Several Jesuits have expressed to me their disappointment at the 36th General Congregation. The main reason is that it has no focus. It gives no pointed direction for our mission of today. It merely repeats what has been stated in previous GCs, particularly GC 35. I thought so too on cursorily reading the text of the published document. I was not privileged to be a delegate. But I took time to read the text of the GC document more carefully and to reflect on it and dialogue with it. I found it deeply inspiring. This article is the result of my ‘musings’.

The title of the book, Rowing into the Deep, let loose a flood of inspiration. The flood was carried forward by the words, “to dare the audacity of the improbable”, of Fr. Bruno Cadore, OP in his homily at the inaugural Eucharist. Fr. General Arturo Sosa took the concept even deeper in his homily at the Mass of Thanksgiving. He said, “Our audacity can go even further and seek not just the improbable, but the impossible.” Pope Francis, in his dialogue with the Jesuits, spoke of “prophetic audacity” and further, to “have the evangelical audacity to carry the evangelical cross”. With a little knowledge of the history of the prophets of the Old Testament and having meditated on our Crucified Lord, these two words are very meaningful. We take as the foundational principle of our mission today, ‘to dare the impossible’.

The impossibility of a mission is a perception. One cannot know whether the impossibility is real or not until one tries to execute the mission. However, the missionary, who dares the impossible, needs to make sure that the impossible dared is God’s will. For this, discernment is essential. The word ‘discernment’ is used frequently in the GC document, especially by Pope Francis. He refused to provide the delegates with a clear statement of their mission as they had expected. Instead, he told them to do their own discernment. Reference is made to “Our First Fathers (who) entered into such a rich discernment of God’s call” . Discernment has to be done by every individual Jesuit followed by community discernment through spiritual conversation. Discernment strengthens faith and offers the spiritual base that enables apostolic planning. The absolute requirement to dare the impossible is faith in God for whom all things are possible. Properly done, discernment produces joy and consolation at having discovered God’s will.

Mission impossible is an entirely new mission or a radically new method of executing an actual mission currently being engaged in. Hence, the method of executing mission impossible may not be known. Every step would need to be discerned. On-going participative discernment, monitoring and evaluation are required. Creativity, search for opportunities and availability for the new, make for a more efficient implementation of mission.

For the better and safer execution of the mission, it is necessary to move in groups. Collaboration is a basic principle for mission impossible. Exploring the unknown is fraught with danger. A group holds better against an attack. If a leader is felled, there is someone else in the second line of command to replace him. The same applies in case the leader is transferred to another zone of action. Collaboration among different classes, castes, races, churches and religions fosters reconciliation through a dialogue of ideas and action for a common good.

Globalizing collaboration makes it a network. Networking involves collaboration in two directions, horizontal and vertical. The horizontal has two collaborative sets, in action and in governance, i.e., among the Jesuits involved in the actual mission activity and among the superiors. The vertical includes two directions: plans and instructions going down from superiors to subjects, and information and feedback moving up from subjects to superiors. Network enables action to grow from local activity to a universal movement, from the grassroots to the international. Mission impossible is usually aimed at a global problem which can only be tackled by a global network.

Tackling such a problem will surely lead to challenge powers that be, particularly the political. ‘Politics is one of the highest forms of charity,’ according to Pope Francis. We do not use violence or pay bribes. But we may have to pay a price, the price of suffering, the cross. ‘Martyrdom is part of our vocation,’ said Pope Francis . Mission impossible is likely to win vocations. Youth are drawn by challenges.

The new type of mission proposed by the GC involves new and different functions for the local superior. These functions were already envisaged by GC 35 (d 5, 33 – 42) and now confirmed by GC 36 . The local superior’s only concern is the personal care (curapersonalis) of his community. Formerly, a local superior considered himself as the know-all and do-all. It was called the grace of state. Today he is restricted to building the missionary spirit of the community members and their animation, particularly of the directors of works as they are the ones who take the lead in facing the challenges of mission impossible.

The letter to the Jesuits living in zones of war and conflict is an integral part of the GC. The obvious purpose of the letter is to extend friendship and provide encouragement. But I see another purpose, maybe not obvious to the delegates, but to be read into the text as a message of the Spirit. It is an extreme model of a mission impossible, being presented to the Society for edification and imitation.

Something we are doing in Manmad, where I live, may illustrate in a small way what is written in this article. Manmad is a small town in the Nashik district of Maharashtra. The Jesuits run a High School. The Parish is managed by the Diocesan Clergy of the Nashik Diocese. Five months ago, we started a cleanliness campaign as part of the national project. It was intended to draw all Manmad residents to take responsibility for the cleanliness of the town. Coming together on a project of a common good would, we hope, bring some to be reconciled with others. We knew it would be very difficult to change the mindset of people. The tendency among us is to leave the work to the sanitation department of the Nagar Parishad. So we started with the children of the school, hoping they would involve their parents and neighbours. The school staff collaborated. It was a value education, for the school, in cleanliness and collaboration. The children were enthusiastic, but their parents were not. It was amusing to see the children moving with sacks and collecting the garbage. The parents would follow them in a procession without bending to pick up even one piece of plastic from the ground. The project will go on. We hope parents will eventually come round to soiling their hands.

Nagar Sevaks were invited to inaugurate the campaign. We hoped thereby they would provide the required garbage bins to throw away the garbage collected by the people. They made promises but nothing happened. On the contrary, one of them took objection that the school was instigating the people to pressurize the Nagar Sevak which was not true, as the people were doing it on their own. This led to a slight clash with the municipality.

The campaign is just 2 months old. It was discontinued during the holidays. This year we plan to involve the parish youth. This will be a collaboration between the school and parish. Later, we shall try to involve other parishes in other places in a cleanliness campaign in their areas. The parishes will include not only laity and their non-Catholic friends, but also the religious communities living and working in the parishes. The network will include the Society of Jesus, the Nashik Diocese and other religious congregations as well as their non-Catholic contacts.

My own brainstorming has led to several ideas of missions impossible. I enlist some below:
1. An anti-corruption campaign
2. Dialogue with religious fundamentalists, terrorists and cow vigilantes
3. An overhaul of the Indian educational system
4. Starting of a new political party with people of goodwill, concerned with the right development of the country, of all classes, castes and creeds, which we can support.

Quoting Lk 17: 5-6,
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea’, and it would obey you.”

Reformulating Jesus’ message, it says, ‘With faith you can do the impossible.’ This is exactly what GC 36 tells us, ‘Have faith and you will dare the impossible.’