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The Second Week of the Spiritual Exercises
The Second Week is at the heart of Ignatian spirituality, the quality of decision-making. We have said previously that apostolic spirituality is a spirituality of choice at the level of faith: therefore discernment, therefore the quality of decision-making, therefore all the notes, suggestion, and processes of his decision-making spirituality. Other spiritualities may emphasize community life or prayer as does monastic spirituality, but Ignatius saw decision-making as the cutting edge of fidelity. He saw himself united with God the Worker as he labored in the world. He saw himself choosing to labor with Christ in building the Kingdom by the quality of his decision-making. For Ignatius discerned action for the Kingdom was a constitutive part of contemplation. Taking one's graces and transforming them into everyday life is the key. People need to incarnate their consolations: to make their consolations real in history as Christ Jesus made his consolation real in history. In this chapter we will give an overview of the Second Week, observe how the structure changes, and comment on the dynamics. Much attention will be devoted to the decision-making materials, [169 - 189], the Times of Making Choices, Matters about which a Choice Should be Made, and the Ways of Making the Choices and the Discernment. There is a definite structure for each day in the Second Week. In the First Day [101 - 131], for instance, the prayer periods are arranged as follows: 1. Incarnation, the first meditation,This pattern follows one similar that has been used from the beginning of the retreat: Prayer A, Prayer B (as a contrast), repetition, repetition, Application of the Senses. Similarly, the Second Day [132 - 133] of the Second Week is 1. Presentation, the first prayer periodThe Third Day uses 1. The Obedience of Jesus, the first meditationThe Third Day [134] is noteworthy because the order of dignity of persons is in inverse order to the authority in the family. Certainly, in those days Joseph was head of the family and his word was law. Jesus, the child, would not have had much to say. Ignatius also puts these two meditation in inverse order, the opposite order to which they are in the Scripture. He puts the obedience first and then the Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple. This I know about Ignatius, however, that this change of order is not an accident, even though I cannot figure out why he did that. On the Fourth Day the pattern changes. The consideration of the Two Standards [136 - 148] is followed by three repetitions, and the fifth prayer period that day is devoted to the Three Classes of Persons [149]. On that same Fourth Day, the Three Kinds of Humility [165 - 168] are recommended for consideration throughout the day. The pattern changes again in the Fifth Day of the Second Week. During this Fifth Day [158 - 160] one prays on only one mystery with several repetitions. >From now on in the Second Week one will continue to pray over one incident from the life of Christ, not two, and this one consideration is followed by three repetitions and the Application of Senses. Why is that? On the Fifth Day the director introduces the retreatant to considerations of the Election. It is assumed that one is making little decisions all along, but the Election is a life-directing decision, the choice of how I am going to live my life from now. Notice that the contemplations of the life of Christ continue throughout the Second Week. The retreatant is in the "illumination" phase of the cycle: purification illumination confirmation union. This illuminative phase means putting on the mind and heart of Christ. The retreatant is contemplating Christ in the different events of Scripture and learning from Him: being illuminated by His way of thinking, His way of doing things. He is the Word from the Father and the retreatant is being taught and illumined by the Word made Flesh. The contemplation of the Sixth Day [161] is focused on Christ Our Lord's departure from the River Jordan for the desert and on his temptations. There is a progression here from Nazareth to Jordan and his Baptism and ultimately to Jerusalem. Most people consider those temptations to be a summation of all the temptations of Christ throughout his whole life, summed up in that one Gospel story. In the text [161] Ignatius continues the list of meditations for the following days of the Second Week: Day Seven - St. Andrew and others follow ChristIgnatius presupposes that during the latter part of the Second Week one is in a prayerful, faithful stance and continues to sink into these mysteries. He says, "It is not many things that nourish and fill the soul, but one thing deeply savored." [cf. 2] Here in the Second Week the director is giving the retreatant one thing now to deeply savor and to sink into the mystery. The Notes at the end of that section [162] are important: Everyone, according to the time he wishes to devote to the contemplations of this Second Week, and according to his progress, may lengthen or shorten this Week...Here the director has freedom. For instance, if there is some reason for taking something different than the Presentation and the Flight into Egypt, the director may do so with good reason. Ignatius had a reason for putting the meditations in this order. He thought these passages supported the dynamics that happen when God enters into the life of a person. A good director may change the order of the meditations for a good reason, but not just arbitrarily. Ignatius planned twelve days