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FROM THE MOUNTAIN TO THE HILLTOP How did we get here and what are we doing here? Fr. Larry Gillick, S.J Before we were the Creighton Bluejays, we were the Hilltoppers, as the campus was mainly sitting on top of the Twenty-Fifth and California Streets hill. You have climbed this hill. Many people have asked you why you chose Creighton. I suggest that you do not know why you are here. I know that you think you know, but there is something more to your being here than you now think. You have your own personal and family history. You might have definite plans and are taking steps to achieve your desires. Creighton has its own history, too, and these days these two histories yours and Creightons are meeting. This place, this arrangement of buildings, this group of people around you, which you call a school or university, is more than that, as you will discover during your time among the buildings and people who surround you. There may be those who never experience Creighton as anything different from a college or school. As we often say, There is more going on than you see going on. There is something more to Creighton than meets the eye. Reading this essay and participating in the Ratio Studiorum Program are only an introduction to your personal discovery of what is going on more than what you see going on. This essay is meant to help you to find it! Your zip code is 68178. The 78 is a reminder that the Creighton Mission began on top of a grassy hill on the edge of the twenty-eight-year-old town of Omaha in 1878. A few Jesuit priests and brothers arrived from St. Louis at the invitation of the local Catholic Archbishop James OConnor. You can read the inscription on the historical marker in front of Deglman Hall to find out about the Creighton brothers. Mary Lucretia Creighton, a widowed-wife of one of the brothers, was struck by the conditions of the poor immigrants recently arrived from Europe. She asked the Archbishop about the possibility of education for the Catholic boys of these immigrant families. The Sisters of Mercy, who had also recently come to Omaha, were dedicated to educating the Catholic girls. Eventually St. Johns Grade School would be erected in the area where the Kiewit Fitness Center is situated now. The back half of Creighton Hall, which is also known as the Administration Building, was the original boys school, Creighton Prep. The young women attended classes in the basement of St. Johns Church before moving to St. Marys Street and then to its present location as Mercy High School farther south and west in Omaha. You can read more about this beginning on the walls of the first floor of the old Prep near the English Department, but as you are learning, more had gone on before all this was going on up on the hill.

2 THE MOUNTAIN The year before Columbus sailed west on his voyage of discovery, a child was born into a large family of nobility in northern Spain, in the mountainous district of the Basques. Generally a fierce and proud people, they seek their independence from Spain even now. You may have heard of the Basque town of Pamplona, where each spring there is the celebration of the Running of the Bulls. What is so exciting about that? When the bulls are released from their winter confines, they charge down the streets of the town and men and women do not run after them, but, imagine this, they run ahead of them, hoping not to be gored, trampled and killed. Get the picture? These people live on the sides of mountains and on the edge of life. This child Iigo of the family and castle of Loyola grew up within this culture and within the courtly system of proving oneself by acts of danger and valor. He was schooled to be a man of the times, impressing women, impressing his family and the people at court. He eventually became a brawler, a gambler, a womanizer, and a respected military leader. On May 19, 1521, during a particularly fierce battle against the French forces of King Francis I, in the above-mentioned city of Pamplona, Iigo was struck with a cannon ball which broke his right leg. The citys loyalties had been uncertain, but Iigo was determined to defend the people and his own pride, despite being overwhelmingly outnumbered. The French soldiers, recognizing and respecting this enemy leaders courage, took him back to his home castle where he began something. He obviously began his recovery, which was slow. Like Columbus, Iigo was also beginning a voyage of discovery. Iigos journey was more personal. His leg as well as his dreams were shattered. He lay in bed with nothing to prove, not much opportunity for valor available. There were not even many books to read, only a life of Christ and the lives of some saints. This something was beginning. Iigo started to reflect on his lifes events and noticed a change within himself. When he remembered his great deeds and former dreams, he sensed they were less attractive. They seemed empty of value. He was somewhat depressed that he had spent his early life charging after nothing of substance. At the same time he noticed his spirits rising when he thought of doing something greater, as did the saints about whom he was reading and reflecting. This reflecting upon experiences and sensing ones personal interior responses he came to describe as discernment. He grew less anxious about his past and more hopeful about his future. When he finally recovered, he limped off to find his real self. It was not that he had found God. Rather, he was experiencing the personal manner in which God was finding him and giving him back to himself. The Creighton something was beginning here. Iigos first stop was the Benedictine monastery of Montserrat where he made a sacramental confession of his life and, in a dramatic gesture, laid down his military sword and dagger at the foot of a statue of Mary the Mother of Jesus. He then decided to go to the land of Jesus, the Holy Land, and live there for the rest of his life.

