Vocations director: So what drew you to the Society of Jesus? (since I have never even met a Jesuit)
Me: Well, I think of the Jesuits as the Marines of the Catholic Church.
Vocations director: (somewhat taken aback) ... well, what do you mean?
Me: Well when the Church has needed something really important done, She sends in the Jesuits.
Vocations director: ...Well we don't really talk like that anymore(I assume he was thinking "Church Militant")
Me: .... oh.
I was young and honestly had no idea what the modern Church(not to mention the modern Jesuits) looked like. I had ideas that becoming a Jesuit priest meant rigorous study, learning several languages, wearing a cassock, teaching in a university, comradery with other men, ...praying in Latin, performing exorcisms, and striving for heroic virtue. That's not to say that some of these are not qualities of the modern Jesuit. Take the story for what it's worth. After further consideration I did not pursue the Jesuits. The Society has done alot of good. I just pray the modern Jesuit does not work for the common good, or for social justice, but for the only cause worth fighting for; Ad majorem Dei gloriam.
7 comments:
Good comments.
Yeah, if you have any familiarity with Marquette, of which I am a regretable recent alumnus, you know they have fallen afar.
As a former Jesuit novice, I think you made a good decision.
Are you certain that you have a firm grasp on what Ad majorem Dei gloriam really means? I have a sneaking suspicion that God's glory can't possibly be contained in either your or my narrow ideas. I do know one thing, however, it entails more than returning to cassocks.
My last comment simply meant that "reinventing" The Cause will in the end fail. For a Jesuit to state they work for "social justice" by feeding the poor means these works no longer are works of charity, but something else.
Fr Hardon, SJ will be canonized someday. The first thing he did every morning was kissed his cassock. By the end of his life he owned two cassocks, both from dead Jesuits. The cassock is a sign of the evangelical counsel of poverty. I agree that imposing a cassock doesn't solve the problems with "liberalism" in the order. But its usage has far more significance than "turning back the clocks."
By the end of his life >ALL< he owned
I think the words social justice and the common good are terms that have been ridiculed and misinterpreted to the point when I too would not want to use them. They add to the polemics of the day. I would rather say that whatever is good to show my love for my neighbor as I love myself is what also is ad majorem dei gloriam... which for those who may not know latin means for the greater glory of God
I love your post, a great slice of life intersection with faith and the Church.
JMJ
Joe
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