This is the full text of the homily of Loyola House Jesuit Community rector Fr Mars Tan SJ during the Mass on the Feast of St Ignatius and Eucharistic celebration for the three jubilarian Jesuits on July 30 at the Xavier University Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Photo by Rico Magallona.

Since 2009, my first year at Xavier University, there has already been four jubilee celebrations of Jesuits, and this year’s is the fifth one. We, Jesuits, do not celebrate our silver jubilees, neither our 30th nor our 40th year as priests or as Jesuits. The 50th year as a Jesuit is the first official Jesuit jubilee celebration. Given that most Jesuits enter the Society after college and that the years of formation are quite long (10 to 12 years), it is safe to say that, finally, a Jesuit celebrates his most-awaited jubilee year when he is already in his 70s or 80s or 90s. Not very old yet though as our present jubilarians, Frs Bert, Joe, and Nil could attest, physically and intellectually! Fr Bert is 50 years a priest; Fr Nil is 60 years a Jesuit; and Fr Joe is 70 years a Jesuit. What a sweet celebration after very long years of loving and dedicated service to God and to His people, the Church. Finally, a Jesuit jubilarian becomes the center of attention for a few hours. His life story is made public and his countless joys and sufferings are all merged into one beautiful summation of a life in Christ as celebrated with and confirmed publicly by his brethren and the community he serves.

Every Jesuit from the time he enters the Society of Jesus until he expires is supposed to make his best effort to follow Christ as his Leader and King in the company of a mixed personalities of men drawn from various life stories and backgrounds. Every Jesuit therefore strives to come close to living in Christ in the mold of the soldier-turned-saint, Ignatius de Loyola, whose Feast we also celebrate today. I won’t say much about the life and works of the great saint as I will let the movie “Ignacio de Loyola” narrate to you beautifully his colorful life story. Nonetheless, I will highlight two major achievements of the great saint: First, his charism of leadership, which bore the Society of Jesus, a group of religious men vowed to focus steadily on Jesus so as to know Him more clearly, love Him more dearly, and follow Him more closely; second, his spirituality, which is contained in a small book called the Spiritual Exercises, and which has guided and inspired hundreds of thousands of Jesuits and lay people to live their lives and do their missions as God has willed them to do so.

Frs Bert, Joe, and Nil, our jubilarians, are sons of Ignatius and through their years as Jesuits have been imbued with the spiritual charisms of St Ignatius. The special Jesuit charism, which each of the jubilarians possesses is his special gift to the Church, which he has vowed to serve till his death. What do Fr Bert, Fr Joe, and Fr Nil have as their special gifts to the people of God?

For many years, Fr Roberto Dy SJ has served in various Jesuit institutions and mission areas in Mindanao as a professional librarian, a college teacher, a campus minister, a parish priest, a missionary, a house treasurer and minister. After those years, one may think that he would stop and retire from doing regular work. Yes, he did but not yet completely. True to the call of serving God’s people anywhere and in whatever ways, Fr Bert has become a lover of pets, pigeons, stray dogs and cats while trying to show God’s boundless love for all His creations. He has also become an advocate of issues such as climate change and protection of the environment, which he persistently pursues in his homilies and preaching. And despite his difficulty in walking and travelling alone, Fr Bert has not stopped celebrating masses outside Xavier University and wherever he is called to. St Ignatius wanted his men to find God in all things, if not among university people perhaps among the prison inmates or the street children, and if not among the humans perhaps in God’s winged and four-legged creatures. We believe that’s exactly what Fr Bert has been trying to do in his remaining years as a Jesuit priest.

