Prophets Still Clash with Powers

Feast of St. Ignatius, July 31

Today’s gospel about the “smallest of all seeds,” the mustard, seems appropriate today. In the castle of Loyola, Spain a simple plaque says, “Aqui nacio.” On a literal level, it means St. Ignatius was born there in 1491. Symbolically, it reaches more broadly: the tiny start of a creative, alternate narrative no one dreamt would spread so far, or endure so long.

At a time when clergy were the only intermediaries between ordinary people and God, Ignatius differed. Gloriously, he told ordinary shmucks: “God has a dream for you.” Ignatius’ alternative didn’t emphasize external rules. Instead, the interior process of the Spiritual Exercises asked not what? but who? Called into “conscious living relationship with the person of Christ,” Ignatius exchanged his sword for a walking stick. He traded the macho drama of a knight’s life for a mysteriously unfolding process. He had no idea where it would end, but limped into it trustingly.

With genius and craziness, Ignatius directed his followers, a group who eventually became the Jesuits, into the swirl of cities, where lively plazas offered places to preach and exchange stimulating new ideas. His directions for Jesuit life are remarkably flexible: no office in common, no excessive penances; regarding dress, “the manner is ordinary.” He often inserts a realistic qualifier to fit circumstances: “or whatever’s best.”

Just as prophets usually meet with disdain, so the Jesuits have had perpetual differences with the powers-that-be. Or as George Anderson puts it, “A life of active fidelity to the Gospel could place them in conflict with the generally received notion of what it means to be a law-abiding citizen.” “Jesuits in Jail, Ignatius to the Present” in Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits, 9/95.

It’s not hard to name current laws that conflict with human values, just as slavery or denying women the vote once did. So to their credit, no other religious order has spent as many man-years in jail as the Jesuits. (http://faculty.fairfield.edu/jmac/sj/briefsjhistory.htm) Congratulations on that badge of honor, and happy feast to them!

A version of this essay first appeared in Give Us This Day, 7/31/20.