Pearl of great price

May 31st is a big day at the Jesuit Novitiate in Novaliches. On this day every year, the novices who have completed two years of probation pronounce their vows and become Jesuit scholastics. The previous day, May 30, is the entrance day for new recruits who begin their two years of noviceship.

These men who enter the Jesuit novitiate are not "teenagers". They are mature men in their middle 20s or early 30s who have professional degrees. Some have master’s degrees. Some have doctorates. They are physicians, surgeons, engineers, men with business degrees who have had several years of working experience in a bank or other commercial companies or have served as training instructors in industrial firms. They have had lucrative salaries, with a bright prospect for future advancement.

In the novitiate these men who gave up their bright prospects in business or in the professions will find themselves washing dishes in the scullery or pots and pans in the kitchen, or mopping floors or cleaning lavatories. Some will be sent to take care of the chicken in the poultry or of the pigs in the pigpen. They will be teaching catechism to children in the slums. Later, they will spend a month working as ordinary laborers in a shop or factory.

But most of all they will learn to pray. Prayer will be an important part of their lives. They will live in an atmosphere of familiar converse with Jesus and Mary and the Saints.

Eventually, perhaps after long studies, some of these young men will achieve some degree of eminence in some field. But the majority will serve God and man in humbler capacities as "just another priest" or just another brother".

This is one of the many things that should bolster up our hopes for this country. Despite the widespread corruption, the dirty politics, the inefficient and wasteful government, the corrupt officials, the kidnappings and bank robberies, the lack of basic facilities, the widespread unemployment, and all the rest of the things we have to put up with, there are every year idealistic men and women who give up everything to serve God and man. It is not just the Jesuit novitiate with their mature recruits. Younger men and women are entering many other religious congregations. Many diocesan seminars are full of aspirants for the priesthood.

What is it that impels these young men and women to give up their chances for advancement in the world and to serve God and man in humbler ways? That is, of course, each one’s secret. But they are all like the man in the Gospel parable who found a Pearl of Great Price and who sold all he had to acquire that pearl. These young men and women have found such a treasure – a Pearl of Great Price.