The Call to Freedom – A History of Liberation
July 15, 2019 marked the first full day of Fr. General’s official visitation to the Asia-Pacific region as well as his first visit to South Korea. With the morning schedule full of talks and meetings designed to give Fr. Sosa a picture of the scope of ministry in South Korea, the afternoon was dedicated to a Eucharistic celebration where Fr. General would receive the final vows of four Korean Jesuits.
Fr. General’s homily was mainly drawn from the first reading of the day: the passage from the book of Exodus that describes the brutality visited upon the Israelites by a new Egyptian pharaoh who did not know of the common history of the two peoples. It describes the experience of slavery and injustice... as well as an announcement of the coming liberation of the oppressed.
This story of our ancestors in faith, according to Fr. Sosa, is part of the personal history of every Christian. Oppression and slavery are pieces of the landscape of our lives and part of our relationship with Christ. That relationship, especially as manifested in the Eucharist, allows us to choose the path of freedom.
Referring to the four Korean Jesuits proclaiming their final vows, Father General connected that choice to the meaning of the vows in religious life. Jesuits choose vows. Jesuit choose service. Jesuit choose to accept community life as an essential element of their common journey towards true freedom. Before a congregation of brother Jesuits, lay colleagues and friends of the Society, Fr. General personally thanked Dae-je, Sang-eun, Tong-uk and Paek-seop for choosing to embrace this freedom.
You can read Fr. General’s homily in its entirety.
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Time passes and memories fade, but how long would it take to dull the pain of the tragic explosion at the Port of Beirut on 4 August 2020 that destroyed or damaged a large part of the city? No Lebanese, no matter where they live, can forget.
