The World of  St. Ignatius of Loyola can be found at  The World of Ignatius on the Web http://www.ignatiushistory.info.  This site presents an extensive pictorial tour of places associated with St. Ignatius Loyola. The creator of the site, California Jesuit Fr. Richard Blinn, S.J. sets out to construct in the mind of the browser an image of the saint using paintings, sketches, woodcuts, and drawings depicting people, places, and spaces associated with him. It's possible to 'read' the biography by moving through the site just looking at the images, although there is a background caption to each image.

Ignatian Spirituality

Your heart is restless. You want to get closer to God.  Your spirit is uneasy.  You want a more peaceful and just world.  Your soul is aching. You want a safe and healthy environment for yourself and your children.  This web page is a primer to help you in your desire to be in harmony with God, your neighbor, and the earth.

A primer can be a small introductory book.  A primer can ignite an explosive charge.  Hopefully this web-page will be both a primer and a primer, introducing us to God, igniting a radical change in our world.

St. Ignatius of Loyola developed a way of staying in spiritual condition. As walking, jogging, swimming are physical exercises; meditating, praying are spiritual exercises. Ignatian spirituality follows in the tradition of St. Ignatius and develops ways of staying in spiritual condition.

Theological Reflection

Although spiritual discernment is an important separate step, it is closely related to its helpmate, theological reflection.  I suggest, therefore that you read this sub-section on "Ignatian Spirituality" in conjunction with the sub-section "Theological Reflection."

Spiritual Consolation, Inner Peace, Love of God and our Neighbor

An integral part of Ignatian spirituality is what St. Ignatius called spiritual consolation. "By consolation I mean what occurs when some interior motion is caused within the soul through which it comes to be inflamed with love of its Creator and Lord. As a result it can love no created thing on the face of the earth in itself, but only in the Creator of them all." To love a creature "in the Lord" is to love it as God would love it, not in a disordered, selfish, addictive, or compulsive way; ready to give up even an ordered attachment if it is to God's greater glory.   Water is necessary for life.  But I can't waste water and not share it with all.

Discerning a time of spiritual consolation is important in the work for peace and justice because a period of consolation is the time when decisions are made in the Spirit.  If our relationship with God is out of kilter, we will not make good decisions regarding our neighbor or the earth.  Are we taking our values from God, the churches, human decency?  Or are we taking our values and ideology from the "world," what Scripture calls all that is opposed to the message of Jesus?

Margaret Silf Inner Compass (52,53)  has a clear description of desolation: turns us in on ourselves; drives us down the spiral ever deeper into our own negative feelings; cuts us off from community; makes us want to give up on things that used to be important to us; takes over our whole consciousness and crowds out our distant vision of structures and sub-structures that we need to make this a world more in accord with God's Word; covers up all our landmarks; drains us of energy.

Consolation directs our focus outside and beyond ourselves; lifts our hearts so that we can see the joys and sorrows of other people; bonds us more closely to our human community; generates new inspiration and ideas; restores balance and refreshes our inner and outer vision; our inner and outer structures and sub-structures; shows us where God is active in our lives and where God is leading us; releases new energy in us.

I make acts of love to Father, Son, Holy Spirit; Mary, the saints, family, in this life and the next, friends, enemies, the human family, the common good, the earth, animals.  It helps to put my relationships in order.

Reconciliation

St. Ignatius himself acted as mediator between Pope Paul II and the King of Portugal.  He was also able to mediate a mortal feud between the citizens of St. Angelo and those of Tivoli.  We know that he was able to reconcile an estranged married couple, The Duke Asconcio Colonna and Jane of Aragon.

Those who follow the spirituality of St. Ignatius pursue a ministry of reconciliation, healing divisions.  Jesus prayed that we be one as He and the Father are one. "This is how all will know you are my disciples: your love for one another." Jesus went beyond ordinary notions of love by enjoining us to love even our enemies.  Scripture preaches solidarity.  Great wealth existing side by side with poverty indicates a lack of solidarity in the community.  "If your enemy is hungry, feed him." Romans 12.20   "The community of believers were of one heart and one mind.  None of them ever claimed anything as his own; rather, everything was held in common. Acts 4. 32 ff  Acts 2.44 

"If anyone is in Christ, she/he is a new creation.  The old order has passed away; now all is new! All this has been done by God who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.  I mean that God in Christ, was reconciling the world to himself, not counting our transgressions against us, and that he has entrusted the message of reconciliation to us.  This makes us ambassadors for Christ, God as it were appealing through us.  We implore you, in Christ's name: be reconciled to God!"  2 Corinthians 5.18  

"I went up to Jerusalem again, this time taking Titus with me. . those who were the acknowledged pillars, James, Cephas, and John, gave Barnabas and me the hand-clasp of fellowship, signifying that we should go to the Gentiles as they to the Jews.  The only stipulation was that we should be mindful of the poor--the one thing that I was making every effort to do." Galatians 2. 1-10.

A ministry of reconciliation calls for humility and forgiveness. The arrogant are not easily reconciled. Those not willing to forgive find stable relationships difficult to sustain. But forgiveness does not mean tolerating injustice. If you steal my watch, I may forgive you. I also expect my watch back.  Integral justice is at the heart of our relationship to our neighbor.

Religion is the creed, code, cult of a particular denomination. Whatever one's religion, I understand faith as my relationship with God and justice as my relationship with my neighbor.  The fifty persons I interviewed for my doctoral dissertation on Ignatian spirituality and justice would agree with that general understanding.   In 1975 the thirty-second international congregation of the Society of Jesus placed new emphasis on joining justice to faith.  Decree Four explains why the promotion of justice is an absolute requirement for the service of faith.  Reconciliation within the human family and reconciliation with God go together.  We can't have one without the other.

Forgiveness also includes ourselves.  It is difficult to learn forgiveness of others if we can't forgive ourselves.

The Eucharistic prayers for Masses of Reconciliation are beautiful:  "Father, we praise and thank you through Jesus Christ our Lord for your presence and action in the world.  In the midst of conflict and division, we know it is you who turn our minds to thoughts of peace.  Your Spirit changes our hearts: enemies begin to speak to one another, those who were estranged join hands in friendship, and nations seek the way of peace together.  Your Spirit is at work when understanding puts an end to strife, when hatred is quenched by mercy, and vengeance gives way to forgiveness. .  We celebrate the reconciliation Christ has gained for us. . Father, your Son has entrusted to us this pledge of his love.  We celebrate the memory of His life and message, his death and resurrection and bring you the gift you have given us, the sacrifice of reconciliation. Therefore we ask you Father to accept us, together with your Son. Fill us with his Spirit through our sharing in this meal.  May he take away all that divides us. .

Father, make your church throughout the world a sign of unity and an instrument of your peace.  You have gathered us here around the table of your Son, in fellowship with the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and all the saints.  In that new world where the fullness of your peace will be revealed, gather people of every race, language, and way of life to share in the one, eternal banquet with Jesus Christ the Lord.  Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, almighty Father, for ever and ever."

Discernment

A third element of Ignatian spirituality is discernment. In the first letter of John Chapter 4 we read "Beloved, do not trust every spirit, but put the spirits to a test to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have appeared in the world." Wounded in battle, St. Ignatius convalesced at the Loyola castle where he alternated between romantic day-dreams and hopes of following St. Francis and St. Dominic in their quest for holiness. After the thoughts of pleasure and romance, Inigo felt tired and dissatisfied. After dreams of following the saints, St. Ignatius felt at peace. This was his first experience of discernment of spirits. Later he was to refine rules of discernment for beginners and for those more proficient in the spiritual life.

Ignatian discernment of spirits rejects the pleasure-pain principle and substitutes God's will for us. God can be with us in pain.  Immediate pleasure may be enervating and weakening, destructive of relationships.  Discernment helps me to sort out the various moods and voices within me.  Discernment helps me to evaluate my moods in light of my primary relationship--my friendship with God.  St. Ignatius had a strong devotion to the person of Jesus.  Other religious orders were named after their founder.  St. Ignatius wanted his followers to be called Companions of Jesus. "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Trial, or distress, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword? ...I am certain that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor powers, neither height nor depth nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord." (Romans 8.35-38)

Jesus calls us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick and afflicted and to comfort the victims of injustice.  We need to love the individual so much we are willing to examine and re-examine any structure that may be oppressing her or him.  If the structures we have today have been set up by fallible and sinful men, they can be changed by all of us discerning together.  I think we need a revolution, a spiritual revolution, a peaceful revolution, an inner and outer revolution.  But one that will do more than put a Band-Aid on a gaping wound.  We need a radical change in the sinful social structures of our world today.    I feel I need my faith to calm my fears, to energize me for the work ahead, to help me to be honest with myself.  St. Ignatius wanted the Society of Jesus to think with the church but also to challenge the church.