3 As he went along he came to the little town of Manresa near Barcelona. He stopped there and found God interrupting his travel plans. Iigo soon learned in fact that interruptions are frequent and often point the way to experiencing Gods care for us. He stayed in Manresa about a year, praying, looking around and looking within. He became quite scrupulous and worried about whether he had sufficient sorrow for his past and whether he had made good confessions. The result was depression while he allowed his physical health and appearance to degenerate. He began taking notes about the ups and downs of his spirit. Like the Prodigal Son in the Gospel of Luke, Iigo then came to his senses. He began cleaning up his act, because while trying to converse with townsfolk about God, he found them avoiding him. He washed, began eating normally and noticed a good or consoling spirit rising in him once more. Iigo spent much of this year by himself writing down his spiritual experiences. Iigo would continue rewriting and adding to this writing until near his death in 1556. The resulting little book came to be known as the Spiritual Exercises. He found that battling his own dark side and the Evil Spirit, whom he called The Enemy of Our Human Nature, was a growing and deepening way of living. This listener learned what the footsteps of God sounded like in his soul. He wrote about the freedom that comes from facing both the truth about himself and the lies that come from the Devil. He read and wrote about passages from the Gospels which related the events of the life of Jesus. He was attracted to Jesus and learned that His call sounded like water falling softly on a sponge. He also heard the allurements of the Enemy but found them like water crashing on a rock. He became aware slowly that he could not run away from himself nor the rest of the world if he were to be in an intimate relationship with God. When this former soldier had fought his own good fight between God and the Evil One, he came down the mountain freer to accept himself and the world so loved by God. He took on the clothing of a pilgrim and carried a staff which was a symbol of his leaning upon the God Who was leading him. THE PILGRIMAGE You have climbed the Creighton hill, beginning what we hope is an adventure of discovering the meaning of your gifts, the meaning of your history, the meaning of your relationships, the meaning of life. Iigo, like you, was a man on a search. He was a pilgrim following Gods lead into adventures he had never even dreamed of. History has thrown you two together: the Ignatius who came down from his mountain and the you who has come up the Creighton hill. Iigo, the spiritual pilgrim, had no theological or philosophical education; he was not a priest nor a religious, but a spiritual wanderer who was learning about letting go of the usual and secure areas of life for the adventures of wondering about the reality of God and the realities of human existence. The unusual manner of his ways raised more than eyebrows within the Catholic Church of Spain. The famous Inquisition took away his little book of spiritual exercises. The inquisitors also forbade Ignatius from speaking publicly about spiritual matters, for which he had no formal training; his training, as he

4 knew well, had been his personal encounter with God up in those mountains. Before long, he was sent to prison for forty-two days, an experience he embraced for its similarity to the reactions that the Romans had to Jesus. Iigo wanted more and more to imitate Jesus. He wanted to go to live where Jesus had walked and taught. Eventually, Iigo was exonerated and the Church found the Spiritual Exercises to be a graced gift from God through this simple pilgrim. He became aware that for the sake of credibility he would have to get some formal education. He began by studying Latin in the city of Alcal with young boys. Soon he made his way to the famous University of Paris where, while being educated himself, he changed his name to Ignatius and began his life as an educator. THE SOMETHING DEVELOPS When we have something really good--a secret or joke or bit of gossip--we want to tell somebody about it. The good tends to be spread out as far as possible. Ignatius, while doing his studies, continued living as a simple, unpretentious, and quite unusual pilgrim. He had to beg for money to support himself and he lived in poor conditions, but he continued speaking of his new-found good in his own peaceful style. Obviously, he was mocked by the more wealthy students who were younger, but a few soon began to listen to him. Maybe it was because Ignatius was bold and direct and suffered the consequences of being unusual, but whatever the reason, these few found him, his ways and his words compelling and persuasive. The something was developing. Some of these younger companions left Ignatius, but others came along. On August 15, 1536, in a small chapel on the top of Montmartre in Paris, these six Friends in the Lord joined together as companions who would go to the Holy Land and spend their lives there, doing the works of Jesus. Perhaps you have visited, or someday will visit, the Sacre Coeur Church on that very same Montmartre. If you move to the left and forward, you will find in bas relief a wall display of these first companions announcing their first vows. They were not members of a