“Who am I, O Lord, that You have brought me this far?” These were the words of King David echoed by Fr Joseph Raymund Patrick Sanchez SJ in gratitude for the profession of his Final Vows in the Society of Jesus during a liturgy on 9 January, Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
Philippine Provincial Fr Primitivo Viray Jr SJ presided over the Mass held in the Chapel of the First Companions in Arvisu House Jesuit Candidacy in Quezon City. Fr Ramon Ma Bautista SJ gave the homily.
Fr Bautista emphasised the self-surrender of St John the Baptist: “He must increase; I must decrease” (Jn 3:30). In entrusting his life to God, John was able to live out his calling in life as the precursor of Christ. “If this is true to John this must also be true to all of us Jesuits, to you Weyms,” said Fr Bautista addressing Fr Sanchez by his more familiar name.
“In all that concerns the spiritual life our progress is in proportion to the quality of our surrender, surrender of our self-love, self-will, and self-interest” (SpEx 189). In stressing this point, Fr Bautista explained that there is no shortcut to attaining spiritual depth and Christ-like interior maturity. “There is only the way and pattern of radical surrender, which in our Ignatian vocabulary we call, Suscipe – to decrease so God’s spirit and graciousness will enduringly increase in us.”
Indeed, there has been no shortcut in Fr Sanchez’s Jesuit journey that has taken 21 years. He described the first half of his years of formation as marked with “extreme challenges and delay”. He had to stay one more year in the novitiate to fully prepare himself for his First Vows. His Juniorate and Philosophy years involved dealing with past hurts that continued to trouble him, and he had to wait a year longer for his Regency to ensure that he was fully prepared to work full time in a Jesuit ministry. He expressed the difficulty he experienced with community life. “I had problems with my superiors, or it is more accurate to say that my superiors had problems with me,” he shared with candour.
Fr Sanchez acknowledged that it is purely by the grace of God that he has come this far in his Jesuit life. He thanked the Lord for the graces and consolation, for the gift of passion for mission, and the gift of availability. After his ordination, he had spent three years as a missionary in Timor-Leste, a time he described as full of God’s grace.
He thanked his family and friends, whom he called the “bearers of God’s grace and mercy”, for offering prayers for him, the health and wellness professionals that had helped him physically and emotionally, and his spiritual director and spiritual fathers and brothers, who have accompanied him in his spiritual growth, and taught him to embrace his brokenness and the imperfections of this world. He also thanked his superiors for their patience, kindness, and understanding, and the people in the parishes he had served for allowing him to be a shepherd to them.
When he was still a young Jesuit in formation, Fr Sanchez’s older brother had asked him why he would choose to continue being a Jesuit despite his suffering. Back then he had no answer for his brother, only that there was something or someone whom he felt wanted him to stay where he was. He knows now what it is that had kept him from giving up: it is His love, which he found in the Society. “I found a love that has loved me unconditionally, one who has loved my imperfections and continues to love me to perfection,” he said. “It is this love that has carried me this far in my journey as a Jesuit and invites me to always be faithful.” In the end, he thanked the Lord by recalling the Suscipe prayer of St Ignatius: “I pray give me only Your love and the grace to love You in return. These alone are enough for me.”