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Reflection on Today’s Feast

By Fr. Riccardo Avila, SJ

Spiritual indifference to the material circumstances of life and the consequent availability for mission are the hallmarks of our Jesuit spirituality. We often speak of this Jesuit availability in terms of great tasks undertaken, consider Alberto Hurtado and Miguel Pro, or the Gospel preached in distant lands, consider José de Anchieta and the Jesuit Martyrs of Virginia. But Blessed Francis Gárate’s lived said indifference and availability in domestic, ordinary, and contemplative ways.

 Francisco Gárate of Azpeitia, Spain (near Loyola) was born in 1857. At the age of fourteen, with only a few years of primary education under his belt, he began working as a domestic servant in the Jesuit college of Orduña, Spain. Because the Society of Jesus had been in expelled from the region in 1868, Francis Gárate entered the Jesuit novitiate in Poyanne, France in 1874 and took vows as a brother in 1876. In October of 1877 he was missioned to be sacristan and infirmarian for the Jesuit college of La Guardia, where he took final vows in Auguste 1887. In 1888 he was missioned to the University of Deusto (Bilbao), where he served as sacristan and doorkeeper until his death on September 9, 1929. He was beatified by St. John Paul II in 1985.

 To be honest, prior to be asked to do this reflection I did not know Blessed Francis Gárate. But now that I have spent a little time with him in prayer, I will not forget this Jesuit role model. It is clear that the Eucharist and his relationship to God were the center of his life. The smallness of his material life was the purifying fire that allowed him to explore the vastness of his interior life in the Spirit. The simplicity of his life and the generosity and hospitality he showed to guests, students, and Jesuits were but the fruits of a prayerful, sacramental, God-centered life well lived.

A few weeks ago, I was serving as the interim chair of a nonprofit’s finance committee. Just a few days before an important meeting I, unexpectedly, found myself leading my first committee meeting from the back seat of car carrying three Jesuit friends from Boston to New York as we made our way to the wake and funeral Mass for our Jesuit brother: Fr. Rudy Casal, S.J. The meeting did not go as planned. The connection was poor. In the rush to find a ride, I forgot to send the agenda before the meeting and, as a result, it was a bit disorganized. The call ended as we pulled out of a gas station on to the interstate and I expressed my frustration regarding my poor performance to the car’s other occupants. “In a month,” said my companion, “nobody will remember that meeting, but you will never forget going to Rudy’s liturgy and accompanying his family and loved ones as we mourn his loss.” He was right; Br. Gárate lived is whole life out of that truth. For Br. Gárate was only indifferent to things of this world; he held fast to Christ.

 Br. Gárate understood that setting up before and cleaning up after Mass contributed to God’s greater glory because he had a personal relationship with the Christ he encountered at each Mass. And the conversations commenced at Mass were continued as he encountered and accompanied Christ infirm, pilgrim, poor and hungry for material, intellectual and spiritual sustenance.

Would that we could all see past our ego’s grand desires and live only for the Christ who is already reaching out to us.

 Blessed Francis Gárate, pray for us!

Fr. Ricardo Avila, S.J. is currently missioned to the Georgetown University Law Center as a Visiting Legal Fellow and Scholar at the Health Justice Alliance and to study Canon Law at CUA.

Previous Reflections

September 10, 2021 – by Fr. Adam Rosinski, SJ

In 2016, my Jesuit formation took me to Spain, where I spent the summer polishing up my Spanish skills. While there, I also had the great opportunity to visit Loyola, the birthplace of St. Ignatius.

Spending time at Loyola, and especially in the room where Ignatius recovered from his battle injury (now called “the chapel of conversion”) was profoundly moving. Yet, I was struck by how many of the Spanish Jesuits kept bugging me: “Have you seen Brother Gárate’s house yet? You must go visit!” Why, while standing in the very place where the Jesuit story began, would I worry about the unremarkable house of a Jesuit about whom I knew nothing? But, they insisted, and so I went.

About a hundred yards down the road from the Loyola castle stands the simple house where Francis Gárate grew up. Although he was born in 1857, some 300 years after the death of Ignatius, he lived almost literally in the Jesuit founder’s shadow.

Francis Gárate entered the Society as a brother in 1874, and he served for forty years as the doorkeeper at the Jesuit college in Bilbao. The main lobby of the college was a terribly busy place, and Brother Gárate was almost constantly in the middle of chaos. Students coming and going, parents arriving to visit their sons, couriers delivering letters and packages, beggars asking for alms, and the ceaseless ringing of the telephone kept him busy at all hours. Yet even in the midst of that craziness, Brother Gárate greeted every person with a peaceful and warm smile and extended a genuine courtesy and welcome to all.

Once, Cardinal Pietro Boetto, SJ, the Archbishop of Genoa, visited his brother Jesuits in Spain and spent some time at the college where Gárate ministered. He later wrote,

“I must say that the most precious memory of my time in Spain is that of the excellent Brother Doorkeeper of our University College of Duesto (Bilbao)…One day I asked him, ‘How are you able, Brother, to be involved in so many things and yet remain so calm, never losing your patience?’ His reply was, ‘Father, I do what I can, and leave the rest to the Lord, who can do everything.’”

The image of that humble house sitting in the shadow of the Loyola castle has remained with me. Like his house, there was nothing remarkable about Francis Garate’s outward appearance. Like his house, he is often overshadowed by the legacy of the man named Loyola. Yet in all this, the humble doorkeeper of Bilbao reminds us that living and working “for the greater glory of God” does not require a dramatic story, heroic actions, or stirring preaching. Rather, it often simply requires, in Blessed Francis’ own words, that we do what we can and leave the rest to the Lord, who can do everything.