for the Second Week. He provided material that a director could use to lengthen or shorten according to the fruit that is occurring and needed by the retreatant. Amid the considerations of the mysteries in the Life of Christ the retreatant continues to dwell on the Election. This may be centered on Choice of a Way of Life but it can be any major (note major!) decision that the retreatant is facing. When one is helping another pray over the mysteries in the life of Christ, one has to facilitate the process. It is not enough to assign the topic and give the scriptural reference. A good director sets the person into the mood of the passage. That is what is meant by "pointing the prayer." What are you aiming at? The preludes help set the stage. The First Prelude is the history of what is being prayed over, generally a passage from Scripture. Here a person composes himself or herself with the mystery and that composition or union with the mystery deepens throughout the day. The first time they pray over a passage from Scripture, Ignatius is presupposing that the mind has to be satisfied. The person needs to understand the context and the content. Then as the repetitions continue, the person has more room for the will, the affect and the desire to take root. The cycle closes with this very mystical time of repetition with Application of Senses. A retreatant is composed with the mystery so that the Lord can work on the whole person: the mind, the will, the imagination, the affect. He or she is "composed with the mystery." The effort here, for instance, using [110 - 117] is to see the cave in which Christ was born. How wide is it? How deep is it? How high is it? Look at the straw. Look at the baby in the crib in swaddling clothes. Make yourself a little servant and be of service. Ignatius urges the person to get into the mystery, or better yet, to let the mystery get into the mind and affect of the retreatant so that the meaning of the event can work its transformation on the retreatant. After the Two Standards the retreatant continues praying over the mysteries of the life of Christ while at the same time doing some specific and focused considerations on Introduction to Making a Choice of a Way of Life [169], Matters About which a Choice Should Be Made [170], Three Times When a Correct and Good Choice of a Way of Life May be Made [175] and other decision-making processes [178 - 189]. In other words, if the choice of one's way of life is settled, then the Election focuses on how one is going to proceed in that choice and work it out in conformity with one's faith and desire. A great thing to note is [169]. The Spiritual Exercises asks a retreatant to do some difficult things. Do not shy away from having people do these difficult things. The director does the retreatant a service when he or she asks a retreatant to consider a difficult truth. The director is there to help the person. A director is not there to back off from considerations of difficult material. The material on decision-making and the Election is at the heart of Ignatian spirituality. It is not just the heart of the Exercises, but it is the heart of Ignatian spirituality. Ignatian spirituality is a spirituality of decision-making: a spirituality of choice at the level of faith. What is the quality of your decision-making? That is sanctity for Ignatius. How much loving are you putting into your decisions? This specifies the saint. In every good choice, as far as depends on us, our intention must be simple. I must consider only the end for which I am created, that is, for the praise of God our Lord and for the salvation of my soul. Hence, whatever I choose must help me to this end for which I am created. I must not subject and fit the ends to the means, but the means to the end... [169]Right in the heart of the Spiritual Exercises the calumny against the Society of Jesus is exploded. Sometimes it was alleged that we Jesuits teach the end justifies the means. Here in [169] he says exactly the opposite. Ignatius says the end does not justify the means. He goes on to say that most people make choices (and this is what people are going to find difficult) not for the greater love of God and for their greater reasons. Most people choose the means and then manipulate their reasoning to an end that gratifies their desire. For instance, many people choose to get married and then say: "Now, as married, how can I serve God?" Or some people choose to be priests or religious and then say, "Now as priest or religious, how can I serve God?" From Ignatius' perspective that would be putting the means before the end. He says, choose God and then consider the means that best supports that choice. A director has a careful and difficult job here to keep the retreatant truly free and focused on God. When I was a senior at the University, I was all set to be married. I had the young lady chosen and she had chosen me. I knew where I was going to go for my doctorate in physics., I had a fellowship and everything. That year I happened to make a retreat in which the director pointed out this matter of choosing the end before the means. I knew the truth of what he said, and it turned me around 180 degrees. There is a rational part to this reality of vocation and an affective part. Part of vocation is the ingredient of attraction to this marvelous person, Jesus Christ, and his ways of thinking and acting. There is that ingredient of desire, and it goes beyond the purely rational. It may be reasonable to love the Lord, but the attraction is something more. Both are there. One chooses the end first and then one chooses