Saint Ignatius, Saint Francis, and Pope Francis: Lenten Reflection for St. John Seminary Faculty

Abstract

Saint Ignatius, Saint Francis, and Pope Francis:Lenten Reflection for St. John Seminary Faculty Cardinal Seán O’Malley O.F.M. Cap Miguel de Unamuno wrote a biography of Don Quixote, the protagonist of Cervantes’s masterpiece, which is probably the most influential novel ever written, (before The Da Vinci Code of Dan Brown, of course). Unamuno begins his biography of Don Quixote with an ingenious comparison of Don Quixote and St. Ignatius of Loyola, drawing from Cervantes’s description of the Man of La Mancha and Rivadeneira’s biography of the founder of the Jesuits. Unamuno describes how Ignatius set out for Montserrat to deposit his arms at the feet of the Virgin. On the road to Montserrat, he encountered a Moor who denied the virginity of the Blessed Mother. Ignatius tried to convince him, without success, and the Moor rode away very conceited and arrogant. The young Ignatius had second thoughts and wondered if he should have punished the man. He wanted to let God decide, so he dropped the reins of his steed to see if the animal would pursue the recalcitrant Moor or continue on the road to the sanctuary of Montserrat. The beast trotted off to Montserrat and the Jesuit Order was founded. By the way, Unamuno credited that donkey with the founding of the Society of Jesus. The early biographers recount how St. Ignatius was wounded in the battle of Pamplona and how he spent much of his convalescence reading. Because there were no books of chivalry like Quixote and Ignatius loved to read, they gave the patient Ludwig of Saxony’s Life of Christ and a florilegium of the lives of the Saints. After devouring the books, Ignatius’s comment was: “I want to be a saint like St. Francis.” [End Page 727] Well, we have a Pope who has embraced the vocation of being a follower of “Ignatius who wants to be a saint like St. Francis.” Our Pope is thoroughly Jesuit, thoroughly Ignatian, right down to the fascination with St. Francis. In his interview for Civiltá Cattolica, Fr. Antonio Spadaro, S.J., asked Pope Francis why he became a Jesuit. The Pope said that three things about the Jesuits that attracted him were: the missionary spirit, community, and discipline. He especially admired the way Jesuits manage their time. It is quite obvious that Pope Francis exhibits these characteristics in spades. He is truly living his Jesuit vocation with an intense missionary zeal, a love for community, for mission, and for the disciplined life that does not waste anything, especially not time. I love the image of Pope Francis running around the Vatican turning off the lights. It reminds me of my dad. Shortly before his ordination, the thirty-two-year-old Bergoglio wrote a short credo. He has kept that piece of paper as a reminder of his core convictions. It is a clear indication of the habit of self-reflection so deeply ingrained by his Jesuit formation. He speaks of his own history and says that, on a spring day of September (in the Southern Hemisphere!), “The loving face of God crossed my path and invited me to follow Him.” The Holy Father is always harkening back to the day of his own spiritual awakening and conversion on the Feast of St. Matthew that found him breaking away from his friends to go to church to receive the Sacrament of Confession. It was there that he first felt called. Later, he shared that his favorite painting in Rome is Caravaggio’s Calling of Matthew, where Jesus is pointing at the tax collector. Bergoglio said that, when he looks at that painting, he feels that Jesus is pointing at him. It is not surprising that Fr. Bergoglio, when appointed bishop, chose the phrase miserando atque eligendo (“having mercy and calling me”) from the homily of the Venerable Bede on the Feast of St. Matthew, the publican converted and called to be an apostle. The experience as a seventeen-year-old was, in his words, “the astonishment of an encounter … of encountering someone who was waiting for you. … God is the one who seeks us first.” The Holy Father...