St. Ignatius was born approximately 520 years ago and died 455 years ago. So what might St. Ignatius of Loyola say to the Filipino Christian of today?
I can think of three:
- Find a hero!
- Be flexible!
- Focus on Christ!
Find a hero
When Ignatius was recovering from his wounds, he was reading Vita Christi, a Life of Christ and Flos Sanctorum, Lives of the Saints. As he read these stories, he began to compare his life to the lives of the saints and began to dream of doing the same deeds of valor for the King that these saints were serving. He also began to compare his own goals to their goals. He began to think of imitating the saints, and their lifestyles, the manner of their dress, their eating habits, their penances, and more importantly, the attitudes underlying the saints' lifestyles.
The lives of the saints became a template on which he began to build a plan of reform, leading him to exchange the finery of a knight with the rough robes of a pilgrim at the shrine of Our Lady of Monserrat. From an imagination filled with pictures of battlefield and court conquests, he turned to images of a pilgrim dressed in penitential rags wanting to preach Christ to others.
Ignatius can ask us then:
- Who are our heroes?
- Whom do we want to imitate?
- What fills our imagination?
Be flexible
As a pilgrim, Ignatius quickly realized that if he wanted to keep the Inquisition away and be more effective, he had to study. Studies were the means by which he could assure others that he was not one of the heretics who were moving around Spain. He went back to school while keeping himself engaged in preaching and spiritual conversation. Fellow students who were attracted to his preaching and spiritual conversation became his companions, who then began to do the same thing he was doing, preaching and spiritual conversation. He changed his attire to that of a university student because by looking more ordinary, he could reach out to more people. From a loner, he became one among several working for God.
Years later, when he was already with his six other companions in their journeying across places wracked by war, they kept out of trouble by making sure that the companion who would talk with the soldiers in the battle zone was the one who could speak the language of the soldiers, while the rest kept silent. This way, they were able to cross battlefields, without being associated with either army in the conflict.
Initially too, Ignatius did not want the Jesuits to open schools that were open to non-Jesuits because he did not want Jesuits to be less mobile. But when he realized that schools were a means to train leaders, he did so, instructing Jesuits who were starting schools to make sure that these schools had a clear plan of studies so that the students could learn the basics before learning more advanced and complicated material. He also made it clear that the schools should be forming people and not merely teaching skills.
He adapted to changed situations. He was flexible. He would probably ask us.
- How can we do what we are doing, better, to make it more suitable for doing God's work?
- What new avenues and paths can we enter so that the Good News can be proclaimed more clearly and more extensively?
Focus on Christ
Finally, if there is a recurring theme in Ignatius' description of his relationship to Christ, it is the constant reference to Christ as Lord and Companion. His focus was always on being before the King, of being loyal to Him. He asked to be placed beside Him. It is a closeness described in images of men fighting together in battle. Ignatius wrote of Christ the Leader, who suffers the same difficulties as the troops that He leads, and shares the glory of victory with them. Everything for Ignatius should be directed Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, for the Greater Glory of God.
And here we can be asked by Ignatius:
- What have we been doing for Christ?
- What are we doing for Christ?
- What should we be doing for Christ?
To repeat then what Ignatius might say to today's Filipino Christian:
- Find a hero!
- Be flexible!
- Focus on Christ!
In the name of the Jesuit Community and Jesuits all over the world,
Happy Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola!
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