The element in the overall process I propose that is perhaps the most important is spiritual discernment.  Theological reflection would be enough if all we had to do was to formulate a judgment about a situation and then do it. St. Paul indicates it’s a little more complicated than that.  “For even though the desire to do good is in me, I am not able to do it.  I don’t do the good I want to do; instead I do the evil I do not want to do.”   And not only am I limited in my freedom by the “unfreedoms” which arise within my person, I interact constantly with other persons and groups who also struggle to be authentic.  Their needs and options limit my choices since we share life in society.

Psychologists say that to be human is to be thoroughly honest with ourselves.  The last person to admit he is an alcoholic is the alcoholic.  How honest are we as individuals and as a society?  Who tells the truth about our world? Certainly not the corporate media.  Discernment I think is essential if we are to move forward.  We need to have a genuine desire to see our shadow side and become friends with it.  We need the courage to see the evils in ourselves and in our world.

Although I see the evil in those around me and in our world clearly, the evil in myself is not as easy to admit.  I do find my light graced story helps me to face my dark graced story with greater equanimity and honesty.

The French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre discusses at some length the reality of self-deception.  Self-deception would seem impossible.  How can we deceive ourselves?  The fact is that we can and do.  We lie to ourselves.  A person can live in bad faith and allow self-deception to become a constant way of life.  Hopefully I have escaped continual self-deception, but I can't guarantee myself that there aren't blind spots I have never faced up to.  For further reading I suggest David Lonsdale, Eyes to See, Ears to Hear, An Introduction to Ignatian Spirituality; Dr. M. Scott Peck, People of the Lie, the Hope for Healing Human Evil; Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness. (Sartre's second chapter is Bad Faith, mauvaise foi, sometimes translated as self-deception.)

Bishop Baldwin of Canterbury: "We do not always perceive our thoughts as they really are.  Having clouded vision, we do not discern our thoughts clearly with our mind's eye. . There are certain imitations of true virtues which play tricks with the heart and bedazzle the mind's vision.  The appearance of goodness often seems to be in something which is evil, and equally the appearance of evil seems to be in something good. . St. John gives us these words of advice: 'Test the spirits to see whether they are from God'.. Discernment is the mother of all the virtues; everyone needs it either to guide the lives of others or to direct and reform his own life." (Liturgy of the Hours, III p. 312)

Can I discern the movement of the Holy Spirit from the movement of the not so holy spirits?  Am I moving toward the Trinity or toward self-centeredness?  Am I resisting the pull of self-centeredness and trying to decide with the flow of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?  What is my governing grace?

Do I really think I’m doing all of this by myself?  What are the transcendent elements in my story? How has more good come from my efforts than anticipated?  Or how has God drawn good out of evil?  Am I  in spiritual consolation or desolation?  (Although God certainly speaks to me through my emotions, spiritual consolation is not the same as psychological consolation.)

We can say we believe in moderation in drink, but if we get drunk every week-end obviously our stated values are not our operational values.  One of the first steps toward recovery for an alcoholic is to admit he is an alcoholic.  His friends may know he is an alcoholic, his wife, his children, his co-workers, everyone but him.  The alcoholic rationalizes his condition. 

Those dedicated to peace and justice can use displaced anger even in good causes. Instead of dealing with personal frustrations, a social activist can pour out her/his anger on unsuspecting victims who cannot understand the excessive force and emotional violence of the complaints.

The table below shows a summary of what I would consider to be signs of the good spirit and signs of the evil spirit. In the Second Week of the Spiritual Exercises St. Ignatius of Loyola invites someone making a retreat to meditate on the differences between the plan of Jesus and the strategy of Lucifer, the enemy of our human nature.
Below are some suggested signs of good and evil spirits

Good

Evil

Holy Spirit	"Lucifer, the enemy of our human nature"
Peace, generosity, joy	Confusion, unrest, selfishness, sensuality
Vision, insight	Deceit, smoke, murky
Reasoned conviction	Rationalization, blind spots
Long range goals, vision of the future	Short-sighted immediate gain
Courage, hope	Dominated by fear or fatalism
Basic security	Basic insecurity
Stated values operational values	Stated values not operational values
Willingness to share	Selfish hoarding
Separate cause from personal frustration	Misdirected, displaced anger
Sense of humor	Grim
Open to dialogue	Psychic numbing, block out new thoughts, turn the page
Exegesis of scripture	Eisegesis
Able to assimilate light and dark graced story	Hate silence and reflection, flit from one issue to another, powers of concentration on an issue for a sustained period very limited.
Spiritual consolation -- turned toward God	Spiritual desolation -- toward self
Trust in God and in God’s plan for us	Excessive trust in material possessions or in my own talent or in military overkill.

Discernment is best done in a group.  If practiced individually, a spiritual companion helps in the discernment.  If we are by ourselves, there is too much danger of rationalization and self-deception.

Is the starting point of our reflection our love for God, our neighbor, and the earth?  How we can make this a better world? 

Or do we begin with a desire for an expensive home, to be well-off financially, etc, and then say to ourselves,  "Surely God won't object to my ambition."

Each of our eyes has a blind spot.  Since the field of vision of our two eyes overlap, we have a large area of two-eyed  vision.  The blind spot in one eye is overlapped by a seeing portion of the other eye.  If both eyes are open and  functioning, there are no gaps in our visual field.  We can have blind spots in our conscience also.  St. Ignatius dealt with these with detailed procedures for spiritual discernment.  We best do spiritual discernment with a companion or with a  small discerning group such as a Christian Life Community.  What we don't see by ourselves, others can help us with. 

Jesuit theologian Fr. Karl Rahner, S.J. believes gnoseological concupiscence can lead to immoral decisions.   Theological Investigations, Vol. XIII, "Interdisciplinary Dialogue with Sciences" (1975) "Every scientist is prone to the temptation of failing to listen to others, or  being willing to hear only what is confirmed for her/him in her/his own science.   Hence the strange attitude of aggression which prevails among scientists even when it is concealed by a mask of  conventional politeness." (p. 83) "gnoseological concupiscence is the mortal danger inherent in every science of according itself an absolute value and of supposing that the key which it carries within itself will fit every door."  Rahner admits that  theology also can fail to listen and not acknowledge its need for the sciences. 

In The Challenge of Peace (No. 152) the US Catholic bishops deal with probability and risk in regard to a limited nuclear war.  "The chances of keeping use limited seem remote, and the consequences of escalation to mass destruction seem appalling."  The danger arises not only from the power of our technology "but in the weakness and sinfulness of  human communities."  This principle of measuring the degree of risk against the probability of good can be used in spiritual and moral discernment.

As we grow together, we see problems of world-wide magnitude which people even of good will seem unable to solve.  When we experience the seeming impossibility of peace, we feel dumped on.  We can become paralyzed, bogged down, unable to act or to pray, unable to grow. We go from denial to despair. Yet the call of our Faith grows more insistent.

Discernment helps us to get in touch with the various voices all around us and to sort God's values from the selfishness and sensuality within us.  Often our stated values are not our operational values, and we need to be aware of this.

"Resplendent and unfading is wisdom, and she is readily perceived by those who love her, and found by those who seek her.  She hastens to make herself known in anticipation of their desire; Whoever watches for her at dawn shall not be disappointed." Wisdom 6.12ff  "May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, grant you a spirit of wisdom and insight to know him clearly.  May he enlighten your innermost vision that you may know the great hope to which he has called you, the wealth of his glorious heritage to be distributed among the members of the church, and the immeasurable scope of his power in us who believe."  (Ephesians 1.17-19)

For a thorough treatment of discernment for our own times, read Fr. Dean Brackley, S.J. The Call to Discernment in Troubled Times, New Perspectives on the Transformative Wisdom of Ignatius of Loyola.  "In poor communities, visitors are often surprised to find what they least expected: joy, and also hope, gracious acceptance, and generosity.. . the poor communicate joy in spite of everything.  This is consolation without prior cause which Ignatius assures us comes only from God.. the Resurrected One is here, consoling the afflicted against the odds.  The poor pass on that consolation to visitors (2 Corinthians1.4) who return home renewed in hope." P. 201.

