31 July 2020
Memorial of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Priest and Founder of the Society of Jesus
St. Ignatius wrote in the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus many clear directives for Jesuits. Yet, he always counselled us to adapt those directives to the persons, places, and circumstances in which we find ourselves. In part, this was due to the early missionary reach of the early Jesuits who found themselves in settings which Ignatius knew he could not imagine in India, Germany, Brasil and Japan. Another possible reason for the flexibility which St. Ignatius wrote into the Jesuit rule book, however, is that he had learned from experience that sometimes our openness to a ‘plan B’ allows God to work more in our lives than if we rashless clung to a rigid ‘plan A’.
In his first three decades of life, Ignatius did not set the praise, reverence and service of God as priorities in life. His first ‘plan A’ was to be a successful soldier who would win the favor of a fair Spanish maiden. A cannon ball to the leg shattered more than that initial plan, and yet it also provided the quiet of convalescence in which Ignatius could realize the peace coming from a new plan to follow Christ. Next, making his way from Spain to Jerusalem, he planned to spend the rest of his life evangelizing in the Holy Land. A threat of excommunication from Franciscans sent him back to Spain and sent another plan sailing. After some theology studies in France, he and his new companions planned to try to get to the Holy Land once again. But sailing there proved impossible. Only then did yet another ‘plan B’ come together, to form a religious community together and to put themselves at the disposal of the pope.
St. Ignatius was to spend the last couple decades of his life in the city of Rome. There he found how to glorify God in the simple acts of prayer, administering the early Society of Jesus, and attending to the needs of those neglected by others in the city. By the self-denial and service of years spent in raising funds for the missionary service and ministry of his brother Jesuits, and far more by his dedication to prayer and helping others to discern the will of God, St. Ignatius allowed God to work through him to produce one of the most fruitful ‘plan B’s’ the Church has known. On July 31, 1556, St. Ignatius quietly died in bed at the age of 65. May he intercede with God to obtain for us the grace to see the Lord laboring in these new circumstances, and to cooperate with divine grace for the greater glory of God.