How creativity makes Boston College students subversive

You’ve heard the story. Saint Ignatius stands on the dock and watches his boy Francis Xavier drift away from shore in his boat. In this dramatic goodbye scene, Francis infamously hollers back to Ignatius, “Go set the world on fire!”

Go set the world on fire.

So what does this mean exactly?

Father Michael Himes says BC may be called a school for subversives— a school which trains people to overthrow the society we’re in.

Why overthrow it?

Because as good as our world is, our world is not as good as it can be.

This past week, we witnessed horrifying events in the Middle East, France, and at the University of Missouri. Apparently, now more than ever, the world is nowhere near as good as it can be.

So I believe St. Ignatius would put it this way: whatever there is, burn it up, and begin anew. Set it aflame, and build something else from the ashes.

But really, can we do this? I think it depends on how creative we want to be.

Creativity isn’t a gift reserved for the artistically talented, the intellectually superior, and social elite. Rather, creativity is available only to the most willing, the most disciplined, and the most faithful— those who decide time after time to build up from the ashes and place hope in the creative act.

There is a reason why we prefer not to bake cookies from scratch. Why? Because creativity is hard, it’s arduous. It requires an unbelievable amount of our time and energy. Moreover, creativity is despairing. In our lifetime, we will only accomplish a fraction of our work. Nothing we do is ever perfectly complete.

However, in the face of despair, the creative will decide to act anyway.

Creative people can act in the face of despair because they demonstrate the following four steps: passion, mission, freedom, and vision. Let me explain…

Passion

Creativity begins with passion, a spark. We need to first set our own hearts on fire with the things that ignite us, that give us energy.

So what inspires you? Which particular issue, type of person, place on earth, field of study, physical activity, and artistic practice gives you energy?

Find your passions and spend the rest of your life pursuing them. This becomes our mission.

Mission

What do you want most? Why do you want this?

If you can answer these two questions, you are a lot more creative than you may initially think.

Jesuits must remind themselves that their most fundamental goal is to do what is for God’s greater glory. Medical professionals must constantly recall their ultimate vocation to improve the health of the patients they serve. Parents must always realize their steadfast love for their children.

Everyone has their own unique mission, although to pursue our mission we must first be free.

Freedom

Freedom has two components— freedom from and freedom for.

We first need freedom from the things that hold us back. We cannot become so attached to a good that we cannot pursue what may be more important to the mission.

However, getting rid of attachments is meaningless unless it’s freedom for some greater purpose— freedom from attachment is an aimless drift unless it is simultaneously freedom for an orienting goal.

When we are free to pursue the mission, our convictions pull us foreword and keep us properly oriented like a compass.

Vision

Lastly, creativity has a vision, a vision which perceives every day as an invaluable gift, yet a struggle for survival—a vision with nothing to lose, though nothing to fall back on. Most people shrink away from taking a risk, fearing a bad decision will damage their credibility or a failure will jeopardize their accumulation of success and status.

Ignatius and his nothing-to-lose colleagues had a vision, a commitment to “live with one foot raised.” They would try something new. If it worked, they did more of it. If it failed, they did something else.

In this way, failure becomes creative— it gives rise to a new vision that forges ahead despite an unexpected turn.

So here’s the deal: these ideas are worthless if they do not serve as a call to action, if they do not translate vision into action.

We need to act as others react. We need to voice while others respond. We need to remain true when others conform.

In doing so, we burn the world down and start once again from the ashes.