God's Will

I used to think of God's will as a play already written.  My task was to recite the lines.  Now I think of God's will as a general plan which God is inviting me to fulfill.  With God's help I'm called to write the play.  I think there is a sense in which we can freely create, in terms of concrete action in given circumstances, God's will for us now.  Ignatian spirituality leaves us the freedom to find, to create if necessary, the images of Jesus and the Trinity which speak to and answer the needs of our own experience and our own times.  God has a general plan and values but expects our free and imaginative cooperation.  As we search to find God in all things, I think we can create God's will for us by our imagination, vision, and discernment.  I used to be mostly passive in regard to God's will, trying to read my lines.  Now I actively try to create God's will by always looking for better ways to be more effective.

Jesus' Way of Proceeding

After he was wounded, St. Ignatius was not at peace. During convalescence the reading of the life of Jesus led St. Ignatius toward God and to love of his neighbor. Since then thousands who are restless have found the path of St. Ignatius satisfying for themselves. St. Ignatius began his spiritual journey with Jesus, "the way, the truth, and the life." The way of proceeding of Jesus became the way followed by St. Ignatius and those who later looked to Ignatius as their leader.

My favorite scriptural passage pictures Jesus as a pioneer. "Keep your gaze fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith." (Hebrews 12.2) I like the image of Jesus as a pioneer, blazing new trails, beckoning to me to follow. My only concern is that sometimes Jesus gets too far ahead of me. As a companion of Jesus I try to keep my gaze fixed on Jesus. "Jesus progressed steadily in wisdom and age and grace before God and humankind." (Luke 2.52) When Jesus began his public ministry, he was a mature person who had grown in knowledge and age and grace. Jesus got in touch with himself, his own story, the story of his people in Scripture, the values and goals of God’s Word.

Jesus loved his mother and his foster father. He learned how to work with his hands as a craftsman and artisan. Jesus grew in his relationships with his friends, relatives, and followers. Jesus learned to be in harmony with physical creation.

Jesus went into the desert to pray and was tempted by the devil. Jesus discerned the spirits and overcame the deceptions of the devil by the power of God's Word. Jesus teaches us to beware of any one who makes evil look good. Jesus drove out the evil spirits--all that was not God.

Like Jeremiah Jesus was a prophet. He announced the reign of God, that he was sent to preach good news to the poor, the jubilee year of favor from the Lord. Jesus confronted evil, ignorance, prejudice, and arrogance.

Jesus so electrified the crowds that they forgot to eat. Jesus ministered to sinners, the poor, the sick. The faith of Jesus, his relationship with his Father, moved him to love of all.

Jesus analyzed the signs of the times of his day and urges us to do likewise. Though he did not use today's terminology of course, Jesus knew the structures and culture of his own day. Jesus used discernment to understand the world in which he lived.

Jesus chose apostles and started a community. He formed his followers, observed the liturgical rites, and began the Eucharist. The Christian churches emerged from these initial efforts of Jesus.  We continue to stay in contact with Jesus in many ways including through the poor.  In the judgment scene in Matthew twenty-five Jesus says,  "I was hungry and you gave me food;  I was ill and you comforted me." Since the poor can be sacraments to us of God's love and grace, the poor can be where we find God.  St. Ignatius felt that to be a friend of the poor was to be a friend of Jesus.

But Jesus was in constant contact with his Father in prayer, and his formal prayer often lasted all night. Jesus went apart to pray, as after the death of John the Baptist whom he knew from the womb. "Rising early the next morning, Jesus went off to a lonely place in the desert; there he was absorbed in prayer." (Mark 1.35)

Although Jesus worked as a craftsman and artisan, Jesus believed in the Sabbath. He set aside enough time for prayer, friendship, and leisure.

Finally Jesus decided to make the journey to Jerusalem to challenge the Jewish religious leaders when they were oppressing and laying heavy burdens on other's shoulders. "Teacher, we know you are a truthful man and teach God's way sincerely. You court no one's favor and do not act out of human respect." (Matthew 23.16) Besides what we would call today social service Jesus engaged in social action, seeking the causes of poverty and hunger..

Jesus was human. He wept. He felt sorrow and anguish to the point of sweating blood. Jesus returned good for evil and suffered death loving and forgiving those who crucified Him.

The Father confirmed Jesus' teachings and life by raising him from the dead. The Father said yes to the way in which Jesus made history through his decisions. The God of the Hebrew Covenant is now God of the Resurrection. We have a new way to encounter God.

After the Resurrection, Jesus consoled and encouraged and forgave his disciples. Jesus commissioned his disciples to teach, to heal, to announce good news to the poor, to do this--the Eucharist--in memory of Him; to make his redemptive life, death and resurrection present in an evil and sinful world. The risen Jesus gave hope and joy to the apostles, even preparing breakfast for them.

If I keep my gaze fixed on Jesus, I see he got in touch with his own story, and the story of his people. He did social service; analyzed the signs of the times; and discerned the spirits. He was a prophet who confronted the leaders of his day. He suffered and died. But he rose again and encouraged and consoled his followers.

Jesus did not expect the same of all. He followed a foregoer ethic as did St. Paul and the other apostles. But Jesus also called rich tax-collectors like Zacchaeus to at least a stewardship ethic, caring for others and the earth. If we aspire to be an apostolic community, I suggest we keep our gaze fixed on Jesus.

My adaptation of the way of proceeding of Jesus to my own life starts with getting in touch with my own graced story, enlarging my experience by regular contact with the materially poor and powerless, doing research and social analysis, engaging in theological reflection, working at spiritual discernment, making a decision for social action for a definite time, and finally evaluating whether I have been faithful to the process. As we follow the way of Jesus, I suggest we have a way of proceeding that makes God’s Word our own and incorporates today’s methods and advances.  Jesus still lives today, and I think we can stay in touch with the Risen Jesus.

Our Way of Proceeding

In the movie of the same name Alladin is given three wishes.  If I had three wishes, what would I ask for?  St. Ignatius of Loyola encouraged holy desires.  My first temptation would be to wish for an end to poverty, an end to war, and that we reach the starting line as a human race and secure basic human rights for everyone.  But God has given us freedom.  We can have all of the above, but only if we freely with God's help work for them and establish structures and sub-structures with which we can bring about an end to war and poverty and begin to secure basic human rights for everyone.

We can't love God if we refuse to love our neighbor.   But I think the opposite is also true.  We can't effectively be involved in our world without faith in God.  We'll burn out.  When we examine the issues facing us--stewardship of our earth, full employment, adequate and affordable health care for all, to name a few--we might easily get discouraged.  The problems seem too big and so complex.  The obstacles to our holy desires seem enormous and overwhelming. 

In Spe Salvi. Saved by Hope. No. 35. Pope Benedict XVI states: "All serious and upright human conduct is hope in action. This is so first of all in the sense that we thereby strive to realize our lesser and greater hopes, to complete this or that task which is important for our onward journey, or we work towards a brighter and more humane world so as to open doors into the future. Yet our daily efforts in pursuing our own lives and in working for the world's future either tire us or turn into fanaticism, unless we are enlightened by the radiance of the great hope that cannot be destroyed even by small-scale failures or by a breakdown in matters of historic importance. If we cannot hope for more than is effectively attainable at any given time, or more than is promised by political or economic authorities, our lives will soon be without hope. It is important to know that I can always continue to hope, even if in my own life, or the historical period in which I am living, there seems to be nothing left to hope for. Only the great certitude of hope that my own life and history in general, despite all failures, are held firm by the indestructible power of Love, and that this gives them their meaning and importance, only this kind of hope can then give the courage to act and to persevere. Certainly we cannot “build” the Kingdom of God by our own efforts—what we build will always be the kingdom of man with all the limitations proper to our human nature. The Kingdom of God is a gift, and precisely because of this, it is great and beautiful, and constitutes the response to our hope. And we cannot—to use the classical expression—”merit” Heaven through our works. Heaven is always more than we could merit, just as being loved is never something “merited”, but always a gift. However, even when we are fully aware that Heaven far exceeds what we can merit, it will always be true that our behavior is not indifferent before God and therefore is not indifferent for the unfolding of history. We can open ourselves and the world and allow God to enter: we can open ourselves to truth, to love, to what is good. This is what the saints did, those who, as “God's fellow workers”, contributed to the world's salvation (cf. 1 Cor 3:9; 1 Th 3:2). We can free our life and the world from the poisons and contaminations that could destroy the present and the future. We can uncover the sources of creation and keep them unsullied, and in this way we can make a right use of creation, which comes to us as a gift, according to its intrinsic requirements and ultimate purpose. This makes sense even if outwardly we achieve nothing or seem powerless in the face of overwhelming hostile forces. So on the one hand, our actions engender hope for us and for others; but at the same time, it is the great hope based upon God's promises that gives us courage and directs our action in good times and bad." (See www.vatican.va)

I'm not a genie.  For me to venture a magic solution to the challenges facing us would be more rash than David running toward Goliath with a sling-shot and five smooth stones.  What I do propose is a methodology, a way of responding to God's call to us. The process I submit for your consideration consists of getting in touch with our own graced story, enlarging our experience by regular contact with the materially poor and powerless, doing research and social analysis, engaging in theological reflection, envisioning new structures and sub-structures, working at spiritual discernment, making a decision for social action for a definite time, and finally evaluating whether we have been faithful to the process.