the means. Ignatius asks us to do four things in the Spiritual Exercises: 1. PREGAR (PRAY), He does not give any further note on that. He assumes we know how to pray.The reason they are spiritual exercises is that one exercises everything: your thinking, feeling, sensing and intuition. The whole person is exercised. Ignatius says, "Consider here matters about which a choice should be made." [170] The subject matter for a choice in the Exercises has to be indifferent or good. That is great freedom. The object of choice does not have to be guaranteed correct. A person has freedom to choose any course of action that is not morally bad. One is not obligated to choose the best. When one considers what that meant to l6th century Spain, and Paris and Rome, one realizes how Ignatius was the champion of real freedom. The first thing to note about a decision is that the matter needs to be either indifferent or good. He then notes there are things that fall under an unchangeable choice. Speaking from the 16th century perspective, Ignatius notes priesthood and marriage as examples. Today we might consider an organ transplant or a genetic gene replacement. On the other hand, there are other situations about which our choice may be changed. He uses the example of accepting or relinquishing a benefice, receiving or renouncing temporal goods. He is saying with regard to an unchangeable choice, Once it has been made. . . no further choice is possible. Only this is to be noted. If the choice has not been made as it should have been... without any inordinate attachments, one should be sorry for this and take care to live well in the life that he [she] has chosen. Since such a choice was inordinate and awry, it does not seem to be a vocation from God, as many erroneously believe. They make a Divine call out of a perverse and wicked choice... [172]Once I worked with a priest who announced, "I've fallen in love and now I have to leave the priesthood." I replied, "Oh, show me how it follows. It does not mean you have to leave the priesthood because you have fallen in love. All you have to do is fall out of love now. You can still love the person, but you fall out of your infatuation. It is a different thing to "fall in love" or "to love someone." There is no prohibition against loving someone. That is Christian. As spiritual director, one needs to look at the possibilities:
Directors need to school themselves to look for substantial data and not just consider a passing affect. In the case of a question about priesthood the person may be having anxiety attacks while celebrating the liturgy. He may have consistent deep feelings of being a fake during the administration of the sacraments. That is data! Ignatius is driving home a point. One chooses first the end, then the means; and if one has not done that, the choice has not been made rightly and in a correct manner. People do not want to hear about choosing the end and then the appropriate means. Let me encourage you to let them consider this piece of wisdom because they will never be in a better position to consider such weighty matters as when a director is there to support and advise and encourage a person. One of the most important spiritual exercises is talking with the director. That is one of the spiritual exercises of the retreat. Good directors are not merely nice people. They accompany the person through difficult labyrinthine ways. The retreatant needs to be asked how he or she sees himself or herself subjecting the end to the means. It is the director's job to help a directee think about these things. The director in a directed retreat, or a spiritual director outside the retreat directs the process of prayer and reflection as distinguished from directing the retreatant. If one is not directing the process, how can one be a spiritual director? The director's focus is on the process. The director, however, does not make decisions for a person or get mixed up in someone's content. The director does direct the process. People need that for support. Supporting someone means helping him or her with their process, helping them to be reflective and conscious of their process, because what is not consciously structured is unjustly structured. The fourth point [173] concerns matters that may be changed. In matters that may be changed, if one has made a choice properly and with due order, without any yielding to the flesh or the world, there seems to be no reason why he [she] should make it over. But let him [her] perfect himself [herself] as much as possible in the one he has made.For example, I had a Sister from a teaching Order tell me she wanted to move into a contemplative Order. When I asked why, she said that she liked to pray and that she liked being with the Lord. What is happening to her is that she is getting a taste for prayer that she should have as an active religious. She has mistaken that grace for a call to be a contemplative religious. If a choice has been made in due order, there is no reason to change. Today some people start worrying about whether they could survive on their own outside a religious community or whether they could be happy as a single woman, and so on. As a director you need to ask whether the first choice of vocation was made correctly. If so, there is little need to make it again to be authentic. There seems to be some kind of movement today that we have to remake the choice in the light of greater authenticity. Although there may be some exception, in general one makes a good choice the first time and need not revisit the choice. It is to be observed that if a choice in matters that