ENTRANCE DAY 2015

Reflections on  SIR 51:12 CD-20 

by Frank Savadera, SJ

Friends, today’s reading from the Book of Sirach tells us:  “My soul was tormented in seeking her (“her” being WISDOM). My hand opened WISDOM’s gate and I came to know her secrets.”

Today as we know from previous years, we would be closing the gates later on and there will perhaps be crying, wailing and perhaps even gnashing of teeth (as we bid our new brother novices our temporary goodbyes!)  BUT always, we know that this is also HAPPY OCCASION. Are you happy?  NIMEN KWAE LA MA? No one is forced to be here, right? 

It is a happy occasion precisely because after much time of discernment (mind you some of them really took time)  toiling and tormenting their souls in seeking WISDOM … as the Book of Sirach tells us  … they have finally finally found themselves before WISDOM’s GATE.   Huh … is this it?   And slowly slowly they will come to know more about her secrets.  What secrets lie beyond the gates of Sacred Heart Novitiate?  Would you like to know?  Secret nga eh! 

What we know is that GREATER WISDOM will be within their reach!  And because of this, we would like to be happy for them and with them … and GREET them …  DOM, BIEN, KAYBEE, IRVIN, JOHN, CHRISTIAN JAMES, WEIPANG,  SHUXIN, MINGFEI, XUNGBO, ERIC and PHILIP … even if it torments your souls … SEEK GREATER WISDOM … we don’t even need to say it because you know what WISDOM is  … and  “who” wisdom is.  Wisdom is God.  Seek Wisdom.  Many of her gates will open before you.  Be not afraid to know more about her secrets!

A little request to our new novices … since you are leaving us at least temporarily … and you … we believe will come closest to wisdom … please pray for us!  Life will be different for us without you!  Pray for us that WE MAY MISS YOU!  Pray for us … that we may support you!  Pray for us that we may completely surrender you!  Pray for us to understand that as we gather here today … bitter sweet as the occasion may be … the Spirit may continue to challenge us each day to submit to how God may reveal His greater wisdom.  We anticipate this with JOY and GLADNESS!  Brothers, we welcome you to the Jesuit Novitiate.  We welcome you to the Society of Jesus.   

MY HEART DELIGHTS in wisdom!

Reflections on Sirach 51:12 CD-20; Mark 11:27-33

by Frank Savadera SJ

In our Gospel today, Jesus asked the scribes and elders one trick question:  "Was John’s baptism of heavenly or of human origin?"  If they say from HEAVEN, then people will say:  Why did you not believe him then?  If they say of HUMAN ORIGIN, then people will sneer at them since most if not everyone, thought of John as a prophet.  So how did the scribes and elders answer Jesus’ question?  They say simply: WE DO NOT KNOW!  ... a SAFE or if we must say an ESCAPIST kind of an answer!  We do not know!

I remember one seminar I took on customer service when I was still working in the world.  A customer asks: When will my new van be delivered?  And the person on the other line says:  Gee, sir ... I don’t know?  Ah ... Oh so with whom do I inquire about its insurance or warranties?  The staff answers:  Oh I don’t know sir, I’m not in-charge!  The customer asks again: What about the car plate ... who can I ask about it?  The person on the other line says:  Sir, why do you ask a lot of questions!  I don’t know! I don’t know! I don’t know!  I JUST WORK HERE!

In Tagalog, this sounds even worst:  HINDI KO ALAM! HINDI KO ALAM?  Upon hearing his staff, a supervisor once got so irked by such a response.  You don’t know!  Hindi mo alam!  Eh ... kung hindi mo alam ... bakit ka pa nandito!  If you don’t know then why are you here!  KUNG HINDI MO ALAM, ALAMIN MO!  IF YOU DON’T KNOW, THEN KNOW FOR YOURSELF! NOW! 

Remember that UP Law student who drove his car into a flooded road?  What happened to his car?  The car "sunk" into the flooded road, of course!  When he was being interviewed on TV, he was just so angry at people around him.  EVERYTHING was wrong!  EVERYONE was wrong! He blurts out: "I did not know about how deep the flood was, he said!  NO ONE TOLD ME.  I SHOULD HAVE BEEN TOLD."

The worst thing about the scribes and the elders is that ... it is not so much that they do not have the capacity to know ... THEY JUST DON’T WANT TO KNOW.  Why?  Because the reality of Jesus ... the authority of Jesus INTRUDES into their FIXED WAY of believing and of doing things!  And so ... this is how it is!  Nothing else can make me believe otherwise!  Eto na yun! 