This way of responding may seem more complicated than the problems facing us.  It would be simpler to plunge pell-mell into the first thing that occurs to us.  I think that's like huffing and puffing and trying to blow down the wall of China.  We need to use all the resources at our disposal.  Although David rejected the bronze helmet and coat of mail,  he had a reason for this refusal--it was too heavy for him, and he was not used to it.  David did not forget the most important element--that God be with him.  I don't think we can have effective involvement in our world without faith.

In the judgment scene in Matthew twenty-five Jesus says, "I was hungry and you gave me food; I was ill and you comforted me."  Since the poor can be sacraments to us of God’s love and grace, the poor can be where we find God.  St. Ignatius felt that to be a friend of the poor was to be a friend of Jesus. 

As intellectual persons we need research and the gathering of data.  There's no substitute for knowing the facts.  If I hope to educate others, I need to educate myself. St. Ignatius decided to go back to school and become a non-traditional student because he saw education as a way of helping others and later of influencing society's culture.

Structural Analysis

I don't think we can read the signs of the times as Jesus enjoined us to do unless we engage at least in some elementary social analysis. Who is making the important decisions in our community and in our world?  Who is benefiting most from those decisions?  Who is paying most of the cost of those decisions? 

Let's take health care as an example.  Who is deciding that the per capita cost for health care in the US be decidedly more than in other nations? Who is profiting from others' vulnerability?  Why are the results of our health care less, sometimes much less, than in other nations?  What are the operating values in our present health care structures? I need to reflect on how I feel about the data I have gathered.  In my own case, I remember walking with my mother through her last illness.  Granting that her care was uneven, I don't think she deserved the hassle she had.

Who is making the basic decisions about health care? The doctor?  the patient? or the insurance company? Some say those uninsured or underinsured are about one-third of US citizens.  Polls consistently show that 70% of US citizens want some form of universal health care.  Why isn't it happening?

Does scripture or the Judaeo-Christian tradition say anything about the information I have gathered?  My research and analysis can't be merely a secular exercise.

Decisions can be good decisions in themselves but not timely.  "There is an appointed time for everything. . a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant." Reading the current signs of the times can become part of spiritual  discernment.  To read the signs of the times I think we need at least a basic understanding of social analysis. The Thirty-second General Congregation of the Society of Jesus included social analysis as part of the joining of faith and justice.  Jesus spoke of reading the signs of the times. The Second Vatican Council repeated this injunction of Jesus. "The Church has always had the duty of scrutinizing the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel...  The people of God. . labor to decipher authentic signs of God's presence and purpose in the happenings, needs, and desires in which this people has a part along with other women and men of our age.  For faith throws a new light on everything, manifests God's design for our total vocation, and thus directs the mind to solutions which are fully human."

Social analysis is the modern way of reading the signs of the times.  My life is not an isolated one. My graced story, my community's graced story happens in the context of the larger story of my country and of the world.  Social analysis outlines the context in which a decision for action can be made.  Social analysis is a diagnosis, not the treatment.   We need social analysis to organize our experience and research.  After we analyze the data, we synthesize it.  We try to formulate a statement the group can agree on.   Our synthesis might be: "It is neither tolerable nor necessary that we live in a world with poverty and war.  We need effective global  law and order; regional and global courts,  to settle disputes in a non-violent way; but freely chosen and with decentralized decision-making to avoid domination by a few."  (See this web-site under "Social Analysis" and "Democratic World Order.")

Envisioning Structures and sub-structures

In the Christian Covenant those who are wise follow a star, do not allow themselves to be tricked by any Herods, take another route if the way to the star seems blocked.  By together creating a vision of hope, then working to make our vision a reality, we follow the star that is a light for everyone, Jesus Himself!

Structures are the way we organize our world and our lives externally and internally. Government, corporations, the church, the family are external structures. Our values, attitudes, philosophy of life are internal structures.

In his visit to Brazil in May, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI, stated the importance of structures: “The encounter with Christ in the Eucharist calls forth a commitment to evangelization and solidarity; the Eucharist awakens a strong desire to proclaim the Gospel and to bear witness to it in the world so as to build a more just and humane society. From the Eucharist a civilization of love springs forth that has and will continue to transform Latin America, making a Continent of Hope, a Continent of Love.

How can the Church contribute to the solution of urgent social and political problems such as poverty, the growing distance between the rich and the poor, drugs, alcohol, false pleasures? . . Just structures are a condition without which a just order in society is not possible, but structures neither arise nor function without a moral consensus on fundamental values, and the need to live these values, even when living God’s values goes against personal interest. Contact with God is essential if Latin America wishes to find consensus on common moral values or the strength to live according to our values.

Just structures will never be complete in a definitive way. As history continues to evolve, structures must constantly be renewed and updated. . friendship with Jesus is essential if we are to bring about just and loving structures.

We need to have concern for the human community but also for the protection of the natural environment of which we are all a part.

What must I do so that my life has meaning?” (See Origens, May 24, 2007, Volume 37, No. 2.)
(I have taken a few liberties with the translation, but have remained faithful to the Pope’s talks.)

Keep in mind that I encourage not heaven on earth, but minimum structures for a world in accord with God’s World. A couple planning their own house want at least a roof to keep out the rain, and a way to stay warm in the winter.

When we vision, we can’t consider obstacles. If a couple begins by saying we’ll never be able to pay the mortgage, their defeatist attitude will stop them in their tracks. What are the minimum structures that we need? Obstacles can be considered later.

Visioning gets us out of the present and gives us hope. Visioning helps us to set priorities. After we vision together, we can divide responsibilities on our way toward the vision. No one can do everything. All of us can do something.

Although we don’t want to limit the power of God’s grace in our lives, we don’t have to have our complete vision immediately. There are steps along the way. The International Criminal Court, a Permanent Peacekeeping Force, the Law of the Seas Treaty are important steps toward democratic world order.

A structure is the way things are, the way we do things. Although society once had barter, now we use currency. Since there were not many horseless carriages in the beginning, automobiles managed on their own. Now we have stop signs and traffic laws.

In the gospel of Luke 4.18, 19 which builds on Leviticus 25, Jesus has a vision of a fresh start for each human person and for our whole human family. Jesus wanted a world in which each one of us has at least the minimum essentials of livelihood. What is the vision of Jesus today for our peace.? The way of Jesus is the way of non-violence, justice, forgiveness, and love. Because of original sin, I think our present vision of the world is murky and cloudy. Perhaps together and with the help of the Holy Spirit we can get our vision of where we want to go back in focus. We need "a sustained interdisciplinary dialogue of research and reflection, a continuous pooling of expertise. The purpose is to assimilate experiences and insights according to their different disciplines in 'a vision of knowledge which, well aware of its limitations, is not satisfied with fragments but tries to integrate them into a true and wise synthesis.' "(Pope John Paul II, Address to Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, May 5, 2000, n. 9 cited by Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J. in address to 28 Jesuit Colleges and Universities, Santa Clara University, Oct. 6, 2000.)

The whole idea of visioning world structures may seem daunting and overwhelming. But I never underestimate the will and power of God for good. Nor with God and God's Spirit within us, our own power of together making a world more in accord with God's Word. The establishment of the International Criminal Court, the European Union, the culture of human rights in our world have been nothing short of miracles. With one another and with God’s help, starting small, we can go forward with a vision of peace. Perhaps one part of our vision appeals to us more than others, and we want to develop and work say for an aspect of non-violence.

