These beginning words of the Spiritual Exercises summarize the entire enterprise that bears the name “Jesuit.” We are created for God, and everything God gives us is good, if we use it rightly.
On July 31, 2002, I became the thirteenth Provincial of the Oregon Province. It was a small moment, like diving from a rock into a swiftly moving river. The weeks have swelled with excitement and challenge, with surprise and an almost constant recognition that this job depends upon the generosity and talent of many people—and the abiding grace of God. In my first weeks, three of our brothers went home to the Lord, and four took their first vows in the Society, promising “to spend my life in it forever.” A Jesuit beginning: marked by diverse situations and ministries.
Part of this beginning involves the inheritance left by my predecessor, Fr. Bob Grimm. His abiding gift of organizing and inspiring others made my transition easy, presenting me with a staff of gifted people and with programs in place or in process that promise a bright future for the Oregon Province. One project especially, the Loyola Jesuit Center, has occupied a good piece of my time. The LJC will include the current Colombiere Community, the Provincial Offices, a guest residence, a chapel, and meeting facilities. Located on the grounds of our former retreat house, the Center promises both function and calm; though planning for a late January move-in seems to belie both. But, we will get there.
As I begin my travels around the Province, I also recognize that I continue Bob’s ministry of engagement with both Jesuits and our lay colleagues. Yet, even while feeling like the “new kid on the block,” I find myself welcoming newer arrivals into ministry in the Northwest. My first weekend as Provincial, I attended the Jesuit Volunteer Corps orientation. A former JV myself (St. Mary’s, Alaska, 1981–82), it was a joy to align myself with the generosity, the laughter, and the energy of these men and women. Then, last month I was in Fairbanks for the ordination of Monsignor Donald Kettler, a graceful and kind man who came from South Dakota to become the first non-Jesuit bishop of Fairbanks. Both Jesuits and others rejoiced in this symbolic moment of transition from mission to young Church—a celebration punctuated by the personality of the new bishop. Explaining his choice of motto—“Faith, Hope, and Love”—it was clear that Bishop Kettler possesses the graces for which he prayed; and that we will be enriched by our collaboration with this new companion.
These moments seem ripe with promise and challenge. They invite us to think differently about how we might be on mission together; they remind us of the call to collaboration and shared ministry; they encourage us to find the center, where we can recognize that it is God’s work, done with our hands, which will bring salvation to the world. These days, I return often to the words of the poet Denise Levertov:
And then once more the quiet mystery is present to me, the throng’s clamor recedes: the mystery that there is anything, anything at all, let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything, rather than void: and that you, O Lord, Creator, Hallowed One, You still, hour by hour sustain it.
We are at the beginning. God will sustain us to the end for which we are created.
John D. Whitney, S.J.
Provincial |