are subject to change has not been made sincerely and with due order, then, if one desires to bring forth fruit that is worthwhile and most pleasing in the sight of God our Lord, it will be profitable to make a choice in the proper way. [174]Note that in most instances, decisions that can be changed, if they are not made properly, can be remade. This is the case by far in most instances. If someone is married and they ought to be married, but they have not made the choice in the proper way, a good director helps them confirm the choice of getting married. If someone is a doctor for ten, or fifteen years, and he or she has never made the choice to be a doctor at an appropriate level of consciousness and freedom, the director helps that person make the choice in the right way. For many people who are vaguely dissatisfied, without being able to put their finger exactly on why, a director needs to remind them, "It is because you have not committed everything in you to what you are and what you are doing. Let us do that. Let us get God's O.K. on what you want and let us make the choice." It is possible that God can be calling a person to something else. There may be a kind of alerting grace that happens to people. Should I pray more? Should I be more outgoing, more loving? Should I be more in service to others? Should I have more social concern? These questions are an alerting grace. They alert one to the fact that it is time to grow or change course. How is the person to change or grow? The options may be numerous, but the question is, how is one being called. As a director, one realizes this is a time for graced change for your retreatant. Moving them through the various dynamics of the Spiritual Exercises will surely help focus the elected way to grow. The retreatant will face his or her strengths and weaknesses, sinfulness and call; and from this rich stew get the precise flavor of this decision. In [175 - 183], Three Times When A Correct and Good Choice of a Way of Life May be Made, Ignatius has set up one of his continuum metaphors and asks us to consider three times, or moments, or "seasons of soul" when good choices can be made. First Time. When God our Lord so moves and attracts the will that a devout soul without hesitation, or the possibility of hesitation, follows what has been manifested to it. St. Paul and St. Matthew acted thus in following Christ our Lord. [175]In other words, this First Time is a time of great grace: being knocked off one's horse. This First Time links with [330] in the Rules for Discernment of Spirits: consolation without previous proportionate cause. It is a time in which God enters the issue; and God and the object of choice are so seen as one entity that "the devout soul, without hesitation, or the possibility of hesitation, follows what has been manifested to it." [175] It is a time of great grace, mystical grace. It is consolation without previous cause. It is not necessarily rare, but one cannot count on this kind of clarity and grace to help one make choices on a daily basis. The Second Time when a good choice can be made When much light and understanding are derived through experience of desolations and consolations and discernment of diverse spirits. [176].For instance, the Second Time may be a time of retreat when a retreatant prays and is experiencing many movements of spirit. The director here is making use of the Rules for Discernment. Somerset Maugham says there is no greater instrument ever devised to get a hold of that vagabond thing, the soul of man, than the Spiritual Exercises. The Third Time for a good choice is a time of tranquility [177]. Notice it is still a time of faith. One considers first for what purpose man [woman] is born, that is, for the praise of God our Lord and for the salvation of his [her] soul. With the desire to attain this before his [her] mind he [she] chooses as a means to this end a kind of life or state within the bounds of the Church that will be a help in the service of his Lord and for the salvation of his [her] soul.The point of this is that the decision is being made in a time of tranquility. I am not knocked off my horse. I am not going through much light and understanding by sorting through my consolation and desolation and discernment of diverse spirits. Rather it is ordinary, everyday believing. One does not make a choice in desolation. One makes a choice in one of these three times of choice in a time of consolation. One must never change a previously made choice when one is in desolation. That is of the utmost importance. There is more about decisions attempted in desolation in [319]. I said it is a time of tranquility, that is, a time when the soul is not agitated by different spirits, and has the free and peaceful use of it's natural powers. [177]If a choice of a way of life or an important choice has not been made in the first or the second time, if one has not been knocked off one's horse or gathered much light and understanding made available through the experience of consolation and desolation of diverse spirits, then a good decision is made in tranquility, the Third Time of choice. In the Third Time of Choice Ignatius gives us two ways of making a good decision: one more right-brained and the other more left-brained. Most of our choices are made in this third time. Ignatius' favorite time for making a choice was the Second Time of Choice. He is assuming a person can start in the Third Time of Choice and offer the decision to God in prayer, moving the decision toward a Second Time of Choice, confirmed by consolation. The director does get into the process