[B.] St. IGNATIUS of LOYOLA Presentation: The ... - St. Gaspar Bertoni

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[d] St. Ignatius uses the word “joy” in two senses:
- objectively, as the equivalent of the glory or the triumph of Jesus Christ - this is the
origin of the second, which is:
- and as the subjective experience which inspires into a believer the activity of the Spirit
of God. This is the of the lack of self-interest in one’s corresponding love to God. This is a human
sharing in the triumph and in the life of the Risen Lord - and this joy always culminates in
sharing in the same apostolic mission Jesus received from His Father.
[e] For St. Ignatius, the consolation which in this last stage
of Week Four ought to be prayed for by the one making the Spiritual Exercises, and then
perpetuated by the one living the Constitutions . It is meant to be the real, ‘objective experience’,
both profound and intense, of the religious and priest. The source of this experience is the real
presence of the Risen Lord through the theological life. The presence of the Crucified who has
risen becomes the source of the Apostolic Mission - He lives and manifests Himself as the
fullness of God. It is His Mercy which reconciles human beings among themselves and with
God. The fervent believer thus is open to the reception of the Spirit of the Risen Lord.
[f] And this is why St. Ignatius retains the two most genuine
aspects of this experience:
- the miraculous manifestation of the fullness of the Divinity: “Fourth Point: This will be to
consider the divinity, which seemed to hide itself during the Passion, now appearing and
manifesting itself so miraculously in the most holy resurrection in its true and most sacred
effects.” [cf. SE # 223].
- the friendly challenge to console the people of God: “Fifth Point. Consider the office of
Consoler that Christ our Lord exercises, and compare it with the way in which friends are wont to
console each other [cf. SE # 224].
|1| Immediate Experience of the Divinity:
|a| That joy proper to the Resurrection is a
Gift of the Holy Spirit. And to remain consoled, as an intense experience, is analogous in its
kind, but is qualitatively different from the Paschal Experiences of those first witnesses in the
Gospels and Acts. The source of their joy was nothing other than the objective fact of the
Resurrection of the Lord, and the repercussion of this divine event for the history of humanity.
|b| In this ambiance of mystery St. Ignatius
recommends that the one making the Spiritual Exercises - and in some cases then making a life
of this by following the Constitutions - needs, first of all, to go through the Theology of the
Cross. The intensity of pondering this aspect of the Paschal Mystery needs that depth of faithperception
of the miraculous manifestation of the divinity in itself. This perception needs to be
continued in the theological life through its genuine and most holy effects.
|c| These effects redound directly from the
origin of the motion. They are derived from the manifestation of the triumph and from the glory of
the Risen Lord Himself - they derive from the experience of His glory and identity, through faith,
hope and love. It is from this experience that joy is born, rejoicing and peace - that stability in the
fidelity of God the Father and His love. In this manner, the fervent apostolic missionary places
himself in the footsteps of Jesus, along the way of the Cross. The Father has glorified His
Crucified Son, confirming in this manner His historical process of the Incarnation. By this, all the
way through His death and Resurrection, more and more He makes Himself ‘experienced’, each
time more openly, and all this in the fullness of the mystery of the Trinity.
|2] The Office of Consoler
|a| For Ignatius, the Apostolic Mission is
also the duty “of consoling” the Lord’s people, speaking to their hearts! [cf. Is 40:1, ff.]. “To