Saint Ignatius Loyola, Priest and Founder of the Society of Jesus – Readings
Commentary on Deuteronomy 30:15-20 or 30:10-14; 1 Corinthians 10:31—11:1; Luke 9:18-25 or Matthew 8:18-27 or John 1:35-42
Three Gospel readings are suggested for today’s feast. Each of them reflects some of the spirituality of the Spiritual Exercises. The first, from Luke, is his version of Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Messiah, followed by the first prediction of his suffering, death and resurrection and, finally, the conditions for following Jesus. In the last verse of this text occur the words:
For what does it profit them if they gain the whole world but lose or forfeit themselves?
It is said that this text was proposed by Ignatius to Francis Xavier, who at the time was bent on a career of material success. After doing the Spiritual Exercises under Ignatius, Francis would devote himself to the Way of the Gospel and become an outstanding missionary, covering huge territories of Asia. It is for us, too, to hear those words of Jesus and reflect on the values that govern our lives.
The second proposed passage is from Matthew. It is about two people who wanted to become disciples of Jesus. The first, a scribe, said he would follow Jesus wherever he went. Jesus replied:
Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
It is clear that the man had to realise that to be a follower of Jesus, he had to be ready to let go of absolutely everything. Another person, who seems to be already a disciple, says:
Lord, first let me go and bury my father.
To which Jesus replies:
Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.
It seems a severe answer, but the message is the same. It is possible, too, that the man’s father was not yet dead, but he wanted to be there when it happened. For Jesus, the service of God is always in the now. Ignatius expressed this teaching by his emphasis on ‘indifference’, a total openness to the will of God without expressing any preference one way or another.
The third text is from the Gospel of John. John the Baptist is with two of his disciples and, as Jesus walks by, John says,
Look, here is the Lamb of God!
The two disciples, one of whom was Andrew, begin walking behind Jesus. Jesus turns and asks them:
What are you looking for?
They reply with a question of their own:
Rabbi…where are you staying?
And Jesus answers:
Come and see.
So they went and saw where he stayed. A simple dialogue, but full of meaning.
It is a dialogue that each one of us can have with Jesus. If he asks me, “What are you looking for?”, how will I answer? My answer will say a lot about where I am in my relationship with Jesus. And I can also ask, “Where are you staying?” Where do I go to find Jesus? Where in my life is he to be found? Finally, there is the invitation “Come and see”. Knowing Jesus is not a question of doctrines and deep theology. It is a matter of a personal experience of Jesus in my life. This is the purpose of the Spiritual Exercises—to know Jesus more clearly, to love him more dearly and to follow him more nearly.
Two texts from the Book of Deuteronomy are suggested for the First Reading. They are both from Chapter 30. We read:
If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.
The commandments mentioned here, of course, are the Law of Moses, but we will rather look at the law of love that Jesus taught. Jesuits, too, will find God’s law expressed in the Constitutions of their Society and in the wishes of their superiors, in whom they recognise the voice of God. For a congregation whose members were often scattered far and wide and living very much on their own, obedience was very important as a bond joining them all together.
The Second Reading is from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians. It reflects the motto of the Jesuits:
…whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.
And the passage ends:
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
The work of Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, was much loved by Ignatius. And the goal of doing the Spiritual Exercises is to become as like to Christ as possible.
There is also a beautiful prayer at the beginning of Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians (1:3-10) which speaks of how each one of us has been chosen by God long before we came into existence. In it he says:
He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. (Eph 1:5)
Ignatius would have been very much aware of how God worked in his life. Step by step, God brought him from the life of a rather worldly soldier to a hermit’s life, and eventually to become the leader of an apostolic group devoted to the spread of the Kingdom and God’s greater glory. Perhaps we too can see God acting in our lives at different stages and see how he has brought us to situations of which we had never dreamt—and how he has lavished his gifts on us through the people we have encountered and experiences we have had.
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Thursday after Ash Wednesday – First Reading
Commentary on Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Both readings today offer a clear choice between the way of death and the way of life. The First Reading passage comes from near the end of the Book of Deuteronomy, just before it relates the last actions and the death of Moses. It is in a section known as the Third Discourse, that is, a third discourse attributed to Moses. Only Deuteronomy speaks of a covenant made in Moab, an area to the east of the Dead Sea and the last territory which the Israelites passed through on the way to the Promised Land. The covenant is complementary to that made at Horeb, where the Decalogue was given to Moses.
This reading (as does today’s Gospel) offers a choice between life and death:
See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.
Life is to be found by totally accepting the way of life that God proposes:
If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God…
In other covenants outside that of the Old Testament, it was common to name a list of gods who served as ‘witnesses’ to its contents. The covenant between Yahweh and his people was witnessed by both heaven and earth:
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life…
The way to life that God offers is not one that much of the world proposes. In fact, the world sees God’s ways as limiting when, if properly understood, they are truly liberating. The life that God offers is not freedom to indulge in every desire and pleasure—pursuit of wealth, uninhibited sex, indulgence in drugs, and other self-serving actions. Day after day people’s lives are being destroyed by these things.
Life, now and in the future, consists in hearing, assimilating, and living out the way of life that God proposes. Today, God offers us the clear choice between life and death; he leaves the choice up to us.
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