By Fr. Ron Mercier, SJ
Everyone knows what it is to hope. In the heart of each person, hope dwells as the desire and expectation of good things to come, despite our not knowing what the future may bring.
That line, from Spes Non Confundit, Pope Francis’s bull of indiction for the Jubilee Year of Hope, has resonated in my mind and heart since I first read it. To know what it means to hope – as a movement of the heart and mind – certainly speaks to me, especially as I reflect on my fifty years in the Society of Jesus.
That impulse of the heart to gaze on what lies ahead in expectation touched me as I walked up the steps to St. Andrew Bobola House on Newbury Street in Boston on August 31, 1975 – although admittedly, it was tinged with more than a little concern about what the novitiate was all about. How could I have imagined the path ahead, one that took me from New England via Canada to the Central and Southern Province of the Society of Jesus? God does have a surprising – and playful – sense of humor.
Hope arises unbidden and yet so needed from our hearts as we face the future. Yet, hope has little to do with the two “cousins” often mistaken for it. One, of course, is wishful thinking, that blind assumption that everything is going to turn out well, an assumption that so easily shatters. The second assumes one can put on “rose-colored glasses,” avoiding the challenges of our lives, focusing simply on the “good parts.” Neither stands the test of time.
Hope, that great gift of the Lord, ultimately takes on a different form, one I have learned slowly along the way, one I still struggle to embrace. Hope stands in expectation of the future, not blind to the realities we face, not eschewing the cross, but oriented toward the horizon of our lives and our world. So often I have focused hope on some object, some special reality I seek. Yet, what I have come to know in an ever-clearer way, is that the focus of that expectation, the focus of the heart, points toward a “who,” not a “what,” the person of Jesus who leads me to the Father.
That powerfully personal reality reveals the distinctly Christian element of hope, not simply toward the “good things to come” in Pope Francis’s line quoted above, but toward the One who alone is my – and our – future.
I realize as I write that these words may seem pious, almost platitudes. Yet, for me, this reality alone moves my heart, allowing the future to arise, even – maybe especially – when the road to the future seems uncertain or littered with situations that challenge hope itself.
If I have learned nothing else during my time as a Jesuit, and certainly during my time as the provincial, that personal and evocative focus of my hope has made – and makes – all the difference.
The naïve man who entered the novitiate of the New England Province fifty years ago has had to face a rapidly changing Society, Church and world. The year 1975 was also a jubilee year, devoted to “renewal and reconciliation,” evoking the great promise of the Second Vatican Council. That call resonated with a sense of life and expectation. Challenges existed, of course, but a heady sense of progress and optimism pervaded.
The journey over these fifty years has provided extraordinary times of grace and gratitude. I am aware of the presence of the Lord and the gift of companionship with so many good women and men. Those relationships have enriched my life in ways I cannot put into words. The gifts of priesthood, of ministry, of teaching, of work with the Spiritual Exercises have all testified to the power of God at work in my life and my world. With Pope Francis, I can celebrate the presence and work of the Spirit.
In the papal bull announcing the Jubilee Year of Hope, Pope Francis draws heavily from the work of St. Paul. One sentence stands out for me. “Saint Paul is a realist. He knows that life has its joys and sorrows, that love is tested amid trials, and that hope can falter in the face of suffering.” (Spes Non Confundit, ¶4)
As Pope Francis describes the call to hope, he does so by describing all the realities in the world that so need hope, that challenge any easy recourse to hope. He places significant stress on the plight of refugees and immigrants, both the conditions that drive people to flee and the threats along the route and in the countries to which they move, seeking some kind of solace.
Two realities that flared during my time as provincial challenged my sense of hope in major ways. Foremost was the ongoing pain arising from the legacy of the abuse crisis and the revelations that have shaken the Church and the Society. For us in the Central and Southern Province, the parallel sinful history of having held women and men in slavery during the formative years of the province similarly made hope more elusive while more needed. The dark impact of sin can obscure the light.
Yet, as I look back, the need to face truths long buried opened new possibilities, admittedly at times painful, tinged by the reconciliation and renewal that Pope Paul had called for fifty years ago. Hope for me lay not in wishing things away, but in finding by God’s grace new avenues toward the future and persons with whom to journey. In those moments and in those people, I could recognize the presence of the One who is our hope, the risen light in the darkness.
Pope Francis’s words echo clearly for me: “We, however, by virtue of the hope in which we were saved, can view the passage of time with the certainty that the history of humanity and our own individual history are not doomed to a dead end or a dark abyss, but directed to an encounter with the Lord of glory.” (Spes Non Confundit, ¶19, 14)
Even as we face so many challenges today, with temptations toward cynicism or anger, the Lord still wants to meet us, in people, places and times that surprise us but that can give us life and, most importantly, hope.
Fr. Ronald A. Mercier, SJ, led the Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province as its first provincial, 2014-2020. He now serves as the delegate for formation at the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.
Golden Jubilarians Look Ahead with Hope as They Reflect on Lives of Service
During this Jubilee Year of Hope, we asked our Golden Jubilarians – those Jesuits celebrating 50 years in the Society of Jesus – to reflect on their lives as Jesuits and what brings them hope. We invite you to read their reflections and to learn more about them:
