Possibilities of the Jesuit Project

When I think of the Jesuit Network, I just think of millions of graduates of Jesuit high schools and colleges, of all the univerisities, of the students in Fe y Alegría schools, of those who worship at Jesuit parishes or who make retreats under Jesuit auspices. All together, they make up a million-strong network. In no way, however, do I want to belittle the role of the Jesuits themselves in this network. No way. Rather, following my previous post, I would like to think about some of the values that the Jesuits have modelled, and how all of us who are part of the Jesuit project can act together out of this spirit.

• The Jesuits tried to use their gifts and intelligence, not to serve themselves and become rich or famous, but–to put it in Jesuit language– para amar y servir, in service to others.

• They were innovative: they tried to pull off something that no one else had even thought of or tried.

• They were humble: they realized that if they pulled it off, no one of them would be the hero. The hero would be this chart of a thousand different compass points. Each was willing to participate in a cause greater than self, or to put it in Jesuit language, to do something not for his own glory, but for God’s greater glory.

• They took advantage of their network: they realized that because they were part of a global network, and, for that reason, they were capable of accomplishing things—if they worked together—that no one else in the world could accomplish.

Well, today the Jesuits themselves are still distributed all over the world, in more than one hundred countries. But Jesuits hardly dominate knowledge and learning the way they once did in history. In many parts of the world, their numbers are shrinking.
[pullquote align=”right”]All of us, and millions more, are part of a much broader network of those willing to live as hombres y mujeres para los demás[/pullquote]But what if we all started to think about this network in a completely different way, not just the Jesuits in one network, or the alumni of my school in another network, and WUJA (World Union of Jesuit Alumnae) as its own network? What if, instead, we understood that all of us, and millions more, are somehow part of a much broader network, what we might call the “Jesuit project” or the network of those willing to live as hombres y mujeres para los demás. Surely there is no network on earth with such depth and diversity of the one we already are part of: we are spiritual directors, bankers, lawyers, accountants, mothers and fathers, factory workers and chief executives, very rich and very poor people, those who have wonderful connections, and those who are refugees; priests, bishops….even a Pope. How many people are in this Jesuit network today? No one knows. No one has even tried to count.
I do not know why there are not more Jesuits. You will have to ask the Holy Spirit. But at least for this moment all of us are the team that the Holy Spirit has put on the playing field. Some of us are Jesuits and some of us are not; some of us are Catholics and some of us are not. But we are the ones who are here, and therefore we are the ones who are somehow called or invited to exercise the leadership values I introduced.
This post is an excerpt of a Chris Lowney’s talk at World Union Jesuit Alumnae Meeting in Medellin (Colombia) on 16th August 2013. The whole conference may be found on this website [English] [Spanish]. Photo from Flickr by thelotuscarroll.