of the person. He or she does not hang outside the process when retreatants are making difficult decisions. Certainly a director does not make a decision for a retreatant nor does he or she influence the person one way or the other. The director's role is to keep the retreatant faithful to the trusted process of decision-making. By doing this, one does the person a great service. Good decision-making requires a person to look at the whole picture. From a Jungian perspective we need to involve the retreatant in sensing, intuiting, thinking, and feeling. The person will have a natural tendency to neglect one or two of these functions. The director needs to be alert. Many people will neglect the thinking function. They do not want to be bound by the inevitability of the logic. Yet the director must insist on keeping that thinking process involved in the decision-making. Some people will rationalize their conscience. They will get into thinking and logic and will neglect the feeling values: the context and the relationships. Others grow myopic by seeing only one option; still others soar over the facts and become fascinated by the big picture and the long-range plan. This is to place before my mind the object with regard to which I wish to make a choice, for example, an office, or the reception or rejection of a benefice, or anything else that may be the object of a choice subject to change. [178]Here the only requirement is that one is choosing something that is subject to change. Should I get a doctorate in Cultural Anthropology? That is an important choice. I will have to spend four to five years and many thousands of dollars to accomplish this choice. It will determine my way of life. "It is necessary to keep as my aim the end for which I am created." Notice always the end. One remains poised like " a balance at equilibrium" [179] so that one would not choose or not choose the means except as they prosper one and promote the end for which one is created, to be united with God. Ignatius is talking about interior freedom. The purpose of the Spiritual Exercises is to rid oneself of disordered affections and attachments and after being rid of them to choose to make decisions" [1]. The third point in the way of making a choice in the Third Time, the time of tranquility, is to beg God our Lord to move my will. [180]Ignatius is asking God, "Move my will. Attract me." He is not asking God to perform magic. He is aware that within the retreat a person has been looking at the life of Christ. The retreatant is praying over the decision, praying in the concrete, with his or her "freedom out in front." He or she is asking God to attract him or her. I am looking at Christ and being moved. I am asking that this prayer bring to my mind what I ought to do in this matter that would be more for God's praise and glory. This will happen by my praying over the life of Christ. I am looking at Jesus being generous and loving and forgiving and faithful to the Father. I am asking the Lord to help me pay attention. I ask that the Lord help me to be composed with those mysteries. We ask God influence every level of our being so that God can work on our whole person. Let us briefly look at "mystery." The director has to facilitate directees getting deeply into mystery in the Spiritual Exercises . This is not just a matter of psychological individuation or betterment. It is about God and God's revelation and God's transforming us through grace. How does one facilitate a person or a group in this enterprise? You talk to them. What do you say? The director says things like, Mystery is what we know best. Some people define mystery as ''that which is unintelligible,'' but actually, mystery is infinitely intelligible. It is not unintelligible. It is infinitely intelligible and we do understand mystery. Take the pen in your hand. I understand the pen. That is because there is not that much to understand. However, in talking about the Word made Flesh, that mystery is infinitely intelligible and God is always drawing one further and further into the mystery.A director needs to encourage the person, letting him or her know about mystery. One need not be ashamed or afraid that one knows mystery. Vatican I said that the faithful do come to know the mysteries by praying over the various mysteries. One comes to know the mystery, even something of the Mystery of the Trinity. Does one understand the mystery totally? No, of course, not. That is because it is infinitely intelligible. However, a person does understand something about mystery. For instance, a person does understand many things about the Word made Flesh because one participates in human nature. One is human as Christ was. Christ was 100% human and 100% divine. He was true God and true man. He was not 50%-50%, 80%-20% but 100% human, and so is every retreatant. One lives out half the mystery. One's own psyche is the forum, even the basis of Christian mysticism. A person does know mystery and is invited into it. Mystery is actually what we know best. Jesus Himself said, "The mysteries of the Kingdom of God are revealed to you..." [Lk 8:10] Let me return to the subject of quality decision-making. We beg God our Lord to move our will, to bring to mind what I ought to do in this matter. Then I should use the understanding to weigh the matter with care and fidelity. I urge you to read this text that was written with the point of a sword and not a pen. Read every word with care and fidelity. Weigh the matter with understanding. Ignatius was a careful and meticulous man -- even a bit scrupulous. He took the reasons for and against not