The Jesuits

Dear Companions,

There is an old story about a child writing his catechism exam. The final question was: “What was the voice that Jesus heard when he got out of the waters of Jordan after being baptised by John the Baptist?” A young boy knew the first part of the answer, “You are my beloved son.” The second part he just could not remember. The teacher came round once or twice to collect his paper. Finally, when the teacher was about to snatch the paper away, the boy wrote, “You are my beloved son. Better behave like one!” (M.K. George, Christian Life in a VUCA World, 11). Yes, we are called. Called uniquely. But do we behave like the ones who are called? When people come into our life, do they see a divine connection in us?

Jesus’ baptism, as told in the Gospels, was a tremendous experience of God. This experience would make him a free and fearless person, enabling him to confront the world and its value system, and stand for God. This is also Jesus’ experience of being filled with the power of God, the Holy Spirit. From that moment he would be entirely under the governance of the Spirit. He would be a Spirit-filled person, a dreamer of dreams for the Kingdom.

We have a threefold consecration: our birth, baptism-confirmation and the religious commitment.

Being God’s children by birth, our basic and the most fundamental vocation is to grow unto the likeness of God in love, freedom and creativity. By our baptism-confirmation we are committed to grow unto the likeness of Jesus in freedom and love, to actualise our love-ability, to love as God loves, to be like Jesus and do to what he did in the world of sin: denounce and announce, to work for God’s kingdom, to serve others as Jesus did.

By our religious consecration, we live our commitment to the mission of God in terms of the three vows as a community of disciples. It means above all, efforts at building up communities of love, freedom and justice. We are servants of the mission of reconciliation and justice which ought to be concretized in the implementation of the Universal Apostolic Preferences. Does our mission take seriously into account the actual life situation of the suffering people of the places we are assigned to? How do we address ourselves to be effective witnesses of God in those places.

Jesus’ baptism experiences became the foundation for the rest of his life and sustained him through the ups and down, all the way through his passion and death. We share in the same anointing of Jesus. We too are beloved, chosen and sent by the Lord. Though still weak and sinful, let us entrust ourselves, along a daily path of conversion, to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit who dwells in our hearts. Our hope is grounded in the knowledge that the Lord never abandons us: “I will not forget you, for I have engraved you on the palm of my hands” (Is 49:16). Let us recall our belovedness and behave like the ones to be credible witnesses for effective evangelization.