him. He knows his “likes” and “dislikes”. Since man is a rational being, he is expected to focus more on the highest value which is the Spiritual, because the higher the value that he perceives (acting morally), the more person he becomes.
Scheler would like to emphasize that a “Person” is grounded in the “Community” and he can never escape from that reality, because it is there in his nature to be communal to others. So I would like to relate this idea of Scheler in the context of the Seminary Formation. Here in the seminary we are living as one community. Therefore, everyone of us here is correlated to one another and to the rest of the community, as a whole. I can never say that, “I belong to the seminary community but I don’t want to correlate with them.” If I discriminate myself from the others, there will be no communion that will happen between me and my community. And there must be a problem within us if we are dividing ourselves from one another. Here in the seminary, a seminarian is not being formed to become a self-centered person, but he is formed to develop his communal thinking and to become an integrated person. Why? It is because we are living as one community. I can never say to myself that, “I am the seminary” but rather I will say, “We are the seminary”. I can never have a seminary formation if it is not because of my priest formators, my lay teachers, my classmates, and the rest of my seminary community. For all of them are parts of my seminary formation. They are my seminary formation. Since we are living here as one community, it would also mean that whatever I did, whether it is good or bad, has an effect or will affect the whole community, because I’m a part of this community.
As I reflect about it, I can say that it is really important in our formation here in the seminary to develop our sense of being communion with others. Why? It is because when we became priests already, we will serve as the image of “Communion of God” to all the people that we minister. We can never say that we can only be a priest for ourselves. Priesthood is not only for the sake of oneself. It is for everybody. In fact, it was a gift shared to us by Christ so that we could share it also to others. It is never ours alone. It is for the people whom we will serve later on our ministry. It is because of the people that we will become priests. If it is not because of the community, why will I become a priest? To whom I’m going to deliver my homily? How can I evangelize if there is no one who needs my evangelization? Who will be with me as I celebrate the holy eucharist? The good thing about communal thinking is that it promotes unity. If we develop it here in the seminary we can eliminate the existence of selfishness and ignorance about the others. And if that will be granted, I think our community will really progress in every areas of formation and maybe we can add more things in our formation that will help us to become a good community and institution.
Communion is innate in our constitution as persons. If we are not in communion, there must be something wrong that is happening in us, because it is not our nature to be divided from one another. And if this would happen it seems that we also forgot our essence being a person. We are in communion not only because we want to gather as one but we are gathered because we want to share from one another all that we have and we would to partake with them ourselves to become also a part of their lives.
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