A Jubilee of Companionship in the Lord

Fr. Joel Tabora, S.J.

High School Covered Courts
First Friday, Eve of the Feast of St. Francis Xavier
and the Opening of the Jubilee of the First Companions of the S.J.

Renovation of Vows of Frs. Badiola, de los Reyes, Gornez
Bros. Dimacali and Negapatan

Dec 2, 2005

We have begun the season of Advent. We have begun the season of waiting for the Lord. We await his coming at the end of the world, as Christ the King, Judge of Heaven and Earth.

In this context, our Mass this morning has many reasons for celebration.

First, is the love of the King whom we await. Hopefully, we have met this King in our lives. Incredibly, this is a King we have encountered not on a royal throne of gold and jewels. But it is the man we have encountered, beaten, reviled, robbed of his dignity, crowned with thorns, whipped to the bone, stripped of his clothes, and there, hanging on a cross, looking at us – in love. Above him: a sign which says: Here is Jesus Christ, King of the Jews. The sign is telling us: “Here is Jesus Christ your king – loving you.”. Today, as on all First Fridays, we recall this image of Jesus' Kingship. It is an image of love.

Second, we celebrate the life of one of the men in history most moved, most impassioned, most impelled by the love of Jesus. He traveled from Venice to Rome to India to Malaysia to Indonesia back to India then to Japan sharing of that love with people he didn't even know. That was the Jesuit, Francis Xavier – acknowledged to be the greatest of the missionaries of the Church. We celebrate his feast even as we celebrate the love of Jesus on First Friday, for there could never have been any Francis Xavier without the love of Jesus, there could never have been the heroic missionary activities of Francis, without Francis having met Jesus on the Cross. Before Jesus he asked, “If you have done so much for me in love, what have I done for you? What am I doing for you? What ought I do for you?” His answer to the last question was the life of love and missionary zeal that we celebrate today.

Third, with the celebration of the Feast of St. Francis Xavier this year, we celebrate a special Jubilee. Jubilees, you know, are celebrated after long periods of time, marked in fifties of years or hundreds of years. Since, Francis Xavier was born in 1506, we are celebrating the Jubilee of his birth 500 years ago. But there was another one of the seven first companions who first formed the Society of Jesus who was also born in 1506. That was Blessed Peter Fabre. Thus we also celebrate the jubilee of Fabre's birth 500 years ago. At the University of Paris , he was the batchmate of Francis Xavier in pursuing the Master's of Arts. They were close friends. They studied together, lived together, graduated together, and together were fascinated by the ardor and intensity and vision of another companion at that time, Ignatius of Loyola. This is also a special jubilee year for St. Ignatius. Why? It was 450 years ago on July 31 that St. Ignatius died. We celebrate 450 years of Ignatius' being reunited with God in heaven. The different jubilees of these three first Jesuit companions have motivated the Society of Jesus to celebrate this year the grand Jubilee of the First Companions. The first companions were friends in the Lord, differently endowed yet bonded to each other in the Lord's service. Ignatius was a great visionary who saw himself and his companions participating in the very work of the Blessed Trinity in history creating, loving and saving humankind; Francis was a great missionary who knew no boundaries in bringing that love to those who yearned for it; Fabre was a companion who was considered the “most eminent” by his peers because of his great knowledge, his gentle piety, and his personal care for others – his cura personalis. All this diverse richness was unified in the companionship of the compania de Hesus, the company of Jesus, ultimately because they all felt the love of Jesus and responded. They felt the love of Jesus and accepted to live and walk at his side. They felt the love of Jesus, and as Jesus was poor, so they accepted to be poor; as Jesus was chaste, so they accepted to be chaste; as Jesus was obedient unto death, so they accepted to be obedient. Ultimately it was a matter of the heart, a matter of Jesus' heart, beating in the hearts of these first companions. That's why for us it is so wonderful that we can celebrate the opening of the Grand Jubilee of the First Companions on a First Friday – where we celebrate the love of Jesus for us.

We have another grand reason for celebration this morning. The successors to the First Companions at the Ateneo de Naga are immediately the members of the Society of Jesus, the older Jesuits like Fr. Rooney, Fr. Belardo, Fr. Carretero, Fr. Isidro and myself, but also the younger Jesuits like Frs. DJ de los Reyes, Fr. Vids Gornez, Fr. Alex Badiola, Bro. Renel Dimacali and Bro. Rez Negapatan. Moved by the same love of Jesus manifested to them from the Cross, moved by the same Sacred Heart beating to fill our lives and others' lives with the Father's Love, we too have taken the same vows that bound Ignatius and Francis and Peter in a lifelong friendship in the Lord in the service of the Kingdom of God. Today, before the Lord present in the Eucharist, the younger Jesuits, coming from different backgrounds, endowed with different gifts and talents, will renew their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to the Lord, in ongoing response to the Love of Jesus that they have experienced in their lives, renewing their bonds of friendship in the Lord within the companionship of the Society of Jesus.

We rejoice today also because we know this companionship to be shared. Being loved by the Lord, being empowered by love to do great things, being motivated by the Lord's love to be of ongoing service to others, is no monopoly of the Society of Jesus. That companionship is shared with and enriched by the teachers, administrators and staff who themselves have been moved by the Love of God turned to them from the Cross saying, “You, you, it is you whom I love. Follow me in your marriage, in your families, in your classrooms, in your dealings with your students, in your extra-curricular activities. Dress as I dressed, eat as I ate, do as I did, sacrifice as I sacrificed, serve in my company, out of love and because of love, that together we may reap the joys of the Kingdom!

We have many reasons for celebration. The Lord is coming. But in a sense, he is already here. Not just in a romantic manger made of painted plastic. He is here in God's Heart beating in the hearts of our teachers and our Jesuits turned to one another in love and shared lasting companionship – serving our students in serving first the Kingdom of God .

Let us rejoice in God's love!