22 July 2018
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Disponibility and Indifference
Beginning today and through the coming days, our reflections on the daily readings will be Ignatian-themed so that those who wish can use them as a novena of meditations in preparation for the feast of St. Ignatius.
In Mark 6, the apostles report on what they had done and taught after returning from the mission fields where Jesus had sent them. Jesus then invites them to go away by themselves with Jesus “to a deserted place to rest a while,” since there were so many people around them that the disciples “had no opportunity even to eat.” As important as the work that Jesus had given them had been, Jesus now wants them to submit to a time of re-creation alone with him. Some of the disciples may have found this difficult,, seeing the great need of the people who press in around them. But Jesus knows best: they need to leave the crowd behind. When Jesus and the apostles cross over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, they discover that a vast crowd has already arrived there and is waiting for them. As much as the disciples may have now been looking forward to their vacation, they will not have it, for Jesus’s “heart was moved with pity for the people, for they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.”
For Saint Ignatius, a Christian’s liberty–and the memory, intelligence, and will that compose it–ought to be moved by that Christian’s love for God. Whereas some people might argue that it is more important to serve and others will argue that making time for one’s own rest and restoration is essential, for Ignatius, these are things to which we should be fundamentally indifferent. What makes the difference is the will of the Beloved, Jesus Christ, who points us towards one thing or another and who has the right to point us towards one thing and then, when we are on the point of receiving it, to withhold it from us and then offer us something else. Ignatius gives the Lord permission to do this in advance, and when it happens, he thanks God, saying, “everything I have is yours: dispose of it according to your most holy will.” These are words of a true lover, who hangs on every Word uttered by the one who is Love. Through Ignatius’s intercession, may we too so love Love.