1. Shadows and lights of individualism

Today, we carry out our mission in a cultural environment shot through with an individualism that challenges community life. In its survey of the Society, the last Congregation emphatically noted that this individualism has invaded us and shows itself in a kind of holy everyone for himself stance that damages common life and common work. This individualism explains why there is widespread lack of apostolic availability; why individual Jesuits allow themselves to issue public statements or perform political acts in their own names and against the esprit de corps of this "body for the Spirit"; and why missionary zeal has slackened as we give priority to individual interests – at times quite justified in themselves – rather than to the demands of the mission of Christ.

The Society will not endure if it is made up of Jesuits individually engaged each in his own work. It must be said, however, that while individualism itself carries a negative force that destroys the sense of the other, the tradition of the Society discloses that it also has some positive aspects. These have put a distinctive stamp on Jesuit community life, clearly differentiating it from monastic or conventual community life.

Though it is a mistake to see a fundamentally individualistic orientation in the spirituality of the Spiritual Exercises, it is nonetheless true that Master Ignatius insists on the self to emphasize our personal responsibility in the drama of sin and grace. We learn in line with that how God makes each of us a unique creation, unlike any other, and how each is called by name to become a servant of his Son's mission in communion with others each of whom has affirmed his own personhood in Christ (cf. Ex. 98 and 145). The result of this call in Christ's name – that each man be aware of his uniqueness, his capacities and limits, his creative powers and history – is that no one in the community is reduced to a cipher, to being merely one among many. However, this result depends on the men responsibly concentrating their energies to build the community, so that "a certain atmosphere can be created that makes communication possible and in which no one is neglected or looked down upon" (NC 325).

Thus, our community life will be characterized by a constant struggle against the negative aspects of this penetrating individualism, this total absorption in oneself and one's own work, ideas, and concerns; and it will be characterized by a continually renewed effort to create an affectionate atmosphere of mutual concern and sharing, through conviviality and prayerful discernment, that will allow each one in the apostolic community to open himself responsibly to Christ's mission. A community can never develop among people who seek nothing but themselves; a community can reconcile individual personal development with true belonging in apostolic body – by the power of the One "who in the name of His Father gathers us together into one body... for the sake of a life that is apostolic in many ways" (NC 314).