The Terry Center, filled with Jesuit Dallas and Strake students, teachers, and guests, sit in anticipation for the mass said by Father Carlos Esparza S.J., class of ’98. Father Esparza’s return to Jesuit is preceded by working with the Department of Defense, joining the Jesuits, working at Jesuit Strake, and now preaching in Denver, Colorado. He returns to the school on the 33rd week of Ordinary Time, a day that also holds the meeting of Jesuit Dallas and Jesuit Strake on the basketball court. Father Esparza, a graduate of Jesuit Dallas and a former teacher at Jesuit Strake, has a connection to both schools.
The homily focused on the theme of trying to look past the turmoil in the world and using the many gifts we are blessed with at Jesuit to make the world a better place. Father Esparza says, “The readings were tough”, but he “[focused] on what were the good things,” and was able to overcome it by “[praying] with the readings,” and “[talking] to alumni.” He says he likes to ask people “What are things you would like to know?” and “What would be helpful for you?” before any of his homilies. Upon reflection, Father Esparza thought about “how we [could] make use of all the gifts [at Jesuit]” and decided to incorporate that theme into his sermon.
Lachlan Carton ’18 said that he was able to connect the homily to, “a spiritual reflection [he] did in theology about God calling us by name,” which, he adds, “related to how he called us to use our talents to help others.” Father Esparza’s call to utilize our God-given talents hit home with many Jesuit students. Lachlan put it simply by saying that the most important thing about our gifts is “just to use them.”
Saying the mass for the first time at Jesuit, Father Esparza says the experience “felt like he was a freshman again,” adding that the largest mass he’d said before this was for 300 hundred people. He added that “when [he] thinks about [his] priesthood, it comes back to [Jesuit],” claiming, “if it wasn’t for my [teachers and priests], I would not be a Jesuit priest.”
While working for the Department of Defense prior to joining the Jesuits, Father Esparza “had a house, and a really nice car” and was “making good money” yet he felt, “God was calling him to something better.” Thus, Father Esparza found joy through the Society of Jesus only after he’d stopped “looking for those ways society says are [successful].”
The mass of the 33rd week of Ordinary Time united two Jesuit schools, and reunited Father Carlos Esparza S.J. with his alma mater, Dallas Jesuit, and the lessons in his homily of seeing past the bad and making use of our gifts are sure to stick with us.
