Wonder and Gratitude for a “New Beginning”
With a joyful and grateful heart for the way the Lord, with the help of so many people and friends, has accompanied and guided me so far, I am leaving this place with deep conviction that the human and intellectual experience I have had here is just an important stepping stone toward the start of something greater that awaits me in the following stages of formation. - Andrea Cassar SJ
Can one feel a sense of wonder towards the end of an important stage in religious life? Typically, one experiences gratitude, regret, sadness, joy, uncertainty, and perhaps a sense of disorientation. In my experience, however, the predominant feeling is wonder.
It is difficult to define wonder. In this regard, I cannot help but quote two of the greatest philosophers in history. Plato said that wonder is the original disposition of the soul in order to start practising philosophy, and it is what sustains research from beginning to end. For Aristotle, on the other hand, wonder is the initial ignorance in front of a phenomenon: once the cause of this phenomenon is known, wonder vanishes because the certainty of knowledge takes over. In an age characterised by haste and curiosity, often accompanied by greed and a thirst for knowledge merely for the sake of knowing, cultivating an attitude of wonder and awe before life’s events can become increasingly difficult and challenging. For the earliest thinkers, wonder was not simply an emotion or something passive, but signified passion, attentiveness, tension towards something, desire to continually engage in research.
As this second stage of my Jesuit formation draws to a close (my fourth year since joining the Society), I can say that the two years of Philosophy studies at the Gregorian University in Rome have been immensely enriching in many ways. From the very first moment, upon arriving in the Eternal City after completing my first two years of formation in the Novitiate in Genoa, I immediately felt overwhelmed by something greater than myself. Wherever I set foot, I always have the impression that the history and culture I breathe in this place urge me to seek out and understand more deeply the roots of our Western thought and of Christianity. Despite the great paradoxes one encounters in this city, Rome’s “great beauty” has managed to fill my soul with wonder.
Sharing this feeling with twenty other Jesuit brothers from eight different nations (including Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, Romania, Hungary), who are more or less passionate about philosophy, is even more interesting and stimulating. The community of San Saba, the community to which I currently belong, has been and continues to be a source of enrichment and personal growth, both through the study of philosophy at this stage of formation and through the many opportunities offered to us: sports, daily prayer, monthly retreats, weekly discussions on various topics, film viewings, community holidays, etc.
As young Jesuits in formation, like St Ignatius and his first companions, we found ourselves – alongside other religious and lay students from all over the world – called by the Spirit and sent on a mission to deepen our knowledge of philosophy and to grow as friends in the Lord. I believe that the opportunity to study at the former Collegio Romano, a college founded by St Ignatius in 1551 during his stay here in Rome, has been a tangible way of tapping into the deepest roots of our Jesuit history and of our Ignatian pedagogy. Furthermore, witnessing the death of Pope Francis and rushing to St Peter’s Square for the election of Pope Leo XIV were two special moments in my time here in Rome: they allowed me to experience once again the universal Church and the beauty of being part of a “body” that seeks to remain attentive to the signs of the times with hope, in the midst of the weaknesses and various crisis experienced by the “body” itself together with the profound global transformations the world is facing.
With a joyful and grateful heart for the way the Lord, with the help of so many people and friends, has accompanied and guided me so far, I am leaving this place with deep conviction that the human and intellectual experience I have had here is just an important stepping stone toward the start of something greater that awaits me in the following stages of formation. At the present moment, I hold onto what St Paul writes in the Letter to the Ephesians (4:4): “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling”.
Andrea Cassar SJ
Image: Andrea Cassar SJ (top row, second from right) pictured with his companion Jesuits in formation.