Envisioning new structures gives us hope.  Moving toward our vision gives us hope.  "All serious and upright human conduct is Hope in action."  Pope Benedict XVI.  http://www.vatican.va  Spe Salvi  No.35. . All serious and upright human conduct is hope in action. This is so first of all in the sense that we thereby strive to realize our lesser and greater hopes, to complete this or that task which is important for our onward journey, or we work towards a brighter and more humane world so as to open doors into the future. Yet our daily efforts in pursuing our own lives and in working for the world's future either tire us or turn into fanaticism, unless we are enlightened by the radiance of the great hope that cannot be destroyed even by small-scale failures or by a breakdown in matters of historic importance. If we cannot hope for more than is effectively attainable at any given time, or more than is promised by political or economic authorities, our lives will soon be without hope. It is important to know that I can always continue to hope, even if in my own life, or the historical period in which I am living, there seems to be nothing left to hope for. Only the great certitude of hope that my own life and history in general, despite all failures, are held firm by the indestructible power of Love, and that this gives them their meaning and importance, only this kind of hope can then give the courage to act and to persevere. Certainly we cannot “build” the Kingdom of God by our own efforts—what we build will always be the kingdom of man with all the limitations proper to our human nature. The Kingdom of God is a gift, and precisely because of this, it is great and beautiful, and constitutes the response to our hope. And we cannot—to use the classical expression—”merit” Heaven through our works. Heaven is always more than we could merit, just as being loved is never something “merited”, but always a gift. However, even when we are fully aware that Heaven far exceeds what we can merit, it will always be true that our behavior is not indifferent before God and therefore is not indifferent for the unfolding of history. We can open ourselves and the world and allow God to enter: we can open ourselves to truth, to love, to what is good. This is what the saints did, those who, as “God's fellow workers”, contributed to the world's salvation (cf. 1 Cor 3:9; 1 Th 3:2). We can free our life and the world from the poisons and contaminations that could destroy the present and the future. We can uncover the sources of creation and keep them unsullied, and in this way we can make a right use of creation, which comes to us as a gift, according to its intrinsic requirements and ultimate purpose. This makes sense even if outwardly we achieve nothing or seem powerless in the face of overwhelming hostile forces. So on the one hand, our actions engender hope for us and for others; but at the same time, it is the great hope based upon God's promises that gives us courage and directs our action in good times and bad."

What does the world need? Visioning can help us to clarify the greatest and most essential needs and how new essential structures would complement one another and work harmoniously together. What are my talents, strengths? What do I like to do? Where are my passions, desires, and ambitions? These questions can help us discern our long-range and short-range call from God.

There is no one more dangerous than someone who has every reason to hate and nothing to lose. We need to promote the basic human rights of each human person so that each person has every reason to love and everything to lose.

Theological Reflection

Besides experience and social analysis, a third element in the process is theological reflection.  This does not mean searching Scripture for proof texts to support a decision we've already made.  Theological reflection means continually going to the riches of Scripture and the values of the churches and allowing God's values to interact with the real world in which we find ourselves.  We need to put our Faith into the middle of our world.  We need to reflect with the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. If religion is only an escape, or a private matter--  if religion does not play an essential role in our everyday lives, what is the purpose of God's special intervention through revelation and redemption?  A private religion is irrelevant, trivial, and a contradiction in terms.  The reign of God is by its nature social.  (see this web-site under "Theological Reflection") 

Spiritual Discernment

A fourth element in the process I propose is perhaps the most important, one we have already discussed, spiritual discernment.  Theological reflection would be enough if all we had to do was to formulate a judgment about a situation and then do it. St. Paul indicates it’s a little more complicated than that.  “For even though the desire to do good is in me, I am not able to do it.  I don’t do the good I want to do; instead I do the evil I do not want to do.”   And not only am I limited in my freedom by the “unfreedoms” which arise within my person, I interact constantly with other persons and groups who also struggle to be authentic. Their needs and options limit my choices since we share life in society. Can I discern the movement of the Holy Spirit from the movement of the not so holy spirits?  Am I moving toward the Trinity or toward self-centeredness?  Am I resisting the pull of self-centeredness and trying to decide with the flow of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?  Do I really think I’m doing all of this by myself?  What are the transcendent elements in my story? How has more good come from our efforts than anticipated?  Or how has God drawn good out of evil?  Am I  in spiritual  consolation or desolation?  (Not the same as psychological consolation.)

As we grow together, we see problems of world-wide magnitude which people even of good will seem unable to solve.  When we experience the seeming impossibility of peace, we feel dumped on.  We can become paralyzed, bogged down, unable to act or to pray, unable to grow.  Yet the call of our Faith grows more insistent.

Discernment helps us to get in touch with the various voices all around us and to sort God's values from the selfishness and sensuality within us.  Often our stated values are not our operational values, and we need to be aware of this. 

Since there is so much to do, those involved in social action can easily fall into an unthinking immersion in the task to be performed.  Defeat in specific projects can be discouraging.  We can often feel frustrated, alone, desolate, helpless, uneasy, sometimes angry, bitter, burnt out, ready to give up and drop out.  A person may experience guilt feelings for participating even in a small way in the sinful structures of society that seem so stupid and evil--yet so powerful and overwhelming. 

Activists need spiritual depth and strength.  Let us keep our gaze on Jesus who spent time apart with the Father.  Since like Elijah we are on an inner and outer journey toward God, we need spiritual nourishment.  "Arise and eat, else the journey will be too great for you." 

Decision for Social Action

Finally we need to make a decision for social action with a definite time frame otherwise our efforts will be scattered and haphazard.  We can't do everything at once.   If we are rooted in the Spirit and fundamentally free, smaller decisions will flow easily.  Once we learn how to ride a bicycle, we never forget how to do it.   Larger decisions may require more deliberation.   Where is the greatest need?  Where can we bring about a more universal good? (See 32nd General Congregation of Society of Jesus, No. 39) 

One form of decision making opens with reflection on Scripture, clarifies what is to be decided, then puts what is to be decided positively and negatively.  For example: 

      We will spend more time collectively on prayer                  We will not spend more time 
          advantages// disadvantages                                       advantages// disadvantages 

At first there may seem no point in wording what is to be decided both positively and negatively, but we do get to look at the decision from different angles.  It works. 

After reflection on the advantages and disadvantages, you write your decision, share your decision with the group and give your reasons.  Then the group reflects on the various decisions to see whether there is consensus. Consensus does not mean everyone agrees perfectly with everyone else.  But each member of the group needs to be able to accept the decision and live with it. 

After we have made a decision, we seek confirmation as we listen to external and internal voices.  Sometimes even after much discernment, we can see that we need to modify or make a new decision.  We do not change a decision easily.  Nor are we stubborn in holding on to a plan that isn't working. 

Jesus had confronted the Pharisees and experienced their rejection.  They tried to arrest him, but he escaped from them.  Jesus then "went away again across the Jordan to the place where John at first baptized, and there he remained."  At Jesus' baptism he had been confirmed in his mission by the Father's words, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well-pleased."  Jesus sought confirmation of his mission in times of conflict. 

We need to go back to our original vision to confirm our plan.  Here I find it helpful to have a journal.  Groups can also have time lines and reflect together on their light and dark graced stories. 

Evaluation

The circle of reflection and discernment is completed by evaluation.   Although I always expect limited external  success, I think we need to know we're advancing the light graced story if only a little. Our focus, however, should  be on our way of proceeding.   The process we have been following is as important as any small gains we may be  making externally.   Do we have spiritual consolation, a sense of helping others, the strength of bonding, a sense of God's peace? 

 Immediate external success may not be in accord with our process if we have unnecessarily hurt people on the way or done violence to ourselves or to those close to us.  Our standard of success has to be how faithful we have been to the process.   There is no way to peace.  Peace is the way. 

Have we been following St. Ignatius' way of proceeding which is Jesus' way of proceeding?   I may not see many  immediate results.  Jesus was and is being crucified.  But the death and resurrection of Jesus did radically heal our world, and I can join my efforts to the redemptive act of Jesus. 

If I am in a small faith community, the different personalities in the group can bring more balance.   Some are naturally planners.  Some are actors.  Some evaluators.  Some want to pray more.  Some want to form stronger community.   Together the community reaches balance, a sense of proportion. 

Holy Spirit

The English Jesuit poet Fr. Gerard Manley Hopkins, S. J. saw God in the world even though modern technology has tended to obscure God’s presence.  Hopkins had hope that deep down God’s presence cannot be suppressed. Sensing that God is active in our lives as individuals and as a community, Hopkins believed the Holy Spirit broods over our world "with ah! bright wings." 

"Not many of you are wise. .influential.. well-born.. God singled out the weak of this world to shame the strong."  In the Acts of the Apostles we see the Holy Spirit very much alive and present.  At Pentecost the apostles experience the Holy Spirit visibly, palpably.  There are tongues of fire, a driving wind, the whole house shakes.  Acts is an exciting faith story--the early preaching of the good news, the spread of the church, the conversions, persecution, internal struggle, the closeness of the early community, sharing all things in common. 

