Celebrating the feast of St.
Ignatius with more than 200 of his Jesuit confreres, Pope Francis prayed
that he and all of them would receive "the grace of shame" for their
failures and the humility to recognize that whatever good they
accomplish is really done by the Lord. Jesus told his disciples never to be ashamed of following him, but
Jesuits are taught to look upon the crucifix and "feel that very human
and very noble sentiment which is shame for not measuring up," the pope
said July 31 during his homily at the Mass in Rome's Church of the Gesu,
where St. Ignatius is buried.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said the Mass was "very beautiful and very familial."
In his spirituality and spiritual tradition, he said, the pope sees
himself as a "son of St. Ignatius" and feels "very close to the Society
of Jesus."
For the Jesuits, Father Lombardi said, the pope is a confrere, but "we know the pope is the pope."
At the end of the Mass, the pope prayed at the tomb of St. Ignatius,
before a relic of St. Francis Xavier and at the tomb of Father Pedro
Arrupe, superior of the Jesuits from 1965 to 1983. He also visited the
Chapel of Our Lady of the Way, patroness of the Jesuits and the title of
a 15th-century Marian fresco that was dear to St. Ignatius and his
first companions.
In his homily, Pope Francis prayed that Mary would "help us experience
shame for our inadequacy before the treasure that has been entrusted to
us, so that we would live with humility before God."
The pope also prayed for "our brother in Syria," an obvious reference to
Jesuit Father Paolo Dall'Oglio, who was expelled from Syria in June
2012 after intensifying his public calls for democratic change in the
country. He reportedly returned to Syria occasionally.
Jesuit and other church officials and friends of Father Dall'Oglio said
they had been unable to reach him by phone, and the Reuters news agency
reported that militants with links to al-Qaida kidnapped the priest July
29 while he was walking in the northern Syrian city of al-Raqqah. As of
July 31, the Vatican and the Italian foreign ministry said they could
not confirm that he had been kidnapped.
The pope's homily was filled with references to the Spiritual Exercises
of St. Ignatius, meditations and instructions for a 30-day retreat that
form the basis of Ignatian spirituality.
The exercises, he said, are designed to remind Jesuits that Christ and
the church must be at the center of all they do; that they must allow
themselves to be conquered by Christ in order to serve; and that they
must feel shame in order to be humble before God and other people.
Every Christian and every Jesuit, Pope Francis said, should ask himself
regularly "'Is Christ the center of my life?' because there is always
the temptation to place ourselves at the center."
And, he said, one cannot serve Christ without being in harmony with and
serving the church. "There are no parallel or isolated paths. To serve Christ is to love this concrete church and to serve it with generosity and obedience," he said.
But most of the pope's homily focused on humility and recognizing one's
limits, so as to be mindful always of greatness of God's mercy.
"We look at the wisdom of Christ and our ignorance, at his omnipotence
and our weakness, at his justice and our inequity and at his goodness
and our badness," the pope said.
"We ask for the grace of shame, the shame that comes from a continuous
conversation of mercy with him, the shame that makes us blush before
Jesus Christ," he said.
The sense of shame leads to the virtue of humility, he said, and a
recognition that each Christian "carries a great treasure in fragile,
inadequate, insufficient earthen vessels." The 76-year-old pope said he thinks often of what the "twilight of the
Jesuit" should be as he faces the end of his life. He described as "two
icons of this twilight" St. Francis Xavier, the great Jesuit missionary
who died in 1552 awaiting a chance to get to mainland China, and Father
Arrupe, who in 1981 suffered a massive stroke, "which began his long and
exemplary twilight" that lasted almost 10 years and included seeing
Pope John Paul appoint an interim superior of the Jesuits, a move seen
by many as a lack of trust in the ability of the Jesuits to govern
themselves.
In the quiet, dusty corners of our hearts, we often harbor blueprint drafts of how we think our lives should unfold. We carefully map out our timelines, hoping for a smooth path, and it is only natural to feel a bit lost or weary when a sudden storm alters our course or a door we prayed would open remains closed. Yet, our Lord does not stand at a distance during these moments of uncertainty; He is a tender Shepherd who walks beside us, gently whispering, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope" ( Jeremiah 29:11). When our own plans crumble, it is not a sign that He has abandoned us, but rather an invitation to fold our hands, release our grip on the pen, and offer our own quiet fiat—letting Him guide us into green pastures we could never have found on our own. Placing our trust in His loving providence allows us to breathe deeply and find rest, even when the road ahead is shrouded in mist. E...