Fr Xavier Olin SJ professed his Final Vows before Philippine Provincial Fr Primitivo Viray Jr SJ during a Mass held on 21 October, feast of Jesuit Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores and St Pedro Calungsod, in the chapel of the San Jose Seminary in the Ateneo de Manila University.
The homilist, Fr Ramon Bautista SJ, was Fr Olin’s Novice Master, his first Spiritual Director in the Society, and the one who vested him at his ordination. Fr Olin was in fact wearing the same stole that Fr Bautista had vested him with.
In his homily, Fr Bautista underscored surrender as the hallmark of Jesuit Ignatian Spirituality. “As an apostle, Jesuits must be all things to all people, ready to go anywhere, live anywhere, do anything, suffer anything…to be instruments of God’s salvation,” he said quoting a vocation promotion poster he had seen many years ago. “There is literally no work that a Jesuit may not do if it is for the greater glory of God,” he stressed.
But it is not just surrender, said Fr Bautista. What is asked of a Jesuit is loving surrender. “Our lives are never more in control than when we lovingly let go of control, and place and surrender everything in the hands of the Lord,” he said. Then, turning his attention to Fr Olin, he asked: “Is this not how Fr Xave has been living out his Jesuit vocation all along from the start, since he entered?”
For Fr Olin, it has been 22 years to this point of being fully incorporated into the Society of Jesus. In the span of those years, he had served in 18 different assignments, including as vocation promotion coordinator of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific from 2008 to 2011. None of these assignments, Fr Bautista noted, was Fr Olin’s own choosing. “As Jesuits we never mission ourselves. We are just told, simply, once more, to be ready, ready to go anywhere, live anywhere, do anything, suffer anything, be anything all for God’s greater glory,” said Fr Bautista. It is in this sense that Fr Olin’s profession of Final Vows is “a formal radical entrusting, a solemn radical abandoning, a surrendering of self to God”. In doing so, Fr Bautista said Mary is the perfect example. She “did not hold back on her self-abandonment to the Lord…. [Because of Mary’s surrender] there was nothing that could stop God from gracing and blessing and loving Mary in the way He truly wanted to grace, bless, and love her.”
These words must have had special significance for Fr Olin who considers the Society as a mother. “In my Jesuit journey, one thing that has sustained me is this deep experience of being held,” he shared. “In our lives we all need a mother, we all long for a mother’s presence, a mother who teaches us very patiently how to follow and serve the Son, and to do what the Son tells us to do.”
Fr Olin said he is “glad, grateful, humbled” to be called to profess Final Vows. He is glad to have “finally fulfilled the promise I made during First Vows: to enter the same Society and spend my life in it forever”. He is grateful “for the gift of Jesuit vocation, the years of ministry, and all who have been part of my Jesuit journey”. Finally, he is humbled by how “the good Lord continues to seek me and to gently take me with him”. The quiet joy and the simplicity of the Final Vows, unlike the festivities that are typical of First Vows and ordinations, speaks of this life, he said. “In the end, we are called to celebrate simply, to live our lives quietly for the Lord.”