Jesus was true to his word of sending the Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is still with us, and we need to discern the action of the Holy Spirit today.  Perhaps the presence of the Holy Spirit is not as subtle as we might think.  Ferdinand Marcos was displaced in the Philippines in a non-violent way.  The Cold War ended without a nuclear conflagration, without even a skirmish.  The Holy Ghost broods over our world with ah! bright wings.  There is a way.  The process is good news.  Let's not say I can't.  Let us say we will.  Let us never underestimate the will and power of God for good.  When the odds are impossible, the Spirit breaks through!

"Consider Jesus who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.  In your struggle against sin you have not yet  resisted to the point of shedding your blood.. At the time it is administered, all discipline seems a cause for grief and not for joy, but later it brings forth the fruit of peace and justice to those who are trained in its school.  Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.  Strive for peace with all people, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord."  (Hebrews 12) 

The process is circular.  It ends only when we have prepared the world for Christ's redeeming touch and healing.  We are called to prepare this world, these relationships for their final transformation and transfiguration.

As we proceed we may begin to doubt that the direction those in power are taking is the right direction.  This may make us feel insecure.  But we can't afford to paper over reality with happy sentiments.  But we also want to plant seeds of hope that in the risen Christ we will be able to overcome the evils around us and within us.  When we have appropriated our graced story, we dare to think new thoughts, to be utopian, to have a vision of new directions in which our world could go.  "May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, grant you a spirit of wisdom and insight to know him clearly. May he enlighten your innermost vision that you may know the great hope to which he has called you, the wealth of his glorious heritage to be distributed among the members of the church, and the immeasurable scope of his power in us who believe."  (Ephesians 1.17-19)

Since we often lack a sense of basic security, I think  the greatest obstacle to peace and justice is fear.   We fear freedom and the risk and responsibility it implies.  I find comfort in finding my security in God.   In the gospel of John Jesus equivalently says to us, "Make your home in my love."  Disciples of Jesus went to see where he lived, and stayed with him. You will live in my love. Live on in me, as I do in you.  No more than a branch can bear fruit of itself apart from the vine, can you bear fruit apart from me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who lives in me and I in him will produce abundantly, for apart from me you can do nothing.  A man who does not live in me is like a withered, rejected branch, picked up to be thrown in the fire and burnt.  If you live in me and my words stay part of you, you may ask what you will--it will be done for you.   Anyone who loves me will be true to my word, and my Father will love him; we will come to him and make our dwelling place with him."  John 14.23; 1.35; 15.9; 15.4.

If we dwell in God's love, make our home in the love Jesus has for us, I think we will feel basically secure and less afraid. Because our lives are often filled with ambiguous and complex concrete situations  St. Ignatius had no illusions that we can easily discern God's will   God's love can always present new and unexpected challenges.  God can be present in the tensions and conflicts in our lives, calling us to resolve them in a responsible way.  There can be disagreement with those to whom I report or with those with whom I work.  I can have conflict with the members of my family.  I can be taking too little recreation or too much.   I want to pray, but the demands of work and other pressures make prayer difficult. I feel I'm overextended.  I read about time management and take an inventory of how I'm spending my time.  I try to decide where the need is the greatest, where I can do the most good.  I let go of this or that activity because I'm over-extended and lack focus, concentration, and depth. 

Prayer for openness to the light from the Holy Spirit is the first step in discernment.  A person should strive for a radical orientation to God, a basic attitude or bent toward God.  Gathering of all important data for judgment includes dialogue with those of special competence or experience.  It also includes affective intuitive knowledge as well as scholarly intellectual pursuits.

When the President of Physician for Social Responsibility, Dr. Helen Caldicott, left the White House after a private meeting with President Ronald Reagan, she could hardly walk from shock.  The President was not only uninformed about research of responsible peace groups but ignored factual reports even of the Pentagon. Obviously President Reagan was not open to new information or new points of view.  I fear the so-called leaders of our world are closed to a more rational and loving approach to the issues facing us.  How to break through such walls of studied ignorance is a mystery.  To me it simply shows that the art of honesty is crucial to our world's survival and  fundamental well-being.

Decisions that we make as groups or as individuals need to well-informed.  If we're not just a little open to new ideas, our plans have to be defective.   In the case of the United States government and Congress, our stubborn refusal to learn can only eventually be disastrous.  It has already caused untold suffering and misery.

Confirmation of a decision can come from deep interior peace as well as official approval of those in authority.  But the decision is still open to verification through lived experience and if need be, open to further discernment.    Since we never grasp the fullness of our lives, assimilation of our light and dark graced story is a continuing process.  The reality is that we can all be blinded by subtle self-seeking, prejudice, or fixations caused by insecurity.  Spiritual freedom makes discernment more reliable. Those who have been faithful to Christ's call no matter what the cost can achieve greater freedom.

All of Ignatius' spirituality is filled with discernment, but Ignatius does have different rules for those who are beginners and those who are more proficient.  As one advances in the spiritual life the insinuation of evil into good actions can be subtle and gradual.  What begins as something quite noble can become infiltrated by delusion, false steps, and the lesser good. Ignatius' rules for discernment are not for the neurotic or emotionally unbalanced nor for those with inordinate affections.  Those emotionally or spiritually immature should not rely on Ignatian discernment to lead them out of being a psychological defective.  On the other hand, discernment I think is a very healthy exercise and can at least identify areas for improvement and growth. 

Although the Holy Spirit is active in our lives, not all our judgments and instincts come from God.  Spiritual  discernment is an on-going process of sorting out my inner movements, strengthening and reinforcing the movements of the Holy Spirit, counteracting selfish and narrow-minded desires.  There are signs to detect whether the finger of God is here.  Are faith and hope and love being strengthened?  Am I being enervated or growing?  Am I blinded by anger or clarified by love?

Genuine consolation enters a person committed to God almost imperceptibly, in silence, as a drop of water enters a sponge.  On the contrary, that not of God jars and upsets like a drop of water hitting a rock.   Often in discernment there is converging evidence from multiple signs.

We can take our personal frustrations and inadequacies out on the just cause we are supporting.  Instead of facing a personal problem that's festering inside, we demonstrate, write an angry letter, overreact in an insensitive way.  I think such projection of our own anger onto the cause actually hurts the cause we are supporting.

Jesus' way of proceeding can become our way of proceeding.  Since Jesus identifies with the materially poor, contact with the poor can be a way of staying rooted in Christ.  Social analysis helps us to organize our experience and research and address the causes of suffering.  Then we are ready to interpret the signs of the times in the light of the gospel.  Spiritual discernment gives us depth and energizes our social action.  Because our efforts can be too scattered and dissipated,  we decide on a specific objective with a definite time-line,   Finally we reflect on how faithful we have been to Jesus' path to peace.

I feel I have the responsibility under God to help co-create the social order, a responsibility based in our profound unity with all creation.  Through Jesus, with Jesus, in Jesus all our efforts can be offered to the Father in the Spirit.  With Jesus we have come to light a fire on the earth, the fire of God's power and love.

Ignatian spirituality begins with the graced story of God's action in history as described in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures.  If we continue and scrutinize some of the main ethical themes in history, we can see God's action in the periods since the common era. The teaching of the Catholic Church was crucial to the thinking of St. Ignatius and integral to the international congregations of the Society of Jesus in 1975, 1983, and 1995 which apply that teaching to today's world. Although there can be sharp differences among those who follow Ignatian spirituality, these differences are more in reading the signs of the times than in disagreeing on principles.

St. Ignatius felt that to be a friend of the poor was to be a friend of Jesus.  "God has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor." (Luke 4.18) (34th International Congregation of the Society of Jesus, Decree 2, No. 8.)  If we are friends with the poor, we share with one another as friends do, we learn from one another as friends do. When I was in El Salvador, I certainly became richer through the faith and courage that I saw in the poor.

If we are friends with the poor, we are open to any structure that oppresses.  As Cardinal John Henry Newman said, "To live is to change.  To live well is to change often."  I think we need to be humble and open to entirely new ways and to acquiring completely new attitudes. (34th International Jesuit Congregation, Decree 3, No. 5.)

The three main elements of Ignatian spirituality work together.  Reconciliation with God, our neighbor and the earth puts us in a state of spiritual consolation.  Discernment examines whether our reconciliation is genuine and whether we are basically in spiritual consolation rather than spiritual desolation.  The time of spiritual consolation is the time to make decisions in the Spirit.

