Ignatius referred to the final year of formation for the Jesuit as the “schola affectus,” the school of the heart when one “can engender in them greater humility … greater knowledge and love of God our Lord: that when made greater progress can better help others to progress for glory to God our Lord.” When we were seminarians, novices, actually, and were “locked up” for two years with minimal contact with the “outside world,” our novice master often described this period of our formation as the time to nurture our “familiaritas con Deo,” our familiarity with God. Pedro Arrupe’s wise counsel, “Learn to waste time with God.” Spending time with God to “be still and know God.” (Psalm 46: 10) In Fr. Our friendship with God starts with and is nurtured by our listening to him and knowing him. It is only through this that we are able to truly proclaim him and his truth to others. This is a fearlessness that is not aggressive nor arrogant, but one that stands humbly before God to listen to him, to know him and his will. Paul writes: “If God is for us, who can be against us? What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? … For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8: 31-39) This is the source of our fearlessness.Īs St.
I think not just seminarians or priests, but all men and women of goodwill attract others and one another because of our friendship with the Lord.īecoming friends in the Lord, as what Jesuits often refer to, as well as all Christians, we are a community of friends in the Lord. used to tell us when we were seminarians that people come to us because of our friendship with the Lord. To be truthful is living out our loyalty to God, living in friendship with God.įr. In Filipino, the word for truth is “katotohanan,” which connotes fidelity (“katapatan”), and can be closely associated to “katoto,” a friend, a comrade.įidelity to the truth thus is fidelity to God. One of the root words of truth is the ancient English word “troth,” a loyal and faithful pledge or promise. It is the fearlessness that comes from being in the right, to be rooted and grounded in the truth which comes from God. “Fear no one,” Jesus tells his disciples as he sends them out. The third is the courage that comes from fidelity. The second is to listen to be a good messenger. The first is to be fearless as a messenger of God. There are three themes I invite you to reflect on from this Sunday’s Gospel. He gives the vision of the Kingdom, which his disciples are to help build and to which we are invited to.Īllow me to invite you on a journey these next six Sundays and to reflect on our own mission in a new world we are to build emerging from the crisis of this pandemic-a renewed mission to build the new heaven and the new earth. Then there is a nice “pivot” prayer and assurance to his followers the next Sunday, after which Jesus talks about the Kingdom and our readiness to accept it for the succeeding three Sundays.
It is quite timely that the Gospel readings today and next Sunday focus on Jesus sending out his disciples and giving them instructions on how to carry out the mission. Readings: Jeremiah 20: 10-13 Psalm 69, Response: Lord, in your great love, answer me.