ASUL NA AGILA

The mascot of the Ateneo de Zamboanga University is the blue eagle. Decades ago, Fr. Eusebio Salvador SJ, second founder of ADZ, said that ADZ adopted the blue eagle as school mascot ahead of the Ateneo de Manila. Almost everyone thinks it is the other way around.

The name of the Ateneo comes from the Greek athenaion or the Latin athenaeum, meaning a literary club, academy or institution for learning. The Ateneo name, true or not, means quality education. It also connotes pride, prestige and glory.

Jesuit education documents in modern times remind us of the values found in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. One key theme is the Meditation on the Two Standards. According to Ignatius, there are two camps, armies or ways of approaching the world, following two leaders and their respective standards or flags.

One is the enemy, whose strategy for conquest is this way. "The first step is through the attainment of riches. This is used to get the esteem of others, and this will eventually lead to pride. Riches, honor and pride, the usual pattern of evil in the lives of people. These turn into a sense of self-sufficiency or pride, by which a person comes to exist only for one's self. From this state of false independence or self-reliance come all other disorders.”

The other approach or strategy is the one used by Jesus during his lifetime. Instead of riches, honor and pride, Jesus used humble poverty and selfless service as his principle in life. The first standard is a worldly one and focuses on self-glorification. The second one is more spiritual and is achieved by selflessness. The magis or more of Ignatius is greater generosity and self-denial, in order to serve others more. Jesus showed this in his own life and teaching, when  he said that the greatest love one can have is to offer one’s life for others.

Looking at the Ateneo lifestyle, it seems that most follow the first standard. If so, what spirit is there in the life of the Ateneo and its graduates? What are our primary concerns? What do we absolutize or prioritize above everything? Where do we find our soul or our center? Wherever of whatever this is, this becomes what we worship, adore or idolize. This becomes, de facto, our god. Someone even said that Ateneans worship the Ateneo, not God, while there are others who think SJ means Society of Jesuits, not Society of Jesus.

The Second Plenary Council of the Philippines in their document on Catholic educational institutions said: “Many of the graduates of our schools seem to look at Catholic education simply as a passport to better opportunities for earning a living. Many graduates of Catholic schools have been successful economically and politically, but they have also contributed to the dismal economic and political imbalances existing in our country. Many affluent Filipinos have a cultural fixation towards elitism in education. Such elitism not only waters down education to a status symbol, but tends to produce in well-to-do students a feeling that they are a people apart… that education is merely a tool to gain privileges and advance one's social class. Because high standards of education require high financial support, Catholic schools may find it impossible to express the Christian love or preference for the poor.”

There is a story of a farmer who found an eagle’s egg. He brought it home and had it hatched together with the chicken eggs. The eaglet grew up with the chickens and like all chickens, it never flew in the sky and it spent all its life pecking on the ground, just like other chickens.

There are true Ateneans and there are false Ateneans. Some are real Ateneans in spirit and in truth. Many others are false Ateneans only in name and in selfish pride. They crow noisily. Perhaps they are really crows or chickens masquerading as eagles. A newspaper columnist has written about the difference between blue eagles and blue vultures.

Blue eagles should not only aim at heights of wealth, power and prestige. Based on the Two Standards of St. Ignatius, true Ateneans must aim at humble and selfless service to others, following the footsteps of Jesus theLord.

How tragic it would be for blue eagles to follow a wrong flight plan and end up in the opposite direction. The school motto is PRO DEO ET PATRIA – for God and country. If we are to return to the original source of the Ateneo spirit, we must take St. Ignatius' Two Standards seriously. The essence of the Ateneo spirit is greater and more humble service to others. This is the true flight of the Ateneo blue eagle.

Pope Francis I, the first Jesuit Pope in history and who chose the name of St. Francis of Assisi, through his words and deeds, is constantly reminding us what Ignatian spirituality is all about. He is not impressing us with pomp and circumstance. He is, like Jesus and St. Francis, inspiring us by his witness of a simple and humble life. He is showing us how to find God in all things truly and naturally. At last, the world today has an idea of what a Jesuit truly should be.

Ang artikulong ito ay hango sa binuo ni  Fr. Salvador C. Wee, SJ.

Larawan ay kinuha sa :

• http://cp91279.biography.com/BRAND_BIO_Bio-Shorts_Pope-Francis-Mini-Biography_0_172238_SF_HD_768x432-16x9.jpg
• http://3debritopanayaman.50webs.com/q2/project/images/adzu.jpg
•  http://www.stigchurch.org/Assets/ignatius-portrait.jpg