Homily

Heeding the spirit in our time and in one another

Fr Roberto E N Rivera SJ

Homily for the Philippine Province Celebration of the Solemnity of St. Ignatius of Loyola
Sunday, 30 July 2023, Ateneo de Manila High School Covered Courts

Dear friends in the Lord, good afternoon to all, magandang hapon po sa inyong lahat, maayong hapon sa tanan, Dios marhay na hapon po sa saindo gabos.  On this solemnity of St Ignatius of Loyola, I would like to share a few reflections, revolving around three people who exemplify for me the spirit of our commemoration today.

The first person, obviously, is St Ignatius himself. When we concluded the Ignatian year last year, the enduring image was of St Ignatius being hit by the cannonball at the Battle of Pamplona. This marked his conversion, the start of his journey towards the founding of the Society of Jesus.  It became common for us to use the term “cannonball moment” and equate it with “conversion.”  In many sharings and talks people would talk about the “cannonball moments” in their lives.  Sa Filipino pa, napatanong tayo, ano yung mga pagkakataon na “ginulat” ako ng Panginoon.  Ano ang mga panahon na “binulaga” ako ng Panginoon. Wala po itong kinalaman sa pagalingan ng Eat at Eat Bulaga, sa pagtatagisan nina TVJ at nina Yorme tuwing tanghali….

But in this year’s St Ignatius fiesta we move away from the cannonball moment, the “bulaga” experience, to another image of St Ignatius of Loyola.  From Pamplona in 1521 we move to Venice in 1537.  St Ignatius and his first companions, including St Francis Xavier and St Peter Faber, have just finished studies in the University of Paris. Their dream is to go to Jerusalem and serve as priests in the land where Jesus lived and died. While waiting for passage from Venice to Jerusalem, the first companions decide to spend their days helping the poor, ministering to souls, and praying intently regarding God’s will for them. As it become apparent that they cannot get to Jerusalem, they discern further and finally decide that they would go to Rome and place themselves at the disposal of the Pope. Thus was the Society of Jesus formed. 

In the cannonball moment, we saw how conversion could powerfully happen in one moment, the “bulaga” moment as Fr Roque Ferriols would put it.  But in Venice, with the experience of the first companions, we see that conversion is an ongoing process, perhaps a lifetime process. In the Gospel for today, Jesus reminds us that we should always reckon the cost of following him. Just as we think that we have given up everything, in prayer and service we discover that there is even more that we can offer to the Lord.

It is in this same spirit of constant conversion and dutiful discernment, a spirit of greater offering, in which Jesuits from all over the world gathered in the 71^st Congregation of Procurators in Loyola, Spain last May. A Congregation of Procurators is a very rare meeting in which the Society convenes representatives from provinces and regions all over the world, to get a pulse, an assessment of the state of the Society of Jesus. One of its biggest tasks is to determine whether the Jesuits need to convene an even rarer meeting, the General Congregation, to see if any major changes need to be made in the Jesuit mission. It is in a way a recreation of the Venice experience of the first companions.

I was privileged to be elected by my Jesuit brothers to the serve as the Procurator for the Philippine Province. One of my most memorable experiences in CP 71, as we refer to it, occurred not during the long discussion and sharing sessions of the meeting. Rather, it was in the middle of the pre-Congregation retreat, where I would spend many moments between prayer walking around the sprawling grounds of the Loyola sanctuary, including many visits to the beautiful cemetery of the Loyola Jesuits. This brings us to the second person, after St Ignatius himself, who figures prominently in these reflections. In the Jesuit cemetery I was blessed to discover the grave of Bro Jesus Oscariz, a Basque Jesuit like St Ignatius.  Bro Oscariz is famous among many Ateneo de Manila students from the seventies and eighties. He served as guidance counselor and football coach, and was known for organizing lightning football games during lunch. He spoke very poor English and even fewer words in Tagalog. He could only shout “sipa malakas” during games, and when frustrated isisigaw niya sa Tagalog ‘yung mga salitang nagsisimula sa P at I na hindi ko po puwede banggitin dito.  But like Jeremiah in our first reading, no limits of language could hold in Bro Oscariz’s passion for service and love for his grade school students.

For me, Bro Oscariz came to represent the kind of commitment the Society sought to renew in CP 71. It is a commitment rooted in the following of Christ poor and humble, persevering amidst all challenges. For Bro Oscariz, it was the challenges of language and culture.  For Jesuits today these challenges include the diminishing number of Jesuit vocations, the social, economic, and environmental turmoil facing our world, and the increasing secularization of society, among many others. Even with CP 71 ending its sessions with a “non Cogenda” vote, a decision not to convene the General Congregation, the fruits of the CP 71 discussions will live on and will be shared by Fr General Arturo Sosa SJ in a “De Statu” document, the status of the Society of Jesus, which will be released very soon. It is a document that we hope to share with and reflect on together with all of you, our partners in mission.

Some final reflections to conclude. Our anticipation of the “De Statu” document from the Congregation of Procurators coincides this year with the 50^th anniversary of the Fr Pedro Arrupe’s address to the Jesuit alumni in Europe, where he issued his timeless call for all of us to be “women and men for others.”  One of the major issues we wrestled with in CP 71 is how to further Jesuit and lay collaboration as partners in mission, for we fully realize that the Jesuit mission will not continue, indeed, it will not exist if it is not sustained, and increasingly, led by you our lay partners. This brings me to a third and final person in these reflections. This person descends along a direct line from St.  Ignatius, to his Basque son Bro Jesus Oscariz, to one of the many students who encountered Bro Oscariz in the Ateneo Grade School football grounds.  

Early last June Mr Jose Antonio Salvador, the Ateneo de Manila Junior High School Principal passed away.  Jonny was my grade school classmate and batchmate through high school and college.  For many of us, his contemporaries, Jonny represented the man-for-others ideal most genuinely. He was truly the best among us. As the first lay principal of the Ateneo de Manila Grade School, he was a pioneer in Jesuit lay collaboration and Jesuit inspired leadership.  He is sorely missed most especially by the generations of young students whose lives he touched.

From St Ignatius, to Bro Oscariz, to Sir Jonny Salvador. From Loyola, Spain to Manila here in the Philippines, across more than 500 years, and now to all of us gathered here today.  Alam niyo po, sa mga pagtitipon na ito pakaunti ng pakaunti ang mga Heswitang pumipila sa prusisyon sa simula ng misa.  Parami ng parami ang mga Heswitang umaabot sa kanilang 50, 60, at 75 year jubilee bilang Heswita o pari tulad ng mga pararangalan natin mamaya.  Pero panatag po ang loob naming mga Heswita dahil parami nang parami kayo, mga anak ni San Ignacio, daughters and sons of Ignatius, sharing his spirituality and service.  Filled with faith, hope and love, we carry on as bearers of the Ignatian mission, for we realize it is not ours but a trust and a summons from Christ himself.  May St Ignatius intercede for all of us as we continue his good work.  

St. Ignatius of Loyola, pray for us!