ANDERSON LAKE—The road to becoming a fully installed member of the Jesuit Order of Catholic priests is a long one—with the journey typically taking several years and usually over a decade. On Saturday, May 24, Father Paul Robson SJ, who serves at Holy Cross Church in Wiikwemkoong, took his final vows as a member of the order.
The ceremony took place during a mass held in the main chapel at the Anishinaabe Centre at Anderson Lake, just outside Espanola.
Fr. Robson explained that the decision to perform his final vows at the centre was due to wanting to ensure a central location accessible to his many visitors (a number of whom came from Sagamok and Sudbury). Mr. Robson’s parents were also on hand, having travelled from their home in Winnipeg.
Jesuit Provincial Jefferey Burwell presided over the mass and the ceremony and spoke at length about the process of becoming a Jesuit and the journey Fr. Robson has travelled in his quest.
“We celebrate the final vows of Father Paul,” he said. “The Jesuits final vows are incredibly important, perhaps on par with his ordination to the priesthood itself.”
“It’s very important to be with a Jesuit when he pronounces the final vows. Ourselves, today, we celebrate these sacred mysteries. We call to mind our faults and our failings, and we ask our merciful Lord for pardon and for peace.”
“Let me begin by saying that there is a way that we come to know each other as Jesuits, there’s steps we must take to foster relationships—they cannot be rushed. Now, whether this is between friends or within families or cultures, or even in our relationship with God, there is a deep wisdom in being patient.”
“The authentic relationships do not happen instantaneously,” said Fr. Burwell. “Our connection with others unfolds in layers. It goes very slowly. Our relationships reveal themselves in time. In our Catholic tradition, we know how the Israelites walked through the desert for 40 years. It took a long time for them to understand who God was for them. God doesn’t rush the human heart. He shapes us patiently through encounter through friendship. I grew up in Regina and spent a lot of time among the Dené and the Cree and I’m sure the people here have a tradition that says, ‘you don’t sit in a circle with someone until you have walked beside them for a long while’.”
“In other words, they know, as we all do, you cannot rush connections,” continued the Provincial. “Trust cannot be assumed, it must be earned. And clever words or good personalities will not speed up that process. Now, this is also true with the Jesuits, our religious order, our priests. We realize that relationships go slowly. They take place in the silence and the surrender. As Jesuits, when someone presents themselves to be a full Jesuit, we like to take our time before we say yes. Now, Father Paul understood this. 19 years ago, in 2006. He entered the seminary, the novitius of the Jesuits, and it wasn’t a casual decision for him.”
“It was the first step in his relationship with us, his first step in the religious order,” said Fr. Burwell. “His decision was very, very sincere. I have no doubt. But relationships take time. Now, in the notion in these first two years, father Paul did lots of things. His spiritual exercises, he went on retreat for 30 days. He worked with the poor. He spent some time in schools and there he began to ask the questions: ‘What does it mean to serve? What does it mean to follow Jesus being a person on Mission?’ So, in 2008, after two years Father Paul decided, ‘okay. I have decided that I want to live as a Jesuit. I want to spend my entire life in this religious order.’ And so, he decided that he would engage in our mission of justice and reconciliation.” These were his first vows.
“I’m sure there was a young Paul Robson, hands trembling, kneeling before the altar, and he said ‘Almighty God, I promise I’m going to enter the society, I promise, poverty and chastity and obedience and I will never leave. And what did the Society of Jesus say in response? They said, ‘oh, that’s very good. Let’s test you some more and see if you’re ready.’ Fidelity is not presumed. And so, we continued to test Father Paul. For the next 16 or so years, we sent him off to do all sorts of things. He went off to study philosophy at Regis College in Toronto. He worked with immigrants. He was sent to Nepal, where he worked with refugees. He came here to Northern Ontario.”
“Time and time again, the Jesuits kept saying you’re doing very well, Paul, but we’re not quite ready to accept those first vows,” shared Fr. Burwell. “Years went by and Paul didn’t question it. Nobody ever does, but he kept showing up. Every day, not with big gestures. But in simple fidelity. Staying when things were hard, accompanying people quietly, choosing the low place over the high one, and so Paul never tried to impress anyone. He just kept doing what the Lord called. Now we know. That integration into any community happens when we least expect it, and the same is true with Paul. You go from a visitor or an outsider to a member of the community almost imperceptibly. It happens just one day that someone says, yes, you are one of us.”
“Today, for father Paul, that is the day he has with the Society of Jesus. Today, it’s the day that the Jesuits look at him and say, ’yes, we recall those vows you first made in 2008 where you promised you would never leave the Jesuits. Today, we’re going to say, okay, we’ll keep you’.”
Father Paul then knelt before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and read his vows again. Those words reflected those he said so many years ago, to live poor and chaste and obedient, offering himself once again for the mission.
“As the man myself in charge of his work, I am so delighted that he works in this region with you, and I am so, so pleased with the support that you show to him,” said Fr. Burwell. “Father Paul, we are grateful for your yes, first pronounced in 2008 and continues today.”
A diocesan priest, Father JP, who has been with the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie for over 53 years brought congratulations from Bishop Thomas Dowd—going on to read a letter from the bishop to Fr. Robson.
“We pray that God will continue to bless you and bless your ministry, strengthen your resolve and fill your heart, which is abundant Grace,” concluded the letter. “Your life, being a beacon, a light guiding many to the embrace of Christ—congratulations!”
“One thought that I have on this occasion is thank you for being here,” said Fr. Robson. “I think this was a good place to do this today. Special. I have spent time living and working here myself and this place is special to me. It also connects me a little bit to the people who are here, people who I invited.”
Fr. Robson then gave a shout out to a number of people who had travelled to be there with him on his special day.
Following the mass, the attending Jesuits retired to the inner chapel for the final, final vows of Fr. Robson, a tradition that is held in the company of Jesuits—a bonding into the order honoured for centuries.
Those attending were then invited to a feast in Fr. Robson’s honour.
