Celebrating Ignatius at 500 reminds us of how he arduously collaborated with God in His mission of reconciling the world. A mission he appropriated and made his own. All through his life, Ignatius took this mission seriously, and today we affirm his solidarity with God by journeying him through his experiences.
Like many of us in this broken world, Ignatius faced many setbacks in his plans of becoming a gentleman of the court. In his mind, he had envisioned this life and built his expectations around its satisfaction. However, God entered his life by sending him a cannonball during the battle of Pamplona, which shattered this dream. At this point, his life took a new meaning that created the Inigo de Loyola, whose experience of God has become an encouragement for us.
It is often difficult as humans to comprehend or understand the future or make meaning out of a devastating situation. In life, we experience cannonballs as often as we hear the death of a loved one, the news of our failing health, lost a job, or couldn’t get the admission we so desire; the recent pandemic adds a variable to life’s complications which seems to take away the control of life’s energy from us. At such a time, life becomes even more precarious given the ambiguities that come with these experiences. We seem not to find God anywhere around us. We attempt to fit God into our plan instead of allowing God to fit us into His plans. The life of Ignatius invites us to learn how to order our lives according to God’s plan in order to enter into a more profound friendship with Him. It is only through the eyes of God that we can make meaning out of our Christian journey with the cannonballs and impossibilities that surround it.
At various points in his life, Ignatius used his experience of God to interpret and understand his situation. At every stage of his life, Ignatius recognized the hands of God molding him, instructing him, and sometimes chastising him. As often as he could find God in these experiences, he learned the discernment of the spirits. With this attitude, Ignatius composed the Principle and Foundation as the cornerstone upon which one can make the Spiritual Exercises. In these exercises, we realize that our relationality with God informs every other aspect of our experiences. For Ignatius, this was a burdened virtue that kept him focused on God and not on his abilities. His struggles through life did not and could not take this gift away from him. Instead, it became an aspect of his life that guided his steps and actions, knowing that he can find God in everything and live for the greater glory of God.
His willingness to be drawn by God into the embrace of His love made Ignatius relentless in his service of others. He was willing to let God redirect his vision of the world, and with God’s grace, he was able to see himself as loved. Thus, as we journey through these experiences with St Ignatius, may we experience the grace of conversion and deep trust in the will of God. May we recognize that God is inviting us to lay down and what His love calls us to pick up. Through this conversion of heart, we might be able to see the world through the eyes of God and be able to love just as God loves.