Father Summerton was Chief Guest and gave speeches at the following venues and dates as part of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the Hazaribagh Old Students’ of St. Xaviers’ Association (HOXA):
Kolkata: 25th – 27th January 2008
Hazaribagh: 29th January 2008
Delhi: 2nd February 2008
Pune: 9th – 10th February 2008
Chennai: 12 April 2008
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Hazaribagh: 29th January 2008
Delhi: 2nd February 2008
Pune: 9th – 10th February 2008
Chennai: 12 April 2008
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Speech by Father Oswald Summerton S.J. in Chennai at The Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the Hazaribagh Old Students’ of St. Xaviers’ Association (HOXA) on 12 April 2008
Up till recently, HOXA was in Kolkata, Hazaribagh, Delhi and Pune. One month ago, I opened my e-mail to discover the good news that HOXA was to have a new branch, here beside the oceans, in the classic city of Chennai. A week later I was delighted to get the invitation to be part of the inauguration of HOXA Chennai. My mind went back 50-plus years to the thrill I got when, on the back of Father John Moore’s motorcycle, we drove through the original gates of St Xavier’s School, Hazaribagh. Thrill number two was to be introduced to my charges of the junior-junior dormitory, to Partha, Sameer, Vikas, and before long, the whole school!
In the early days of my life at St. Xavier’s I was shaped by the founding Principal of St. Xavier’s, Father John Moore, the most inspiring educator I have ever known, who spent his life building healthy value systems in the boys under his care. He treasured every boy as his very own, creating school buildings of which his students could be proud, providing opportunities for his beloved students to study and play and live together in happiness and cooperation with one another, and listening to all the problems and stories the children had to tell him. He was especially diligent in protecting the younger boys in the school. Brilliant as he was, Father Moore was fundamentally a man with a big loving heart.
Today as Father Moore looks down from heaven on our gathering here, I am sure that he is proud of certain qualities, one especially, namely that all of you, in receiving your leaving certificates, had somehow taken a share of his large heartedness, of his spiritual strength. Your parents placed you in Father Moore’s care. You studied and played and lived together under the guidance of Father Moore’s companions, including teachers, and you received an education of a life-time. You are living out the values we taught you in your workplaces, in your families and in your communities. This is an event to recommit yourselves to the real India, to the true humanity, the faithfulness to God that we did our best to inspire you with. On behalf of Father Moore, of his Jesuit companions, of his faithful teachers, and the men and women who have served all students of the school, I thank God and I thank all of you here on this occasion, and all who are not with us today.
And the stories we can tell and the nostalgic anecdotes we can dredge out of our minds !
Let me begin with a few memories. First, in March of 1953, Fr Moore arrived in Ranchi to invite me to return with him (on the back of his motorcycle on the roads of those times), and help with the teaching in St. Xavier’s. I accepted gladly, and soon I arrived in St. Xavier’s. After settling down, I went exploring. The first thing that amazed me was the enthusiasm of future test players, young chaps dreaming dreams of victory and playing cricket with a piece of wood for a bat, and small stones for cricket balls. At the same time the young fellows were absorbed in nature because as I returned to my room I saw a group of boys under a tree, pointing to green guavas, and discussing their merits in a most scientific way.
Father Moore gave me a “few” responsibilities such as the junior-junior dormitory, setting up the physics and chemistry laboratories, supervising the afternoon games, monitoring evening meals, and classes to teach such as maths, science, geography, Indian history, English, and a few other things to do. One day as I passed his office, Father Moore called me in and asked, “What do you know about Boy Scouts?” I replied “Only that I wanted to join them.” He replied, “Good. You start the Boy Scouts here !” And without more ado I became the founder of the Boy Scouts. It was a lot of fun for me and teaching the Xavier scouts how to tie knots, how to cook in corners of the school grounds, how to set up tents, provide cooking delights, give out rations of toilet paper when there was no water only ice outside, carry dried fruits and nuts for lunch each day, and so on! My other duty was to teach you all how to climb mountains – this was fairly easy. “Stick to the paths” I said and it seemed to work. We prepared for arriving in the district of Darjeeling by nights on the police grounds. Then we went out to Sitagarha and Canary Hill, and, – I leave the rest to your memories. Ultimately, well seasoned, carrying nuts and kishmish for our middaly meal, we went along the hill tops in the direction of Mount Kanchenjunga. From there we turned off and went to St. Joseph’s. One outcome is the brilliant historian and photographer of the Himalayan ranges, our old boy Deb Mukherjee whose treks and books and power point presentations are an everlasting testimony to the eternal snows.