Holy Saturday

The Catholic liturgy for Holy Saturday night traces how God has acted in history: the creation story in which God begins to share with us, the gradually evolving Covenant with Abraham, Moses, David. Reading V is from the prophet Isaiah 55.1-11: “Thus says the Lord: All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat; come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk!  Why spend your money for what is not bread, your wages for what fails to satisfy?  Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare.  Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life.  I will renew with you the everlasting covenant, the benefits assured to David.  As I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of nations, so shall you summon a nation you knew not, and nations that knew you not shall run to you, because of the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, who has glorified you.  Seek the Lord while he may be found, call him while he is near.  Let the scoundrel forsake his way, and the wicked man his thoughts; let him turn to the Lord for mercy; to our God who is generous in forgiving.  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.  As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts. For just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”

God’s grace is a gift, we don’t have to pay for it.  Our parents give us life and raise us freely.  We should be ready to give ourselves to one another in service and solidarity.  God is near, often in our neighbor.

Since our thoughts are not always God’s thoughts, we need spiritual discernment to separate God’s thoughts from our rationalizations and self-deceptions.

Ezekiel 36.25-28 “I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.  I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts.  I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes, careful to observe my decrees.  You shall live in the land I gave your fathers; you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”  The latter was the formula for marriage, e.g.  “I, Isaac, shall be your husband.  You Rebecca, shall be my wife.”

Listening

Fr. Raymond Helmick, S. J. who teaches peace studies at Boston College and has had extensive experience in peacemaking in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, and the Middle East, believes the Presupposition of the Spiritual Exercises can be useful in making peace at all levels. "It should be presupposed that every good Christian ought to be more eager to put a good interpretation on a neighbor's statement than to condemn it.  Further, if one cannot interpret it favorably, one should ask how the other means it.  If that meaning is wrong, one should correct the person with love; and if this is not enough, one should search out every appropriate means through which, by understanding the statement in a good way, it may be saved."  This implies careful listening and good faith dialogue.  If we really listen to others' stories, they may be more apt eventually to listen to ours.

I include a prayer I composed for Xavier University Ignatian Service Day: "Loving and wise God, help us to respect one another, to respect ourselves, to accept one another, to accept ourselves.  I want to be in solidarity with all my sisters and brothers, those who agree with me and those with whom I disagree, those whom I like and those I don't like.  May I learn from others, even those who may not seem as though they have something to tell me.

Jesus, you came not to be served, but to serve.  May I leave no stone unturned, no path untried, no mountain unscaled until together with you, Jesus, we make this not a perfect world, but a better one, a world more in accord with the Father's will.  I pray that we ask why we don't have a more humane world, a fairer world, a more loving world.  May we be open to changing any structure that may be oppressive.  I pray that in serving others I use my hands and my heart, but also my mind in analyzing changes that may need to be made in present structures."

Christian Life Community

The main line religions are in agreement on the positive nature of peace as union with God, our neighbor, and the earth. One form of reaching out to our neighbor is through covenanted faith communities that integrate Ignatian spirituality and justice such as Christian Life Communities.   A process, Christian Life Communities support one another, become part of a national and a world community.  The three essentials of CLC are Community, Spirituality, and Mission.   Look for the national magazine Harvest Winter 2007, turn to p. 10. 
See: National - http://www.clc-usa.org/   http://www.clc-usa.org/; Youth - http://clcyya.homestead.com

To find beautiful photos and documents describing the General World Assembly of Christian Life Community, you can go to our CLC-USA website:

http://www.clc-usa.org/Fatima2008.html

Or the World CLC website: http://www.fatima2008.org/

Included here you can also find:

· Wonderful reflections by Liem Le, CLC-USA President-Elect, while at the Assembly.

· Fr. Nicholas’ address to the CLC Assembly during which he challenged CLC to be a “Prophetic Community” in our world today.

· XV World Assembly - Final Document which gathers the delegates’ discussions and decisions into a final document which should be a compass for us in the next few years.

http://www.creighton.edu/CLC-NorthCentral/

Fr. Terry Charlton, S.J.    Tel-254-20 3870429  Charlton@jesuits.net   CLC in Kenya : St. Aloysius School Fund, A school for aids orphans in Kibera slums, Nairobi. Christian Life Community Kenya, P.O. Box 21399, 00505 Nairobi, Kenya, Tel: (254-20) 387-1100. e-mail: development@clckenya.org  web-site http://www.sagnairobi.org 

The Risen Jesus Today

Jesus remembers and assimilates his own life and the lives of all those throughout history in the light of that which has followed down to our own day. In the human personality of the risen Jesus is all that is true, beautiful and good in each of us and in every culture.  If we stay in union with the risen Christ, we can receive the enriched personality of the risen Christ as much as we are able; and the risen Jesus can co-feel, co-insight and co-decide with us. Covenanted faith communities can meditate on the life of Jesus and how God has acted in history, discern the signs of the times today, and fashion a vision of the future.

(For a review of how God has acted in history I suggest Fr. Thomas Bokenkotter, A Concise History of the Catholic Church. Also Church and Revolution, Catholics in the Struggle for Democracy and Social Justice.)

Spiritual Exercises

Those following Ignatian spirituality usually make the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius either for thirty continuous days or in shorter versions. The Spiritual Exercises are a movement and are divided into four "weeks" or periods.  The first week reviews our basic relationship with God and that which breaks that relationship, sin. The second week is the call of Christ to make a decision to follow his values unreservedly. The third and fourth weeks confirm the decision made; the third week through meditation on Christ's passion; the fourth week through meditation on Christ's resurrection.

Fr. Seamus Murphy, S.J. makes an excellent suggestion.  Before one enters into the Spiritual Exercises she/he should be exposed to a situation of  poverty or structural social injustice several weeks prior to the retreat.  If I take the road of action for justice, it leads to God.  For me my field experience preceding my long retreat was my time in the army during World War II.  I'm sure this made a richer retreat for me.  Those entering an Ignatian retreat could have a similar exposure, not of course to war but to contact with the materially poor.  One of the purposes of the Spiritual Exercises is to help make a decision in the Spirit and not according to some selfish impulse.

First Grace or Week

The First Week begins with "The Principle and Foundation" which sets a goal, union with God; gives means to the goal, relating to others and to the earth rightly and wisely; and suggests an attitude, freedom in regard to our attachments to others and to the resources of the earth. 

The goal of our life is to live with God forever.  God who loves us,  gave us life.  Our own response of love allows God's life to flow into us without limit.  All the things in this world are gifts of God, presented to us so that we can know God more easily and make a  return of love more readily.  As a result, we appreciate and use all these gifts of God insofar as they help us develop as loving  persons.  But if any of these gifts become the center of our lives, they displace God and so hinder our growth toward our goal.    (Paraphrased by Fr. David L. Fleming, S. J.  Jesuit Spirituality) 

To know God is to do justice.  Justice like faith is a grace.  With God's help we can develop good and loving relationships with God, our neighbor, ourselves, and the earth. 

One creature central to our lives is food.  Obviously we need to eat healthy food and in an enjoyable and relaxed way.  Water is essential to life.  We must share water with all.  (See on this web site Food and Farm Issues under Economic Democracy.)

Is our entertainment non-violent and in accord with God's values?

What is our light graced story?  How is God loving us?  How are we taking  that love to others?  How are we being co-creators with God, preparing our world for its final transformation and transfiguration?

The 32nd international meeting of the Society of Jesus decreed:  "The grace of Christ enables and impels us to seek 'the salvation and perfection of souls'--or what might be called, in contemporary terms, the total and integral liberation of all, leading to participation in the life of God . .the local Jesuit community is an apostolic community, not inward but outward looking, its concern being the service it is called upon to give others."

After use of creatures, most of the First Week centers on sin and punishment for sin. St. Ignatius makes an examen of conscience and meditates on original sin and personal sin.  I often feel that sin is so massive and pervasive, I am overwhelmed by it.  War, genocide, torture, terrorism, unemployment, poverty, violence, greed, selfishness seem to surround and engulf us.  To me there is no doubt that the chief obstacle to peace is sin, in myself and in others. 

My sense of fairness would demand that those who have inflicted pain on others would be punished adequately in this life and in the world to come.   Since those in power seem to suffer little in this life,  it would be fitting for them to be punished in the next.  Indeed all of us deserve to be punished for our failure to follow God's plan. 

As there is individual sin, there is also group sin.  In Western culture I don't think we have the same sense of group sin that we see described in the Hebrew Covenant, for example. Writers today speak of sinful social structures.  For the average person in our culture I think group sin or structural evil is not easy to understand.   Christian theology teaches us that in the beginning humankind sinned as a group.

