Saturday of the Twenty-second week in Ordinary Time
Today’s gospel recalls an important episode in the intellectual history of the Society of Jesus. Formed in 1540, the birth of the Jesuits coincided with the repopulation of Europe after the trauma of the black death. City life and all it contained engendered questions that were new and different from medieval rural society. The inhabitants of these cities enjoyed increased literacy and the printing press allowed them, at least by reading, a wider range of experiences. Just as in today, when Covid requires us to make decisions about best practices, so did life in the early modern period, perhaps even more so. The Jesuits were constantly discussing, teaching, and publishing texts and homilies dealing with a subject refered to as casuistry, the science of deciding in light of certain laws. Not without criticism was this venture undertaken. Pascal was particularly virulent in his criticism of Jesuit laxity -and thanks to his writings- Jesuits have been labeled as advocating moral laxity and the easy way out ever since. The basis for much of this discussion resides in the Gospel today where we see that Jesus seems to abrogate the law of picking wheat on the sabbath in consideration to a greater law. Of course, presuming that our own unguided conscience void of any communal input is a sure way of proceeding is equally hazardous as unthinking obedience. Here again, the gospel and its echo in the writings of Ignatius remind us to constantly monitor our underlying motivations.