In the
beginning
In the middle ages, Dominicans and Jesuits were
no keen friends. The members of the two orders were known to have opposed each
other, particularly on the issue of grace. The conflict was sparked by the
Jesuit Luis de Molina’s Concordia Liberi Arbitrii Cum Gratiae Donis Divina
Praesentia, Providentia, Praedestinatione er Reprobatire, published in 1588
in Lisbon. It was a dispute that refused to rest in the next centuries, even
after Clement VIII established the Congregatio
de Auxiliis in 1598 to avert further controversy. This, however, did not
stop further debates. Sixtus V ordered the Dominicans and Jesuits to stop their
squabbling and let the Magisterium decide. A decision was never rendered, but
thankfully, the controversy soon died down. The question, however, lingers: is
there still a rivalry between the Dominicans and Jesuits? Not in the
Philippines. Not with the younger generations of Filipino Dominicans and
Jesuits of Quezon City.
It is in
the genes
“Pueblo amante
de Maria,”
a people deeply in love with Mary-- this is how Filipinos are in relation to
the Mother of God. For the Filipino Dominicans and Jesuits, blood, truly, is
thicker than water. The love for Mary that runs in their veins makes them one. They have not allowed the conflicts on grace of
their Western forebears to hinder their being one in their love for Mary, who
is full of grace. Instead of arguing on grace, they have chosen to love Mary,
full of grace. There now exists a warm fellowship between the younger
generations of Dominicans and Jesuits, under the mantle of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, a brotherhood that is truly filled with grace.
The
encounter
As part of their formation, the Jesuit novices
used to go on pilgrimage to Manaoag from their novitiate house in Novaliches,
Quezon City. They would journey on foot, walking two by two going to the Shrine
of Our Lady of the Rosary in Manaoag, Pangasinan, approximately 200 kilometers
away. The pilgrimage was an arduous three-day of walk, begging for food and
sleeping in the houses of strangers. However, when they arrived in Manaoag, at
the Dominican Novitiate of the Annunciation, they received the welcome of
long-lost brothers from the Dominican novices.
The Dominicans would offer them accommodation,
food, and rest from the long and tiring journey. They would even invite the Jesuits to join
them in their regular schedule of praying in common, eating in common, and time
for recreation in common. They would organize sessions where they would share
their stories about their formation, the richness of their respective
spiritualities, even cracking some Dominican and Jesuit jokes. Indeed, they learned
to laugh with each other, without the vestige of past rivalries. Those
momentous encounters have served as the fertile seed bed where Filipino
Dominicans and Jesuits formed relationships that bridged any differences, with
Mary and her Son filling the gap with grace.
Nurturing
a brotherhood, a brotherhood that nurtures
If great philosophical thoughts and ideas in
Continental Europe were mostly developed over cigars and cups of coffee, the fraternity
between younger Dominicans and Jesuits has grown over the banquet of the
Eucharist celebrated on the Feast of our Lady of the Rosary, La Naval de Manila.
For several years now, on the second Sunday of October, Jesuit scholastics have
graced the grand procession in honor of our Lady of Rosary, La Naval de Manila,
a procession that commemorates the 1646 victory of Filipinos and Spanish
soldiers against the invading Protestant Dutch. It was a victory fought and won
through the intercession of the Lady of the Rosary. Jesuit scholastics, together
with their Dominican student-brothers-- “batchmates”-- would join the throng of
thousands of devotees walking through the streets of Quezon City, praying the
rosary and shouting “Viva la Virgen.” They are made one by their deep devotion
to Mary, making them sons of Mary.
After the grand procession, seminarians from
various inter-diocesan seminaries in the metropolis would join other religious
in a banquet prepared by the Dominican community to cap the celebration of the
great feast of the Lady. For the Dominican and Jesuits scholastics, however,
their celebration would start when other visitors have left, bottles of wines
are brought in. The brothers would share their stories and struggles in
formation, just like before in their novitiate days. Should a passerby see the
Dominican and Jesuit scholastics, he would probably think that they have not
seen each other for centuries, though it had just been over a year since the
last visit.
It was the issue of grace that divided the
Dominicans and Jesuits in the past. Today it is the Mary who is full of grace,
and her Son, who now unite them in this corner of the world. Divided by
centuries of disputes and rivalries, younger Filipino Dominicans and Jesuits
have found brothers in each other through Mary, their Mother, uniting the
fragments and cracks between their Orders with her Son’s unending grace.
More than
grace, more than rivalries
The history existing between the Dominicans and
Jesuits is not always of bitter episodes. There exist too sweet chapters worthy
of being remembered and indeed of being treasured.
During his year of discernment and conversion in
1522, St. Ignatius stayed with the Dominicans in Manresa. He was given a cell
by the Dominicans in their very own convent. Here he had severe illness. It can
be presumed that the Dominicans had took care of Ignatius, for in the spring of
the following year, 1523, he left for Barcelona en route to Rome. His stay there prove to be of great
importance as it is during that respite in Manresa with the Dominicans, he was
able to write the Spiritual Exercises and saw a vision of the future of the
Society of Jesus.
The joy of being together was not felt only by
St. Ignatius and the Dominicans of Manresa. Years after that poignant encounter
with Ignatius and the Dominicans in Manresa, there occurred another event
wherein brothers from these two congregations held each others hand building
the Church.
In 1579, on his way to his then far-flung and
newly established diocese of Manila, newly appointed Bishop Domingo de Salazar,
OP, the first bishop of Manila, asked the Juan de la Plaza, SJ, the Jesuit
provincial in Mexico City, to give him a
large number of religious to accompany him to Manila. De la Plaza granted the
request of Salazar and had allowed Antonio Sedeno, the director of the group,
Alonso Sanchez, Gaspar de Toledo, and Nicolas Gallardo. Aside from a lone
Dominican companion in the person of Cristobal de Salvatierra, Bishop Domingo
de Salazar, OP arrived I Manila in the same year accompanied by brothers from
the Society of Jesus; A Dominican accompanied by Jesuits. That cooperation
between these Dominicans and Jesuits of the 16th century did not
stop in accompanying the Bishop of Manila to his diocese. Indeed, after they
had arrived in Manila, the Jesuits helped the Salazar in administering the
newly established Diocese. He had Alonso Sanchez, SJ as his trusted secretary
until Sanchez left for Spain in 1586. He assigned to the Jesuits the study and
solution of difficult cases of conscience; cases related to justice and
restitution of properties. Salazar had a high opinion with the sons of Ignatius
that he would often stay with them in their convent for days. Jesuits indeed
showed the same hospitality the Dominicans of Manresa rendered to Ignatius by
building a room dedicated solely for the Bishop.
Almost five centuries had passed since these
encounters took place but they remain to be springs of insights whereby the
generations of today can derive inspiration in doing their own collaborative
efforts with each other in building the Church in the Philippines and in Asia.
