Thursday, July 30, 2009

17th week, Ordinary Time, St Ignatius of Loyola

1st Reading: Lev 23, 1.4-11
Gospel: Mt 13, 54-58

Today we rejoice with the parish of St. Ignatius and also with the Jesuit community as the Church celebrates the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola. He was also the founder of the Jesuits.

In his early years, St. Ignatius was a soldier, and his personal ambition was for glory and victory in the battlefield, besides of course, to be in the service of his king.

Then he was wounded in battle, and while recovering, and also out of boredom and to while away his time, he took up a book about Jesus Christ to read.

That was the turning point of his life, and he began to do some deep soul-searching and to pray deeply.

Later, he developed some spiritual exercises, which we now call the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, which are used in retreats and prayer.

In these spiritual exercises, St. Ignatius said that all we do must be done for the glory of God.

In retrospect, would any one actually have expected an ambitious soldier like St. Ignatius to become a great spiritual master.

Just as no one in Nazareth would have expected a carpenter's son to become a preacher, as we heard in today's gospel.

Well, the fact of life is that we have our assumptions and expectations of others, and with these, we compress them and even stunt their possible growth into something greater.

Similarly, we do not like it when others impose their assumptions and expectations on us.

In all we do, let us remember the words of St. Ignatius : All for the greater glory of God

In this way, we all can become a greater people