Word to the Wise
Wednesday, July 31, 2013 - Wednesday in the 17th Week in Ordinary Time
[Exod 34:29-35 and Matt 13:44-46]The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 2013 ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA, priest and founder of the Society of Jesus - a.k.a. the Jesuits.
A cannon ball hitting one's leg can be a life changing experience! At least it was in the case of Ignatius of Loyola. During his recuperation, he experienced the conversion that eventually led him to found the Society of Jesus, which is better known as the Jesuits. One might say that he found the hidden treasure or the pearl of great price, but that cannon ball had the same effect! God has many ways of getting our attention!
The impact of Ignatius' effort to make his conversion experience a spiritual method resulted in his incredibly influential SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. It would take too long to go into detail about all that the Jesuits have done for the church [even to contributing our current pope!], but if the SPIRITUAL EXERCISES were the only thing, it would be a lot! It calls for the imaginative use of scripture in focusing on events in the life of Christ which lead a person to focus on the person of Jesus and to make a decision about how one wants to live one's life in accord with that discovery - a pearl of great price!
The election of Jorge Bergoglio, SJ, as Pope Francis, has brought a lot of attention to the Jesuits! Yes, they do have some skeletons in their historical closets, just as we Dominicans do, but there is a tradition that if our Master of the Order dies, we invite the General of the Jesuits to preside at his funeral, and vice-versa. My scripture "consultant" for my preaching is a Jesuit, a former student parishioner of mine! I had a cousin who was a Jesuit and he was the holiest man I ever met. So, I "tip my capuce" to St. Ignatius of Loyola today, to Pope Francis, and all the Jesuits. They do it all "Ad majorem Dei gloriam" (for the glory of God) and do a good job of it! AMEN