Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ: On God’s mission

He epitomized the Ignatian ideal of being a contemplative in action

Nov. 18—33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Daniel 12: 1-3; Psalm 16, Response: “You are my inheritance, O Lord!”; Hebrews 10: 11-14, 18; Mark 13: 24-42

Nov. 14 was the 101st birth anniversary of Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J., the 28th Superior General of the Society of Jesus. He is regarded by many as the second founder of the Society, leading the Jesuits through a most difficult time in the life of the church, the implementation of Vatican II.

I have a special devotion to Fr. Arrupe. I believe that his intercession, together with that of Our Lady of Fatima, was what aborted a supposed aneurysm I suffered in December 1997.

After a pre-Christmas diagnosis and weeks of prayer led by high school parents and students—along with a printing of a special prayer card with the prayer for the glorification of Fr. Arrupe—doctors on Jan. 7, 1998, after performing a cerebral angiogram to guide me in the treatment, declared that there was no aneurysm.

Recently, the Society of Jesus announced that the Vatican gave the go-ahead for the process that, God willing, will culminate in the canonization of Fr. Arrupe.

As a young teacher, two years before I entered the Society of Jesus, I saw Fr. Arrupe in Ateneo de Manila during his visit the Philippines. Upon his return to Rome, he suffered a debilitating stroke.

Aware of his birthday, I read articles on Fr. Arrupe. My prayer the past week was inspired by him.

It became a revisiting of my Jesuit roots, three Ignatian themes to reflect on from the perspective of the Gospel—or vice versa: “age quod agis,” “to

tus ad laborem,” and availability.

According to one story —there are several versions—one of the “boy saints” of the Jesuits was asked, while playing: “What would you do if you know you will die soon?” To which he responded, “Age quod

agis,” I will do what I amdoing.

Grace

Christ’s message in today’s Gospel pretty much inspires this grace to continue to do what one is doing when death comes or when we are welcomed back to our true home.

There are two qualities to this grace. One is the grace of focus to be able to say “yes” to what God wants us to do. Two is the grace of integration, the culmination of our attempts to do what God wants us to do.

These are analogous to the two qualities of spiritual freedom of St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises.

The first is freedom from sin, inordinate attachments, or whatever hinders us from following Christ.

The second is freedom for or to commit, to dedicate oneself to following Christ—a deeper and greater freedom.

These we consider bookends to our journey to be followers of Christ—the former is our entry, our initiation into discipleship, and the latter is the culmination, the synthesis toward reintegration which reaches perfection in our union with God. The second theme, totus ad laborem, is what opens us to age

quod agis. Ignatius counseled that when one discovers what God wants us to do, the grace to pray for is to be able to commit to follow Christ and to dedicate oneself totally to the work, totus ad laborem.

Integrity

The two themes or graces fused into one, becomes a life lived in integrity, the integrity of living a life of mission, doing what God wants us to do, and the integrity of love (as we reflected on two Sundays ago, the 31st Sunday), in all things to love and to serve God and others.

This brings us to the third theme, the Ignatian availability. This bring us back to Fr. Arrupe who lived this Ignatian virtue —to always be ready and available when God calls. This was one of his greatest contributions not just to the Society of Jesus, but to the Church and to humanity.

Being a true son of Ignatius, an alter-ego who came over 400 years later, a true follower of Christ, Fr. Arrupe emphasized the virtue of availability by living a life “with one foot raised,” ready to go where God sends him.

In 1977, Father Arrupe wrote his famous letter on availability for mission or apostolic availability: “My purpose in writing this letter is to stir each one of us to the unconditional commitment of the authentic ‘contemplative in action,’ ‘ men ready to be sent,’ entirely at the disposition of the divine will, ‘to undertake all the most difficult tasks in the most remote parts of the world.’”

Father Arrupe lived through one of the most turbulent and divisive chapters in the history of the church and the Society of Jesus, very much akin to Christ’s description of the “end times” in today’s Gospel. He took to heart Christ’s counsel: “When you see these things happening, know that he is near, at the gates. Amen, I say to you... my words will not pass away.”

With this faith he was constant in doing what he knew God wanted him to do, age quod

agis, and did it with total dedication and zeal, totus ad la

borem, Fr. Arrupe epitomized the Ignatian ideal of being a contemplative in action.

Jesuits and those formed and trained in Ignatian spirituality are often “accused” of being ruggedly individualistic. They, like Fr. Arrupe, are often admired and reviled at the same time. Through all this, he simply kept going, not dismissive of these things but constantly discerning what God wants him to do.

Mystic

“Arrupe has been described as ‘a mystic with open eyes.’ He gazed on our messy world as God does, the world of the atom bomb, of expulsions, imprisonment, tortures, world wars, clashes of ideologies, etc. He would say: ‘See with the eyes of Christ, go wherever the need is greatest, serve the faith and promote justice as best you can, and you will find God!’” (from the “Messenger”)

This is what Christ asks of us in today’s Gospel: Come faceto-face with our “messy world” and to “see it with the eyes of Christ” and to do what God wants us to do to make it better, with great dedication and passion—with great love—and with total availability.

Arrupe synthesized his life in one of his final prayers, one that he conveyed in his valedictory to the Society of Jesus, a life of constant availability for mission, to do what God wants him to do, to do all things with great love.

By this time, 1983, he had been living with his debilitating stroke. Once fluent in over 10 languages, he could communicate with great difficulty only in Spanish. Once constantly traveling for mission, he was confined to the infirmary. Once the most powerful and respected member of the Society of Jesus, and of the church, he was under the care of nurses, doctors and his brother Jesuits. This was his prayer.

“More than ever I find myself in the hands of God. This is what I have wanted all my life, from my youth. But now there is a difference: the initiative is entirely with God. It is, indeed, a profound spiritual experience to know and feel myself so totally in God’s hands.”

This is the message of today’s Gospel—in the mess and turbulence of our life, our world, desire to be “totally in God’s hands” and from this, live life with total availability and giving yourself totally to what he wants you to do. Please pray for the Glorification of Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J. I will post the prayer onmy Facebook account.