Thứ Hai 25-1 - Thánh Phaolô trở lại

CVTĐ 22:3-16; CVTĐ 9:1-22
TV 117:1bc, 2
Maccô 16:15-18

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Just as Saint Paul's own conversion was central to his spirituality, Saint Ignatius's turnaround energized his zeal for the conversion of others. Like a tree trunk that could never imagine itself being shaped into something beautiful and useful under the chisel and saw, Saint Ignatius wrote that "Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him, and if they were to allow His grace to mould them according to His will."

Still hearing echoes from the crusades, Saint Ignatius understood that he was charged with converting the infidel, but the infidel he recognized was inside of himself. He understood his enemy, the devil, to be the enemy of his human nature. God had created mankind as something good. But Iñigo had, somewhere along the way, given in - lost the battle. He knew he would have to train, to drill, to do exercises to ready himself to fight and die under the flag of Christ as Saint Ignatius Loyola.

The virtues of a soldier became the virtues of a saint. Saint Ignatius equated faith with what the hierarchical Church firmly taught in those troubled times. "All judgment laid aside, we ought to have our mind ready and prompt to obey, in all, the true Spouse of Christ our Lord, which is our holy Mother the Church Hierarchical." Saint Ignatius understood the Church and the Pope to be his field general and his job was to think and feel with this institutional Church and act accordingly.

Saint Ignatius also understood love of God and of neighbor to be paramount. It was for the love of God that he made any and every move. Glory on the spiritual battlefield became "Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam" (for God's greater glory). This phrase was repeated 376 times in the Jesuit Constitutions and countless times in letters to friends and others seeking his help. His love of neighbor was simple: lay down your life for your fellow man. Christ did as much.

By Mr. John Brown, S.J.