Offering a Fragrant Holocaust: a Priesthood of Encounter and Kenosis
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Offering a fragrant holocaust: A priesthood of encounter and kenosis Author: Wing Seng Leon Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:108279 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2018 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Offering a Fragrant Holocaust: A Priesthood of Encounter and Kenosis A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) degree from the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry By (Jerome) Wing Seng Leon, SJ Supervisor: Prof. John Baldovin, SJ Reader: Prof. Thomas Stegman, SJ August 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Priesthood and the Society of Jesus ............................................................................................ 1 Objectives of this Thesis ............................................................................................................. 4 History............................................................................................................................................. 7 The Church, the Priesthood and the Estrangement in the Early Modern Period ........................ 8 Ignatius of Loyola and the Foundations of the Order ............................................................... 14 Preti Reformati – The Orders of Clerk Regulars ...................................................................... 22 Institiuting a Priestly Order – Discerning and Responding to the Divine Will ........................ 26 Identity .......................................................................................................................................... 36 A Sacerdotal Society? ............................................................................................................... 38 A Ministerial Society ................................................................................................................ 52 A Religious Society .................................................................................................................. 63 The Jesuit Priesthood ................................................................................................................ 68 Theology ....................................................................................................................................... 74 Ignatius, the Jesuits and St. Paul ............................................................................................... 76 The Pauline Priesthood ............................................................................................................. 82 A Rahnerian Reading of the Pauline and Jesuit Priesthoods .................................................... 91 Kenosis: Drama, Sacrifice and Mediation ................................................................................ 95 Jesuit Priesthood: Self-Abnegation and Encounter ................................................................. 105 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 107 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 111 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Priesthood and the Society of Jesus Writing to Thomas Jefferson in May, 1816, regarding the re-institution of the Society of Jesus after a forty-year suppression, John Adams opines: I do not like the late Resurrection of the Jesuits. They have a General, now in Russia, in correspondence with the Jesuits in the U.S. who are more numerous than everybody knows […] In as many shapes and disguises as ever a King of the Gypsies […] In the shape of Printers, Editors, Writers, School masters etc. […] If any Congregation of Men could merit, eternal Perdition on Earth and in Hell, […] it is this Company of Loiola.1 Adams portrays Jesuits negatively, highlighting their apparent “shiftiness” and chameleon-like qualities. His disdain for the men of the society is understandable given that it was made in an era and place where anti-Catholic sentiments remained high and tall tales of alleged Jesuit calumny were still circulating among the people. Although the Society of Jesus continue to have its fair share of detractors even in this day and age, Adams’ assertion would seem rather exaggerated by today’s standards. Even if we dismiss Adams’ two hundred year old statement as excessively critical and hyperbolic, it does raise some interesting questions relevant for the understanding of the Society of Jesus. First and foremost, it highlights the question of Jesuit identity. Historically speaking, religious institutes were founded in order to respond to particular needs of the Church or to embrace a particular Christian lifestyle according the vision of their respective founders, or both.2 Thus, the communal lifestyle and primary ministries of a religious congregation are invariably related to its identity. However, such an approach in articulating identity appears to 1 Abigail Adams, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams, ed. Lester J. Cappon (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2012), 474. 2 John W. O’Malley, “One Priesthood: Two Traditions,” in A Concert of Charisms: Ordained Ministry in Religious Life, ed. Paul Kevin Hennessy (New York, NY: Paulist Press, 1997), 20. 1 present certain challenges for Jesuits. The men of the Society of Jesus are involved in a wide variety of ministries that are seemingly unrelated. Moreover, there is a popular perception that Jesuits are “individualistic” and they do not express their common vocation as members of the same religious order by living in a particular way. For instance, traditional orders, like the Dominicans and Franciscans have uniquely identifiable religious habits, while the Jesuits do not. Jesuits are also not required to pray the liturgy of the hours in choir, which is mandated for the other religious congregations. Thus, the members of the society apparently do not have a strong sense of communal life that is reflective of their shared religious identity. Perhaps Adams is correct in asserting that Jesuits are like “kings of the gypsies,” who take on many “disguises” in their diverse works and ways of living that conceal rather than inform their collective identity. Furthermore, over the history of the society, Jesuits have been involved in endeavors that would hardly be considered “church ministries.” Jesuit schools centered on a humanistic education and their scientific enterprise are examples of their works in the secular realm. Jesuit historian John O’Malley notes that the Jesuits’ “engagement with secular culture became a hallmark of the order” and it was “neither occasional nor incidental but systemic.”3 The strong commitment to these secular works further puts into question their identity as ecclesial ministers and members of a religious order. The issue of Jesuit identity is further compounded by the fact that majority of its members live a dual vocation consisting of vowed religious and ordained ministers of the Church. The Society of Jesus is formally defined by the Church as an order of “clerk regulars” or religious priests.4 Taken at face value, this label suggests that a religious priest is merely an 3 John W. O’Malley, The First Jesuits (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001), 242. 4 Ibid., 159. O’Malley reports that the principal founder of the society, Ignatius of Loyola, had asserted that all professed members should be priests. There are Jesuit temporal coadjutors (brothers) who are not ordained but only priests can be admitted to the “fully professed” grade. 2 ordained minister who has an “add-on” identity of a religious because he has professed vows and gained membership to a particular congregation. However, is the integration of these two dimensions so simple and straightforward? The roles and identities of ordained ministers and vowed religious are essentially distinct in our common and popular understanding. Ever since the Council of Trent, there is a tendency to associate the ministerial priesthood almost exclusively with the diocesan priesthood, following a parish-based model.5 While the contemporary Church has broadened the definition of the priesthood in terms of ministries, there is still a bias towards its sacerdotal aspect. In contrast, religious congregations, traditionally, have other emphases, such as working in spiritual but non-sacramental ministries, cultivating self-perfection, and as previously mentioned, fostering a strong communal life. Furthermore, there are other contradictory demands in his life as a priest and that of a vowed religious. For example, on the one hand, a religious is expected to live a life according to the evangelical counsels that calls for poverty and humility, and to stand witness against that which the world holds dear, such as power and authority. But on the other hand, by virtue of his ordination, a priest is spiritually empowered to “teach, rule and act in the person of Christ in the Eucharistic sacrifice,”6 and these special roles are generally associated with authority and power. Therefore, the pertinent question for