When I entered the Jesuits out of BC High, there was a Jesuit,
Fr. Richard P. Burke, who was a tremendously strong influence
on me. He was a scholastic at the time; he was the kind of model
that I really wanted to follow.
I had a very interesting time in Jamaica. For me it was a really
new kind of world. It used to be the custom at that time that
New England would send XXX one fellow a year after philosophy
to Japan. I sent the provincial several reasons why that was the
right place for me to go. I included one of those throwaway lines
at the end, "If you've got other ideas, that's fine with
me." And that got me to Jamaica.
Currently, I am working on another project. I am making a very
large mosaic in a supplementary part of the building. The mosaic
is about the healing miracles of Christ and is along a wall that
has a wheelchair ramp for the disabled.
My work, very much networked, has for many years been with peoples
in conflict, violent conflict, hence with people who need that
once for all reorientation to the central features of their lives.
In essence, this is a work of reconciliation, and in that sense
very consciously Christian mission.
