Entering the Jesuits

I entered the Society right after high school in 1948. That isn't something you'd recommend to a boy nowadays, any more than getting married at that age. But it was different back then. A lot of us made those choices early and they worked out well. It certainly did for me.

High School Work

For my first assignment after ordination I was sent to Xavier, the new high school in Concord. It had been open only one year. I was a little surprised, but I went, and it turned out to be marvelous. Those were six of the best years of my life. Actually I've done about everything Jesuits do except the missions. But the big thing for me has been high school work-over thirty years of it. I've worked at three Jesuit high schools and loved them all. But I have to say my biggest investment has been BC High. I taught there as a scholastic, later as a priest I served as principal (actually I was Mr. Hughes' principal), and later I served as a trustee. And I'm actually still involved in the school's scholarship program.

Overseas Education

I also did a lot of overseas education. In the mid-1960s, there were companies that were taking groups of American students over to Europe for six weeks of summer study. I found one company that I thought was pretty good. I was the first Catholic school contact that they had had. They made a big pitch to a bunch of Catholic schools for a program in London studying theater, and they asked me if I'd be the director of it. I did that for about two hundred kids that summer. It went well and I did the same thing for ten more years. It was wonderful.

Jesus and the Jesuits

The thing that has come across forcibly to me recently is how impressed I am with certain Jesuits. I'm not going to name names, but I have four or five Jesuit friends, who are people of immense talents and immense gifts, and they are just totally unselfish in the way they use what they have. They put things totally at the disposal of the poor and those who have nothing. And these people are grateful for the service that they get, but they have no idea how big the gift is they are giving. And that doesn't bother these Jesuits at all. It has dawned on me: isn't that what we love about Jesus? The kenosis-he emptied himself; he had it all, and he gave it to people like us. So I find that, when I look at some of these Jesuits who are so generous with what they are and who they are, that tells me an awful lot about God and about Jesus. I get some very important insights from that.