An Interview With A Columbian Jesuit: Edwin Martinez C, SJ

When the first time you thought about being a Jesuit?

Several times in my life, people have asked me when I begin to be a Jesuit, why I am a Jesuit and why I wanted to be a Jesuit. Actually, I am not sure I have a good answer because I just feel called to be a Jesuit. Even in the beginning, my family, a very Catholic family in Colombia, did not understand my decision. I was studying in a Jesuit high school (like Seattle Prep or Gonzaga Prep) and Jesuits used to come to this school to talk with the students who might want to be Jesuits. The students who went to speak with the Jesuits did not have to go to classes and so it was fun for us to skip class. Many times I was in these meetings with the Jesuits, especially when I had mathematics and difficult quizzes, because first I did not want to be in these classes but later because I began to feel differently. I really wanted to be a Jesuit. At this time, I was 16 years old and I was a high school junior.

Colombian Jesuits have a special house named Manresa in Bogota for young men who think they have vocation. In this house, people who want to be a Jesuit live for some time and they think and pray about making a good decision. When I was a high school senior, I lived in Manresa and I came to know Jesuit history and other important things about the Society of Jesus. I was really coming to appreciate Jesuit history and also the justice projects that Jesuits were involved with in Colombia. Every weekend, I used to go to different parishes and I would meet many people. Really, I never thought about being a Jesuit but working with the people and I felt so happy in doing so that the result was that I wanted to be a Priest as soon as possible.

However, Jesuit formation is very long and though I have been in Jesuit formation nine years and still I have to study four or five years more. I think that is good because religious vocation is not a profession. The religious vocation is road that we are invited to travel our entire life.

Read the full interview (here)