WINDHOVER  JESUIT MAGAZINE:  
3^rd Quarter September 2008

Editorial:

By FRANK SAVADERA, SJ

Fire that kindles other fires:

                               Encouragement from your Love

While in prison, Saint Paul - the great apostle to the gentiles - once joyfully observed: “the majority of the brothers, having taken encouragement in the Lord from my imprisonment, dare more than ever to proclaim the word fearlessly.”  Saint Paul, of course was talking about how the faith was spreading, how even his jail guards began subscribing to the new Christian movement, how his once timid disciples found real boldness to courageously move into territories unexplored.  Saint Paul, in his imprisonment was expressing profound joy that the fire of the new faith was being passed on, and more men and women were ably picking up the baton of discipleship and running  with perseverance the race that was set before them. Saint Paul must have been truly overwhelmed.  The fire of service and selflessness brewing amongst his followers was perhaps more than what he ever imagined.  Such fire, he must have thought, may come not from any human effort (more so not from him) but only from God’s own divine initiative. 

Ages after Saint Paul - now in our contemporary times – we venture to examine how such a fire remains ignited, how it continues to be passed on, and in our case, given an Ignatian flavor.  Thus, from the deliberations and decrees of the last 35^th General Congregation in Rome early this year, a rousing battle-cry which hopes to unite and reinvigorate our diverse energies has been evoked.  We ardently convince ourselves, our fellows and partners to reflect on and examine the “whys” of what we are and what we do. Our hope is to find deep within us the one most compelling force and reason which drives our mission  … the fire that kindles other fires … the charism and identity we imbibe by consistently gazing at Him … Jesus Christ who has lovingly called us to do his work. 

We therefore venture to discover more about that fire from the relevant histories that we share.  We get hold of our desire to remember the significant milestones and anniversaries, the humble beginnings of our current preoccupations and realize for ourselves how it needed but a single spark of inspiration to snowball a holy and most worthwhile vision for ourselves and our communities.  From such an initial spark, we derive joy knowing fully well how God has been faithful to us through the years, how he makes effective use of us and what he has started – we believe - he will bring to completion.   Thus, for simply having been granted the capacity to discern the pervading fire of the Spirit brewing amongst us through the years, our communities hold enough reasons to celebrate.  Necessarily, we commemorate with great joy the 50th year of the Society of Jesus – Philippine Province, the anniversaries of our schools and institutions, our years of life and the generous sharing of that life with others.  Our shared histories indeed speak of how the fire of faith remains enkindled in the kind and quality of our companionship.   

Keeping the fire means nurturing the fire.  We recognize as well the diverse influences that threaten to undermine the flame that struggles to burn incessantly amidst a background of darkness.  Instead of breeding passion and zeal for life, often we succumb to the forces of darkness – that which our new documents suggest as our self-destructive tendencies, our addictions, our compulsions, our natural propensities for what are in the world.   We keep the fire aflame by claiming for ourselves the reality of God thriving even in the darkness of life.  We acquire for ourselves a renewed sense of hope by setting our lives aright, seeking both in prayer and in action our active reconciliation with God, with our neighbor and the whole of creation.  Keeping the fire means recognizing and reinforcing the good that we seek to find in ourselves and others.      

We follow where the fire leads us, ever more so to situations unknown and unfamiliar.  We renew a vision of ourselves as prophets, overcoming fear and weakness and speaking boldly about injustice and social  manipulations.   In the new frontiers of mission, the fire within us translates to praxis.  As our new documents aptly implore, we partner prayer with service, contemplation with action, being with doing … each never standing merely independent of the other.  Our vision of Saint Ignatius contemplating the stars must go hand in hand with an image of the saint gripping his coat and grasping firmly the Spiritual Exercises in his hand as he battles the wild wind before him.  To be in the frontier means seeking always to be where he is sending us. 

For the coming years or so, we shall allude to the theme “fire that kindles other fires” together with the new buzz words and catch phrases from the decrees of the 35^th General Congregation.  We may refer to these documents as the new mode of proceeding with our tasks and mission.  In the long haul however, we are asked to challenge ourselves to gauge our faithfulness to the above themes with our lives constantly being reformed.  We determine so with the kind of positive effect our witness to the faith may eventually have on others.  Saint Paul himself describes the joy of experiencing that ‘fire’ saying: “… I have experienced much joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the holy ones have been refreshed by you …”