Homily for the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ
Kick-off Celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Province and ADMU
14 June 2009, Manila Cathedral, Intramuros … By José CJ Magadia, SJ
Philippine Province of the Society of Jesus
This homily has two parts. The first part is historical, and reflects on the special celebration for which we are gathered this morning. The second part considers the Church feast that we commemorate this day.
I. First, on the special celebration.
Exactly 150 years ago, on June 14, 1859, a Tuesday morning, ten Jesuits of the Aragon Province disembarked from the frigate Luisita. After months of voyage from Spain, braving often rough seas and sailing through with the uncertainties of nineteenth century travel, the ten missionaries finally end their long journey, setting foot on their destination, led by their Superior, Father José Fernández Cuevas. They entered this walled city of Intramuros, where we are gathered today, were warmly welcomed by the Augustinian friars who were there to meet them, and take them into their villa house, where the Jesuits stayed for a month and a half, while the new mission house was still being built. This special friendship with the Augustinians carried through in those early days in Intramuros, as each year thereafter, a Jesuit would sing the Mass and preach in San Agustín Church on the Feast of St Augustine and an Augustinian would do the same in the San Ignacio Church on the Feast of St Ignatius.
On that very same day, June 14, the Jesuits promptly made the rounds of the city officials, going through the protocol, presenting themselves to the colonial authorities, and informing them of their very specific purpose, “for the missions of Mindanao and Joló.” And the Jesuits subsequently did just that. Beginning with Tamontaca in the delta of the Rio Grande de Mindanao, they set forth to Tetuan and Zamboanga, Manicaán and Davao, Dapitan, Surigao, and Jolo. They climbed mountains and explored rivers, on foot, on horseback, old and young. They set up missions and built up parishes. They opened up mission schools, and administered the sacraments, and taught children their catechism. They wrote the first grammars and compiled the first dictionaries, in Maguindanao, and Tiruray, and Bagobo. And by the end of the 19th century, the Society of Jesus had taken over all the mission posts of Mindanao and Sulu.
But there was a not so minor matter that distracted them from Mindanao. In the 1850s, there was only one primary school in the city – the Escuela Pía on Calle Real, founded in 1800, but of far-from-ideal quality. On August 5, 1859, a group of Manila residents petitioned the Spanish Governor-General for the newly-arrived Jesuits to begin a school. The response from Father Cuevas was “no,” because the Jesuits mission was to be in Mindanao. But the petitioners did not allow themselves to be easily defeated by this refusal. They represented and insisted. So, Father Cuevas met with his men to discuss the matter. In the end, he told them that the answer was still “no,” unless the Governor-General would issue an order in writing. On October 1, 1859, a decree was promulgated transferring the direction of the Escuela Pía to the Jesuits and renaming it the Escuela Municipal. Thus, on December 10, 1859, twenty-three boys came to class on the first day under the new management. By March of 1860, there were already 170 students.
Thus re-commenced in this archipelago the great tradition of Jesuit education. Father Horacio de la Costa describes those early days well. “Classes were held from 8:00 to 11:00 o’clock in the morning and from 3:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon, except on Sundays and holy days. On Thursdays, the afternoon class was omitted.” There were no vacations, but during the months of April, May and June, there were no afternoon classes. There was life in that school, with voices chanting the Latin declensions or reciting the rosary or shouting at play. They studied reading, writing and ‘rithmetic; they read history and studied astronomy and discussed religion. They followed Cicero closely, “paraphrased him, imitated him, learnt him by heart, used his speech and idiom in the classroom, in ordinary conversation….”
By 1909, when that school was formally renamed the Ateneo de Manila, it had primary, secondary and tertiary levels well established. And since then, other Ateneos have been built in Zamboanga and Cagayan de Oro, in Naga and Davao, along with other schools from the former Chinese delegation, and likewise in many small parishes in Mindanao and Culion – schools driven by the same ideals of excellence, sapientia et eloquentia, of seeking to do more for love of God and neighbor and country. Today, the Ateneo de Manila University has indeed become a much respected institution, led by professors, both Jesuit and lay – made great by its students, the many men and women who have walked its corridors, who have sat in its classrooms, who have brought their Ateneo spirit to worlds beyond the walls of their alma mater, who have offered their lives for causes beyond themselves, who have battled on many a field with their “Halikinus” and their “one big fight” over and over again through the years.
Yes, in all that has happened in the last 150 years, it is good to be grateful, since after all, gratitude is the most basic of prayers, because it is a recognition that all is from God, and that the opportunity to take part in God’s work is a privilege not a right, a gift not an entitlement, that in the end it is the Lord that works through creation and gives it life anew.