          "In addition to personal guilt, the word 'sin' can also be applied to the atmosphere of a community.  This is what we call social sin.  We can't point out specifically whose fault it is, but somehow it's the result of human decisions taken over a period of time, human decisions whose effect persists long after their perpetrators have disappeared.  The fact that some people starve to death each day in our world while others have more than they can possibly use is a sinful situation.  The fact that we are compelled to kill each other in order to solve some kinds of disputes is a sinful situation.  The fact that our national survival depends on our ability to convince our enemies that we are prepared to destroy all their cities is a sinful situation. The fact that human sexual activity is looked on in our society as simply one more form of casual recreation is a sinful situation. Whose fault is it?  We can't always say.  What can be done to remedy the situation?  We don't always know.  But we can say and we do know that the atmosphere in which we live is tainted by sin, that the call to be sinful surrounds us, that certain kinds of wrong are more socially acceptable than certain kinds of right. That's social sin." 
          Most Reverend Daniel E. Pilarczyk, Archbishop of Cincinnati, Be Free: Reflections on Redemption 

If I pollute the air through unclean auto emissions, the pollution affects others and the environment. Toxic wastes seeping into underground aquifers hurts those who come after us. Soil erosion cannot always be restored easily.  We can sin against the earth as a society, a nation, a region, a world.  Sins against the earth affect all of us. 

I often feel there is something gone wrong, a serious disorder in our world, that there is a great and terrible power which is enslaving us.  I am a sinner and often feel helpless in the face of such massive sin.  Although I am quite incapable of saving or freeing myself, these experiences of helplessness, even of hopelessness and despair, can be preludes to grace.

Since sin avoids the light, Adam and Eve hid themselves from God.  As individuals and as a society I think we need a sense of social sin and a sense of individual sin.  Our sinfulness can block us from union with God, put a wall between us and Jesus.  Only God can reveal our sinfulness to us.  When He does, He also gives us the grace empowering us to change and leading to life. 

We have objectified our dealings with one another into laws of supply and demand, the military-industrial complex, a commercial corporate communications media, as though these structures had an objective reality independent of us.  That's the way things are, we say.  I was taught that concupiscence, the tendency of our feelings to go against our reason, could be called sin because concupiscence has its origin in sin and leads to further sin.  Are there parts of our society and culture--with their processes, structures and institutions that represent the embodiment of our humanity precisely as concupiscent?

Second Grace or Week

In the Second Week the three divine persons look down on the world with its many and diverse peoples and decide the Second Person should become a human being.  Though of the House and Family of David,  Jesus is born in poverty and hardship.  Jesus invites us to follow him in bringing about the reign of God.  Above I sketch Jesus' way of proceeding and our way of proceeding.  Below I outline meditations fashioned by St. Ignatius. 

The plan of Jesus contrasts with that of Lucifer, our enemy.   Jesus invites us to follow him in bringing about God's reign.  His plan of action is quite different from that of Lucifer.  Lucifer is surrounded by fire and smoke.  I ask for insight "into the deceits of the evil leader, and for help to guard myself against them" Lucifer's platform is riches, vain honor, surging pride.  These lead to all other vices.  I suggest that "all other vices" includes a chasm between the wealthy and the poor, the economic and political power of a few.

 St. Ignatius sees people tempted to seek riches, and then because they possess some thing or things, they find themselves seeking the honor and esteem of the wealthy, the powerful, and the ruthless. From such honor arises a false sense of identity in which false pride has its roots. So the strategy of the deceitful on is simple: riches—these are mine; honor—look at me; pride—look who I am. By these three steps we are led to arrogance, conceit, a narrow closed mind, and then to all other vices. Upward mobility leads to a flight from the poor.

Jesus "takes his place in that great plain near Jerusalem, in an area which is lowly, beautiful, and attractive."  Jesus’ plan is quite the opposite, spiritual even actual poverty; reproaches and contempt; humility.  These lead to all other virtues.  The choice between riches and religious poverty; between a comfortable living and religious life was a real one for St. Ignatius.  Many making the Spiritual Exercises have joined St. Ignatius in forming or entering the Society of Jesus, a graced structure. Solidarity with the poor may mean enduring misunderstanding even rejection. As Jesus did,  many Jesuits have suffered death as a result of Jesus' message of non-violence, justice, love and sharing.. With God’s grace we can be led to a peace with justice and an entirely new vision of community, solidarity, and democracy. Followers of Jesus receive their identity and self-worth by experiencing God’s love.

Jesus' plan contrasts with that of Lucifer: Try to help people to grow and make their own decisions. Do not enslave or exploit others. Let go of riches and power. Be free to be true to yourself and open to receive the love and vision of Jesus. Jesus followed downward mobility, from the second person of the Trinity to become a member of the human family. Jesus calls us to detachment from wealth and power to attachment to people, especially the poor.

The Spiritual Exercises invite us to reflect upon the attitudes and values of Jesus.  Through the redemptive act of Jesus we can discern in what ways God calls us in our own times and situation. Jesus had total confidence in the power of God and God's plan for us.  Instead of trying to control everything, our efforts to change evil structures need always be in dependence on God.  What is right will prevail not because it has more money and personnel but ultimately because it is right. 

Each one of us can be converted to walk the path toward a peace with justice.  Because God's redemption has begun, every human structure and institution can be reformed.   Because history has seen much religious strife, even religious persecution, the enlightenment has tended to incline us to make religion a private matter. But genuine spirituality joins private prayer with social justice. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius can point us to public issues of peace with justice.  The issues of world hunger, war, genocide, refugees, the arms trade, unemployment, the chasm between the rich and poor, dwindling natural resources, pollution of the environment, global warming, are not mainly technical problems.  If the human family were reasonable and moral, I think we could reach the beginning of human decency. 

Do we choose to be selfish and greedy or compassionate and just?  Are we ready to sacrifice some self-interest for the common good?  Although it disguises itself in many ways, as individuals and groups we have an inordinate desire for wealth, honor, and power.   St. Ignatius confronts the above in the second week of the Spiritual Exercises.  With God's grace we can be converted to peace and justice and an entirely new vision of possibilities and actualities in public affairs.  "I ask you, how can God's love survive in a man who has enough of this world's goods yet closes his heart to his brother when he sees him in need?" 1 John 3.17  "My brothers, what good is it to profess faith without practicing it?  Such faith has no power to save one, has it?  If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and no food for the day, and you say to them, 'Good-bye and good luck! Keep warm and well fed' but do not meet their bodily needs, what good is that?  So it is with the faith that does nothing in practice.  It is thoroughly lifeless." James 2.14ff 

Trusting in material things, our culture promotes upward mobility.  Jesus calls us to downward mobility! Followers of Jesus receive their identity and self-worth by experiencing God's love.  I have worth and value because I was worth dying for.   Jesus identifies with those who are the object of contempt, exclusion, and discrimination.  Eventually this brings upon Jesus that same kind of contempt and suffering.  No servant is greater than his master.  If Jesus experienced contempt and suffering, we will experience similar pain.  Downward mobility means I assume the cause of the poor.  Solidarity with the poor means enduring misunderstanding even rejection by those who oppose the cause of the poor. 

St. Ignatius sees people tempted to seek riches, and then because they possess some thing or things, they find themselves seeking and accepting the honor and esteem of this world.  From such honor arises a false sense of identity in which false pride has its roots.  So the strategy of the evil one is simple: riches--these are mine; honor--look at me; pride--look who I am.  By these three steps we are led to arrogance, conceit, a narrow closed mind, and then to all other vices.  Upward mobility leads to a flight from the poor.

Can we apply the above to nations who become rich and powerful?  Feared by all?  Do riches and military power lead to nations who are arrogant, conceited, "better" than the rest of nations?

Jesus adopts a strategy just the opposite.  Try to help people to grow themselves and make their own decisions.  Do not enslave or exploit others.  Let go of the things of this world, be free to be true to yourself and open to be created and redeemed in Christ.  Although downward mobility means a detachment from riches and honors, it calls us to attachment to people, especially the poor.

Would the strategy of Jesus also apply to nations? Share the resources of the earth; share decision-making through a world democratic authority? Develop Councils of Conscience on a national and international level?

The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius describe three degrees of commitment to God.  The minimum commitment to the cause of Christ is never seriously or knowingly to act against the will of God in grave matters, no matter what profit is to be gained and no matter what disaster is to be averted.  Many accept this commitment in their private lives but do not acknowledge that this commitment to Christ extends to the public arena.

The second degree or mode requires indifference to wealth, honor and life itself if there is conflict with God's will.  What is the worst thing that could happen to me?  That I die?  Or that I be separated from God's love and friendship? 

The third degree calls the followers of Jesus to deliberately choose poverty with Christ poor, rejection with Christ rejected.  Dorothy Day, Steve Biko, Martin Luther King and many others have made such a choice.   We are invited to do the same. 

St.