Today’s twin celebration of the feast of our Lord’s Baptism and Fr Henry’s Final Vows reminds me of “spiritual depth”, that favorite phrase of our former Superior General, Fr Adolfo Nicolas (or Fr Nico, as we fondly called him). In Tagalog, “LALIM”; in Cebuano, “LALOM.” Fr Nico often reminded us that “We Jesuits must have spiritual depth.”
Indeed, our prayer and spirituality, our witnessing and mission, our faith and commitment must have depth. If not, our world today (with all its -isms like materialism, consumerism, careerism, and others) will simply overwhelm us and devour us like a wild lion devouring its prey. Fr Nico often warned us, “Beware of the superficiality of the world (that is, the shallowness of the world), especially with its pluralism or multiplication of choices.”
How true this warning is, as our world becomes so complex and confusing, offering us daily more and more choices—more models and designs, more flavors and colors, more channels, and so on. Such multiplication of choices eventually impacts and affects our way of committing (our way of saying “Yes” or “No”) in various aspects of our lives.
For example, you don’t like your cell phone? No problem, just buy a new one. You don’t like your computer or car? No problem, just change them. But this thinking extends to other areas. You don’t like your nose, your hair, your body? Then simply change them. You don’t like your friend? Then change him or her, just “unfriend” your “friend.” (What a terrible word “unfriend.” Twenty years ago, that word did not exist.) If we can “unfriend” a friend, we can also “unhusband” a husband (and, “unwife” a wife).
The danger is that this way of choosing can easily disturb and obscure our most fundamental values and commitments, making us vulnerable to confusion and illusion and, in the end, even harming our core identity as persons and bringing out the worst in us.
This is why commitments matter, especially life-long commitments. Not only do they matter— commitments are most sacred because, in the end, they determine and define who we are and what we are. As the famous philosopher and Nobel prize-winning writer, Albert Camus, said, “Our lives are a sum total of all our choices.” In short, we become what we choose.
Here lies the significance and meaning of our celebration tonight with the Final Vows of Fr Henry. My dear Henry, in 2006 (about 20 years ago), you said your initial “Yes” to your God, “Yes” to the Society of Jesus, to the Jesuit life. Since then, you have faithfully declared that same radical “Yes” as you went through the different stages of your formation and ministry.
Thus, from Sacred Heart Novitiate as a novice, to Loyola House and Arrupe House in Ateneo as a scholastic, to Ateneo de Iloilo as a regent, back to Loyola House as a theologian, then to Arvisu House as Assistant Director, to Bilibid, Muntinlupa, as a chaplain in the Prison Ministry, then (of all places) to Beirut, Lebanon, as pastor and eventual Director of the migrant center there, then to PGH (Phil General Hospital), back to Sacred Heart as a Tertian, and finally to Edinburgh, UK, for your special studies. Wow Henry! Such has been your long and winding journey so far as a Jesuit.
In all these years, you have shown how radical and deep your sense of availability and disponibility to mission has become, especially with your missioning to Lebanon in 2017. As Fr Tony Moreno (our former Provincial) shared with me, “When I asked Henry if he would be willing to be missioned and sent to Lebanon (which was plagued with challenges and difficulties), Henry did not need to be convinced or pushed to consider the matter…”
In other words, Henry, you readily said, “Yes I will go; Yes I will serve; Yes I will commit.” This has been the overall pattern of your Jesuit life and vocation from the very start—saying and meaning Yes, committing and faithfully holding on and living out that commitment.
The time has come for you to make your Final Vows in the Society of Jesus. Like your First Vows, you will be making them right before our Eucharistic Christ himself. But there is a difference. This time, it is the entire Society of Jesus formally and canonically confirming and approving your commitment to the Jesuit life. The whole universal Society of Jesus declares to you, “Henry, with your complete and definitive incorporation into the Jesuit body, we now formally confirm your commitment to the Society, welcoming you as its full member, as our dear brother and friend, for better or for worse.”
In short, my dear friends, we witness this evening the fusion or merging of three different “YESes.” First, the radical “Yes” of Fr Henry. Second, the definitive “Yes” of the Society of Jesus confirming Fr Henry’s Jesuit calling. Third, of course, the ever-unconditional “Yes” of our Lord himself. No doubt, there is nothing superficial or shallow about these three commitments. In fact, they are what Fr Nico regards as honest-to-goodness true, genuine spiritual depth at its best.
Depth of commitment and devotion is what we see in today’s Gospel on this feast of our Lord’s Baptism. We see our Triune God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all present and laboring as our Lord begins his public ministry. In the middle of this Triune presence and activity is the person of John the Baptist. John faithfully lived out his commitment to his vocation and mission as the Lord’s precursor, preparing the way for Christ.
John could have taken a totally different path. He could have stolen the limelight and popularity from our Lord. People were already flocking to him. He could have lied and faked it all, claiming to be the promised Messiah. But he chose not to. Instead of promoting and exalting himself, he promoted and exalted Christ. As he maintained, “I must decrease while He, the Lord, must increase.”
No doubt, John was a man of true spiritual depth—someone who said “Yes” to his vocation as precursor and lived out his “Yes” to the full. He truly became the sum total of his choices, with his numerous life decisions eventually defining and determining who and what he was all about. Indeed, we become what we choose.
Let us pray then for Fr Henry as he takes his Final Vows. Also, let us pray for ourselves, that we may learn to be wiser and more discerning in the many choices we make daily, like John, to nurture that interior depth that enables us to always choose Christ above anything and everything else this world can offer. Amen!