Today, as we remember 150 years of continued Jesuit presence in this country, we thank the Lord for the blessing of not a few good men – Jesuits from Cataluña and Valencia and Madrid, from New York and Buffalo and Syracuse, from Italy and Hungary through China, from Ilocos and Pampanga, Cebu and Misamis and Manila. They were scientists at Manila Observatory. They were pioneers and explorers in Mindanao. They were catechists and pastors. They were fantastic teachers and exacting administrators. They were social scientists like Father Frank Lynch, historians like Father de la Costa, martyrs like Father Manuel Peypoch and Father Godofredo Alingal. They were dedicated scholars and energetic preachers. They were in Bukidnon and Ipil, Cebu and Iloilo, Tuguegarao and Vigan. They gave retreats, ministered to prisoners, organized farmers and laborers, composed liturgical music, built churches, wrote poems, worked among lepers, ran seminaries, directed plays. They were priests and brothers, missionaries – gifted, not just with talent, but more so with a sense that the world had to be conquered for God, that there was no aspect of human life that cannot be touched by the healing presence of the Almighty. There was a sense that so much good had to be done, and so little time to do it in. There was an urgency, a drive, a fire that could not be quenched. There was a sense that there was “no reality that was only profane,” that somehow, somewhere, the finger of God would always leave its print. This was the gift of the missionary, for which today, we give special thanks.
II. Now, to the second part – we look to today’s feast.
Today is the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, a fitting feast for the 150th anniversary of the return of the Jesuits to the Philippines. For it is in the Eucharist that the Jesuits and the Ateneo truly find spirit, strength, drive. It is not a coincidence that when Jesuits pronounce their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, it is done before the Body and Blood of the Lord. After the vows are pronounced, the bread is eaten and the blood is drank, and once again, a covenant is sealed, like the covenant of the First Reading.
On the one side of the covenant is the human person who says he will follow God, who says he will obey all his commandments, who says he will sacrifice everything for the sake of his faith. But often, he fails, and he breaks his covenant. Such are the Jesuits, such are Ateneans, indeed, such are all human beings, sinful and unfaithful. Yet, the covenant remains sealed for on the other side is God, who on his part, pledges his unconditional love, despite the weaknesses and imperfections and sinfulness of human beings.
Whenever we recount the history of the Society of Jesus in the Philippines, we usually go down a list of the many institutions built, the many works that have grown, the great successes and contributions made. But every now and then, it is good to also take note that in many places, we also came and went, and sometimes with a sense that the mission was not yet quite accomplished. In Mindanao, we gave up our missions in Surigao and Caraga and Ipil. We left Tuguegarao and San Pablo. We sent men to Indonesia and Korea and Thailand, and those experiences did not last too long. Ours is not just a history of building works, but also of moving on. Sometimes we leave when the mission is done, but other times, we leave for other reasons, and there is a feeling that many things are still left hanging. But when we go, we are also confident that something is left behind, something stays, the work is picked up again by others, many of whom are more gifted and bring what we began to far greater heights. And in the end, despite our shortcomings, the work of God gets done. This is because of a presence far stronger.
This is what Eucharist is, a distinct and special presence. It is the fulfillment of a promise of the Lord. I will be with you always to the end of the world. I will linger, long after all are gone.
And this is why the Body and Blood of the Lord are at the heart of any Christian work. When the Lord is received into our human bodies, we are healed, we are empowered, we are given new strength and new spirit. We are impelled by the Eucharist to partake in the work of salvation, and do whatever good is asked of us, even if its fruits are not seen. And as good is accomplished, and community is built, the Church is made stronger, as men and women who are filled with the Lord create a community of the good.
This, then, is what we can offer a broken world, we who continue to look to the Body and Blood of the Lord, and receive him into our hearts. As we move towards the frightening future, in a Philippines that continues to be pained by poverty and inequality and injustice, where Filipinos are left with little choice but to leave the country for lack of a more stable future at home, where we remain bothered by a politics that is so mired in and stained by corruption, where the challenges of a new secularism and materialism have led to new forms of atheism, new philosophies that reject or undermine the transcendent, for whom God has disappeared into the mists – to such a world, we should offer new missionaries, like the missionaries of old, new bearers of the fire, new heralds of the good news, willing to win the weary world for the Kingdom of God, even if at times we seem to fail. Still, we carry on, fired by the Eucharist. We need new missionaries, who are no longer just blackrobed as the Jesuits of old. We need new missionaries who can play with the images of modern media, who can sing the music of our young, who can speak the language of government and politics, who can tap comfortably on keyboards, who can remain unfazed by new technologies and new ideas and new trends. The new missionaries are many of you, our alumni and friends, who share our spirituality, who go forth in businesses and family life and parishes and NGOs and movements, for it is there that you must call special attention to the subtle yet penetrating presence of God.
Finally, we turn to Our Lady once more, our patroness, in her white and blue, she who was the very first to bear the living Eucharist in her body, when she carried the Lord in her womb, who knows what it means to be filled with His Spirit and His love. We turn to Our Lady, and ask her to intercede for us, and to give us the gift of being called to be her son’s missionaries once more, to the world of the 21st century, and in this world to become true apostles, bringing hope and healing and peace.
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