doing something, and then the reasons for and against doing something. How do we proceed in this First Way of Choice in the Third Time [178-180]? We weigh the matter by reckoning the number of advantages and benefits that would accrue to me. This is the classic discernment. What are the advantages and positives that will accrue to me if I make this choice? What are the disadvantages or the negatives, or the cons, if I make this choice? We are concerned here with the weight of the reasons not their numbers. Today we tend to shorten the process, considering and listing all of the con reasons, the disadvantages, the reasons against, doing all and only the reasons against. The retreatant puts himself or herself in the frame of mind to consider the disadvantages of the option under consideration. List all of them. Having done this one does the same for the positive reasons, giving equal time and energy to both negative and positive considerations. This pattern was followed in the Deliberation of the First Fathers. The person must come to a decision in the matter under deliberation because of weightier motives presented by reason and not because of any sensual or disordered inclination. After such a decision or choice is made the one who has made it must turn with great diligence and offer the decision to God in prayer. A poor or inordinate decision will block communion with God. The decision will be in the way of greater union. If it is a good decision, it will be like a magnifying glass. It will enhance communion with God. A poor decision is like having to face an alienated friend in a crowded elevator. One has to come into God's presence "sideways." A person brings this decision right into prayer and says, "Look, Lord, here's the decision I am making. What do you think of it." Meanwhile I look God straight in the eye and He looks straight back at me. In confirmation God says, "I think that decision is fine." When this happens, the retreatant has no reason to feel cheap or ungenerous or unfaithful about the decision. It is confirmed by God. People invariably focus on what they are trying to gain by making a decision. Note this: One always loses something by making a decision. One ALWAYS loses something by making a decision even when that decision is for God. That is why Ignatius wants you to do it these two ways. First, what are the reasons for and against doing it? Second, what are the reasons for and against not doing it? He wants a person to face what is to be gained and what is to be lost in a decision. In the retreat setting the director needs to be sure people are looking at both sides of a decision: what they are gaining and what they are losing by the decision. One is not finished when the decision is made. One has to offer it to God for confirmation and live with it for a while. There are two aspects to confirmation. The first one is experiencing joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. That is an internal confirmation experienced even before the decision is put into action. Notice that it is both joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. Peace is an intellectual reality. The mind tends to move back and forth among many reasons. People think peace is an affective, an emotional thing. It is not. It is an intellectual or noetic reality. Peace obtains when the mind comes to rest in the truth as it knows it, without the tendency to go back over the reasons. Joy is an affective movement outward. The affective and the intellectual consciousness concur. Joy and peace, affective and intellectual consciousness, concur. Remember we have said previously, get your head, your heart and your faith together. The second characteristic of confirmation is the external confirmation: 1. How does it work over time?I know many people who believe that because they have discerned something, therefore, authority has to accept it. A part of external confirmation is how the decision is accepted by authority. There is an important, contextual consideration here: that of legitimate authority. One can withdraw oneself from that authority, but one has to be willing to accept the consequences of that. For instance, one can leave the religious community. One can leave the Church. One can do all kinds of things, but acceptance by legitimate authority is part of discernment. Ideally, the pertinent authority should be involved with and part of the process of the person or group making the discernment. The corollary of this principle is that neither can authority say to you, "I have discerned what you should do." This is very important. It works both ways. What one is doing here is seeking a means for incarnating one's consolation. Theologically, a person is making real in history his or her consolation. That is when a person becomes an apostle: making real in history what God has given as gift. If a person is trying to make anything else real in history, the results are questionable. One must always ask where call and ambition coincide. There is a Second Way of making a choice in this Third Time. The second way is very interesting. One might say it is a left-brained and a right-brained way of making choices. It challenges the whole person to be present to the decision. The First Way is that The love that moves and causes one to choose must descend from above, that is, from the love of God, so that before one chooses, he [she] should perceive that the greater or less attachment for the object of his [her] choice is solely because of His Creator and Lord. [184]One can see why we say that Ignatian spirituality is a spirituality of choice at the level