The art of transmitting in the intergenerational relationship

At the beginning of 2020, the theme of intergenerational relations was addressed several times in the Congress on the Apostolate of the Elderly in Rome and later in the Congress on the Secular Apostolate in Madrid.

This year, on Father’s Day, my daughter Lucia dedicated to me a book with a beautiful poem by Saint Teresa of Calcutta on the transmission of values between generations, which reads as follows:

This poem impressed me with the freedom expressed in the act of transmission. When I mentioned this poem at the monthly meeting of the International Ascending Life Committee, the Spiritual Assistant, Bishop François Maupu, evoked a book that helped me understand the essence of the act of transmitting. This book that I found translated into Spanish by Narcea editions, is by Nathalie Sarthou-Lajus.

In this book, Nathalie made me understand the profound difference that exists between the acts of formation and those of transmission, a difference of which I was not aware. We train people by teaching science, art, theology and philosophy, thus educating future generations in the knowledge of science, faith and the humanities.

However, the act of transmitting consists in transmitting, within family life, a way of living in freedom based on daily life, the way of cooking or telling stories, etc. In a house where there are books, we read, if there are records, we listen to music, culinary traditions are transmitted. This develops the taste for the essence of everyday life and the capacity for wonder and enthusiasm that will help us make our choices throughout our lives.

Transmission is freedom. When there is an obligation, there is no transmission. The book, imbued with a deep sense of freedom in transmission, also devotes a chapter that analyzes violence in the absence of transmission. This lack of transmission means that younger generations are uprooted from the references of their family nucleus and prone to violence.Phenomenon that we are witnessing and that are so difficult to explain.

Nothing better than Nathalie’s own words to understand the difference between education and transmission:

"Transmitting and educating are two acts that do not merge, but overlap...

Educating comes from the Latin "e-ducere", which means "to drive outside» to get out of the state of ignorance and dependence of childhood.

To transmit is to inscribe the human being in the chain of generations and make him see that he is one among others. Transmission indicates that we are not our own origin; we receive a legacy and those who pass it on to us, have received it from previous generations...

The act of transmitting is always a random process. He escapesand takes precedence over our will... A work can be as diverse and contradictory as a child can be different from his parents and siblings. "It's like a hen has laid a duck egg."

After the text, it is worth addressing what the absence of transmission implies:

"The meaning of transmission is like an act of humanization that wants to institute filiation, set limits, assign a place to each, distinguish death from life. When this humanization effort is flawed or, worse, rejected, societies collapse into violence.

...

Many young people become radicalized because they find themselves in the pathetic situation of the disinherited, suffering from a meaninglessness. Terrified by this emptiness within them, they become easy prey for indoctrination and submit to masters or gurus who relieve them of the responsibility of giving meaning to their lives."

This book took me back to childhood, to the feeling of loss due to the death of my parents and made me aware of the bond that united me to my parents. This made me aware of the indestructible seed of happiness induced by a happy childhood in which there was transmission.

Jaime Tamarit
Vice-President LAI