TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Describing St Francis Xavier, who is fondly known in the State as ‘Goemcho Saib’ and a former superior general of the Jesuits as “icons,” Pope Francis on Wednesday exhorted the Jesuit community to look up to them during the twilight of their Jesuit life.
The Pope was delivering his homily while celebrating mass to mark the feast of St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, the order to which he belongs, with Jesuits in the Roman Church of Jesus, where the saint’s reliquaries are preserved.
“When a Jesuit finishes his life, two icons always come to mind: St Francis Xavier looking to China, and Father Arrupe (28th superior general of the Society of Jesus) in his final conversation at the refugee camp. It benefits us to look at these two icons, to return to them, and to ask that our twilight be like theirs,” said Pope Francis, who is the first Jesuit to be elected pope since the order was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540.
Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, SJ, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Superior General of the Jesuits, Fr Adolfo Nicolas, concelebrated with the Pope, as well as members of the Council and more than 200 Jesuits.
“The symbol of the Jesuits is a monogram, the acronym of ‘Iesus Hominum Salvator’” said Francis. “It reminds us constantly of a fact we must never forget: the centrality of Christ for each one of us, and for the entire Society, that St Ignatius chose to call ‘the Society of Jesus’ to indicate its point of reference.”
“And this leads us, Jesuits, to be ‘decentred’, to have ‘Deus semper maior’ before us … Christ is our life. The centrality of Christ also corresponds to the centrality of the Church: they are two flames that cannot be separated. I cannot follow Christ other than in the Church and with the Church. And also in this case, we Jesuits and the entire Society are not in the centre; we are, so to say, removed; we are in the service of Christ and of the Church,” said Pope Francis.