religious order yet. They were men going forward under the influence of God. The something was on the move. The companions eventually discovered that sailing to Israel was impossible, because of the pirates prowling the Mediterranean at that time. Ordained as Catholic priests, they spent their time doing whatever good they could find, especially preaching in the streets, tending the sick, and caring for the dying. After deliberating about their condition and desires, they offered themselves to the Pope as servants of the Gospel. The big question was about whether or not to become a religious order. There were several major orders, including the Benedictines, Dominicans and Franciscans. Here is where the unusual really comes into play. The pilgrim had come down the mountain to go out, to go into, and to go beyond. If this group was really like him, then they had to be reaching out. They had to be searching, finding, wonderingly-wandering. As Ignatius had found out earlier, the unusual can raise suspicion. There were those in Rome who feared religious men going around preaching

5 and giving spiritual guidance, but eventually on September 27, 1540, the Pope wrote the decree establishing this little group, La Compania de Jesus. The something was becoming visible, and its development was on a roll. This Compania de Jesus or Society of Jesus, later known as the Jesuits, began to spread and to increase in numbers. By the time Ignatius died in Rome on July 31, 1556, there were over one thousand Companions of Jesus. They preached and taught from Ireland in the north to India, Japan, and an island off the China coast, where the closest friend and companion of Ignatius and the greatest Jesuit missionary, Francis Xavier, died in 1552. A mere eighty years later, in 1634, Fr. Andrew White with two other English Jesuits landed in what is now the state of Maryland and began a something which flourished there. In 1672, Fr. Jacques Marquette with a French companion canoed out of Lake Huron into Lake Michigan, down the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers into the Mississippi and as far south as present-day Arkansas. John Carroll, an American-born Jesuit, became the first bishop of the Catholic Church in the United States. He established the first Catholic school in the States in 1789: Georgetown Academy, which we know today as Georgetown University. The Jesuits, however, did not impress everybody in the early days of the country. In 1816, John Adams, the second president of the United States, wrote to Thomas Jefferson, its third president, "If any congregation of men could merit eternal perdition on earth and in hell, it is the company of Loyola." As of now, there are 3000 Jesuits in this country and some 20,000 worldwide. There are forty-nine Jesuit high schools in the United States and twenty-eight somethings similar to Creighton. How many of the twenty-eight can you name? THE CREIGHTON SOMETHING In brief, that is who we Jesuits are. We have been loved and hated, appreciated and suspected. Down from mountains, across oceans, down and up lakes and rivers, that is how we got here. You can reflect personally upon just how you got here as well. Here we are, together at Creighton, but what are we doing here? What is the something, the Jesuit thing? What is this degree of difference of which Creighton boasts? How unusual is the Creighton something? It is here for the taking and tasting. Though it is offered, some will go through Creighton, without allowing the Creighton something to go through them. For these, Creighton is merely a school, a college, a university. Well, it is thatbut it is so much more! We, the Jesuits and the thousands of women and men who buy into Creighton, call this place a mission. Yes, you are involved in a mission, and that is what we are doing here. Last May another group of wonderful people graduated. It happens every year and we who live or work at Creighton love to see our students go and at the same time we hate their leaving us behind. So many of them got much more than a degree. They received themselves again and again during their days here on the hilltop. Where did they go? Down the hill and far away doing what men and women with and for others do. When they were in their first year, they had no clear idea about what they were really doing here and what they would be doing after Creighton. Or maybe they thought of their future

6 only in terms of the profession they would practice. Now they have some clarity and some fire to do something good for others. Each May we wonder who will ever replace those good souls. Each August we begin finding the answers. You are becoming our answers right now as you make your way into living the Creighton life! EX DUCERE The word educate, coming from the Latin words out of and to lead, means something different from being instructed. There is a difference between being educated and being instructed. In the Jesuit tradition, being led out of ignorance is more difficult than being instructed about Spanish verb forms or chemical formulae. Being truly educated is the something Ignatius discovered as he recovered from his leg wound. He was healing physically, but in the process he uncovered a truer self than he had ever known before the cannon ball laid him low. This something which grew up in the mountains of northern Spain continued through