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HOMILIES

MY FIRST EXPERIENCE OF COMMUNITY

This homily is based on Matthew 28:16-20 for the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity (and the occasion of Entrance Day for the Jesuits in the Philippines).

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Jesuit novices in Sacred Heart Novitiate, Quezon City (1987). Author is on the first row, fifth from left.

Someone posted this photograph on Facebook yesterday. It’s our one and only complete class picture as Jesuit novices taken three decades ago at Sacred Heart Novitiate. It was probably retrieved from someone’s hard drive because the 30th of May is coming up and it was for many years “Entrance Day” for Jesuits in the Philippines: the day when accepted applicants lug their carefully packed suitcases to Sacred Heart Novitiate and say their goodbyes to family and friends as the novitiate gates are shut dramatically. This closing of the doors signals the start of two years of religious formation and relative isolation from the world.

The caption on Facebook said, “May 30, 1987: Sixteen of us, primi, joined eighteen of our secundi brothers to form one of the biggest batches of novices to enter Sacred Heart Novitiate of the post-EDSA era.” If my memory serves me right, we posed for this picture after the morning Mass on our Habit Day, when we as first-year novices were finally permitted to wear cassocks for the first time. If some of the novices look uncomfortable in their cassocks, it’s probably because we were all wearing hand-me-down cassocks from dead Jesuits.

It was my very first experience of Jesuit community life, and because of the numerous colorful characters in the class, some of whom became good lifelong friends, I really enjoyed living with that community despite the rigors and uncertainties of novitiate life.

We would drag ourselves out of our cubicles at 5:30 in the morning and shuffle to the chapel for morning prayer before going our silent separate ways for individual prayer. The magnum silencium that began the night before could be broken during breakfast only if our novice master announced, “Deo gratias” after saying grace. After breakfast came manualia, which was a fancy Latin name for janitorial work. Thankfully, our assignments changed every day; my favorite assignment was anywhere but the toilets and bathrooms. The only thing I liked less was laborandum–novitiate jargon for field work: Since my thumb was far from green, our laborandum senior invariably handed me a sickle to cut weed.

We usually attended morning classes on Ignatian spirituality and Jesuit history. One day a week, a philosophy professor, who was as terrifying as he was legendary, would commute all the way from the Ateneo de Manila campus to teach us Greek, not to mention the fear of God. For some reason, the soccer games we played after those classes seemed more manic.

We were assigned to groups with whom we organized liturgies, cooked supper, and any other chore the novice master thought would help us in our formation. And as he used to say, “Everything is formative.”

Every Sunday morning we left the novitiate grounds at the crack of dawn, laundry bags slung over our shoulders, and hopped onto those minibuses that raced to Sapang Palay, a government resettlement site, for our weekly apostolate. It was agreed that to help the needier parishioners, we would pay them to do our laundry.

During the week, we prayed together and shared a lot about ourselves with each other: the blessings we received, which were many, as well as the struggles we were undergoing, which were also just as numerous. I had never sung so much in my life nor laughed as hard though the times we cried together were not too few and far between either.

For me, it was a wonderful and seldom-surpassed experience of religious community life. Some years after my novitiate, a theology professor, lecturing on the Blessed Trinity, offered us some tips for his exam: “Just remember these three things: Distinction, equality, and unity. The three Divine Persons of the Blessed Trinity are distinct, equal, and united!”

When you think about it, those three words also just about capture one of my best experiences of Jesuit community life. The Holy Trinity is really a model of what true community is. You would not find a better community than in one where people are united, but each one is treated as distinct and equal.

I had an experience of that sort in the novitiate: There was never assembled a cast of characters more different from one another. Yet our novice masters treated us all equally–from the most experienced professional to the youngest college undergrad–and taught us all to do the same. And though as expected in any relationship, there were the occasional conflicts, we always remained united in our quest for a deeper knowledge and love of God.

The three attributes of the Persons in the Trinity could well serve as a checklist for our community lives. They represent our best dream of what a community–or any personal relationship–should be like. Almost three decades after those years in the novitiate, even after losing contact with those who have left the Jesuits or some who have stayed, I still look back at those two years with gratitude for such a rare and precious grace,

Wherever you are in your journeys, happy 31st anniversary to my fellow ex-novices!

