Breaking the Word

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Solemnity of St. Ignatius of Loyola

Celebrating Mercy

Readings: Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 1:1-6; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 9:18-26
Picture: cc alantankenghoe

Sisters and brothers, I was at the Farrer Road MRT station yesterday, where I encountered someone who had taken the wrong train. I knew she had taken the wrong train, because she was complaining loudly on her mobile phone. Apparently, she had intended to meet someone at the Farrer Park Station on the North-East Line, but had somehow ended up at the Farrer Road Station on the Circle Line instead. Wrong train. Wrong line. Wrong direction. Wrong station. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. No wonder she sounded so frustrated, as she stood in front of the MRT map, desperately trying to figure out how best to get back to where she wanted to go.

It’s quite likely that some of us will find the woman’s predicament more than a little funny. How could she make such a silly mistake? She should have been more careful. But I suspect that there are also some of us who will be able to empathise with her. Perhaps we too have experienced what it feels like to be lost. Perhaps we too have taken a wrong train, or boarded the wrong bus before. Or maybe we were driving on a highway, and missed a turn-off, or went in the wrong direction, and ended up far far away from where we were supposed to be, from where we wanted to go. That can be a very scary experience. Whatever people may say, it’s usually no fun getting lost. When that happens, all we want is to find the quickest and shortest possible way to get back on track. And how relieved and thankful we are when we finally meet someone who can help us to find our way.

It’s good for us to remember such experiences today, sisters and brothers, as we celebrate our parish feast. For on this Solemnity of St. Ignatius, our readings remind us that, as with the MRT, in the spiritual life too, it’s possible to get on the wrong track. Except that in the spiritual life, the consequences are far more serious. It’s not just a matter of being a little late for an appointment. As Moses reminds the people in the first reading, in the spiritual life, the choice we have before us is between nothing less than life and death, blessing and curse. To stay on track–to choose to obey God–is to live and to flourish. To get off track–to choose to turn away from God–is to lose not just our bearings, but our very lives as well.

And yet, as important as it is for us to stay on the right track, our celebration today is not really about never getting lost. For we know that much of the early life of St. Ignatius was spent precisely on the wrong track. His Autobiography, for example, begins with this sentence: Until the age of twenty-six he was a man given up to the vanities of the world, and his chief delight used to be in the exercise of arms, with a great and vain desire to gain honour. In other words, right until he was a young adult, St. Ignatius was well and truly lost. Instead of obeying God, his life revolved around only gratifying himself. He was preoccupied with fulfilling his own worldly dreams and ambitions. Quite clearly, the young Ignatius was on a fast-track to spiritual destruction.

If this is the case, then what we are celebrating today is not the perfection of someone who always made the right choices. Someone who always took the straight and narrow path. Someone who never boarded the wrong train. Someone who never got lost. No. In remembering the life of Ignatius, we celebrate not so much his perfection, as we do the mercy that God showed him in Christ Jesus. Even though Ignatius was lost, God saw fit to set him back on track. So that what St. Paul writes about himself in the second reading, can quite easily be applied to Ignatius as well: The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And I, says Paul, am the foremost of sinners; but I received mercy...

I received mercy... This, sisters and brothers, is the wonderfully consoling message–the marvellous piece of Good News–that we are celebrating today. For, however pious or faithful we may believe ourselves to be, isn’t it true that we all have, within us, similar tendencies towards getting lost? Isn’t it true that all of us need the mercy of God? The same mercy that was shown to both Ignatius and to Paul? And what we celebrate today is the wonderful news is that this mercy is continually being offered to us. However lost we may sometimes feel, God never fails to reach out to us. God never ceases trying to get us back on the straight and narrow.

But, if this is true, how do we allow God to keep us on the right track? How do we receive and benefit more and more from the mercy that has been showered upon us in Christ Jesus? The gospel shows us the way. And the way consists in pondering and responding appropriately to the question that Jesus poses his disciples: Who do you say I am? When we truly allow ourselves to consider this question in all seriousness, what we receive is a map showing us the road that leads to life. A road that involves leaving selfishness behind, in order to walk ever further into the mystery of God. Which is why Jesus is quick to remind us that to travel along the right track is also to walk the Way of the Cross: If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.

This too was the experience of Ignatius. Having been converted and set on the right track, he experienced a deep desire to follow Jesus. And, as you know, while in a chapel at La Storta, about ten miles north of Rome, Ignatius was blessed with a vision of God the Father placing him with Christ the Son. And what was Christ the Son doing at the time? He was carrying his Cross.

