One aspect of my paper that I stressed was describing the Society of Jesus. For this august crowd, I did not want to give a high school interpretation, i.e., "The Society was founded in 1540 ..." Instead I wanted to speak to what I perceive as the soul of the Jesuits - Ignatian Spirituality. Thus my presentation went something like this:
Jesuits see God as being active in our lives. According to Father Joseph Tetlow, SJ, GOD ACTS! The act of creation is ongoing and I am being created right now.
As Father Howard Gray, SJ explained it, Jesus brought God out of the Jewish Temple and into the market place where he not only encountered people but experienced their humanity. If you go to the Gospels your read of these encounters where Jesus asks people, "What is it you want?" The woman who had been bent over for 18 years told him she wanted to stand up straight, so he helped her. The blind man said "Lord, I want to see" so Jesus gives him sight. The Leper answered that "he wants to be clean" and Jesus heals him. Thus from the encounter with people and their humanity emerges God's saving grace. Indeed it could be argued that God's mission on Earth was defined by other people.
The Jesuits use the model of Jesus to encounter people and their humanity to help them in the hope that God's grace and salvation will emerge.
