By Becky Sindelar
After two years of learning to live, serve and pray as Jesuit novices, MacLean Andrews, SJ, and Alvaro Pacheco Jr., SJ, professed first vows of poverty, chastity and obedience on Saturday, August 10, 2024, at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
Fr. Andrew Rodriguez, SJ, director of novices, delivered the homily, which focused on Father General Arturo Sosa, SJ’s invitation to reflect on the idea of Jesuits’ being sent to collaborate in the reconciliation of all things in Christ.
“It is said that a man is most a Jesuit when he is sent, and goes with a spirit of generosity, with a magnanimity of heart—a big heart open to God as Pope Francis would say—and with a desire to do great things for God and God’s people,” said Fr. Rodriguez. “We do this in imitation of Jesus who, in being sent himself, gives freely and totally of what he has. … We Jesuits pray for the grace of spiritual freedom, so that our interior disposition mirrors that of Jesus, to love as Jesus loves generously.”
Reflecting on collaboration, Fr. Rodriguez said that Jesuits are not sent to do their work in isolation. “The mission we’ve been given is shared with others. … We partner with brother Jesuits, with other men and women religious, we collaborate with our lay friends and colleagues, in the Lord’s vineyard. That means we are not the protagonists or the principal actors. Jesus is!”
For the work of reconciliation, Fr. Rodriguez said that it begins “within our small sphere of influence—and then we work for reconciliation in bigger spheres, between political, theological, cultural, economic and various other divides.”
He told Andrews and Pacheco that they are placing themselves “at the Lord’s disposal, to be sent to collaborate in the reconciliation of all things in Christ.”
The good news, Fr. Rodriguez told them, is that they are not going to have to do it alone: “We are all here for you. We will work with you, side by side, shoulder to shoulder. We your Jesuit brothers, your friends and family, the people you will be studying with, and the people to whom you will soon minister—we are here to support you, to encourage you, to inspire you and sometimes to challenge you—as you get sent to work in the vineyard of the Lord.”
As Jesuit novices, Andrews and Pacheco spent the past two years at the Jesuits West novitiate in Culver City, California, learning about the Society of Jesus, participating in local ministries and living in community. They also performed community service and completed the 30-day Spiritual Exercises retreat.
Before entering the novitiate, Andrews graduated from Gonzaga Preparatory School in Spokane and earned a bachelor’s degree in international studies from Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. He taught history and was a speech and debate coach at Gonzaga Prep, where his discernment process with the Jesuits began. In 2019, he took a pilgrimage in China following the route of Matteo Ricci, SJ, from Macau to Beijing; it was on this trip that he decided to apply to the Society.
Pacheco received a bachelor’s degree in history and Spanish from the University of California, Berkeley. He worked as a Spanish-language press secretary for former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and as deputy press secretary for former Congressman Xavier Becerra. He was co-coordinator of the Fifth National Encuentro of Hispanic/Latino Ministry for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and volunteered as an interpreter for pro bono immigration attorneys before entering the novitiate.
Now that they have professed first vows in the Society, Andrews and Pacheco will begin the next step of formation, called first studies. Andrews has been missioned to Loyola University Chicago and Pacheco is going to Fordham University in the Bronx, New York.
Watch a recording of the Mass below.
