For Jesuits, tertianship is a very special period of grace that happens only once in a lifetime. Through this time, Jesuits aspire to be fully incorporated into the Society of Jesus. Four Korean Jesuits were able to realise this aspiration when they were invited to pronounce their Final Vows before Superior General Fr Arturo Sosa SJ when he visited Korea.
Fr General Sosa received the Final Vows of Fr Ku Tong-uk Michael SJ, Fr Shin Sang-eun Matteo SJ, Fr Shim Paek-seop Justinus SJ and Fr Choi Dae-je Roberto SJ in a Mass with Korean Jesuits on July 15. His homily was drawn from the book of Exodus that describes the experience of slavery and injustice as well as the announcement of the liberation.
Fr General Sosa encouraged the four Jesuits to accept the Lord’s grace of freedom, speaking of how Jesuits can sometimes lose their sense of freedom in their mission. He said that the Final Vows could be a Jesuit’s answer to God who loved us first.
He invited the Jesuits to look back on their experience of liberation. As Catholics, they accept the duty to be converted through the Eucharist and the profession of vows, and to bear witness to the Lord’s mission through the renewal of their communities.
General Congregation 34 says that, “Working as a priest can be a profound moment of grace as he confronts the frailty within which his ministry is exercised” (GC34, 188, 26), but daily conversion to bear witness to the Lord’s mission should be the attitude of all Catholics. Fr General’s words were a special reminder for Jesuits to be more humble and faithful to their mission through the grace of the Final Vows.
The Final Vows came at a meaningful time for the Korean Province. During his visit, Fr General Sosa emphasised the Universal Apostolic Preferences (UAPs) and the Korean Jesuits presented him with their response to the UAPs. The Vow Mass highlighted the mission of conversion and renewal for the Korean Province and its apostolates, especially those of the Jesuits professing their Final Vows.
Fr Ku Tong-uk Michael SJ is in charge of the Jesuit Benefactors Association. The Korean Province is financed through crowd-funding, which is not easily seen in most provinces. Private sponsors make up more than 80 per cent of the province’s funding source. It is important to foster a supportive culture that can be enriched by the step of 100 people rather than 100 steps of one person. Fr Ku faithfully responds to this mission by building on his previous pastoral experiences as a parish priest in China, Macau and Taiwan.
Fr Shin Sang-eun Matteo SJ, who studied social welfare, is currently the head of the Hannuri Child Center, which provides study rooms and life counselling to children of low-income families. With his long experience in child counselling, Fr Shin is discerning the government’s guidelines for establishing standards for children who can benefit from study rooms. Although he wants to serve more poor children, he fears that the division of children who can come to the study room by family income will lead to class differentiation. The challenges he faces inspire an attitude of constant renewal and spiritual freedom with the need for new discernment in the same apostolate within a changing society.
Fr Shim Paek-seop Justinus SJ is a professor and spiritual director at Daejeon Theological University. The Jesuits in Korea have a long history of providing education and spiritual companionship to seminarians. In the context of the church in Korea, which gives emphasis to the role of parish priests, Fr Shim’s companionship for the spiritual growth of seminarians has great significance for the future of the church in Korea.
Fr Choi Dae-je Roberto SJ is chaplain of St Agnes Korean Catholic Church in Los Angeles, USA. What is special about his career is that he is a Barista priest who specialises in brewing coffee and teaching the method. “Ignatius Café”, which he founded when he worked at Jesuit Benefactors Association, has been a place of cooperation where benefactors serve while deepening their Ignatian spirituality. His café ministry in his pastoral work in Los Angeles showcases his creativity in bringing people in the community together and encouraging them through service and labour.
In all their years as Jesuits and priests, Fathers Ku, Shin, Shim and Choi have experienced God’s freedom by creatively seeking His will in the context of their mission. Fr General’s message of accepting the freedom God gives even though there are moments when we sometimes allow our lives to be dominated by self-centred desires consoled not only the four Jesuits professing Final Vows but also all those who walk in the path of the apostles. The Final Vows are a moment of thanksgiving for commitments constantly strengthened and renewed so we can testify to the love of Jesus and follow him, who is poor and humble, to the cross.
By Angela Jung, Korean Province Communication team