Sanctity in the Society

One of the great gifts of being at a Jesuit University is being immersed in the history of one of the Church’s greatest orders, feeling especially united with Jesuits within the Church triumphant. 

Within my last year and a half at BC, the Lord has placed in my heart a desire to grow in relationship with His Jesuit Saints, specifically St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Alphonsus Rodriguez. However, being surrounded by so many great saints can leave some with a troublesome thought.

How can an order arrayed with so many great saints, so many great evangelists, now be home only to seemingly average professors? Refusing to allow this rash thought to linger, I answer that the order is arrayed with so many great saints presently; saints walk among us.

Despite this truth, in the first year of my time at BC I found that my rash judgment of the Jesuits had begun to pervade my intellect and chip away at my will. Constant jokes about the Jesuit’s faith and mention of illicit liturgies led me to wrongfully generalize about the order. 

My eyes were so focused on the sins of a few that I refused to see the powerful witness of so many other Jesuits on campus. Ultimately, it was pride that darkened my gaze, diminishing the Jesuits within my heart so as to elevate myself. 

It was only in humility and poverty that I could see greatness within the Jesuit Order, the beautiful part of Christ’s Divine Life so many Jesuits take part in. One sorrowful day I found myself completely empty, feeling completely depraved. Despair ruled my soul, faced by a monolith of sin that seemed to stretch to the heavens. 

I had believed the lie that the Father did not love me, that I was not made for a relationship with Him. Yet, by the grace of God, I found myself in St. Mary’s chapel. Kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament, I implored the Lord’s mercy. I begged Jesus to wash me with His Blood and Living Water—I begged Him to send me one of His priests to hear my confession. 

After much time in prayer, I hoped that I would find a priest roaming the public corridors of St. Mary’s, but was left disappointed. I did not fret, for I knew I could give my confession later that day before Candlelight Mass. 

I left the chapel consoled, but still yearning to hear the words of absolution; to hear Christ wash away my sins through the lips of His priest. Walking down the side of St. Mary’s, I lifted my eyes to see a familiar face, a Jesuit priest I had recently met. My heart soared; the Lord had answered my prayer! A proud trust in the Lord was formed that day, a trust in His mercy, in His ministerial priesthood, and in His Order, the Society of Jesus.

Considering the great Saints of the Society of Jesus should not bring us to rashly question the holiness of current Jesuits, but rather hope for the order, as these great men praise the Lord in the choir of angels, interceding for the Society they love so dearly. 

With these intercessions and Chirst’s generosity it can only be hoped that even greater saints are to follow, some of which are here at Boston College, some of which you have already met. 

Every ‘yes’ a Jesuit makes to pursue the perfection of his soul and the soul of his neighbor is a profound victory of incontrovertible magnitude. I praise the Lord for the Society of Jesus, a Society whose end is to make me and all other students at Boston College perfect in Christ, a Society whose souls in heaven, purgatory, and on earth pray for us Eagles every day.