Jesuit Superior General Father Adolfo Nicolas accepting fruits during a Mass offertory procession on July 12 — Photo by UCAN Philippines

QUEZON CITY, Philippines (UCAN) — Christians have a responsibility to nurture hope and commitment in a superficial world, said Jesuit Superior General Father Adolfo Nicolas during 150th anniversary celebrations of his order’s return to the Philippines.The superior general celebrated Mass on July 12 in honor of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, at Ateneo de Manila High School, a school the order established. The high school is on the university campus.

Christians must keep hope alive through the way they work and live, even when this calls for extreme personal sacrifice, Father Nicolas told the crowd of 3,000 in his homily. “Dying unto oneself” is at the core of Ignatian spirituality, he noted.

Father Nicolas returned to the theme two days later at a Special Academic Convocation on the Ateneo de Manila campus.

He praised five former students and five other leaders in academic and human development work for serving as channels of hope in society today.

He said the stories and work of Ateneans “gave me hope” because these showed “the world can be different.” He noted that the present-day world suffers from “a crisis of meaning,” a problem arising from “a crisis of education.”

While “we have lost all the Christian imagination to be human,” he continued,” Ateneo awardees that evening showed that poverty does not have to be a given, if “Christian imagination” is used “to work for full human integral development.”

Spanish Jesuit missionaries arrived in the Philippines in the 16th century, running the country’s first school until Spain suppressed the order in 1768, expelling Jesuits from all its territories.

The Society of Jesus did not return to the country until 1859, when they founded Ateneo de Manila University, and established the Ateneo de Manila high school six years later.

Father Nicolas, head of the largest order of Religious men in the world, said that the more than 300 Jesuit priests, Brothers and scholastics in the Philippines is a sign of hope for the order.

The Spanish-born priest was in the country for July 12-14 events. He met privately with confreres and addressed gatherings of Religious and lay Jesuit partners.

Since their return to the country, the Jesuits have built a network of nine schools and universities around the country teaching tens of thousands of students a year. Their graduates have become leaders in various sectors, and some volunteer as lay missioners in Jesuit schools and apostolates.

At the convocation, short story and essay writer Gregorio Brilliantes, journalist and screenwriter Jose Lacaba and theatre and cinema scholar and writer Nicanor Tiongson were recognized with the recent Ateneo cultural awards. All studied at the Ateneo in the 1950s and 1960s and lived through martial law days 1972-1981 under Ferdinand Marcos.

Another awarded Atenean, Jesus Palma, served as professor and administrator at the Ateneo de Manila for over 50 years.

The Ateneo also recognized World War II veteran Eriberto Misa, Jr., for his work at the Bureau of Prisons 1949-1959 and 1991-1993. In his response read by his son, wheelchair-bound Misa cited pre-war Jesuit priests who inspired him to work for the humane and Christian treatment of prisoners.