There was something I learned, thanks to Father Moore, that I must tell you here. One day as I rushed past his office, he called me back and told me that the Class 5 English teacher had resigned without warning. “Will you take over the class?” “Yes,” I replied, seeing no other option, even though it was not my subject. And so, I grabbed the textbooks and went up to Class 5. The boys seemed happy enough, and I asked them to write an essay that I would correct. I sat down and paged through the textbooks until the end of the period, discovered that only a few had completed their essay writing, so I told all of them to complete and correct their essays, and everyone was told to hand up the essay as homework next day. On the next day, I collected their essays. That day was a heavy one for me, and although I collected the home work the next three days gave me no time to complete the corrections. On the fourth morning I had twenty five minutes in which to complete these assessments. When I realized that the first one took fifteen minutes I wondered how I could ever finish the remaining 29? God helped me at that moment. I looked through the first one again and focused on one sentence that was accurate. I proceeded to enclose it in a red coloured box beside which I wrote “Good, repeat three times”. I did this with all the other homeworks and I was in class on time, to hand them out to the boys. I explained to them that the best way to correct their work was to increase the good parts and repeat them over and over. The scheme worked until a couple of days later, one homework was filthy beyond description. After returning the homeworks to the boys, with this one exception, I called the name of the boy whose homework was filthy. In a strong voice I said, “Come up here!” At the same time I held up the homework so that all the others could see the mess. I was preparing to give a blast of reprimands and exhortations when I saw that the culprit, was marching up to collect his homework with a seraphic smile on his face as though he was about to receive a benediction ! When I saw the boy’s face, and his eagerness to come and get his perceived public award of recognition, I stopped myself in time and heard God gave me a command. “Treat him gently”. I obeyed the voice. I swallowed my anger, handed him his homework ceremoniously and said nothing. The boy marched back to his place thinking he was the hero of the day. I sat down and took a few minutes to recover. In the next day’s assignment, I could not find the boy’s homework. He must have done it again. I thought. I carefully went through all the homeworks again and found his name. I had given him 10 on 10 for an excellent job. I turned the page over and saw the previous day’s filthy homework and knew he had changed. It was a miracle by mistake as it were, and I said, “Thank you God.”
In the meantime Father Moore called me to his office and said, “Some parents are informing me that you are not correcting the mistakes in their sons’ homework. Is this true?” I answered “Yes John, I have invented a new way of correction. I find something that is good, tell them to practice it because it is good: I want them to emphasize the positive work they do.” I still tell this story in my workshops to teach people that what you focus on, that you get. Focus on mistakes and you will get more mistakes. Focus on the good work and you will get more good work.
And finally let me remind you that today we need a new revolution of love like in the old days. Our children are expected to be high performers, our world is getting too globalised with money matters and we are forgetting to save the forests and the rivers with their animals, birds, insect life, etc. We need your concerted efforts to steer humanity back on the path of friendship between peoples, protection of the poor, preservation of the family and saving of the ecosystems on our planet earth. You our old boys of St Xaviers can lead the way to a new future of humankind, if you set your hearts on it. Of that we are all sure.
Are you ready to see that God is telling you to gather together, not only for fun and games and outings and other pleasant experiences, but to mutually assist each other to fulfill the plan that God has for each of you not only as individuals, but as members of HOXA, of a group that has imbibed the spirit and courage of John Moore, a group that dreams of what they must do to fulfill God’s dream of you as a living network.