22 May 2019
Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Ignatian spirituality can be explained as two modes of contemplation: top-down contemplation and bottom-up contemplation. With these modes we can see how Ignatian Spirituality shared similarities with Thomas Aquinas’ exitus-reditusschema: all things come from God (exitus) and, in different ways, return to him (reditus). A term that Ignatius often used in the Spiritual Exercises is de arriba(from above). This term declares that all blessings and graces descend on the created world from God. For example, in the Contemplation to Attain Love in the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius wrote: “I will consider how all good things and gifts descend from above; for example, my limited power from the Supreme and Infinite power above…” But there is also an element of bottom-up theology, in which St. Ignatius invites people to contemplate over many different creatures, such as plants, animals, cattle, fruit, etc. St. Ignatius was hoping that the contemplation would cause the exercitant to focus on a single world order and eventually the exercitant would arrive at an understanding of the first order of all things.
In the Gospel reading today, John uses the image of God the Father as the vine grower. The Greek word of vine grower is georgos, earth-worker or farmer, from which the name George originated. The Father’s work as caretaker has a twofold meaning based on the Greek words. The vine grower removes (airei) or cuts of the branches that bear no fruit and prunes (kathairei) or cuts clean those that bear fruit so they will bear more. The idea of being cleansed by the Father must be understood from the context of exitus-reditus. Jesus was begotten by the Father as incarnate revelation and the disciples are made clean through believing the Word that Jesus incarnates through his life, death and resurrection. As the disciples of Christ, we will return to the Father by putting into practice the words that Jesus speaks.
In your prayer today, pray and reflect on the gifts of God from above, either through creation around you or the people around you. Or, perhaps you can reflect on how much you feel Jesus Himself is a gift to you. Ask God how to respond to these gifts and in what way these gifts might help you come closer to God the Father.