By Tracey Primrose
On Saturday, September 7, Fr. Dick Cobb, SJ, concelebrated a liturgy at Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos, California, honoring the 47 Jesuits, like himself, who are marking special anniversaries this year. At 17, Dick Cobb began his Jesuit journey in this very building, then the province’s novitiate. More recently, Sacred Heart Jesuit Center has served as the Jesuits’ health care/retirement community. At 92, Fr. Cobb has come full circle, living in the same place and worshipping in the same chapel where his vocation began in the summer of 1949.
With long service at Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix, Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose and Loyola High School in Los Angeles, Fr. Cobb expresses the gratitude of his fellow jubilarians. He says that the greatest grace has always been the people. “God has blessed me with challenging assignments, but I have always enjoyed consistent support from my Jesuits brothers, professional colleagues, students and friends. These same individuals have accepted my weaknesses and mistakes. What a blessing I have experienced to minister to them in some small way—hopefully bringing God’s joy and peace into their lives. I cannot be more grateful at this time.”
He was joined on the altar by Fr. Tom Smolich, SJ, who is celebrating 50 years in the Society of Jesus. Fr. Smolich has served as a pastor, a provincial, the president of the Jesuit Conference, the international director of Jesuit Refugee Service and, currently, as the rector of the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University. Reflecting on his jubilee, Fr. Smolich said that “being drawn closer to Jesus Christ, seeing the world more and more through the eyes of love that God sees us, has always been part of my Jesuit life and never more so than now. Looking back at 50 years, I could never have imagined the life I have been given as a Jesuit, the life I have led literally around the world … and there is more to come. I am deeply grateful.”
Gratitude was also the theme of the homily delivered by Jesuits West’s provincial, Fr. Sean Carroll, SJ, who talked about “the grace of the deepest desires that God planted in our jubilarians many decades ago.” He said, “It would have been easy for the jubilarians to ignore those desires, but today we celebrate the way God has formed and molded them and shaped their minds and their hearts.”
The province’s jubilarians are all marking significant milestones of either the anniversary of their ordination, their entrance to the Society of Jesus or their profession of final vows. Many of those being honored are in their 80s and 90s and live at Sacred Heart Jesuit Center. Fr. Carroll reminded them that “the journey is not over,” recalling a prayer written by the beloved former Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ, in the last years of his life after he had suffered a debilitating stroke.
“More than ever I find myself in the hands of God.
This is what I have wanted all my life from my youth.
But now there is a difference;
the initiative is entirely with God.
It is indeed a profound spiritual experience
to know and feel myself so totally in God’s hands.”
Following the liturgy, jubilarians gathered for a festive lunch, where Fr. Cobb offered a toast and thanks on behalf of all the jubilarians.
Fr. Bill Rewak, SJ, a poet and the chancellor of Santa Clara University, called his “close friendships with happy Jesuits” the greatest grace of his vocation. “To be around them makes my own heart joyful, and for all these years I have been blessed with their presence, with their laughter and even their scowls. Like all of us, they have good days and bad days; they’re not saints yet! But they give meaning to the word ‘Jesuit’ because they have lived it so abundantly. They are an example of how I should live, and I hope I have picked up pointers now and then. I am grateful for them.”
Gratitude abounds.