his pilgrim years and long after he graduated from the University of Paris. He was offered the educational gift of receiving himself. He was led out of his ignorance about who he really was. What are we doing here together? We are assisting Gods on-going labor of creation. That is the real Jesuit something. Those who graduate from college here but fail to be led out of the darkness about themselves as gifts, have missed the something that is special about Creighton. If they have only a degree to show for their time here, some of us would say that that is nothing compared to what they missed. They may have been instructed about chemistry and accounting, but they are still waiting for a something better. It may surprise you that the Jesuits are not educators. They were not founded to operate schools. Ignatius and his first companions saw themselves as men on mission trying to go about doing the greater good for the Greater Glory of God. What they found very early was the need in Europe of the 16th century for schools. Only the rich were educated and their education was centered around their staying wealthy and making sure the poor remained poor. It may indeed sound strange, but the mission of education was seen by Ignatius--and is still seen today by Jesuits and their co-workers--to be a work of charity. Yes, you have to pay a huge tuition here at Creighton to be available to this labor of love. (It might be of interest that Mary Lucretia Creightons gift to the Jesuits allowed the early mission here to be tuition-free. You were just born too late!) This charitable work or mission was, from the very beginning, meant for the common good. It was not offered to keep the wealthy secure and the poor in their place. To be truly educated, or led out of ignorance, is to become aware of who each of us is in Gods eyes and who these others are, especially the poor and needy. To become aware of just ourselves, for our personal growth and well-being, is not true education in the Jesuit tradition. We educate for the mission of being men and women for and with others. The common good in Christian terms means that Jesus has sisters and brothers in whose family each of us lives. Now we are getting closer to this Creighton something and closer to why we are here and what we are doing here.

The first Jesuit mission of education was established in the town of Messina in Sicily in 1537. It was followed shortly thereafter by a school in Palermo. These were not professional schools, but were centered on this more universal view of human development. They were set up to bring about the awareness of the human triumphs, struggles, achievements and sufferings which are the common lot of human beings. Their emphasis was on the human and broader academic development of their students first; then later these students would advance to more particular studies like law or medicine. The Jesuit tradition continues this process based on the belief that, if we know who we are, we will know what to do. IMMIGRANTS We mentioned above that Creighton was founded to assist young immigrant Catholic boys to become educated. Here in Omaha people were coming from Europe to escape the violence, political oppression, religious persecution, and poverty of the mid-19th century. Here there was available land, freedom, and opportunities for work, but upward mobility was hindered by poor public education in Omaha at that time. Since then Creighton has grown in accepting women students and members of other faith traditions. An important question then arises. If Creighton was founded for the education of immigrants, why does it continue and actually prosper--since there are now no real immigrants attending Creighton? There are many other excellent schools, of course, and they are not as expensive! Why Creighton now? Without offending anybody, may I propose that you are, in a sense, modern-day immigrants? Like the newcomers to Omaha in the 1850s and 1860s, you come from cultures of violence, irreverence for life, sexism, religious bigotry, oppression of the poor and various forms of racial hatred. We have all seen campus shootings, muggings, robberies, and physical violence in our country; we bring some of that disrespectful spirit with us, like the dust on our shoes. More than ever, Creighton needs to be a mission to welcome us all into its ways of respect, safety, and care. We would desire to have Creighton be a safe place, free from the violence and selfishness of our culture. Obviously, we must have locks on our doors, but our culture can want us to put a lock on every door. The end result would be one thousand students each locked away from one another and each others world. Locks become an important negative symbol for the Creighton something. Locks protect, but they should not prevent people from going out or allowing others in. Immigrants bring their culture with them and we come from a culture of fear and suspicion. Can we live differently? Yes, yes, yes! It takes time. You have at least four years here to take the time to deculturalize and to be led out from one way of seeing your self and into becoming aware of who you really are and who are these others around you and beyond. INVOLVEMENT

