JOURNEYING WITH YOUTH
Fr Ross Jones SJ, Rector of St Aloysius’ College Milsons Point, gave this address to the Year 12 graduands at a recent Valete Assembly.
Some years ago, Don DeLillo, an American writer, published a novel called Underworld, set in the Cold War of the 1950s and 60s. It achieved quite some acclaim. In the story, the central character, Shay (who committed a murder as a youth), is sent to a reform school conducted by – of all people – the Jesuits. Well, yes, it is a novel!
At one point on a cold winter’s day, Shay has a conversation with one of the Jesuits there, a Fr Paulus. The priest explains to Shay the goal of the school.
He says, “One of the things we want to do here is to produce serious men. What sort of phenomenon is this? Not so easy to say. Someone, in the end, who develops a certain depth, a spacious quality, say, that’s a form of respect for other ways of thinking and believing. Let’s unnarrow the basic human tubing. And let us help a young man toward an ethical strength that makes him decisive, that shows him precisely who he is, and how he is meant to address the world.”
Not a bad vision, really. The author DeLillo graduated from Fordham University, a Jesuit college, so it is no surprise that he captured the essence of a Jesuit formation so well in the words of the Fr Paulus character.
We want to produce, as Paulus says, people who “develop a certain depth, a spacious quality” so he knows who he is. Depth and spaciousness. You would recognise he is here talking about the magis and about reflection. In a quirky and intriguing metaphor he then goes on to say we want to “unnarrow the basic human tubing”. Here he suggests not being limited by usual patterns and expectations, but finding a freedom to open up possibilities. On such a day as this, when we mission another fine cohort of young Aloysians into a wider world, I can only echo those sentiments of Fr Paulus.
Depth, reflective spaciousness, freedom. Aloys is not in the game of producing shallow men. We did not educate you to be bland nine-to-five people in your careers. Small-minded men. “Thin men”. Timid time-servers or stingy self-servers. Men lacking in imagination and dreams. Fettered and fearful men. No. You are to be men of the magis. Stamped with a certain quality of expansive breadth and real depth.
Wouldn’t it be so easy for us to cozily cocoon you for your years in this comfy toehold on the North Shore. The city’s best view, sheltered from the messy grubbiness of the world. Kept from people who are not perfect clones of yourselves. Buffered from anything that might disturb your self-referential plans. With all the swagger of the CAS (the Committee of the Associated Schools) to boot. Enjoying lives of personal privilege and isolated individualism. There we would be, in all the glossy Good School Guides in the Saturday press. Mixing with all the right people. A fast track to Tinsel Town. Then lives of superficiality. “Born for greater things” – being only a code for the good life.
No, we want so much more of you – and for you. Of course we can teach you to earn your daily bread. But what is more important is how to live your life. I like to think we propose a two-way exercise to prepare you for that life.
We firstly take you out of yourself, out of your predictable world, into service days, retreats and immersions, to see your place in a greater world and feel its claim upon you. That is the magis of the expanded horizon.
Then we throw you back into yourself to plumb your own depths. To search your hearts. To listen to the voice of conscience. To discern better choices. To name your talents and hone them so as to put them at the service of others. That is the magis of your inner self and its potentialities.
Why do we constantly point you towards this magis? Because we do not want you to short-change yourself. We do not want you to join that seductive cruise to mediocrity. Because we want for you a depth of thought that is not short-circuited by an AI cut-and-paste. We want for you a depth of real relationships that is more than a wall of friends on social media. We want for you a depth of communication which goes beyond banal texts and tweets. We want for you a depth of commitment to the reality of the marginalised that is more than a TV doco, or a superficial news flash, viewed from your lounge.
You will recall early in Luke’s Gospel, the story of Simon Peter and his friends who had been fishing all night and caught nothing. They were packing up and washing their nets. Jesus enters the scene and is allowed to teach the crowd from the bow of one of the boats. Then he is bold enough to tell those fishermen how to make a catch. Hah! This preacher, this carpenter’s son, who only catches fish at the market – what would he know? But he invites them, and they listen. “Lower your nets into the deeper water for a catch.”
“Deeper” – now that’s magis talk. Surprisingly, they heed him. And what a catch! Nets breaking with the strain. All hands on deck. Two boats so loaded they are at sinking point. A bounty beyond belief.
Casting your nets into deeper water. It is our Fishing Club motto here, but it is so much more than that. That is a magis story for you. Especially for you at the point of graduation. A story whose elements you can model. First, listen to the wisdom figures in your life. Shut down the false voices subverting and seducing you. Listen to the Spirit speaking. Even if you have been toiling and seem to have achieved little. Take a risk.
Then try the deeper waters. The deeper waters in yourself. Of effort and commitment. The deeper waters that beckon someone who is truly free. The deeper waters of the greater good and the more influential outcome. The deeper waters of the more generous response and more noble enterprise. The deeper waters of the more considered reflection and more just stance. The deeper waters of the more inclusive outreach and the more loving life.
Then you will make a catch. The nets of your dreams will be stretched. Others will rally to join you. And a bounty gained that calls to be shared. That is the manner of the magis.
As the fictional Fr Paulus encouraged, “unnarrow the basic human tubing”. It is an encouragement to depth, an encouragement to reflect, an encouragement to be free from old habits for the way ahead.
God grace your going on that bold and brave endeavour!
Banner image: Yue Su, Unsplash.