THE WORD AND THE SAINT

The need to cover your face! 

July 31, 2019: Remembering St. Ignatius of Loyola

Leviticus 23:1,4-11,15-16,27,34-37; Matthew 13:54-58

The need to cover your face! In the first reading today, we have an interesting account of Moses who would cover his face with a veil because, it shone after the meeting with the Lord. We see in the television newscast and other dailies where people cover their face, when taken into police custody or arrested for some malpractices! Two extreme reasons which can lead us to cover our face - one, shame or the other, a holy embarrassment - it all depends on one fact - where lies your treasure or Which is the pearl you are in search of? 

Many of the saints who found their treasure in the Lord, were found to act crazy! They gave up everything - their wealth, their prospects, their career, their comfort, their health, even their life - because they found the Lord and the Lord's will for them! Some of them were even considered lunatic and taken to asylums. As St. Paul says, they have behaved like "fools for Christ"(1 Cor 4:10). 

Ignatius of Loyola whom we remember today, was a man of those ranks. In the thirtieth year of his life, he came to know the Lord at a closer communion and fell so madly in love with the Lord that he was ready to do anything "FOR THE GREATER GLORY OF GOD" (ad maiorem Dei gloriam). A holy madness that led to the great movement of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and so many other movements related to that; a craze for the divine that has produced scores and scores of holy men and women in the last 5 centuries, and the present Holy Father our beloved Pope Francis! 

We will have no reason for shame, if the Lord remains clearly our focus. We will have nothing to fear, if what matters to us is nothing but the greater glory of God. We will have no wrong reasons to cover our face, if our treasure and our pearl remains forever, the Reign of God!