JOURNEYING WITH YOUTH
By Fr Ross Jones SJ, Rector of St Aloysius’ College, Milsons Point, gave this address to the Year 12 students at their graduation.
A little over a century ago, an anonymous young man wrote to Rainer Maria Rilke, one of the most significant poets of the German language, to ask him what he thought of some of his verses. He asked if Rilke thought he should become a poet. Rilke wrote back to him and, in part, this is what he said:
You ask whether your verses are any good. You ask me. . . . Now I beg you to stop doing that sort of thing. You are looking outside, and that is what you should most avoid right now. No one can advise or help you – no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must”, then build your life in accordance with this necessity.
“What’s this about?” you Year 12s might be forgiven for thinking. Why is he reading us a hundred-year-old letter? And it seems to say nothing spiritual – no obvious Jesuit connection. And who of us wants to be a poet anyway?
Well, its theme does indeed touch upon something very central to Jesuit spirituality and formation. And I would be very happy to pen a letter like that to any of you on the cusp of your leaving this place – this very special place which has helped nurture and shape you in the summers and the winters of your days. Leaving here, as you are, you are likely asking that very same question – what will I do with my life?
Whether you have been at Aloys’ two years or ten, you are surely aware of the central place for reflection in any experience which claims to be in the Jesuit education tradition. Reflection is where meaning is given a chance to surface from the experiences you have had here. Those experiences might have been reading a novel, taking time out for a retreat, learning cricket, serving the marginalised in community outreach, or just sitting under the stars and talking late into the night with mates on a cadet camp.
People often say they valued their Jesuit education because it taught them to think. Many schools can do that, and, like us, do it well. But I think what they better mean is that their Jesuit schooling taught them to reflect. Taught them to consider options; to probe, to test different positions; to see things from the other side; to ask (and ask often) the “what if . . .?”, or the “where could . . .?” or the “how might . . .?” questions.
Thinking is about going up into your head. That’s an important skill and a critical process. But reflecting is about going into your core and thereby embracing values, feelings and, often enough, conscience. This is what Rilke is encouraging in his letter to the young poet. It is what we have been encouraging in you.
Some of you now have quite a clear idea of what you want to do with your lives when you walk through those Wyalla gates for the last time. For others, your vocation will work its way through you like leaven over the next year or so. Then, what seemed like the dull dough of self you have been working with, will suddenly rise and take shape. Others still will make a dramatic change and choice later in life when some catalyst suddenly fires you up.
When you are deciding, when you are discerning, make Rilke’s words your own. Go into your heart of hearts. That’s where God’s Spirit is speaking. That’s where you find truth. Search out that answer to “What must I do?” Not what pays most, or what mum and dad want, or what comes with more status and kudos. No – find that place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hungers meet. Because if your “must do” does not embrace others and serve others, it’s not a vocation. It’s simply self-indulgence.
Find that “must do” in your deepest self. Accept both the blessings and the burdens it will bring. And having chosen what you must do, then, as Rilke writes, “build your life in accordance with this necessity”.
I want you to leave here being “interior men” – not being seduced by the slick and superficial, not taken in by the transient, not slavishly shaped by the self-appointed, so-called influencers, not chasing tinsel in the wind. I want each of you to be a man of interiority, who knows where his heart is – the deepest core of your being. A man who can read the heart’s signals and know its language. I want you each to go from here listening to your heart.
And being bold and generous enough to follow its constant invitation.
This speech was originally published in a recent edition of ‘The Gonzagan’ newsletter for St Aloysius’ College, Milsons Point.
Banner image by TatsuyaOhinata, Canva.
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