But that is not all. For Ignatius, getting back on track didn’t just mean denying himself and picking up his own individual Cross. For Ignatius, following Jesus also meant reaching out in some way to others who were still lost. From the early days after his conversion, Ignatius experienced a deep desire to, in his own words, help souls. And it is because of this desire of his, that we’re now blessed with the Ignatian tradition of spirituality. This too is what we celebrate today. Not just the mercy of God shown to Ignatius, but also the mercy of God shown in and through him. The mercy of God that led Ignatius to seek out and to save the lost, as Jesus and St. Paul did before him.

Sisters and brothers, in remembering our patron saint today, what we are celebrating is the mercy that Ignatius received from God and then shared so generously with others. We celebrate the wonderful way in which God brought Ignatius back when he had gone astray. And what God did for Ignatius, God also continues to do for us.

Sisters and brothers, do you perhaps know of someone who needs your help to get back on track today?

2 comments:

AnonymousSun Jul 29, 11:18:00 am GMT+8
"God writes straight with crooked lines, and sends asses to teach us to be wise." - Margaret Silf

How very true many times!
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AnonymousSun Jul 29, 08:37:00 pm GMT+8
Dear Fr. Chris

This homily on God's Mercy and Ignatius's story resonate vividly with me, a very similar personal account that I just overcome.

Unwittingly, I had boarded a wrong train and wrong bus at some point, it was only until the bus or train turn in to the opposite direction, or the radio broadcast the next station that I realised - I have boarded wrongly. Of course, at that time, it was either I was too tired or deep in thoughts. What do I do.. I was frustrated but didn't grumbled loudly, just lamented on my own stupidity. Luckily, the wrong train or bus did not go too far from where I boarded, so I still managed to reach my destination on time.

At one stage of my life, I was like Ignatius, but not to the extend of achieving the vanities rather too stressed up by working life that I wanted to find other extreme activities to counter-react. Over the years, through hard work and acquiring the necessary knowledge and practices, I managed to acquire a recognition in that arena, however, gradually, I realized that despite the recognition (almost internationally), I could not find the sort of peace and happiness that I wanted. After all, all those material possessions and recognition were short lived, it was through the recent LISS that I got Awakened. It was like what Paul said, "I am the foremost of the sinners, but I received mercy..". It was through the daily Gospels that I received, and pondered, reflect and reflect, and with tremendous help from a Good Samaritan that I woke up from this deep sleep.

In Matthew 4:4, when the tempter said to Jesus, "If you are Son of the God, tell these stones to turn into loaves", and Jesus replied, "Men don't live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.". Every Gospel is God's living word to save us/me from the bad/evil. And, I am very grateful that I have opened myself and willing to listen to Him, letting go of those short lived, materialistic possessions despite my friends' sarcastic remarks, and followed Him. 2 Cor 12:10 - .. For it is when I am weak that I am strong. I was weak for a long time, however, I am glad that I found this strength through the Gospels and power of Holy Spirit to pull out. A friend once told me, "All Saints have a past, and all Sinners have a future." I always remember this as it is a beautiful encouragement. And today, I am very surprised that I am able to link up some similarities in this homily to my own.

It was through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit that I received the Gift of Courage and Wisdom to make this move and change, thus leading me to a New Life. I am hopeful to give this testimony to soften those people who are still unwilling to open themselves up to accept Our Heavenly Father's Salvation, I know that the time to convince them will be long, but I am hopeful that one day, they will turn their hearts towards God, as God is Love and Merciful. In Psalm 103:15 - 18:

Man lasts no longer than grass,
no longer than a wild flower he lives,
one gust of wind, and he is gone,
never to be seen there again;

yet God's love for those who fear Him
lasts from all eternity and forever,
like His goodness to their children's children,
as long as they keep his covenant
and remember to obey His precepts.

Peace
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From 36th Jesuit General Congregation

It is our union with one another in Christ that testifies to the Good News more powerfully than our competences and abilities.... In our individualistic and competitive age, we should remember that the community plays a very special role since it is a privileged place of apostolic discernment.... The Jesuit community is a concrete space in which we live as friends in the Lord. This life together is always at the service of mission, but because these fraternal bonds proclaim the Gospel, it is itself a mission. –Companions in a Mission of Reconciliation and Justice (CMRJ), nn. 7-9.

