THE WORD AND THE SAINT

A Prophet of the Reign

31st July 2017: Remembering St. Ignatius of Loyola
Exo 32: 15-24,30-34; Mt 13: 31-35

We are reading these days at the Eucharist about Moses and the interventions that God made through Moses, the great prophet of God. Today we celebrate another prophet, Ignatius who has some characteristics that he shares with Moses.

Moses was a timely intervention that God had prepared for the sake of God's people. Ignatius was a timely intervention too; he comes in at the disturbed times of Reformation and initiates a Counter Reformation that revolutionises the whole Church and calls her to renewal.

Moses had a history of killing a person; but that was an outcome of the fundamental feeling for the oppressed people that was hidden in his heart and God makes use of that to raise him up as a prophet who would stand by God's people. Ignatius was a soldier, who had ambitions of rising in power and position; but God makes use of that warrior's spirit to raise a soldier of God, who would combat the wiles of the evil one and defend the Church, the people of God.

Moses gives rise to a new community of people, the hebrews who were bound by the Ten Commandments, the sign of their covenant with the Lord. Ignatius gave rise to a new company called the Company of Jesus, later called the Society of Jesus, who bound themselves to total obedience to the Holy Father and resolved to stand by the Church and defend the Church at all cost. 

Today Jesus speaks of the Reign of God as a mustard seed that grows, and we have a beautiful example of the Society of Jesus or the Jesuit Order, which we have seen grow from the six people that they were to the biggest of all Religious Orders in history. They have upheld the cause of the Reign of God, proving to be prophets in the world. The Reign and being prophets of the Reign involves struggles which one cannot imagine.  Are we ready for those struggles?