In 1524 Igantius of Loyola recognized that he needed further education to live out the call he received at Manresa. This meant a return to grammar school at the age of 33 to learn the Latin needed to enter into the priesthood and universities at the time. Returning to school alongside children must have been a humbling experience, but one that he took on knowing it would lead him to greater things. Ignatius’ educational journey eventually led him to the University of Paris where he met a group of peers who would walk alongside him and become the first Jesuits.  

Our reflection this month comes from Nadia Foderaro, SCU ’22. Nadia reminds us that being part of a community of learners requires both humility and the ability to learn from others around you. To fully embrace an education that calls us to something more than simply acquiring knowledge, we cannot instrumentalize education as something only meant to serve our own desires. We are a community of learners dedicated to the flourishing of all. As Nadia reminds us, the only way for us to be educated towards justice is to recognize that we don’t have all the answers, that we must depend on each other to grow as individuals and a community, and then continue to stand with others as they go on their own journey of intellectual and personal transformation. Jesuit education strives for such a reality, but it has not always lived up to its mission and vision.  

When Pedro Arrupe, the Superior General of the Jesuits, addressed a graduating class of high school students in 1973 he recognized that humility was required to address the gap between the needs of the world and the realities of Jesuit educational institutions. That humility meant that such institutions, when faced with the justice that the world demands, must truthfully admit to students that “we have not educated you for justice.” What this humility requires of us at a place like Santa Clara is to “help each other to repair this lack in us, and above all make sure that in future the education imparted in Jesuit schools will be equal to the demands of justice in the world.”

That call to admit the shortcomings of our institution requires a great deal of humility. Like Ignatius, many of us need to unlearn old habits and ways of thinking and to humbly begin our education again to better understand the needs of the world and what is required of us to educate for a truly inclusive justice. Arrupe was certain that Jesuit institutions could do this for “despite our historical limitations and failures, there is something which lies at the very center of the Ignatian spirit, and which enables us to renew ourselves ceaselessly and thus to adapt ourselves to new situations as they arise.”

Questions for reflection:

• As you consider the humility involved in Ignatius' return to school, what have been some humbling moments for you in recent days? Or, is there an area in your life that might be inviting you to some more humility?
   

• Ignatius found deep companionship with Francis Xavier and Peter Faber. Who are the people in your life who help keep you humble, who remind you that you still have much to learn?