Year 2021 is a great year for the Xaverians and for the Philippine Church. The 100 year Jubilee of the Testament Letter of our dear Founder, St. Guido Maria Conforti, coincides with the celebration of 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines. My reflection will dwell on these two fundamental questions; the first: “How do I receive the Testament Letter of our Founder?” and the second: “What fruits is the letter bringing to me?”
The Testament Letter of St. Guido Maria Conforti, is first of all a gift that a father leaves to his children. Truly this letter even if it is one hundred years old carries a message of perennial value. Even now, its message continues to form and transform each member of our religious family. Like any other gift, the Testament Letter is something that needs to be given to others. By “others” I mean to the coming generations of Xaverians all over the world. The gift we have received, give it as a gift.
The Testament Letter is written by our Founder. We consider the Holy Scripture as the Word of God, the Testament Letter practically is the WORD of the Founder. This document needs to be meditated because if I don’t read and meditate it, I may forget the voice of the Founder. In Tagalog we say, “magkakalat ako pag hindi ako magnilay sa salita niya” (I will make a mess in my Xaverian life, if I fail to reflect on the words of the founder). The identity and the personality of the Founder comes out in this letter. When St. Guido spells out the distinguishing characteristics of the present and the future members of the Congregation he himself embodies these words: “a spirit of living faith which enables us to see God, seek God, love God in all things, intensifying our desire to spread his kingdom everywhere”. St. Guido is a man of faith able to find God in all things, in everything, in everybody, and in everyone. In short, he was inclusive. To be a Xaverian is to believe that God desires the salvation of all, of everybody. I remember a wise piece of advice from a confrere in Sierra Leone, “if you cannot find unity with others on the bases of faith, dogmas and religion definitely you can find many other ways to be one with others”.
A man of creativity. St. Guido asked us in his letter to be creative and to intensify our desire in spreading the Good News. Last year 2019, when I attended the “50 giorni” in Italy I was replaced by a diocesan priest in my radio program in Radio Veritas (run by the Archdiocese of Manila). Some radio listeners sent emails and messages encouraging me to create an avenue to continue giving short reflections to them. That is why I started the HASHTAG NI LORD in Facebook. An everyday reflection of the Gospel. After Christmas of 2019 I decided to stop this social media ministry because I felt that nobody was giving attention. My perception changed when I went to the Southern part of the Philippines for vocation promotion. Most of the students knew me because every day their principals in their schools played my video reflection after singing the National Anthem. Now I continue to use this media instrument to proclaim the Good News to people no matter the feedback.
A man of patience. Conforti waited a good number of years before the Constitution were approved. He was uncompromising and persistent that the Xaverians must be both missionaries and religious. Conforti didn’t follow the current style at that time like PIME, missionaries without the religious vows. This attitude of waiting of Conforti tells us that mission is not ambition. Mission is partnering to the plan of God. Sometimes we have good intentions to build or to start something for God, for the Church and for the Congregation. It is not bad. But Conforti in this letter reminds us that our God has something to do to us. We are just participants, merely servants, or the workers of the last hour to God-s mission. God has always a better story to tell not you and me. The invitation of this Letter for us now is to be a “walking” testament who embodies the ideals of the founder.
Since the Testament Letter is the WORD of the Founder I would like to relate it to the Parable of the Sower. I remember when I attended one prayer meeting (Bible sharing) in St. Conforti Parish-Makeni, Sierra Leone one member of the prayer group who is a farmer said that the sower in the parable must have been a fool; you would never scatter the seed the way the sower did. That man might be correct but that is not the point of the parable. God is generous in scattering seeds. In the parable there are different kinds of soil and therefore different kinds of fruit. The seed is meant to be fruitful but depending on the type of soil. The same is true with the Testament letter. In order for this letter to bear fruit, we must ask ourselves; “what kind of soil am I?” When I feel identified by the first type of soil represented by the foot path, then I am a Xaverian with lack of understanding of the great wealth of the Testament Letter. The second type of soil, rocky ground, reflects the condition of a Xaverian who lacks depth. The teaching of the Father does not take root. When there are troubles, persecutions and problems come their way, nothing remains for lack of rootedness. The third is thorny soil. Many concerns, ambitions projects, can totally absorb the life of a Xaverian to the point of suffocating even the very ideal which was at the root of our vocation when the Words of our Saintly Founder had so much appeal in us. Finally, the good soil certainly meant to bear fruit is the Xaverian that receives the precious legacy of the Saintly Father makes it part of his existence and hand it over to others.
What type of soil are we?
The good thing in this parable is that we are not just “soils” to receive the Letter Testament. But also the seed, “the letter” that God wants to sow. The “good soil” that received the “seed” becomes a seed to be sown to others. Like the seed, a confrere should not choose a rich soil, let God choose the place for him, a place to be sown. Wherever you are sown by God that is a rich soil. Recently I was talking to a diocesan priest who was my classmate in theology. He graduated with Latin honors and finished at the Jesuit University. He was assigned by his Bishop to a very remote area. No diocesan priests would like to go there since the Mass collection every Sunday is only 30 dollars. I was struck by his answer, “I accepted yes, immediately, without ifs and buts… because I know this is my rich soil”. Wherever we are sown that is our rich soil. If I look at my different assignments, tasks, and communities I see the hand of God showing to me the rich soils. Where God plant us, we grow there. Bloom there.
May we become the good seed that will be used by God, by the Congregation, by our circumscriptions to propagate further the ideal contained in the Letter Testament, the charism of our Congregation, and the life of our founder, St. Guido Maria Conforti. In short, to be a living testament here and now.
Fr. Patrick Santianez, sx