Friends as we go on with our lives, we will need to constantly ask ourselves:  What new things have I learned?  Or to what direction is this event leading me?  The worst answer that I can give myself is … guess what:   I DON’T KNOW!  Friends, we wish to always challenge ourselves … SEEK TO KNOW.  Seek to know a new person each day. Seek to know their stories.   Do I wish to know?  Much like the scribes and Pharisees, BE ON GUARD AGAINST UNMINDFULLNESS … the SAFE and almost ESCAPIST I DON’T CARE TO KNOW ATTITUDE.   God reveals to us new things everyday … how can we even know the will of God for us … if we choose to be CLOSED and UNMINDFUL of things around us. 

This is why, I also like very much the message from the first reading today:  "When I was young and innocent, I sought wisdom openly in my prayer ...  I will seek her until the end ... she flourished as a grape soon ripe."  My heart delighted in WISDOM.   Everyday is an opportunity to learn new things. May we tell ourselves always:  I seek wisdom!  MY HEART DELIGHTS in wisdom!  This experience is something new!  I’m learning!  I’m growing in wisdom!

GUARD AGAINST UNMINDFULLNESS … the SAFE and almost ESCAPIST I DON’T CARE TO KNOW ATTITUDE.

MY HEART DELIGHTS in wisdom!  

The Glory of God Fills ALL His Works

Reflections on Sirach 42:15-25   / Mark 10:46-52 

by Frank Savadera, SJ

Oh how we value silence and stillness at particular periods of the day.  We love silence so much that we ring the bell 5 minutes before a quiet period so everyone will be very EXCITED to anticipate the silence.  Five minutes before the quiet period … we already begin silencing ourselves … we begin dropping whatever it is the preoccupies us … we begin moving back to our sacred places … because we are just so THRILLED and EAGER to be quiet.  And also we say … there is GRAND SILENCE in the evening.  We seek to be by ourselves, to be quiet … again to be still.  Why so?  Why do we wish to do so?    What happens to you and me in the stillness?  In the quiet? 

Isn’t it that in the silence, we get to hear and notice a lot of things?  What we hear and see may be the most pleasant of things … a bird chirping, the breeze of the air, the smell of our cook’s flavorful cooking.   

Can we hear and notice a lot of noise as well … the noise of my distracting seatmate,  someone snoring while praying, or someone flushing the toilet (?) or perhaps the screeching voice of our neighbors’ karaoke singing.    Noise … are they really noise?  Or can they speak to us as well about ourselves?  Can they speak to us about things even beyond ourselves? Things that we ordinarily do not get to hear or dare not hear? 

Friends, the Book of Sirach today tells us that the GLORY OF THE LORD FILLS ALL HIS WORKS.  How can we even get to notice that?  The GLORY OF THE LORD FILLS ALL HIS WORKS.  Even to the spark and fleeting vision … Sirach’s says … God’s works are just so beautiful!  Can one ever see enough of the SPLENDOR of God’s works?  Friends, I think this is what we would wish to be more sensitive to … in the silence … recognizing that indeed the GLORY OF THE LORD FILLS ALL HIS WORK. 

And more … not only does the Glory of the Lord fill His works … Sirach also tells us … that AT GOD’S VERY WORD … ALL THINGS ARE BROUGHT INTO BEING.  In the stillness … in the quiet … we are asked to experience as well the overwhelming presence of this God who by His very word … brings all things into being.  There is this all-knowing … all powerful God … Sirach says who plumbs the depths and penetrates our hearts; our innermost being he understands.  He makes known the past and the future … No understanding does he lack;  no single thing escapes him.  AT GOD’S VERY WORD … ALL THINGS ARE BROUGHT INTO BEING.   I think … this is what we would wish to HEAR … in the SILENCE … for ourselves.  I want to hear GOD’s WORD for me.  Does His word BRING into being my sense of who I am? What God wishes me to pursue in my life? Can we actually hear God speaking his word to us … and telling us where he wishes us to be …. and  NOT simply what we wish for ourselves.    We have to hear it … isn’t it?  AT GOD’S VERY WORD … ALL THINGS ARE BROUGHT INTO BEING … yes … even great changes in the way we look at ourselves and the world around us.   

I think this is precisely the experience of the blind man  Bartimeus in our Gospel today.  He was sitting by the roadside for the longest time … and can only see darkness.  He had heard of a miracle worker coming to Jericho for the first time … and perhaps the only time.   Can you imagine how thrilled he was?  Can you imagine how excited he was?  He was even fighting his way … pushing his way …. shouting at the top of his voice … to get near this powerful presence of Jesus.  What do you want me to do for you … Jesus asked him?    “Master, I want to see.”  And at the word of Jesus  … ‘Go your way; your faith has saved you” … he was able to see.

Friends in the silent and quiet moments of our prayer … we beg that we SEE and NOTICE how the  GLORY OF THE LORD FILLS ALL THINGS AROUND US … ALL HIS WORKS AND DEEDS.  In the silence … in the quiet … may we hear as well GOD’S POWERFUL WORDS  that BRINGS FORTH TO BEING everything … our sense of ourselves … and our sense of where the Spirit is leading us.