(READ: Fr Dy and the songs of pigeons)

Fr Nil Guillemette SJ was my New Testament professor at the Loyola School of Theology and a favorite of many students because he was generous in giving grades. I even learned more from him during my pastoral years in Bukidnon because of his books on the New Testament exegesis, which I used to prepare homilies. Those books I remember were quite solid and thorough in research yet practical for day-to-day applications. Also, his first book "Greater Than Our Hearts (God’s Tale for Young and Old)" was easily a bestseller because of its simple yet profound stories that nourished the spiritual hunger of many. No doubt Fr Nil has authored several books with solid scholarship but at the same time he enlivens our interest in spirituality through his many other spiritual books of simple and attractive stories. Fr Nil has been an author, writer, teacher, scholar, and spiritual guide for many years. I would like to believe that many people have been touched and transformed by his writings and teachings. St Ignatius wanted his men to be learned yet adequately flexible to engage the world in its present challenges. I believe Fr Nil is able to do that quietly and effectively in his books and writings. 

(READ: Guillemette and his pursuit of happiness)

Fr Jose Dacanay SJ has been in various places in the country as a missionary, parish priest, chaplain, teacher, confessor, and spiritual director. Fr Joe is a great storyteller. He can narrate exciting stories replete with complete details of the dates and the names of persons and places from each post where he was assigned 30 to 40 years ago! His experience of war and violence in a small parish in Bukidnon between the military and the armed rebels stood out as the one he liked best to recount. Many things can be said about Fr Joe, I will choose to highlight two things about him: his availability to bring the Sacraments to all kinds of people and his living an austere lifestyle. St Ignatius insisted that his men should prefer the spiritual than the physical and bodily goods because the spiritual is more conducive to the ultimate and supernatural end. Fr Joe sees that clearly in carrying out of his priestly life and functions.

(READ: The good old days of Fr Dacanay)

If you examine our jubilarians, particularly their ministries and interests, you immediately notice a wide chasm of differences among them. But they also had similar experiences in their calling, their response to the call and their struggles to remain faithful to this call of the Lord. Our Gospel reading (Luke 14:25-33) today explicates this call and the demands of becoming the Lord’s disciples.

Jesus insists that if anyone desires to follow Him, he or she should hate his/her father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters — yes, even their own life. “Hate” here is translated as loving our father, mother, sisters and brothers as second only to our love for the Lord. The Lord demands that we love Him above anyone, even the persons dearest to our hearts, our parents and immediate family members.

Our jubilarians did exactly what Jesus had demanded of them to become his disciples as priests:

First, all the three were adventurous in spirit during their young ages: they left families, homes, possessions, friends, and early opportunities in life and did in discerned obedience of what the Society had asked them to do to follow Christ.

Second, at their young ages, all three were courageous and idealistic to reach their goals that were much bigger than themselves — to serve God and His Church – until today and beyond.

Third, all three have left behind the world and all its trappings of material possessions, power, and fame, and have chosen what St Ignatius proposed that his men should lovingly embrace: simplicity, humility, and service for God’s greater glory.

Fr Bert could have stayed in Cagayan de Oro with his family and pursued a lucrative medical profession to become a famous doctor in the city or in the entire region. Fr Joe could have stayed in Shanghai, China with his family and followed the footsteps of his father who was in a promising import business and made his own name in the booming international business at that time. Fr Nil could have remained in Canada and developed his early interest in French literature to pursue a more secular moneyed career in writing and publishing books.

But our three jubilarians at their early ages have heard the call of Jesus to leave their homes, their families and their worldly ambitions to be able to give back wholeheartedly to Him and to His people their persons and their natural gifts. Through many years, Frs Bert, Joe, and Nil have surely experienced the ups and downs of their vocation journeys. But they have remained faithful to their calling as priests and as Jesuits. Indeed our three jubilarians as we could attest have truly embraced the same life lived by St Ignatius, that of simplicity, humility, and service to God and to His people.

We thank and give praise to the Lord for Fr Bert, Fr Joe and Fr Nil for their persons and their works as God’s gifts to us through the Church and the Society of Jesus. We are here to celebrate as a Church and as friends in the Lord because just as we, Jesuits, share with you our struggles and our pains, we, too, share with you our joys and gratitude for today’s celebration of our three jubilarians. ∎