XLIII - Loyola Jesuit College

FR. JOHN-OKORIA IBHAKEWANLAN SJA Lesson From TertianshipDear Parents, Staff and Students of Loyola Jesuit College,I bring you good tidings from the Ignatian world. Abundant Graces were bestowed on me during the last five months inKenya. One of the many Graces is what I share with you below.I was a bit upset when I left LJC for Tertianship in Nairobi. I was having doubts as to whether LJC was worth all thesacrifices I had put into it. Are our graduates truly going to be the leaders we desire them to be? Should we as Jesuits not ratherput our energy and resources in the university apostolate? The questions were legion.During Tertianship I became convinced that the potential for positive educational impact is greatest in the secondaryschool years. This conviction first began to develop in me when I did my Grace History (prayerfully going through your life sincebirth to see how God had been present) over a few days. In the years sandwiched between my primary and post-secondaryeducation, I rediscovered therein the role of the Significant Others in my life. Before those years, I thought (like most children) thatI was the center of the universe. My self-centered reference and relationship to reality was reinforced by the attention I got frommy parents and loved ones. However, after a few years my parents seized to be the center of reference and value. As the realityof peer pressure, the struggle for survival and for psychological freedom, became strong, my world needed a broader anchor. Theinevitable separation from parents created a vacuum that had to be filled, just in time, during the secondary school years.When I prayed over the resulting separation from my parents, I remembered some of our LJC parents, the JS-1 mothersin particular, who cried when they had to leave off their children on that first resumption day. Chika Akachukwu’s mother wouldunderstand what I mean. (Object Relations Theory in Psychology places the mother at the center of the child’s developmentalprocess –primarily because of the initial breastfeeding experience). As some of my teachers know, some LJC parents ‘handover’their children to staff members (often not good for the child’s maturity, hello?) who should presumably continue the parental role.What many parents do not realize is that just as there is a natural (inevitable) separation from the child there is also a natural (butnot inevitable) reconnection with the child. This reconnection often takes place within the teen years. Reconnection here meansreestablishing the initial relationship with the child but this time acknowledging each one’s unique personality.Still praying, I could not remember exactly when my own reconnection with my parents took place. What was rather clearis that when the reconnection took place it was no longer a relationship of parental domination and infantile dependency. Therelationship had been affected by the Significant Others in my secondary school years who occupied (some did so only temporarily)the vacuum or rather the privileged parental position. Like many LJC students, I was an Altar Server during my secondaryschool years. Hence my key Significant Others turned out to be two of the Jesuit Priests of my local parish. Who were your SignificantOthers? I wonder who are the Significant Others in the lives of our students in these vital secondary school years.As secondary school professionals, our task is to ensure that a smooth reconnection takes place in the children under ourcare. This is a noble task. It is not surprising therefore that St. Ignatius of Loyola made the Moral Instruction of Children an essentialpart of what it means to be a full Jesuit. The Jesuit Tertianship programme is only a preparation for becoming a full Jesuit,namely, with Final Vows. I prayed through the text of the Jesuit Final Vows. Unlike the First Vows that I made in 1993, the FinalVows include a special vow. As I prayed with the words of this formula for Final Vows, I was struck by the promise of “special carefor the instruction of children….” From that moment on, Tertianship began to restore my belief that the work at LJC is indeed worthall our sacrifices. Our task as Jesuit educationists is to adapt the Ignatian pedagogy for the shaping/reshaping of our belovedyoung ones. I have prayed that our efforts will ultimately produce excellent leaders for the Service of God and Others. Just as Idiscovered for myself, I pray a God-given personality would emerge in each of the Pride during these secondary school years.8