VIRIDITAS: SOUL GREENING
Interviewed by Sister Malia Dominica Wong, OP
Hawaii Catholic Herald
I think we are at a point where the study of catechetics has lost its luster because we focus so much on evangelization. Evangelization is very important. However, now we need to get back to catechetics again because we have to ask the questions, “Why be Catholic?” and, “Why Jesus Christ?” The Catholic Church has a tremendous gift to share with the world. And I want to do my part to share that.
If we just need to be good, we don’t need to be Catholic to be good; we don’t need to be Christian to be good. When the church is broken, why be associated with a church that is so human? But it is precisely because the church is human that we also see the goodness. We see the sin, but we also see the grace. That is an important message for the world to hear. We are a broken community, but also a graced community. That grace can be really transformative.
Last year I was missioned by my superior to pursue my doctoral degree in catechetics. With my master’s degree in music, I hope to help others discover God through music as well. As a full-time student, I live in community with about 20 other Jesuits. Our residence is about a 10-minute walk from the U.S. Capitol. Some priests work in the high school; some are chaplains to a prison, a hospital, and to the U.S. House of Congress. Others are former university presidents, and still others are serving in leadership for all the American Jesuits. It’s a strange, but wonderful collection of men.
Living in common unity, one might think that it must be a very intellectual community. However, the intellect is used for the sake of serving the Gospel. Areas of service include helping the poorest of the poor, the migrants, fighting for scholarships for those that need them, fighting for the faith in parts of the world where it is diminished, and fighting for the faith in a world of secularism and scandal. It is a sense of being called to this mission that keeps me going.
When times do get hard though, beyond the natural homesickness which Filipino food, an L&L Barbeque plate lunch, poke or watching of old episodes of “Hawaii 5-0” can fill, I turn to the spiritual music of Estonian composer Arvo Part. His “Spiegel im Spiegel” is very good for meditation. He recently won the Ratzinger Prize, the Nobel Prize in theology, even though he has not written anything in theology. His style of composing is reflective of the long period of spiritual dryness he went through. Then one day after praying with the psalms, he took a walk and heard the Lord saying to him, “You cannot do this without me.”
Father Philip A. Ganir is a Jesuit priest from Hawaii and a Damien Memorial School graduate. He was professed in 2001, and ordained in 2013. He resides at Gonzaga High School in Washington, D.C., and is in his first year of doctoral studies in catechetics at the Catholic University of America.
