Homily of Fr. General Arturo Sosa, SJ
On the Thanksgiving Mass of General Congregation 36
12th Nov 2016 at the Church of Saint Ignatius, Rome
At the end of a powerful experience of discernment we feel a sense of vertigo faced before what comes next. We feel the difficulty of giving life to the choice made, to be converted by the way of proceeding that expresses the choice made by following the breath of the Holy Spirit.
The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius place the “Contemplation to Attain Love” as a means of transition into everyday life. A contemplation that resonates strongly in the First Letter of the Apostle John, which we have just heard. God wishes to be known as the one who is Love. Therefore, it is made present to humanity by sending his Son, a gesture of love that gives us life, the only true life to which we aspire. God the Father puts into practice the two observations that Saint Ignatius notes at the beginning of the contemplation: “Love ought to be shown more in deeds than in words,” and “Love is an exchange where each one gives everything he has and is.” The Lord has given himself completely, even to death on the cross, and remains with us daily until the end of the world, because he has given us his Spirit. Saint Ignatius invites us to ask for the awareness of so many gifts received as an impulse, since we too give ourselves entirely—in all things to love and serve the Divine Majesty.
This is the phrase that has guided our sessions in the Hall of the Congregation. Christ on the cross was present in our efforts to bring the discernment beyond our reasoning, our liking or disliking, in order to arrive to the consolation of being in tune with the will of the Father. Jesus on the eve of the Passion went to the Mount of Olives and struggled in his prayer such as to sweat drops of blood in order to accept the consequences of his mission, far from what he desired or with what he could agree. We also have been shocked by the testimony of our brothers in conditions of war and in this respect were carried by love to say together: “Take, Lord, my memory, my understanding, my will, all that I have and possess. You have giving it to me; to you, Lord, I return it. All is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me.”
Also in this General Congregation we lived again the experience of God who is present in various ways in our personal lives and in the body of the Society of Jesus. Another time he surprised us by the abundance, variety and depth of his gifts. Everything we experienced was grace, free gift and surprising.
The discernment process of the Society during the General Congregation places us in front of the challenge of becoming ministers of reconciliation in a world that did not stop during our deliberations. The wounds of war continue to deepen, the flows of refugees increase, the suffering of migrants pierce us ever more, the Mediterranean has engulfed dozens of people in these two months we spent together. Inequalities between peoples and within nations are the sign of a world that despises humanity. Politics, which is that “art” to negotiate the common good above particular interests, continues to weaken before our eyes. These special interests, in fact, are masked under the guise of nationalism, they elect leaders and make decisions that stop the process of integration. The political arena struggles to provide a humane way to take reasonable decisions as appeals to the imposition of the powerful. The deep desire of mothers and children everywhere in the world to be able to have a life in peace, with social relations based on justice, seems to recede in the midst of conflicts and wars for motives that oppose the love that makes life possible.
Our discernment leads us to see the world through the eyes of the poor and to work with them so that true life may grow. It invites us to go to the margins to search for an understanding, about how to address globally the entirety of the crisis that prevents minimum living conditions for the majority of humanity and threatens life on the planet Earth, in order to open a space for the Good News. Our apostolate is, therefore, necessarily intellectual. The merciful eyes, which we acquired by identifying ourselves with Christ crucified, allow us to deepen our understanding of all that oppresses men and women in our world. The signs that accompany our proclamation of the Gospel are those which correspond to chase away the demons of false understandings of reality. That’s why we learn new languages, to understand the lives of the different peoples and share the Good News of salvation for all. If we open our hearts to the Holy Spirit and our minds to the truth of God, we will not drink the poison of ideologies which justify the oppression, the violence among human beings and the irrational exploitation of natural resources. Our faith in Christ, who died and rose, enables us to contribute with many other men and women of good will, to lay hands on a world that is sick and to help with its recovery.
Let us go then to preach the Gospel everywhere, consoled by the experience of the love of God who has placed us together as companions of Jesus. Like the first Fathers, the Lord has been propitious in Rome, and sends us all over the world and to every human culture. We go in confidence because He works with us and confirms with unedited signs our life and mission.
Fr. Arturo Sosa, SJ
On the Thanksgiving Mass of General Congregation 36
12th Nov 2016 at the Church of Saint Ignatius, Rome