Gently, A New Role Begins

So this is what it is like to be Regional Assistant.

Here in Tokyo today, after Mass at St. Ignatius Church, the parish priest, an Italian Jesuit, introduced me to an Argentinian Jesuit this way: “He is OUR new Assistant.”

I was struck by that simple pronoun OUR. I was being claimed by two brothers, from Europe and South America but working in Japan, as, somehow, “theirs.”

I recall now that, the other night, in a similar way, the Japanese and Korean Provincials introduced me to our scholastics from Japan, Korea, Indonesia and India, as “OUR new Assistant.”

I hear in that single possessive pronoun the call to a wider sense of belonging that seems to be part of my new mission.

I guess it took being out of the Philippines, in a foreign country, in a very international, multi-cultural setting, for this call to sink in.  These are brothers I have never met before, from countries and cultures not my own, and yet I am called, somehow to care for them, somehow to be concerned for them.

There is something daunting about all this that makes me feel very small and inadequate.  The other night, for example, I was surprised to be asked to write a message for the Japanese Province Newsletter. When I expressed my surprise at being asked, I was told that the Jesuits would like to hear something from the new Regional Assistant.  “Something?” I asked myself. What could I say to and for a Province that I had never visited till now?

Yet, I also feel excitement and gratitude as new vistas, new ways of making a contribution open up. These days, my calendar for the coming months has quickly filled up. I have been invited to give Regional or Province Retreats for Thailand (April 2009) and for China (July 2010), in addition to the ones I am already committed to in East Timor (July 2008) and Cambodia (October 2008). I have been asked to take part in a Regional Meeting of the Jesuits in Thailand this October, and (I was reminded by the Japanese Provincial) I am scheduled to return to Tokyo this December this year, to accompany the General when he visits his former Province for their 100^th anniversary celebration. Next year, I am expected to attend a meeting of Jesuit High Schools in East Asia in July in Fukoaka, as well as to participate in meetings of the Major Superiors in Manila (January 2009) and Jogjakarata (July 2009).

But I think what I feel most is this quiet sense of wonder at how I have come to this: how God’s providence has led me so far from the boundaries set by my natural comfort zones. I had never, NEVER expected to minister outside the Philippines in all the years of my Jesuit life, always feeling that the “missionary vocation” was for others, but not for me. And yet here I am, and I am, to my surprise, at peace.

I pray that I can continue to let the Lord lead me and use me, and that I can follow the path, still unknown, that He is opening up before me, with peace, trust, humility, and generosity.