Sr. Molly Fernandes sfn
There’s no doubt, many people must have paid their homage to St Francis Xavier at the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Goa, India! I have a question in wait, have you noticed the main altar of the Basilica..? The one right behind in the middle! Up above in the center? That picture and its meaning? What a blessing indeed! God searches the heart! Such apparitions however that which cannot be weighed …. Yet of awe and wonder!!
On the feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola I wish to share about that iconic picture – God the Father with Jesus carrying the Cross – when Inigo (Ignatius) was immersed in prayer!
While on his journey from Venice to Rome in 1537, we learn from those who were with him Pietro Fabro of Villaret and Giacomo Lainez of Almazàn that, as soon as Ignatius entered the church while he was immersed in prayer a small, dilapidated chapel ‘La Storta’ he felt a sudden change come over him; He saw God the Father, together with Jesus who was carrying his cross. Both the Father and the Son were looking most kindly on him and he heard the Father say to the Son: ‘I wish you to take this man as your servant’. Jesus then directed his words to the kneeling pilgrim and said, ‘I wish you to be our servant’. Then he heard the Father add, ‘I will be favourable to you in Rome’.
As a soldier while at the battle of Pamplona against the French he was hurt when hit by a cannonball and which injured his leg.
To get back to his worldly affairs he went in for operation. The broken bones in his legs did not heal well, and the doctors considered the need to break them again and operate and he tolerated heroically. Trying to distract himself during the time of his recovery, Inigo requested some books of chivalry (adventures of war and horses, which he always enjoyed). But the only book found in the Castle of Loyola was a book on the history of Christ and a volume on the life of the saints. Inigo started to read them, and little by little he started to have more interest in them, spending entire days reading. He used to say, “If those men were made of the same flesh as I, I also can do what they did.” Inflamed by fervor, he proposed to go on a pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Our Lady and enter as a lay brother to a monastery. But such ideas were not constant, and his anxiety of personal glory and his love for a lady occupied most of his thoughts. When he returned to the books on the lives of the saints, he understood his vanity and the world’s glory and sensed that only God was able to satisfy his heart.
These fluctuations allowed Inigo to observe a difference in him: the thoughts that came from God left him full of consolation, peace and tranquility; the worldly thoughts had some delight, but only left him with desolation and emptiness. Finally Inigo decided to imitate the saints and began to do as many kinds of corporal penances as possible and to cry for his sins.
To see and find God in all things and all things in God, became his crux. The lord looks upon us and wish that we take Jesus his son as our companion in our day today life. To believe that God will be favourable to us no matter how tough and rough the situations are. Every day events, hardships even sickness! Yes, To find and see God’s presence and experience him in the most trying situations. Nothing happens without his plan. All things come from God and all things go back to God. This can be experienced in the contemplation on the spiritual exercises.
One evening the Mother of God appeared, surrounded with light and in her arms the Child Jesus. This vision deeply consoled Ignatius. After his recuperation, he made a pilgrimage to the Our Lady of Montessarat Sanctuary, where he decided to live a life of penance. His goal was to reach Holy Land.
This experience gave Ignatius the unique ability to help in scruples and a great discernment of spirit in spiritual direction. He once confessed to Father Lainez that in one hour of prayer in Manresa, he learned more than all the professors in the university could teach him. At the beginning of his conversion, Ignatius, still influenced by the mentality of the world, once heard a blasphemy against the Blessed Virgin Mary; he doubted if he, being a Christian, should kill the blasphemer or not. Because of intervention of Divine Providence he was protected from committing this sin.
In my reflection: to find and see God in all things…I am reminded of Pharaoh, where God tells Moses that he will harden his heart… Yes, even in such situations, the capacity to find God, when God doesn’t seem to be around, Ignatius invites us to seek and find him. For in and through such situations our life becomes meaningful and our relationship with God deepens. When we are carrying our daily cross and everything seems to go haywire, we need to remember that all things happen for the good of those who are called by God as St. Paul reminds us in his letter. Yes, not easy but nothing is impossible with God! the fire within enables to be selfless and dare, Certainly, ‘All for the greater glory of God’. The La Storta, Mystery continues its mission through the companions of Jesus whom we call Jesuits!!!.
Like all Jesuits and true companions of St. Ignatius let us desire to be “placed with Christ” by the Father, as happened to Ignatius at La Storta.! And see all things(everything) new in Christ.