Father Sylvester Tan is one of Jesuit’s newest addition to the staff of priests who work at the school. Fr. Tan has already been involved in giving one of the all school masses and a prayer service about vocations. Also, Fr. Tan works at the Montserrat Jesuit Retreat house where he divides his time with the school.
Interview
Recently, I interviewed Father Tan to get to know more about his faith journey as a priest.
What do you think is the most important or eye-opening experience for you through your faith journey?
I guess the most important and eye-opening experience has been the gradual realization that God cares about me. Knowing that God is active in my life, I understand that he wants to involve me in what he’s doing. I’d say there’s a pattern that I’ll get pretty convinced that the way I should serve God is this or that particular thing and I will be led by God and this or that direction and then usually God will just kind of change directions on me.
Like right before I carry out my day, I think is what God is asking of me. An example of this was when I was getting ordained as a priest. Once, I was getting ready to serve as assistant pastor for Francis Xavier college church at Saint Louis University. I was really excited about that, and I’d already started to ship my things to Saint Louis from Toronto where I was. Then, a few weeks before my ordination, I came out of my ordination retreat. During my silent 8-day retreat, I’m not checking e-mail or anything like that.
However, I received a message from my provincial and he wants a phone call and he said they need somebody in New Orleans and would be willing to change. I replied to him that I would be glad to do so. The reason why is that I joined, which meant all the stuff I’ve been getting ready for months was changed. But, this ended up being a wonderful experience, but to just have the knowledge that God is there for me, and that God is at work and to trust is important. So, I could name a whole bunch of experiences like that, but I think that it’s not just one thing. I believe it’s time after time again of God being faithful to us.
Who are people who have been very influential in your faith journey?
There have been a number of people. I’d have to say the faithfulness of my mother is certainly one. She grew in her faith when I grew in my faith, but she had a deep faithfulness even when she wasn’t like the church lady because there was a there was a deep faithfulness there. I think something who’s been important in my life is just grappling with the reality of suffering.
I mean I grew up in an immigrant family to a Vietnamese father and French mother. They both weren’t from here and didn’t have a community, so I didn’t have a community because there is no Vietnamese French community out there; we have Vietnamese and French communities. So, we were a bit isolated but my parents both came from a background of great suffering. My dad had a family that he lost in Vietnam before he came to the U.S. I never knew my brothers and sisters who died in Vietnam, so that wasn’t a direct suffering because I didn’t know them, but it was indirect through my dad. My mother also had a very difficult childhood.
This priest from Madagascar’s back story was this priest who entered the vocation path in his life now later back. Then, he was 22 when most people enter at 18. So, he suffered a lot in his life, whether it is physically or emotionally. Personally, I think one of the reasons that I may have drifted from the faith in my college years is because I needed to know that people were offering a faith that was too easy. Specifically, I meant a faith that maybe didn’t take into account the reality of suffering as much. It’s really been the people who have suffered in their life and who’ve discovered in suffering that our God is a God who doesn’t run away from suffering but who stands with us in our sufferings. So that priest from Madagascar was certainly somebody who taught me that. So especially my mom and other people that I’ve worked with sometimes; people I’ve worked with in the Immaculate Conception in New Orleans. In every assignment there’s some people, in Italy some people, in Canada.
Again, I think God’s been very generous he’s given me a lot of people, but I’d say that’s what they have in common they’re people who have discovered that God is faithful and that our God is a God who’s not afraid of suffering.
What do you think is the importance of Catholic education? What is the most significant part of your education as a priest?
So, I went to public high school and elementary school, so it wasn’t until my university days that I even went to school where there was some openness to faith things. It wasn’t until I went to university as a Jesuit or as a Catholic at a higher level that I was really able to explore the faith dimension of my education. Having been educated in a secular system for so long, there is a way in which well-meaning folks will just exclude God from our understanding of reality. They feel like they have to sometimes not think about him. For me, a Catholic education is an education that doesn’t have to exclude God, in fact it shouldn’t exclude God and an education that believes that at the deepest level of things is God’s love is there.
A great thinker from the 15th century named Nicholas talks about God not only being infinitely large but also infinitely small. He says if you go into the universe, and you go as big and big as you can get God’s going to be the first of all. God isn’t a thing but however the greatest thing you can imagine, God is there. He also says God is infinitely small and if you go small and smaller, you’ll never get to the heart of reality. I think that’s right; we keep thinking that we’ve hit the ground. First, we discovered atoms and that the whole world is made of atoms, so we’ve reached the ground of reality. Then we discovered atoms have protons, electrons, and neutrons. Then, we discover now there are even subatomic particles. So we keep discovering new particles and now that we’ve discovered the Higgs Boson we think now we know what the smallest thing is that. In the future, I’m sure we’re going to discover that it gets even smaller. But, once you’ve reached the biggest thing or the smallest thing, you will realize that it won’t be God.
What we discover is that especially when we discover that God who creates isn’t a clockmaker God, but God who loves us and God who creates us in his own image; that at the heart of things is God’s love. So, for me, my Catholic education, which was a discovery for me, after my public education, really opened me up to wonder. So, I think the importance of Catholic education is the search for a truth that’s not separated from love. Also, there’s certain search for love that’s not separated from truth. We also have a sense that not everything that goes by the name of love is love like no there’s a truth to this love, a truth goodness, and beauty, so I mean that those are very big ideas. I think that can be lived out in any subject really. I was a STEM-oriented student in high school in public education; however, after when I went to university, I shifted towards the humanities. So, I think I’ve gotten a sense of liberal arts education like I’ve gotten a chance to study, and there’s no field of study or knowledge that’s not enriched by love of God and love of neighbor. I feel like that is what Catholic education can offer.
What is your favorite passage in Scripture and why?
My favorite Biblical passage would be from the first letter of John 4: 10. The except says, “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.”
I love this passage because there’s a lot of times in my life where the evil spirit can say “you don’t love God now and you are kind of pathetic.” But when I read the passage, it reminds me that I’m pathetic. However, love doesn’t consist primarily in me loving God. Instead, it is God who loves me and the love that God has for me. He enables me to love him, and I know he loves me So, even if my love is far from perfect, I understand that God loves me so much. Also, God gives me the gift of being able to love him too.
What advice would you give to Jesuit students about how to grow in their faith journey?
Ask God who God is right. If you’re a Christian, ask Jesus who Jesus is because we use the name of God a lot but I’m just like any of us.
For example, you can talk about someone all you want but if you don’t really know who that person is really or if anything that somebody says about that person could be right or not. So, if you don’t know the individual personally, you know you’re probably wrong about all sorts of things. Then, give Jesus a chance to make a difference in your life or give God a chance to make a difference in your life. God’s grace is all around us, God is always looking to give gifts if you ask them. If you get to know God, you’ll understand what kind of gifts he wants to give you, and give him a chance to give you those gifts.
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