John D. Whitney, S.J. Provincial

The Dance of Grace

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2Cor 12:9).

As I complete my third year of ministry as Provincial of the Jesuits of the Northwest, these words of St. Paul’s seem the recurring call of my heart—as though God were calling to me and to the Province through them to deepen our faith and to enrich our joy. For so much has happened, even in this last year, to remind us of our weakness—the journey into death of 13 of our brothers, most recently my good friend and chief of staff, Fr. Pat Ford; the retirement from active ministry of several good laborers in the harvest; the beginning of a fundraising campaign that reminds us of our poverty; the continuing
shadow of an abuse scandal which touches not just our Church, but our own community with the reality of our failures. At times, as my third year closes, it is as though the weaknesses were everywhere.

And then, before I can despair, it comes: the powerful and overwhelming revelation that through all this weakness, God’s grace and power are becoming perfect, are reaching their completion. I look and see what I suppose my heart has already sensed—that God is creating something new among us, and if we hold fast, we shall see the dawning of this day.

Fr. Pat Ford’s life—like the life of all those 13 Jesuits of our Province who have died this year—was not a life lived alone,
but was a gift given to the people of God and to the Society of Jesus. Pat called out to others, inviting them to the dance of grace and to the forgiving and healing love of God. In the midst of his work, he reminded us of the mission—a mission
that was not his alone, but was our mission: to help reconcile the world to God through Christ. Even in his death, he (like
the others who have gone) calls us to that mission. Grace arising from weakness.

And if death, so also aging reveals that what the world calls weakness, God uses to reveal the power of grace. As we celebrate the jubilees of so many Jesuits—spoken of in this issue—we are renewed in our sense of all that is being done and all that can be done, through the grace of God and the work of our hands. In universities and missions, in high schools and parishes, in public sacraments and private counsels, the grace of God is renewing the world and sustaining the mission of the Society of Jesus.

Even our poverty is a proclamation of grace, as we began this year to face the needs of better funding for our apostolic works, for our seniors and our formation program. Rather than restrain us, this weakness draws out our friends and companions and has allowed us (or, more accurately, God through us) to deepen our friendships, to expand the number of women and men who share our mission. Under the care of Ms. Tina O’Brien, our development efforts have become revitalized— not just raising funds, but inviting people into the mission and the vision, into the grace of God in this Province.

Death, aging, poverty, even scandal have been occasions for God’s grace to confound our weakness—perhaps nowhere more profoundly than in the good people whom the Lord continues to bring into our company. In the ordination of Frs. Denis Donoghue and Sean Raftis, in the men preparing for vows and those preparing to enter our novitiate, I see the grace of God at work. For as the world sees our failures, these men sense only that grace that they know will transform their own weakness into the power and presence of God in the world.

The poet, W.H. Auden once wrote, “When grace dances, one should dance.” After three years of wonder and gift, I am still clumsy; but I am also still dancing—thanks be to God. . . . we are renewed in our sense of all that is being done and all that can be done, through the grace of God and the work of our hands.