The Day After the Election

THE DAY AFTER THE ELECTION: Some Reflections



Today is a day of the rest after the intensity of the days preparing for the election of the new General and the emotionally charged day of the election itself. There is so much to be thankful for.

Murmurationes

First, I am deeply grateful for the experience of murmurationes. For four days, from Tuesday to Friday this week, the electors held one-on-one conversations with one another about possible candidates for General. It was a remarkable experience. There was no campaigning or attempt to lobby for a “bloc” or for “interest groups.” People spoke calmly, honestly, carefully, and respectfully, about others or about themselves. We made lists for ourselves of possible Generals and sought to prioritize them, but these changed constantly, as we listened to input from each other. For me this was very telling. No one came with a set idea or a candidate. While we may have differed in what we emphasized in terms of ideal qualities for the new General, what one sensed was a deeply free search for God’s will, ruled only by a love for the Society of Jesus and its mission, and a desire to discover what would be for the Society’s truest good and its more effective service to the Church and to the world.

In the process, I heard about many exemplary Jesuits, and met many of them too. We were obviously only searching for one man, one General; but it was deeply encouraging to hear of and encounter so many fine Jesuits, remarkable because of the depth of their faith, their many natural gifts and achievements, their humility and inner freedom, their insight into and love for the Society, their passion to serve. God has blessed the Society with many good Jesuits.

Election Day

I am very thankful too, for the day of the election itself. We began the day with the Mass of the Holy Spirit in the beautiful Church of the Holy Spirit beside the Curia. The atmosphere of prayer, of opening oneself to the guidance of the Spirit, which accompanied the four days of murmurationes, reached a special point of intensity, I believe, during that Mass. The profound begging for the light of the Spirit so as to make the choice most pleasing to God was accompanied by a ever more peaceful sense of trust and hope in God and his loving guidance.

After the Eucharist, we entered the Aula in silence and remained for forty five minutes more of silent prayer after a fifteen minute wise and moving exhortation from Fr. Gellard. The Formula for the Congregation instructs electors not to make any final decision before this last hour of prayer in the Aula. In those moments of silence, with a sense of great responsibility for the future of the Society, we sat in prayer, using our minds to assess all that we had heard, opening our hearts to our deepest intuitions and to the peaceful confirmations of God, listening, choosing, surrendering.

When the required majority had been reached, and it was clear that we had a new General, spontaneous and prolonged applause broke out. What moved me was this experience again of a deep freedom among us. Whoever we had voted for, it was clear that all sought confirmation of his perception of God’s will through the election process. When it became clear how God’s Spirit had moved the electors, all, in the best spirit of our Jesuit obedience, welcomed this determination of God’s will through human means. I realized, not without a little wonder, that, although I had made my vote based on the lights I had received, I would have accepted in peace anyone the Congregation chose by majority vote as General. I was very consoled to hear others share with me too this same sense of trusting, peaceful readiness to accept the General Congregation’s decision.

We lined up to greet the new General. The Formula stipulates that we do him “reverence” (which suggests hand-kissing, bowing, perhaps kneeling); instead we greeted him with warm embraces. When my turn came, I embraced him with much affection, promising support in any and every way. I told another elector after that: “Clearly the General has to have wide and strong arms, if he has to do all this embracing!”

After the Aula session, we all repaired to the Church of St. Francis Borgia in the curia, for the “official” prayers of thanksgiving and supplication for the new General. Nico—Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, the new General—knelt in front of us, on a specially prepared prie-dieu, while we chanted the Litany of Jesuit Saints and prayed for him. I was standing by the door of the Church. At the end of the service, as Nico walked out of the chapel, he saw me, reached out, and for a brief moment, touched my elbow. It was an ordinary and fleeting gesture, but conveyed such friendship and humanity.