How do we take care of our life-mission in this time of pandemic? In his latest webinar, Superior General Fr Arturo Sosa SJ answered questions from his Jesuit brothers and lay colleagues on the overarching theme of care amid and post Covid-19. Here are five takeaways from the live Q&A in English on 30 April.
#1. St Ignatius’ life is an experience of being cared for and being invited to care
St Ignatius’ autobiography shows how he is led and cared for by God. “The Spiritual Exercises are the mystical journey of God’s care, a God who is committed to the vocation of the human being whom he cares for through the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ,” said Fr Sosa.
The Ignatian Year 2021-2022 invites us to go deeper into the knowledge of how God guided the life of St Ignatius. In the Spiritual Exercises, said Fr Sosa, everything is a contemplation wholly directed to love (contemplatio ad amorem). St Ignatius’ experience assures us that God is taking care of all of us, a source of great comfort and hope as we live in times of uncertainty, fear, and doubt.
#2. Cura personalis and cura apostolica are inseparable
The Spanish words, salud (health) and salvación (salvation) share the same root word in Latin, salus. In this sense, healing and reconciliation are very closely linked to each other. The healing of the world is to reconcile all things in Christ. In his 25 March 2019 missive to the whole Society, Fr Sosa underscored the tension between cura apostolica (care for the work and commitments of the Society) and cura personalis (care for a person’s human and spiritual quality). “When we have this duality, the path is taken to a separation of competencies between the local Superior and the Director of Work. And this path does not help in the care of the mission,” he said.
Likewise, responding to a question on life-mission, Fr General commented on the tendency to separate “life and mission”, albeit “and” is used to connect the two. He prefers the term “life-mission”, which better expresses their inseparability, like two sides of the same coin. “Our life takes its sense from the mission, we give our life to the mission, and the mission nurtures our life,” he said.
#3. Directors of Work and Superiors are called to exercise the two dimensions of cuidado (care)
“The mission entrusted to the Society is a way to animate us,” said Fr General. The Director of Work is not a manager who seeks only to achieve the goals of the institution. “No, no, he is a leader of people who are engaged in the mission,” he said. Equally, the Superior is “not a grandmother who prepares soup for tired people coming from the job. He is responsible for the mission of the Society.” Both Director of Work and Superior are responsible for cura personalis and cura apostolica.
“Don’t leave anyone behind,” said Fr Sosa, recalling that Jesus entrusted his mission to a group of 12 men who are fragile. At the same time, he entreated his brothers and colleagues to trust their Superior. “You do not go to him for advice as you would to a medical doctor or a specialist. You go because you trust in your brother because he has a mission of taking care of the community entrusted to him,” he said. “When we say companions in the Lord, companions in mission, we underline companions. It’s a kind of affectivity; it’s a kind of being really near to people,” he said.
#4. Collaboration is a form of care
St Ignatius often used the image of the body to describe the apostolic body of the Society of Jesus. Just as a body has many different organs yet not one can be put aside, the Society needs to take care of the people who form its apostolic body in order to care for the mission. For this reason, Fr Sosa said, it is urgent to learn to collaborate with lay people, the clergy, and other religious men and women, taking care of others and allowing ourselves to be taken care of.
“The mission is bigger than the Society, the mission is also bigger than the Church. It’s the mission of Christ,” he said. “We cannot reduce our thinking and connections only with the small things we can do with our hands and feet. Collaboration is a big challenge for the future of our Society and also of the Church.”
#5. Build a culture of care through discernment
Finally, Fr General encourages us to build a culture of care and an atmosphere of discernment through in-depth dialogue. He urged local Superiors and Directors of Works (Jesuits or lay) to take initiatives to help communities and works adopt spiritual conversation in discussing matters central to the life of the community or apostolic work in light of the Universal Apostolic Preferences.
Retracing St Ignatius’ journey of conversion, Fr General said Ignatius was led on a path he never would have imagined for himself. “We start with a wounded man in a war and we finish with a person who was able to guide a small body extended all over the world,” said Fr Sosa. “It was a path that was possible because he was led; he was taken care of by the Spirit. That is what we want, to grow in a body that can be really open to be led by the Spirit.”
To watch Fr General Arturo Sosa’s full webinar, click here.