26 replies on “MY FIRST EXPERIENCE OF COMMUNITY”

Happy anniversary to your batch fr.and we thank God for givng you to us. You have blessed us with you homilies and I pray you continue to be steadfast in your spiritual journey. Thank you too, fr. for your generosity of service. God bless you more!

Nice reflection, JC! certainly community life was never the same again with you around! Be well!

Thank you Fr. J for your ministry with us from which we have received many blessings from our good Lord. I will pass on your concept of “equal, united and distinct” to our growing numbers at ASHI which now serves 65,000+ anawim Nanays.
Please pray for us.

Mercy

What a fitting way to describe and share the essence of the Holy Trinity. In reality, living a life of distinction, equality and unity I agree is the best way to related to one another starting from the core unit of our society, family then to our community, workplace, government and even in the world. Three simple words and yet seems hard to follow or put into action. But my hope os relentless and using it as a guide in our daily lives can make a difference even in our own little way. One day at a time, one baby step at a time, one dream at a time …

Hi Fr.Johnny,

If I could have visited you there, like your Mom secretly did, I would have cried too! When you entered, we felt we lost you. But God certainly gained a great communicator to deliver His messages! If only everyone learned your skill, then even young people would not find it a chore to have to listen to the sermon. You think you could teach them how?

Thank you Father J!!! A good reminder for practical living in a community – The TRINITARIAN way : members are distinct, equal and united.Salamat po uli

Thanks for sharing your insight on the Trinity within your community experience in Novitiate. I love that place. I was also there during the last year of San Jose Minor seminary. Coming from the province for first year college, it was designed that we were initiated into the Ateneo system only partially. We were honed in English grammar and literature among others. But the best of them all is the way we lived as a community doing manualia and laborandum, running for haustus (snacks/merienda) and playing soccer with delirium. Magnum silencium was a must since everyone slept in cubicles, not in totally walled rooms. Bonding was its best because “everything was formative.” It was one of my most cherished memories but due for reasons unknown to us, the minor seminary had to be terminated once and for all. Distinct, equal and united. Indeed, we were. I am so blessed to have lived the Triune God in my younger days.

Hi, Fr. Johnny!
Thank you for sharing your first experience of community. You write so well that I was transported to a time that was happy, peaceable, pleasant, calm – exact opposite of the rancorous times we are in now. Makes me wish that we should have at least put to heart the elements of Ignatian spirituality. Again, thank you. We get the message! ^^

The homily is about the importance of the attributes of Persons in the Trinity in shaping up a local neighborhood into an ideal place where every member coexists harmoniously with each other underscoring the importance of maintaining an atmosphere of uniformity and solidarity, uniqueness and fairness in every aspect of human life. While it is true that achieving this utopia like existence is extremely difficult considering the diversity and innate difference among people, the quintessential characteristics of the Holy Trinity will serve as a beacon of light that will guide everyone to ultimately walk towards this direction. 🙂

Distinct, equal and united……thank you, Fr. J, for sharing….I can only begin to imagine your vast universe…inside and out, that you so generously share with us…thank you, Fr. J, thank you most Holy Trinity…

Thanks for sharing these memories. As a married person, the three words are applicable for any family or community held together by love! I will pray for all of you in the picture – with gratitude for the most generous gift of loving service.

I was looking for you Fr.J in the picture but cannot locate you.well what I have are your words that you were in the picture and I take your words seriously.
I am so pleased reading your experiences while you were a novitiate. Look what kind of formative years you have under gone. You are now a priest with very good standing. To God be the glory for your rigid formation years. The Lord has given you to us. Thank you Lord for Fr. J and the wisdom you have given him. When I think of the Holy Trinity I will remember equal,united and distinct. God bless.

Yes!!! Community life is first a gift of life living together to acquire the necessary holiness in once life with the Good Lord,Who is in Heaven which is our real Home.Its a kind of diversified people of different characters which had develop from birth to manhood.Some are flexible for change but others finds it hard to do.But whatever if the person TRULY answered the Call of God and saw it right for him to stay,no amount of hardship will be difficult for him to change with the help of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament,the Tabernacle where Jesus is always waiting for us to speak to Him from day to day.I believe miracle still happens in this time of our life.
Father I think I have said a lot.Many thanks for your right up.God continue to bless you.

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