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

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contrary, anyone who would commit himself without reserve to this grace, and would commit
himself to the Apostolic Mission, one who would consume himself in the service of God and
neighbor - this is the concrete pathway of an endless process that leads to the return of all gifts,
without any reservation, and with interest to God. Everything is in common for those who love
one another:
“... Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire
will, all that I have and possess. You have given all to me. To You, O lord, I return it...” [cf.
SE # 234].
|d| This is the heart of the Spiritual
Exercises of St. Ignatius - what he codifies in his Constitutions. This is the very center of
“Ignatian Spirituality.” St. Ignatius himself offers us the best explanation of this marvelous
“system”, “school”, in the Constitutions. It might be summarized in this Constitution: “...All
should make diligent efforts to keep their intention right, not only in regard to their state of life, but
also in all particular details. In these they should always aim at serving and pleasing the Divine
Goodness for its own sake and because of the incomparable love and benefits with which God
has anticipated us, rather than for fear of punishments or hope of rewards, although they ought to
draw help also from them. Further, they should often be exhorted to seek God our Lord in all
things, stripping off from themselves the love of creatures to the extent that this is possible, in
order to turn their love upon the Creator of them, by loving Him in all creatures and all of them in
him, in conformity with His holy and divine will...”
|e| The right intention is a freedom ordained
in its total selflessness evident in authentic love. Of this, freedom has to be the root and the
synthesis of all the rest that is offered and handed over. In this total unconditional giving of
self one notes the central source in freedom, a synthesis of the three potencies within the
soul, the created image of the most Blessed Trinity, so that His divine Majesty might make
disposition completely in full harmony with each one’s free availability. This total handing of
oneself over, in Ignatius’ mind, is the equivalent of the founding response of one giving himself
over totally to God. These needs to continue, intensify regarding one’s detachment from this
world and all its goods, while precisely one is committed to the Apostolic Mission in the heart of
the history and the world.
|f| Only love is capable of finding God in
all matters, because He alone knows full well the delicacy and the immediacy that the Spirit
works in this descent, even to the depths of self-giving in the history of creation. To descend
with Him in this manner, to submit oneself even to the extreme of purification through the process
of selflessness, to leave aside anything that would interfere in this path, and to latch on to
anything and everything to make an oblation of self. This is done purely and simply to serve
and to please His divine Goodness, to leave aside all else - even many blessings found in the
redeemed world, one becomes ‘transparent’ for God, and returns His love with that of the fervent
believer. In this cooperation with the workings of grace, one is raised up, in some way ‘equaled’
through love, to the very being of God.
|g| This Ignatian Formula: to love and to
serve God in all things, is the goal toward which the entire course of the Spiritual Exercises
tends - and which the Constitutions then codify for one’s entire life of service. This is the
authentic orientation which springs from the Holy Spirit of God as a Gift. The experience of
unconditional adherence to God culminates in service toward God , and the apostolic
mission in behalf of the Church. This is assumed by cooperation with the work of God in the
world. Cooperation in the redemption of humanity asks of each one to become transparent in
this service of God - and when one is, this enables the apostolic missionary more and more to
make God transparent in the world. Love has that unique capacity of transforming all into
something splendid, wonderful for God, even though some of these realities, in human eyes,
might appear desperately irrecoverable, useless, harmful - such as would be suffering and death
itself. For the persevering apostolic missionary n the service of God and the Church all needs to
become transparent - this is what communicates the very visage of God.