8 There are other important symbols of just what goes on here. Benches are a good positive symbol for Creighton's something. All over campus there are sitting-places, not so much for resting as for relating. On the mall, in the residential halls, in the Student Centers, there is the obvious invitation everywhere to have conversations. Suspicion and hatred need distance. We have all kinds of places here to become led out of ignorance about so many persons and ideas and about ourselves as well. We have dozens of organizations, clubs, teams, associations and service opportunities to bring us out of ignorance. The invitation is everywhere. Getting involved is the beginning of experiencing our something. Sitting down on a bench to speak and listen to someone else is the beginning of getting rid of the locks mentality that isolates people. Getting up from the bench and doing something breaks down walls around you and around others as well. Each fall there is an Involvement Fair on campus at which activities, services and organizations present an opportunity for learning and joining. This is a large section of the Creighton something. These are all ways for you to meet others, to do something good for others but also an important way to get to know your self and do something good for your self. Yes, education is about your becoming aware and accepting of that very same self. Our American culture has made it quite difficult to know, to accept and especially to love our selves. Its superific demands have most of us feeling inferior. The challenge to this "superific" culture is that we cannot give away what we do not have. We cannot give away that which we do not like. Involvements in friendships, activities, and the adventures of life assist in our becoming aware of the goodness within us, in our accepting of the limited self each of us is, and then in our donating that gift to our sisters and brothers. If we stay off the benches and out of relationships and stay locked inside ourselves, then we are asking for what we get, ignorance squared. JESUIT ATTITUDES The Creighton something shows itself in a number of attitudes you will see lived out on campus. You will also see them expressed on six banners displayed in the Student Center. Let me say a word about each of these Jesuit phrases and the attitudes behind them. 1. One of them was already mentioned: Men and Women For and With Others. 2. Cura Personalis are two Latin words expressing one major Jesuit idea, care for the person. Creighton tries to care for the personal needs of our students. So we have the expected forms of care for you: air conditioning, fire alarms, internet connections, and even good food on occasion. Still, there is this other kind of care which is at the center of the Jesuit and Creighton something. When you were a little child, you had to learn what hot meant as your mother protected you from burning your hands. Little by little, we all have to learn what is good for us and what is not so healthy for body as well as spirit. We think we know what is good for us, but we sometimes make bad judgments. The Jesuit ideal is to assist your caring for your self and learning what is good for you, really and ultimately good for you, by assisting your search for answers.

Your participation in the Ratio Studiorum Program, with the faculty and students who are dedicated to your integration into our ways at Creighton, is one such way of caring for your person. Your residence hall staff, your faculty members, Campus Ministry people, and so many others are on mission here to help you learn to care for yourself as a blest gift from God. This is one of the major attitudes which comes about through relationships and involvements here at Creighton. Caring for yourself is not the same as self-centeredness; it is the beginning of your preparing to care for others. In the Jesuit tradition, attitudes are formed by being attentive to the big questions of our lives and struggling for the answers. Attitudes will make themselves known in actions. Ignatius began this whole process by taking the time to find out what were his questions and arriving eventually at the answers which formed him -- and continue to form the Creighton something. There is this one day of the Involvement Fair, but generally, Creighton itself is an ongoing everyday celebration of relationships of care, healing, interest and service. The actions flow easily enough if you are in possession of your attitudes. The Creighton something allows for the asking of questions and provides the time and guidance for your answerings. Asking, answering, checking attitudes, and deciding actions all are essential parts of the great Ignatian something. 3. You will see the initials AMDG at various spots around Creighton. These short for the Latin Ad maiorem Dei gloriam express the Jesuit attitude that all our actions are meant to lead To the Greater Glory of God. Iigo spent his early years in doing everything for the greater impression he would make on others, for his increase in personal glorification. As we have seen, upon his conversion, Ignatius discovered, by asking questions of himself, and waiting for meaningful answers, that his actions and his person were fulfilled by making God larger. Glory means revelation, exposure, showing off. Ignatius came to the attitude that he was a person who was blest and could then in turn, bless his time and his brothers and sisters. This revealing God more than revealing ourselves will take time and a change of heart, but it