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1. What
is a perspective that Ignatian Spirituality opened me up to? What was my perspective on this matter before?
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“In short, when we are doing what we are capable
of doing, we are praising God… for everything has the potential of calling
forth in us a deeper response to
our life in God.”
This
encapsulates one of the perspectives the Ignatian Spirituality (IS) opened up
to me. Everything has the potential of calling forth in me a deeper response to
life in God. My previous perspective is
that God is in all the good things that happen in my life but is not found in
the burdens I carry. In the struggles,
in the sins, in the mistakes I make or in the angers I burst forth. In the beautiful song of footprints in the
sand, God said din naman that those hard times are really the times he carried
me.
In
reality, it is difficult to find God in those struggling times. My recent experiences involve my marital
struggles. Often I just find myself
bursting in rage or resentment over disagreements or accusations I find sucking
out the life in me. Looking back, I only
feel and sense the anger and frustration and never sense the presence of God,
his assuring presence not apparent. So I
often ask myself, how do I find God in these burdens. It is more in fact the devil in me that
operates when I experience unjustness or pain.
But
God does not burst forth to referee in the arena, He does not gush out to stay
the hands of anger, nor tame the tongue of revenge and soothe the simmer of
emotionally provoked rage. It is only
when I learn to pause, and literally reflect in the midst of boiling reaction,
when I earn my cool and choose to react differently that God subtly whispers
the soothing assurance of peace. The
burdens do have the potential of calling forth a God response. But it takes a deep sense of selfless
patience, humility and restraint. When
these values of silence are resorted to, then God does speak His mind and heart
of mercy. Only when I become aware of
the movements of my emotions and choices will God’s presence become apparent to
me, for in the noise of impulse, retaliation and the pangs of self
preservation, God’s subtlety is lost.
The other perspective is, “Perfection as human
beings…Our perfection lies in our ability
to
mirror the kind of love that God has for all of us.”
To
strive to be perfect is desire to be desired.
But this time I have a better understanding of what that perfection
should be. No wonder why Pope Francis
said, holiness is not a privilege of the saints, it is for everyone. And the bible has been emphatic about it all
along, “Be perfect as your Father is perfect”, words Jesus left us with. To mirror God’s love in me, is to be
perfect. So all of us can be perfect
this way, not the kind of perfection that human abilities and social standards
set which often is materialistic, mundane or careerist.
2. Choose
a prayer exercise from the last powerpoint presentation. Do the prayer exercise
and then describe the fruit of that prayer exercise.
I chose the Prayer Exercise on following human leaders or rulers.
Human leaders emerge because
they gave hope to people, hope for me that some better life is possible.
My own choice of leaders are those that
have created visions of a better world, a better future. The world is beset with so much struggles,
injustice and pain. Human leaders emerge
out of this cauldron and provided meaning and relevance through hope for
myself, or the future of my children.
Christ has given us
inspiration for a kingdom of justice and peace but also challenged us, me, to
question and change the present obstacles in the human institutions and the
human psyche that block this kingdom’s fruition.
The fruit of the spiritual exercise
for me is a realization: That the
response to follow Christ is not an individual endeavor. It is not a private personal matter. Like great human leaders who made connection
to people’s daily lives and struggles, the response to follow Christ also has a
social dimension, a social connection.
Following Christ is also getting connected, making concrete involvement,
giving social commitment to the lives of Christ’s people. No wonder Ignatian Spirituality carries
Social Justice. Human leaders inspired
people to follow them, inspired me, because they talk about live human
experiences, struggles, aspirations. In
the same way, faith in Christ is not abstract, not limited to institutional
rituals, it is life-giving, it is hope-inspiring because it immerses in the day
to day breathing of the community, of individual families, of my family. Faith in Christ is living concretely the
reign of His kingdom which begins here on earth and here and now. It is not a “pie in the sky” or an opium,
Christian faith is “our daily bread”, it is “forgive as we forgive those”, it
is doing, doing the “ordinary with extra-ordinary love”, and Christian faith is
“thy kingdom come, as it is in heaven”.
I live in this kingdom, I breathe daily in this kingdom and this is both
my hope and my challenge to bring to life in me and through me.
3. What
one quality or grace of St. Ignatius would I want to have and why?
St. Ignatius’ deep trust in
God is strongly manifested in his grace of detachment and tolerance. People might have rejected him, hurt him
along when he started the mission. When he gave up his chivalrous life and
lived a completely different journey. He
might have struggled with great difficulty at that start yet he managed to
overcome. He came out strong. He came out more loving and life giving. If I look at the life of St. Ignatius there
were so many things he gave up or let go – his former life of nobility, his
vanity, his fixations to certain goals.
He was even willing to give up the society (Society of Jesus) if the
pope then would ask for so. He was
always willing to go forth to any mission. He surrendered himself to what God
prompts him to, whether with divine confirmation or through the church’s
mandate.
Letting go presupposes a
profound mind and an inexhaustibly compassionate heart. St. Ignatius was clearly able to see that as
far as attachments are concerned, one can be disordered and divergent from God.
Detachment is not very
easy. My own experience would declare
that I have to seek a balance with it in my life. If I were single, I can certainly can make
decisions that affect only myself, my needs, my status, my future. But as a father and husband, it is much
complex. I would want to be detached
from worldly luxuries or even some needs for instance to keep my sense of
self-denial and exercise greater charity towards others need, but my family
would plead and prod for what material belongings others would have. I may be comfortable with a simple tv but my
family would beg me for a nicer one, where should I stand, how should I
consider detachment in such a simple case for instance. Or it is not simplistically viewed that way,
but in the simple acts rests the bigger more difficult challenges. I suppose as far as my own attitude toward
things are concerned, the grace of detachment is desirable for me but I need
not impose my own desires just yet to my other family members. In time, I have to move them to my own range
of view, this is where my challenge lie.
4. What would I thank St. Ignatius for?
I am especially thankful to St. Ignatius for arousing in me
the attitude to welcome or even invite rejection, negative feedback or
humiliation rather than exhausting myself to avoid such for as long as these
are offered to God. In a way, I can also
feel how Jesus felt to be rejected, humiliated and betrayed. In so doing, my burdens become an experience
of oneness with Christ, a sanctifying experience in a sense. Rather than a resenting, blameful,
counting-cost or regretful attitude towards my burdens or suffering especially
done to me by the people I serve, I choose to take the higher ground as St.
Ignatius did. St. Ignatius taught of a
higher ground option, embrace the cross, feel how Jesus must have felt and be
one with Him in the experiences of burdens, sorrows and cross. It is not blind subservience and enslaved
docility to abuse by others, rather it is an awareness of a option for a
Christian response.
“I DEEPLY DESIRE TO BE WITH YOU IN
ACCEPTING
ALL WRONGS AND REJECTIONS AND ALL
POVERTY,
BOTH ACTUAL AND SPIRITUAL—AND
DELIBERATELY CHOOSE THIS, IF IT IS
FOR YOUR
GREATER SERVICE AND PRAISE.” (Spex
98, David Fleming, SJ)