With the poor, we can learn what hope and courage mean.... In our communities and apostolates, we hear the call to rediscover hospitality to strangers, to the young, to the poor, and to those who are persecuted. Christ himself teaches us this hospitality. –CMRJ, nn. 15-16.

At the heart of Ignatian spirituality is the transforming encounter with the mercy of God in Christ that moves us to a generous personal response. The experience of the merciful gaze of God on our weakness and sinfulness humbles us and fills us with gratitude, helping us to become compassionate ministers to all.... For us Jesuits, compassion is action, an action discerned together. Yet we know that there is no authentic familiarity with God if we do not allow ourselves to be moved to compassion and action by an encounter with the Christ who is revealed in the suffering, vulnerable faces of people, indeed in the suffering of creation. –CMRJ, nn. 19-20.

(T)he Society must respond more decisively to the Church’s call for a new evangelization, giving special emphasis to ministry to and with the young and with families.... A special gift Jesuits and the Ignatian family have to offer to the Church and her mission of evangelization is Ignatian spirituality, which facilitates the experience of God and can therefore greatly help the process of personal and communal conversion. –CMRJ, nn. 22-23.

In many societies, there is an increased level of conflict and polarization, which often gives rise to violence that is all the more appalling because it is motivated and justified by distorted religious convictions. In such situations, Jesuits, along with all who seek the common good, are called to contribute from their religious-spiritual traditions towards the building of peace, on local and global levels. –CMRJ, n. 28.

Pope Francis has emphasized the fundamental connection between the environmental crisis and the social crisis in which we live today. Poverty, social exclusion, and marginalization are linked with environmental degradation. These are not separate crises but one crisis that is a symptom of something much deeper: the flawed way societies and economies are organised. The current economic system with its predatory orientation discards natural resources as well as people. For this reason, Pope Francis insists that the only adequate solution must be a radical one. The direction of development must be altered if it is to be sustainable. We Jesuits are called to help heal a broken world, promoting a new way of producing and consuming, which puts God’s creation at the center.... The multifaceted challenge of caring for our common home calls for a multifaceted response from the Society. We begin by changing our personal and community lifestyles, adopting behaviour coherent with our desire for reconciliation with creation. – CMRJ, nn. 29-30

From 35th Jesuit General Congregation

From General Congregation 35

By sending us to 'those physical and spiritual places which others do not or have difficulty reaching,' the Pope entrusts to us the task to 'build bridges of understanding and dialogue,' according to the best tradition of the Society, in the diversity of its ministries.
- Decree With Renewed Fervor and Dynamism, n. 6

To be missioned to this work 'at the New Frontiers of our times' always requires that one also be rooted at the very heart of the Church. This tension, specific to the Ignatian charism, opens the way to true creative fidelity.
- Decree With Renewed Fervor and Dynamism, n. 13

In every mission that we carry out, we seek only to be where (Christ) sends us. The grace we receive as Jesuits is to be and to go with him, looking on the world with his eyes, loving it with his heart and entering into its depths with his unending compassion.
- Decree on Identity, n. 15

For ultimately, there is no reality that is only profane for those who know how to look. We must communicate this look and provide a pedagogy inspired by the Spiritual Exercises, that carries people - especially the young - into it.
- Decree on Identity, n. 10

Our ministries of proclamation of the Word and the celebration of the Life of Christ in the sacraments continue to be fundamental for our mission and our lives together as Jesuits.
- Decree on Mission, n. 19

The complexity of the problems we face and the richness of the opportunities offered demand that we engage in building bridges between rich and poor and establishing advocacy links of mutual support between those who hold political power and those who find it difficult to voice their interests. Our intellectual apostolate provides an inestimable help in setting up these bridges, offering us new ways of understanding in depth the mechanism and links among our present problems.
- Decree on Mission, n. 28

Jesuit community is not just for mission, it is itself mission.
- Decree on Mission, n. 41

In this global context it is important to highlight the extraordinary potential represented by our character as an international and multicultural body. Acting consistently with this character can not only enhance the apostolic effectiveness of our work but in a fragmented and divided world it can witness to the reconciliation in solidarity of all the children of God.
- Decree on Mission, n. 43

Faith in Jesus Christ teaches us that self-realization comes from self-giving and that freedom is not so much the power to choose as the power to order our choices toward love. At the same time, love for Jesus Christ and the desire to follow him call us to trusting commitment. Commitment to the Word Incarnate cannot be separated from commitment to the concrete manifestations of the Word that are at the center of our lives, the Church and the Society which exists to serve the Church.
- Decree on Obedience, n. 19