of faith. Here we encounter apostolic spirituality in its primary dimension. In the Second Way of Making a Choice in the Third Time, Ignatius says, I should represent to myself a man [or woman] whom I have never seen or known, and whom I would like to see practice all perfection. [185]That is, we have a person who loves God very much, and who is loved by God and eagerly moves in God's service. Then I should consider what I would tell him [her] to do and choose for the greater glory of God our Lord and the greater perfection of his [her] soul. Then I will do the same, and keep the rule I propose to others. [185]Isn't that great? Remember we spoke of Ignatius' use of the "prophet dynamic" earlier. Here it is again. Here we have somebody in whom one has no vested interest. This person sets before you the matter about which the decision should be made. In all love and desire for their progress say what he or she should do. That person is you. Now switch roles. Take your own best advice. The Third Rule in the Second Way of Making a Choice [186] invites the retreatant into another active imagination. This is to consider what procedure and norm of action I would wish to have followed in making the present choice if I were at the moment of death... [186]To summarize then, we could say that the First Way of making the choice was that very rational way, the reasons against and the reasons for. The Second Time has four parts and is more imaginative:
The Spiritual Exercises are assuming the Christian tradition. They are assuming belief in an after-life. They assume belief in some kind of eschatological reward: death, judgment, heaven, hell, being with God. The retreatant is challenged to measure his or her personal images against these public, traditional images. Ignatius is saying, make this decision with the very clear and present knowledge forward in your consciousness, knowing that you are going to die, and that you are destined to live hereafter. He challenges us to make our decisions from that perspective. There is an obvious presupposition here. These exercises presume the Christian story of dying and living after death, of being with God in heaven, or having a more severe or less severe judgment passed. Ignatius is encouraging us to call those things to mind. They help in making good choices. In addition I find it helpful to ask the retreatant what is the best possible scenario that can happen and what is the worst scenario? For instance, consider getting married. What is the best possible scenario that can happen? I marry someone whom I love very much and who loves me very much. We live contentedly with a lovely home and children. The children grow up to be successful and productive. We grow to old age, growing in respect, love, and wisdom. On the other hand, what is the worst possible scenario? We are married a year or two years, become disinterested in each other, bicker and fight and find there are no common interests. We have to deal with drug addiction, alcoholism, job loss, disregard for the children. We divorce amid many court battles. What is likely to happen? Something in between. Note that by considering both sides, the person's imagination is involved: not just his or her head, not just his or her heart, but also his or her imagination. The person is challenged to project himself or herself forward into the future and consider the consequences. Here is another example. Perhaps the person is thinking about becoming a priest or religious. What is the best possible scenario that can happen? I imagine myself learned, productive and fruitful in the apostolate. I enjoy my work; and it is a joy and fun. I continue to learn and am respected in the community. I die full of faith and good works before God. That is the best possible scenario. On the other hand, what is the worst possible scenario? The worst possible scenario is that I am unhappy. I feel that people have never given me my due. I do not understand what religious life and the apostolate are all about. Chastity is enormously difficult; obedience is twice as difficult. Poverty is meaningless. I am unproductive and unfruitful. That is the worst possible scenario. What will probably happen? Something in between. Taking time for these considerations is an enormously valuable exercise. As director one must gently but firmly see to it that the person considers all the facts of the situation: the concrete details or the sensate realities, the big picture or the intuitive connections, the thinking or logical consequences of the matter, and the feeling or contextual implications. It is important that the person "live with" each scenario so that the head, heart, and faith can be exercised and contribute to a good decision. Sometime even a good director can get caught in a situation in which he or she puts more energy into the process than the retreatant does. Not long ago a priest came to me who had fallen in love. He asked what we ought to do about this. I suggested spiritual direction once every two weeks for about a year, then a 30-day retreat before making a decision. He said, "Oh, God in heaven, you don't think I'm going to go through that, do you?" And I said: "I don't know, but one thing be sure of, Father, I am not going to take this more seriously than you do. It's your life. Tell me how seriously you want to take it and I'll tell you how much time I can give to it." Let us turn now to [189]: "Directions for the Amendment and Reformation of One's Way of Living in His [or Her] State of Life." It must be borne in mind that some may be established in an ecclesiastical office, or may be married, and