for July 31
Memorial of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Priest

I’d like to share with you how I met Ignatius Loyola for the first time. I had just graduated from college. I had some vacation time from a study program in Spain and made my way to Barcelona on the northeastern coast. I was walking in the old part of the city—doing tourist things—I visited the Picasso museum, studied the engaging Gaudi architecture, and enjoyed the great local seafood. One afternoon I happened to wander into a small Gothic style Church. Mass was just beginning so I stayed.  fter Mass I noticed a small side door in the Church that everyone else was avoiding. This raised my curiosity so I left the Church through this side door. 

In the dark alley outside I gingerly stepped down to a small step and noticed a plaque on the opposite wall. It read in Spanish: “on these steps St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, used to beg alms for the poor 1524-1525.”

Most people would never have noticed. But for me it was a moment I will never forget. When I say that I met Ignatius, of course, I mean imaginatively. Or, should I say spiritually? Ignatius died in 1556. But as I stood in that darkened alley on the same steps where this saint stood I did not fully appreciate what was happening. I was then discerning a vocation to the priesthood. Now, years later, I can see how this first encounter with Ignatius eventually came to guide and shape the very contours of my life. That humble beggar from long ago, begging alms for the poor, inspired me. A few years later I entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits)—a religious order that Ignatius founded.

Today is Ignatius’ feast day. I’d like to tell you about three ways that my encounter with Ignatius changed my life.  

The first lesson I came to learn from Ignatius is that God is a God of consolation and surprise. God comes to us at his own choosing, meeting us in unexpected ways, touching us deeply and intimately. Ignatius understood these experiences as much as anyone could and shared them in his writing and teaching. These are very special moments. 

You may have had such an experience in your own life—maybe at a chance moment as I did in Barcelona years ago. Or, you may have been drawn in to the mysterious and powerful beauty of nature. Seeing the landscape, experiencing or practicing the arts—painting, music, sculpture, or in the most ordinary experiences of daily life—God comes to us in surprising ways to gift us with consolation. Perhaps that special moment came to you at some important event in your life; when you fell in love and pledged your love to your spouse, at the birth of a child, in mourning the loss of a loved one. With the eyes of faith, we can often perceive how God comes to visit us at such moments.

Ignatius taught me that we can trust these experiences—perhaps even more when they come “out of the blue” (so to speak). Using a somewhat technical term, Ignatius called these moments “consolation without prior cause” emphasizing that these experiences are very often special grace-filled moments. That summer day in Barcelona on the steps outside that little church was such a moment for me.

A second lesson Ignatius gave me seems especially relevant today. Ignatius saw that evil is real.

In the Spiritual Exercises, his great guide to prayer, Ignatius acknowledges that there is a powerful darkness in the world that seeks to harm us. This darkness deceives and corrupts our hearts and minds to distract and confuse us. Right now—despite all the good and blessing in the world and in our lives—this darkness seems to be running unrestrained in the world, causing so much suffering and harm to human beings. For Ignatius, who confronted these forces in his own conversion of life, God is always greater and more powerful and can overcome this darkness. Based on his own experience, Ignatius taught practical ways in prayer to discern the deceptions and to overcome this malevolent evil reality in the world.

I believe that Ignatius’ spiritual insights have a universal quality, for just as consolation is such a widespread gift in human experience, so too is the conflict with the threatening forces that too frequently gain the upper-hand over us.

The third lesson that Ignatius shared with me is that our faith moves us toward a deep and abiding familiarity with the person of Jesus. I can trace its initial offer back to that moment on the church steps in Barcelona.

I have surely not fully mastered this lesson. In fact, there seem to always be steps both forward and backward. There are also notable failures. But, the example of Ignatius’ life and his instructions on ways to pray and so much else have certainly helped me along the way. Ignatius’ ministry, his writings in the Spiritual Exercises and his many inspiring letters reveal to us his deepest emotions and the movements of the Spirit upon him. And they all point to Jesus Christ. I have been guided by the values and principles he presented in the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, the founding document that has led the Society for over 400 years. Ignatius lived out what St. Paul writes about in today’s first reading “I am grateful to him who strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me trustworthy in appointing me to the ministry” (Timothy 1:12-13).

Through the years, as I came to know more about Ignatius, I realized that my acquaintance with him was actually a means to greater familiarity with Jesus, which is what Ignatius always intended. Ignatius followed in the footsteps of Jesus. His life and teachings model for us a way to do the same. To know Ignatius is to know Jesus. The steps of Ignatius always lead to the person of Jesus.

It’s a long way from those steps in Barcelona to this pulpit in Philadelphia on this Feast Day of St. Ignatius Loyola. In his autobiography, Ignatius referred to himself as “the pilgrim.” He moved from those steps in Barcelona to living in Rome as head of what was becoming a world-wide religious order. But so are we. We too are all pilgrims.

Let us pray that St. Ignatius will draw us, all pilgrims in this world, ever closer to Jesus, so that we might have life, and have it abundantly.
—Francis T. Hannafey SJ