17 November 2020

Memorial of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Religious

One of Ignatius’ key directions for a retreatant making the Spiritual Exercises is that he should enter into them with “magnanimity and generosity” toward our Lord (SpEx 5). In today’s readings, we find both an exhortation and an example of this magnanimity and generosity. In the first reading from Revelations 3, the Lord admonishes the Laodiceans for their lukewarmness, which is essentially a lack of magnanimity. And in today’s Gospel, Zacchaeus demonstrates what this magnanimity and generosity can look like in concrete terms. When the Lord tells Zacchaeus that he will come and stay at his house, Zacchaeus’ response is to offer “half of [his] possessions . . . to the poor,” and to repay those he has extorted not once or twice, but “four times over.” Faced with the great gift of Jesus’ love and mercy, Zacchaeus cannot but respond with a great generosity that is born of both humility—in recognition of his past misdeeds—as well as gratitude. 

If we recognize Zacchaeus’ action as only material generosity, however, we miss something important, because for Ignatius, magnanimity goes beyond the merely material level. Ignatius counsels us “to offer . . .  [our] entire will and liberty” to the Lord (SpEx 5). Throughout our day today, let us call to mind the moments in which the Lord has visited us like he did Zacchaeus, so that we can respond in gratitude by offering ourselves completely to Him.