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The Jesuit vocation was described recently
by a member of the Society
as “being a monk in Times Square.”
The soldier saint
By Rawley Myers
Deadly apathy rots the vitals of the Church. A saint is needed to wake people up. Saints are individuals of zeal and courage. A saint may be loved or hated, but he cannot be ignored. He is a person of bravery and energy who, because of prayer and humility and divine help, can turn things around. This was St. Ignatius Loyola.
He lived in a most turbulant time in the Church, much more confusing than our own. He lived at the time of the Reformation when there was decadence in the Church, and he was the great leader of the Counter-Reformation.
The Reformers were able to make inroads because in many places the Church was in an appalling state. It badly needed rehabilitation. Most priests in most parishes were mediocre at best. They almost never preached or instructed the poor people in the faith. Their lives were stagnant. They were hardly an example to their parishioners. It was then that Ignatius came on the scene. How providential that God raised up this man at this time.
Visitors to the Basque country of Spain can still see proud Loyola castle where he was born in 1492. The stately armorial insignia over the entrance is still evidence of the noble military ancestory of his family, and he too became a soldier. This is all he could think of until he was cut down, seriously wounded, in the seige of Pamplona in 1521. A long convalescence literally forced him to read, if only to while away the boring hours; this man of action could not stand to be idle. God arranged that one of the few books available was the Life of Christ. And he read also the lives of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Dominic. Gradually, since he could no longer be a soldier, the idea came to him of a great spiritual army for Christ.
When he recovered from his wounds, he was a changed man. He went to the abbey of Montserrat and hung his sword before our Lady’s altar. He did not renounce his knighthood, but now he would be a soldier of Christ. The soldier, without his sword, departed for the stark caves of lonely Manresa, where he spent nine months in prayer and penance. Then though in his thirties, he studied for the priesthood. He went next to the great University of Paris. And his vision of a legion of highly-disciplined men, soldiers dedicated to the glory of God and teaching Christ wherever they were needed was realized when the first members of the Compania de Gesu gathered in the chancel of Notre Dame and pledged themselves to God’s service, vowing to live for him, with special obedience to the Holy See. The group had to repudiate vicious calumnies and accusations of heresy but before Ignatius died there were over a thousand Jesuits. And they fought vigorously for the faith, turning back the new man-made religions.
Discipline and zeal ruled, as in an army; Ignatius’s zeal for the advance of his troops all along the line is found in his motto, “All for the greater glory of God.” There is no time for rest, the world is decadent, enter the struggle, fight in the raging battle for souls and never give up.
The Society of Jesus was the savior of the Catholic faith and Catholic culture in many parts of Europe. Its valiant missionaries, making every sacrifice, brought the faith to many parts of the world.
When Ignatius was accused of being a dangerous innovator he did not quarrel with his do-nothing opponents, he only labored harder. He was a man of daring and determination. He feared nothing but to be untrue to Christ. As a saint he knew he must draw ever closer to Christ or his work would be in vain. “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.” Ignatius was noted for his undefeated idealism, his endurance, his steel-like determination. He would pay any price to do God’s will. In the beginning because he was a soldier and not interested in the spiritual life, there was a great deal he had to learn and unlearn. But, being a soldier, a man of discipline, he willingly did both. Of noble soul, he sought how he could serve God best. His work for Christ was a work of love. He wished to return his love to Christ who was limitless in his love for him. God’s goodness to men must be answered.
He wrote down his way in his Spiritual Exercises. In this book he called on the most chivalrous and noble instincts of the human heart. He showed that the soul is informed through the reasoning power of the mind and it then moves the will to follow upon the thought. One studies our Lord’s life to seek to imitate him. The soul is prepared for the divine visitation by prayer and penance. The goal is a closer union with Christ. Ignatius prayed, “Give me thy love and thy grace, and this is enough for me.”
In the beginning at the University of Paris, the faculty sneered at Ignatius’s little rag-tag band. But he was able to induce the brilliant professor Francis Xavier to join them. At first Francis like everyone else looked down on Ignatius. But he tirelessly reminded the gifted member of the faculty, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own immortal soul?” These powerful words of Christ finally brought Francis to his knees and to the Society. And he became the patron of the missions, for he was one of the most wonderful missionaries out in Asia that the world has ever known.
This company of dynamic men routed the Reformation in many areas because of their deep spirituality and high intelligence. When Ignatius began to collect followers around him, he saw that they could best serve the Church, in those days when the faith was threatened, by putting themselves wholly at the disposal of the Vicar of Christ. And so they went to Rome to be used as the Pope might direct. They would be a fighting force for the faith under one direct command.
That Ignatius and his band suffered many vicissitudes goes without saying. It was what befell every saint, every person who tries to do something for Christ, then and now.
Ignatius was devoted to learning. The Jesuits resuscitated the languishing faculties in many universities. He did not have in his society many of the traditional forms. In the Order there is no choir, no habit, no assuming of religious names, no ecclesiastical titles or dignities. Just hard work for Christ. There was hostility to Ignatius for he was accused of dangerous innovations. But he would have nothing to do with those who tried to divert him from his way. Of course, to the human vision the Society was outlandish, but Ignatius had a heavenly vision. He did not care what men thought, only what God thought. Because of this the Jesuits have made magnificent achievements.
In the heart of every saint a strong fire burns. Ignatius was able to impart this fire to his followers. He wanted his disciples to redeem the times. The link between the world and heaven is Christ, who graciously came down from above to live in our midst. He wanted all to embrace the words of Paul to the Philippians, “Have this mind among yourselves, which you have in Christ Jesus.” Paul tells us Christ became the humble servant. So everyone who wishes to experience the fullness of God’s life must follow the same path Jesus walked.
Early on Ignatius on the banks of the Cardoner River received an illumination, a pure gift of grace, after he had surrendered himself completely to God. Letting go of himself, in imitation of Christ, who poured himself out for us, Ignatius now wished to enter into and transform the world. He found God in all things. He would see a leaf or a flower or a rabbit and in awe think of its beauty as a reflection of Beauty. He “saw through” nature to God. And, even more, by picturing scenes in the life of Christ, as he says in the Spiritual Exercises, he was greatly consoled and lifted up.
Christ stands in the middle uniting the human and the divine. It is Christ who brings all our works to perfection, not ourselves. We are dependent on his initiative and he is stupendously generous in pouring out his graces upon us.
The Jesuit vocation was described recently by a member of the Society as “being a monk in Times Square.” This was the way the founder lived out his days. It is quite a balancing act to have a healthy tension between the spiritual and the temporal, but this is the Ignatian ideal. Ignatius himself met this challenge of the Jesuit vocation and, because he did so, one can only stand in awe, with Gerard Manley Hopkins, before “the achievement of, the mastery of the thing.”
Reverend Rawley Myers, Ph.D., is editor of Star magazine for the sick and elderly, chaplain at St. Elizabeth’s Convent in Colorado Springs, Colo., and auxiliary chaplain at Ft. Carson Hospital. He is the author of twelve books and many pamphlets and articles. Fr. Myers is a regular contributor to HPR.
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