In Fr General Arturo Sosa’s message to the journalists on 04 December last year, he says: “We Jesuits are people of hope; we believe another world is possible.” While we as a conference are indeed grateful for blessings received last year, we continue to discern future possibilities for our world. We will never be content with the status quo for as long as God invites us to other possibilities. We are always confronted with the magis question: what more is God asking of us?
A big event for us last year was the release of the Universal Apostolic Preferences (UAPs) on 19 February. The task of assimilating and implementing the UAPs in the next 10 years is another process that requires discernment and determination. We conducted various talks, recollections, retreats and spiritual conversations to make sense of the UAPs in our context. We also started to mainstream the UAPs in our conference plan which will be finalised hopefully this year. Indeed, the UAPs are a gamechanger in the way we deal with God, with the poor and outcasts, with the youth and with creation. They not only offer deeper possibilities in our encounter with God and the world out there, but they can also transform us in the way we live our lives and do God’s mission.
The visit of Pope Francis to Thailand and Japan last November was a moment of grace for all of us. These were life-giving moments for these two local churches that struggle with evangelisation, interreligious dialogue and increasing secularisation. Complex issues can baffle us and our pursuit of another world can easily become uninspired and lacking in energy. In his message to the Jesuits in Thailand, Pope Francis says: “…. we Jesuits are asked to open our eyes to our reality, to stand before the Lord with that reality, to pray and find our little path.” We need to find the little path that hopefully can enable us to imagine another world. This remains to be an invitation for us and our mission companions.
May God bless all of us and enable us to find our little path.
