Today the Church celebrates with joy and gratitude the life and witness of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the former soldier turned pilgrim-beggar, turned founder of one of the most influential orders in the Church and the world: the Society of Jesus. He was a man who sought at first to serve the kings of this world for his own glory, but when brought low in defeat and devastating injury, he could no longer stand tall enough to look down on anyone, but could only look up to the One looking down upon him from the height of the Cross, and from then on he sought to serve the only King worth serving, ad majorem Dei gloriam: For the Greater Glory of God.
St. John the Baptist was very much the same way: he was the son of a respected Temple priest and long-barren mother, and he lived like a man raised by wolves, clothed in rough-made clothes of camelhair cinched with a simple leather belt, eating locusts and wild honey (Matthew 3:4). He was a man with no desire to gain anything, and nothing whatsoever to lose: we may as well have been a lion! And how Herod cowered at his roar, imprisoning the prophet simply because the prophet spoke the truth of his illegitimate marriage. Even from prison the Baptist served the Truth on a golden platter, but neither Herod nor his wife could chew it, much less stomach it, for their entire life was one enormous lie; they were self-serving, and there is no greater lie than that of believing one exists to serve their own interests. “…you are not your own…for you have been purchased at a price,” Scripture says (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) or, in the words of Mother Theresa, “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”
This is what St. Ignatius realized, after a lifetime of self-service: he was created, as he would write in the Spiritual Exercises, to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord. He would famously pray, “Lord Jesus, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve you as you deserve.” This is what it is to dwell in the Kingdom of God, to live as Christ our King calls us to live, that such a Kingdom may thrive among us. For is this not Heaven: the perfect, loving communion of oneself with God and one another? John the Baptist sought to rattle Herod out of his self-service, for he could have done immense good for the Jewish people if he were not so set on doing immense good only for himself. Thus God rattled Ignatius, and he would go on not merely to serve, but to light the world on fire with the love of God, just as a farmer burns the land to be rid of weeds, that the crop might grow all the better.
“Our Father, who art in Heaven…thy Kingdom come,” we pray. How shall it come? “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” How is it His will is done on earth? By imitating our King and following His example, as Ignatius thought to do, He who said, “…I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me,” (John 6:38).
Ite missa est!