Photographing Fr General Arturo Sosa’s six-day visit to Japan was a daunting task, given the flurry of activities. There was pressure to capture the moment, the perfect image. In his evening talk at St Ignatius, low light levels offered a big challenge since quick movements blurred the image. At Sophia University, when Fr General spoke of the role of a Jesuit university in the world, the university’s communications team was anxious to have multiple photos to choose from. Their shutters clicked incessantly and audibly, taking what seemed like 10 photos per click. In the province assembly, the difficulty was trying to fit everyone into one shot.
Sometimes it was easy to lose sight of the main focus. During the Mass at St Ignatius, when a song to Our Lady was being sung, two children near the doors of the church started to pull on the hands of their mother. Some elderly women looked with reproach since the children’s shrieks vied with the soprano’s clear crisp voice. As the women looked away, they did not realise that the children were in fact pulling their mother over to the statue of Our Lady. One child even clasped the hands of Our Lady delicately, her eyes looking up at her with wonder. Filled with emotion, I failed to capture what would have been a meaningful photograph.
The most iconic image of the visit was unplanned. As Fr Adolfo Nicolás blessed Fr General in Loyola House, Fr Sanji Yamaoka, the Province Socius, captured that moment on his smartphone. The post became viral as soon as we uploaded it. The image expressed a fraternal bond, a sense of community that Jesuits and our lay partners all aspire for.
During that visit to Loyola House, someone asked what improvement the Society needed that they could pray for. After pausing briefly, Fr General said, “Community life.” From then on, I noticed that “community” influenced the angle of our coverage.
And so, while feasting on the barbecue (asada in Spanish) prepared by Fr Provincial Renzo De Luca and Fr Juan Haidar at the scholasticate, while enjoying the music in Elisabeth University, and as laughter resonated in the Nagatsuka and Yamaguchi communities, the afterimage of brother Jesuits blessing each other never left us.
At a sumptuous meal Fr Saturnino Ochoa and Br Nobuchika Muraoka prepared in Fukuoka to cap the visit, Fr General, visibly tired but happy, remarked, “I am grateful that my visit became a good excuse for our brothers to gather”. Perhaps it was not merely the General’s visit that brought us joy. It was in seeing each other and remembering that we are companions of Jesus.
Fr Jody Magtoto SJ is a Filipino from the Japanese Jesuit Province and works in communications.