The Jesuit Guide To (Almost) Everything - James Martin [124]
Obedience frees you for that kind of service.
How does this work in practice? If you asked most Jesuits about obedience, they would talk to you about experiences in being missioned, or sent to a new work. The reason that St. Francis Xavier went to “the Indies” and St. Isaac Jogues to “New France” was not simply because they wanted to go, but because they were missioned there. Their vow of obedience gave their work the added dimension of being under the care of God. Like all Jesuits, they trusted that their work was as close as they could possibly come to following God’s desires—since it flowed from their desire to serve God and was confirmed by their superior. In short, they believed that God took their vows as seriously as they did, because the actual vow is made to God, to whom all Jesuits are obedient.
WITH AS MUCH LOVE AND CHARITY AS POSSIBLE
How does obedience play out in the everyday life of a Jesuit? Do superiors simply order you around the house, or arbitrarily send you on far-flung assignments?
The answer is different than it would have been a few decades ago. In the past, American Jesuits sometimes found out their assignments not during a conversation with their superiors but when the yearly list of assignments (called the status, pronounced in the Latin way) was posted everyJuly 31, the Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola.
One elderly Jesuit told me a story about a province status that was posted in the late 1950s. He scanned the list and saw, to his puzzlement, that he had been assigned to teach chemistry. Well, he thought, there is clearly a mistake. Not only had he never taught chemistry—he had never even studied chemistry. He realized what must have happened: there was another Jesuit with the same last name who had majored in chemistry in college. That Jesuit had been assigned to teach English—what my friend had studied. So my friend made an appointment with the provincial to “represent.”
“Father Provincial,” said the young Jesuit. “I think you’ve made a mistake.”
When my friend told me this story, he interrupted himself, roared with laughter, and said, “Well, that was the last thing he wanted to hear!” Annoyed by the young Jesuit’s presumption, the provincial said that there had been no mistake: he was assigned to teach chemistry in one of the province’s high schools.
“What did you do?” I asked.
“I taught chemistry for a year,” he laughed. “And you know what? I got pretty good at it, too!” It was a misuse of power that my friend handled with grace.
Some Jesuits have nursed longstanding grudges about the bad decisions of superiors. The first editor of America magazine, on the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination, stood up before a group of Jesuits, friends, and family and boldly announced, “All I have ever accomplished in the Society of Jesus has been despite my superiors!”
During much of the twentieth century, the emphasis was placed more on the superior’s than the individual’s discernment. But since the Second Vatican Council, when religious orders were asked to revisit the original spirit of their orders, Jesuits have reappropriated this essential piece of Ignatian wisdom: the Spirit works through everybody. Today decisions come after a long process of conversation and prayer.
But what would happen if you still don’t agree? Well, you can “represent” and explain your reasons one last time. In the rare instance when a serious dispute arises, a superior might order you to accept his decision “under obedience.” In that case, the challenge is to find a sense of peace and to trust that God is at work even in decisions with which you don’t agree.
Underneath these decisions is the superior’s responsibility to pray to discover God’s desires and to carry out his decisions with love for the Jesuit. As Barry and Doherty write, “The practice of obedience in Jesuit governance, obviously, is not supposed to be authoritarian and arbitrary. . . . Ignatius wants superiors to act with love, even when they