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File photo courtesy of the Ateneo de Davao University Promotions Office.

Chaim Potok writes in his book, “In the Beginning,” about a young Jewish boy learning to find his place against the bullies in the Depression-shadowed Bronx neighbourhood and dealing with his own frail health. The book begins with the sentence, “All beginnings are hard.” Further on, it says:

“I remember bursting into tears one evening because a passage of a Bible commentary had proved too difficult for me to understand. I was about nine years old at the time. “You want to understand everything immediately?” my father said. “Just like that? You only began to study this commentary last week. All beginnings are hard. You have to work at the job of studying. Go over it again and again.”

The man who later guided me in my studies would welcome me warmly into his apartment and, when we sat at his desk, say to me in his gentle voice, “Be patient, David. The midrash says, ‘All beginnings are hard.’ You cannot swallow all the world at one time.”

I think all of us understand and agree that all beginnings are hard, especially with matters that are worth undertaking like this dream project of a campus of the future. We venture boldly into the future yet ever mindful of preserving the heritage of Xavier Ateneo, that of providing the best possible Jesuit education forming our youth to become men and women for and with others.

Accepting that beginnings are hard makes us realistic and able to face bravely the challenges ahead without being daunted by them. With the hard work and commitment already put in by Xavier University’s leadership, during Fr Bobby’s time and now during Fr Mars’s and the partnership with Mr Joe Soberano of Cebu Landmasters, it will be only a matter of time that we can see the fruits of all the hard work done.

However, we are also aware that this is God’s work, not ours. As the psalmist reminds us,

Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build;
Unless the LORD guards the city, in vain does the guard keep watch;
It is vain for you to rise early and put off your rest at night,
To eat bread earned by hard toil—
All this God gives to his beloved in sleep.

Sa ato pa, walay pulos ang tanang paningkamot og kahago, kon wala gagiya ang Ginoo sa atong ginabuhat.

True, all beginnings are hard. Yet we find ourselves at peace because we are confident that the Lord is always faithful. The Lord always gives us what we need in the mission that he has entrusted to us at Xavier University.

My heartfelt congratulations to all of you who have laboured for this work of the Lord: Xavier University under the leadership of Fr Mars Tan and Cebu Landmasters under Mr Joe Soberano III, Chairman and CEO. May the Lord bless the work of your hands in the coming days!                           

+Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam+
 

Fr Primitivo "Jun" Viray Jr SJ
Provincial, Philippine Province of the Society of Jesus
Loyola Heights, Quezon City