5 October 2018
Friday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time
“From the wicked the light is withheld” (Job 38:15). The first point is that wickedness and darkness go together. In other words, ignorance and malfeasance cooperate. How exactly they cooperate is a good question. Do I sin because I am ignorant, or am I ignorant because I sin, or both? This is a question for theology and philosophy, and not for a blog on Ignatian spirituality.
My second point is more germane to this blog. If you confess yourself to be a sinner (and this confession is a key principle in Ignatian spirituality), then you must also confess yourself to be ignorant in some important ways, if you believe the truth of Job 38:15: “from the wicked the light is withheld.” Of course, when you were baptized you received the light of Christ, and this is a light that no darkness can overcome, but, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, you also must receive his teaching: “judge not, lest ye be judged” (Matthew 7:1). In other words, there are limits to your ability to make correct judgments, and these limits, I suggest, are due, at least in part, to your own sinful tendencies. If you really take this seriously, then you will be willing to submit to the judgments of others in some important matters, for example, to God and to the Church he founded and authorized. That is one of the reasons that St. Ignatius added a chapter to his Spiritual Exercisesthat outlines rules for thinking with the Church.