It is said that the title that Ignatius liked most about himself was ‘Iñigo the Pilgrim’. There was this ‘wanderlust’ in him, not just for travelling but for seeking. Ablaze with God, Ignatius never stopped seeking. God is the ever-greater one, always ‘upsetting’ the point of arrival. Manresa and Montserrat are not past stations for Iñigo; they were permanent spaces in him even when he was settled in Rome.

Jesuits are in ever-seeking and ever-finding mode – unsettled settlers, always at home and always on the move. This dynamic dimension of our call distinguishes us from others. Pope Francis surprises us yet again in the new Sapientia Christiana, when he says: “The theologian who is satisfied with his complete and conclusive thought is mediocre. The good theologian and philosopher has an open, that is, an incomplete thought, always open to the magis of God and of the truth, always in development, according to the law that Saint Vincent of Lerins described in these words: annisconsolidetur, dilatetur tempore, sublimeturaetate (Commonitorium primum, 23: PL 50, 668).” Pope Francis seems to have captured this pilgrim mind-set of Iñigo: ever seeking, always developing and on the move.

Are we Jesuits losing this pilgrim mind-set of Iñigo? Have we become settlers looking for tenure in an institutional set up? Or are we perennial seekers? Are we perceived as ‘seekers’ of God? Or are we seen as ‘vendors’ of religion as Gandhiji had once said of Christian missionaries? Do we have an ‘experience’ of the Ultimate that we want to share with our fellow-citizens, rather than institutional benefits that we want to advertise?

In ‘Why I am a Hindu’, Shashi Tharoor says that he loves Hinduism for its flexibility and open-endedness in belief systems, and distances himself from Hindutva that is so rigid and narrow. Do genuine seekers find a home with us Jesuits?

We are surrounded by settlers who define the borders and consider others as alien. Cow-nationalism, saffron-religion and crony-capitalism make perfect bed-fellows. The perennial quest for the Ultimate that marked the soul of India is deliberately forgotten and consciously abandoned for the trivial.

The task ahead for us is to go back to our roots; to rediscover the spiritual quest; to continue travelling. Let us form circles of seekers; citizens of a republic where everyone is welcome; everywhere is home.

George Pattery, SJ

The author is the former Provincial of Calcutta Province and former President of the Jesuit Conference of South Asia (POSA).