James Martin: Seven Last Words
Victor Fuhrman: You were called to the Society of Jesus, The Jesuits, in 1988. What drew you to The Jesuits?
James Martin: Funny enough, I didn’t know anything about the Jesuits before I met them. Nothing at all. But when I asked my local parish priest about becoming a priest he suggested that I talk to the local diocesan vocations office and then he added, as an afterthought, “You might want to talk to the Jesuits.” This was in Stamford, Connecticut, and this particular priest also taught at Fairfield Prep, a Jesuit high school, which was nearby. On such asides are lives changed. If he had taught a Benedictine school, maybe I’d be a Benedictine today! And once I met the Jesuits something just clicked. The way they looked at life seemed to fit me perfectly. At first, I liked primarily what they did. That is, you could be a Jesuit plus something else. Sometimes it’s called, rather unfairly, a “hyphenated priest.” A Jesuit-teacher. A Jesuit-social activist. A Jesuit-pastor. A Jesuit-physician. Afterward, it became less about what they did, and more of who they were. How they lived. It was their work that attracted me, but their spirituality that kept me.
Victor Fuhrman: The vision of Jesuit founder, St. Ignatius Loyola, was to “find God in all things.” How did you experience this in the early years of your novitiate?
James Martin: Through the invitation of my novice director and my spiritual director, I was encouraged, like all Jesuits, to see God in every situation and in every person. Now, that doesn’t mean that you ignore the person and think, “Oh I’m not seeing the person, I’m seeing God.” Rather, you see every moment as an invitation to encounter God. And an invitation to help the other encounter God. It helps to suffuse your days with a sense of meaning and purpose. That included not only when we were carrying out the ministries that we were assigned to do as novices—for me, working in a hospital and a homeless shelter in Boston, helping out in a home for the sick and dying in Jamaica, and teaching in a school for poor students in New York City—but also in the Jesuit community, with our friends, with our families, and of course during Mass and in private prayer. It’s a wonderfully open spirituality. In Ignatian spirituality, nothing is considered “outside” the spiritual life. It’s quite liberating. To see God in all things means that the world is touched by a kind of grace.