can happen. Imagine such a change in yourself, your image, your sense of yourself, that when you walk into a gathering of other people you look forward to it with delight. There are many ways and phrases which we use to say good bye. We say Later, See you, or Take care. Now imagine that you walk into any group of people, two or two thousand, with such a confidence and self-acceptance that, when you are leaving that group, you expect that they are going to be better for your having been there. Instead of merely saying, Take it easy, you say Better. You are assuming that they are better human beings for your having been there. Just imagine that. Is it possible? This is also being part of the Creighton something and is a way of revealing, no, not yourself alone, but the God who creates you, blesses you, missions you. So we could say that we are acting for the better revelation of God. Our actions are a blessing by which God is better known, better seen and better accepted, because we are there! The other side of this gift is true as well. When we have this spirit, this confidence, we also, upon leaving this group, can be receptive to the groups saying, And you are better

10 for our being a part of your life. Yes, it is a new way of seeing the old give and take approach to life. Ignatius understood well that God was always laboring to bring about a fuller experience and expression of the Divine Love. Ignatius knew as well that he himself had a part in bettering, creating ways for this Love to be seen. 4. What we have been talking about is developing a community well connected with one another. This Union of Minds and Hearts expresses another important element of the Creighton something. We cannot love what we do not know. We can love what is different if we are not frightened by it. Differences do not automatically cause distance, but rather, isolating fear creates barriers which result in dis-union of relationships. Union of minds is not that everyone thinks the same thing, but union of minds does depend on everybody doing some thinking. It is quite a mystery that we can be totally against racism, but fear keeps our hearts from being in relationship with a particular her or him or them from another race. At Creighton, we strive to allow our minds to contact truth and to love it no matter what the cost. 5. What is so central here at Creighton is the coming-to-life of you, the immigrants who have landed on the campus shores. There are chemical formulae and Spanish verb forms to be learned, but there is always the more, the Magis, within life and within each of us to be grasped. So while this is indeed a school, a university and a place for higher learning, there is more and each of you is that more. Creighton is a mission of charity, or love. Each of you will have the chance to experience that love from each other and from the staff and faculty. We are here because of you and because we have answered the same questions you will have to face. We are here because there is a culture from which you have come and to which you will return. Our Creighton something is you. Will you leave here having made us better? Will you extend that better up and down the rivers and lakes and mountains you will travel? Mission means sending and that is the whole something of Ignatius and Creighton. 6. The deepest desires of us who are associated with Creighton are for Forming and Educating Agents for Change. We would want Creighton to be better for your having been here. The real leading-out is that the culture, relationships, families, patients, clients, the poor and afflicted will be way better for your having been here and having been educated enough to want to change the culture. There is much darkness in the world, but it is better to light one candle than to curse the dark. The changes will happen within you first if you allow Creighton and the Jesuit spirit inside. If you lock it out and lock yourself inside, then you are likely to allow the culture of greed and selfish violence to change you. This is primarily a mission to send out, to graduate, women and men who love the world and its people enough to give their lives for its betterment and who both dislike and love the world enough to want to re-create it. From the mountain in northern Spain to the hilltop in Omaha, the Ignatian something has created this mission-place, this center of Christian education. Jesuits founded this

11 something to do the great sorts of things Jesus did. That is why we find in many places on campus the letters IHS, the first three letters of Jesus name in the Greek language. Most dramatically, you will see these letters embedded in the floor of St. Johns Church at the head of the main aisle. What the people of Creighton do, Christians and others, is to assist Gods on-going creation. Together we ask questions, and we struggle for answers which form attitudes. These attitudes of care, justice and wisdom are displayed in the actions of those who are led out from ignorance about who they truly are. As Ignatius went up the mountain, you have climbed the hill. As Ignatius came down the mountain once he found out his truth, you are now preparing for your day of graduating, of going down and out and across to help this worlds people come to their senses about who they truly are. When your day comes, we will not say Good bye. We will say Better!