hence cannot make a choice of a state of life... [189]Ignatius assumes from his historical perspective that if a person is in the priesthood, he cannot make another choice of a state of life. He is already committed. He assumes that if one is married, he or she is already committed and no other choice is possible. But notice, realist that he is, . . . in matters that may be changed and hence are subject to a choice, they may not be very willing to make one. [189]In other words, a person says, I am what I am. I know what I am and I want to be, and I do not want to make a change. Ignatius envisions that also. Given that situation either that they are in a situation where they cannot make a change or they are in a situation where they do not want to make a change, then the purpose of the Election is how to live well and reform in that state of life that they have chosen to live in. It will be very profitable for such persons, whether they possess great wealth or not, in place of a choice, to propose a way for each to reform his [her] manner of living in his [her] state. . . [189]Notice how the whole retreat is going back to the Principle and Foundation, that one uses creatures inasmuch as they help one to one's final end and one does not use creatures in as much as they do not help one to one's final end. [cf. 23]In addition, decisions for Ignatius were always made in the context of faith, that one considers the end for which he or she is created, and chooses the means that best accomplishes that end. Remember that in the First Week, sin is disorder. It is an Ignatian theme. He has a hierarchy in mind, the order of things established. God at the top of the order, the human person is second, and all other creatures are third. That is the Principle and Foundation: we are created to help the human person to attain God. When the creatures get ahead of the human person, that is disorder. When the human person puts himself or herself ahead of God, that is disorder. That is sin. When one puts creatures ahead of one's own finality, that decision is sinfulness. Disordered affections and attachments are those affections that are not moving to this ordered end. It is a very tight-knit model, and it is the fundamental understanding of the Spiritual Exercises. Let him [or her] desire and seek nothing except the greater praise and glory of God our Lord as the aim of all that he [she] does. For everyone must keep in mind that in all that concerns the spiritual life his [her] progress will be in proportion to his [her] surrender of self-love and of his [her] own will and interests. [189] A director needs to be very discerning here. There is sometimes a thin line between healthy self-surrender and unhealthy co-dependency. If a person is too self-sacrificing, it may be a case of being too co-dependent. A person may be coming from a dysfunctional family that has to keep the peace at any cost. The person may feel compelled to put oneself in the lowest and least place. Recall that we mentioned before that the good Christian conscience, when faced with a dilemma, will almost invariably choose the more difficult part, and almost invariably be wrong. There is such a thing as suffering for the Kingdom, being willing to suffer to help the Lord build the Kingdom, but this is not taking on suffering for suffering's sake. I think it is blasphemous to say that God sent his Son in order to suffer. Rather, suffering is in terms of the mission. I am called to this work, which is difficult, and I will do it even though it causes me to suffer. Jesus had one attitude towards suffering: Get rid of it! He spent His entire public life eliminating suffering for the blind, the lame, and the mute. He healed them. On the other hand, He did go willingly to the cross in service of His mission. He accepted the cost of discipleship. Making this distinction between healthy and unhealthy suffering is subtle and very important. It takes careful discernment. In praying over the matter of the Second Week the person will not only get new insights but "newly received" insights. St. Augustine has a great line, "Non nova sed noviter recepta "-- not new, but newly received. For instance, someone will come to you, all excited, and say, " Oh I was praying over the Incarnation and I really realized that God became man." The director may say, "Is that the first time you knew that?" "Yes, yes it is the first time I knew that." Obviously, this is not the first time the person is learning this. They are learning it in a new, more profound way. It is newly received. It is knowledge by connaturality. It is not conceptual knowledge. It is a knowledge at deeper levels of my being transformed into Christ. I am not knowing something merely in my head. I am being it. I am participating in an on-going transformation. That is what we mean by knowing mystery. One knows mystery by being transformed into Mystery. For instance, one knows an aspect of mystery when one's own mind becomes like the Trinity, when it generates the word in itself. That is one way a person knows what the Trinity is. When one experiences one's own humanity as bringing oneself to God (not that one has to go around this humanity, or over it, or pretend it is not there, but when one experiences one's own limitations and one's humanity as a resource for bringing oneself to God) that is as the Lord did in the Incarnation. Generally, a person who makes a 30-day retreat is one who has been praying on the mysteries and over Scripture for years. When that person comes to make a 30-day retreat, he or she is learning something not new but newly received. |