Be Overwhelmed by the Unfathomable Work of God

Arvisu Entrance Day 2015

by Frank D.B. Savadera, SJ

Sometime ago, I was reading this book entitled “Jesuits in Prison” which speaks about … guess what … Jesuit priests and brothers surviving and learning more about the faith more so in very difficult times and circumstances.  During World War II, the Nazis of Germany thought of priests as “the BLACK DANGER”  - priests who were considered a threat because of their influence on other prisoners.  To address this problem, the priest/brother-prisoners were rounded up and isolated in separate quarters, restricting their contact with others. 

After the war, some priests writing about such an experience thought of the set-up as A SPECIAL GIFT OF GRACE.  One even noted:  “the very isolation of the priests in their own blocks … enabled them to pray together and live in a genuine Christian fellowship … that also protected them from being swallowed up by the surrounding influence of FRUSTRATION and DESPAIR. 

In one famous German prison camp, the Jesuits even elected their superior and spiritual fathers.  They were communicating quietly of course and were mindful of how their prison guards (who can make lives for them difficult) were also monitoring their activities.   The superior would address and exhort them all secretly.  There were philosophy and theology classes, retreats, recollections and even renovations of vows … all done quietly.  Can you just imagine this?  All these kept them alive and sane.   The difficult life in prison was thus counteracted by the apparent life-sustaining spiritual bonds of community life.

Why talk about PRISON LIFE today, on ENTRANCE DAY?  I hope you won’t think of Arvisu House as a prison but instead perhaps a relative isolation and detachment from your usual preoccupations that may also mean for you hopefully … as in the case of Jesuits in prison, a SPECIAL GIFT and EXPERIENCE of GRACE.     

In the first reading today, Paul is wearing his chains.  The reading speaks about soldiers guarding him.  He was under HOUSE ARREST.   Paul was also in prison.  Yet, he was also relatively free.  He was able to receive guests and friends and even had opportunities to preach to his visitors and EVEN COMPLAIN:  I am here not because of the Romans but because of our fellow Jews who objected to my being FREE.  Much like the case of the Jesuits in prison, this experience of Paul may as well had been A SPECIAL GIFT and AN EXPERIENCE OF GRACE.  How can such an experience even be possible?  Would you like to know?

There is something about our Psalm today that may well speak to us about that SPECIAL GIFT and EXPERIENCE of GRACE.  It says: the JUST will SEE and GAZE at the FACE OF THE LORD.  How did Paul and the Jesuits in prison survive life in isolation or even find life-sustaining bonds with fellow prisoners?  I would like to believe that they had kept their GAZE on the FACE of GOD. 

Peter in the Gospel today seemed to be a bit jealous of the other disciple whom Jesus loved.  Mind you JEALOUSLY and ENVY can also be a regular occurrence in communities as ours. And Jesus tells him:  What concern is it of yours?  The important thing is that YOU ARE FOLLOWING ME … the important thing is that WE ARE ALL GAZING ON THE FACE OF GOD and following Him!  I think, we will all be doing a LOT OF GAZING on the FACE of GOD during our stay here in Arvisu.  Believe me when I say that GAZING at GOD and allowing God to even GAZE at us can be quite a powerful and moving experience.  What is envy?  What is jealously?  What is anger?  How problematic can my personal history be? You can think of your worst possible problem while staying here in Arvisu?  If we continue to continue to gaze at the face of God … I really believe that God will not afford to turn His back on us.  Do you believe this?  Believe me if I say that gazing at the face of God and allowing God to gaze at us can be a LIFE-CHANGING experience especially for us discerning to follow him.

   

Lastly, something about the last part of our Gospel today:  “There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.”  TEN MONTHS here is Arvisu is such a short stay.  Time will move very fast.  Our residents here last year can attest to this.  But even with such a short time, there will be a lot of things that we can learn about ourselves and the world around us.  When I say a lot … I mean, there will be a lot …. Why do I prefer this than that?  Why I feel closer to this person than the other one?  Why do I react differently to such a situation?  You will have to be very OPEN about the world and yourself … to allow yourself to discover MORE and A LOT LOT MORE … even about things that you do not even wish to know.  Anticipate,  God will touch your heart in a very life-changing way that the WORLD will not even be enough to contain the books that will be written to describe your experience.  Be OVERWHELMED by the unfathomable work of God.    

It is a SPECIAL GIFT to be here today.  I ask you to ANTICIPATE and EXPERIENCE OF GRACE born of our CONSTANT GAZING at the FACE of God.  Cherish the 10-months of your life here.  A lot are indeed in store for you.  God’s blessing is beyond words and explaining.    Be OVERWHELMED by the unfathomable work of God.

There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.