The First Principle and Foundation
St. Ignatius may be called a genius in finality.
For him, everything in the world has a purpose. This purpose is to glorify the
Divine Majesty. That is why God created man, so that he might "praise,
reverence and serve" his Creator, and thereby save his soul. That is also
why God made the other things on the face of the earth, "in order to help
man attain the end for which he was created."
Given these facts, we are to use
everything in our lives according to the will of God, which means as a means to
reach our heavenly destiny. However, while everything in our life is somehow
part of God's providence, not everything is to be used in the same way.
Some of these creatures are to be
enjoyed. We are doing God's will if we gratefully enjoy the pleasant persons,
places and things that He puts into our lives.
Other creatures God wants us to endure.
Then we are doing His will when we patiently accept the pain He gives us and
see His loving purpose in the unpleasant experiences with which He provides us
on the road to heaven.
Still other creatures God allows so we
might remove them from our lives because they are occasions to sin. We must
therefore rid ourselves of them if we hope to be saved.
Finally, there are pleasant things that
we may legitimately keep. But God would be more pleased if we gave them up out
of love for Him. These are the sacrifices which make us more like Jesus who,
having joy set before Him, chose the cross out of love for us.
There is a problem, of course. We are
not naturally inclined to choose only what is morally – what is providentially
– good for us. Nor are we naturally inclined to remove what is morally – that
is eternally – bad for us. We live by faith, so that our minds need to be
enlightened by divine revelation. And we have a fallen human nature, which is
constantly in need of divine grace. Therefore, "we must make ourselves
indifferent to all created things, as far as we are allowed free choice and are
not under any prohibitions." As far as we are concerned, we should not,
for example, prefer health to sickness, wealth to poverty, praise or honor to
rejection or disgrace, a long life to a short life. In a word, we must become
internally detached from all created things. Our one desire and choice should
be what is more conducive to the end for which we were created.
All of Ignatian spirituality is locked
up in the foregoing summary of the "First Principle and Foundation."
It is a first principle for the believing mind to accept, and it is the
foundation on which a truly Christian spiritual life must be built.
St. Ignatius learned from personal
experience that we must have a definite goal in life and decide on definite
means to achieve it or we shall not only not reach the Beatific Vision for
which God made us: we shall not even be happy here on earth. Sinners are
unhappy people. If only they stopped to think of it, their very unhappiness is
God's way of shaking them out of their stupor; if only they are willing to
accept His terms for happiness and not stubbornly insist on their own.
On the other hand, those who are ready
to guide their lives according to the plan of God are the only truly happy
people on earth. They are at peace because, as the angel told the shepherds,
they are "men of good will." Why good will? Because their wills are
conformed to the will of God. They expect to suffer, and not run away from
pain, because they are sustained by the light and strength that God always
provides for those who ask Him.
That is why throughout the Spiritual
Exercises, Ignatius insists on constantly praying for divine help. We would call
them actual graces that we shall infallibly receive provided we incessantly
pray. Our minds need to be enlightened all through life to keep them fixed on
the horizon of eternity, toward which we are going, and to know at every
conscious moment, how we are to get there. Our wills need to be constantly
strengthened to remain firm in our resolution to keep doing the will of God.
The most basic source of this light and strength is prayer.
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