Pastor’s Corner for the Solemnity of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Year B, by Fr. Russell Pollitt SJ
St Ignatius Loyola’s Strategy and Mission is ours
It is fitting that we celebrate the Solemnity of St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), this weekend, my first weekend as pastor of Holy Trinity. The Society of Jesus has staffed the parish since 1973.
As many of you will remember, I worked at Trinity for seven and a half years between the end of 2005 and 2013. So, I am familiar with the parish, but I am sure that, like the parish, I have changed! I hope that, over the next few months, I will get to know you better and learn about the many good works at Holy Trinity.
Ignatius Loyola was a man of great dreams and desires. He wanted to give himself totally to God to build God’s Kingdom. He had a life-changing experience which began at Pamplona when he was hit by a cannonball and had months of recovery to endure. After he is well enough to travel, he finds his way to a town called Manresa, where he examines his life, spends many hours a day in prayer in a cave and enters into conversation with some of the locals. In Manresa, Ignatius has a powerful encounter with Jesus that would give direction for the rest of his life. The Spiritual Exercises were born in Manresa from his own lived experience. In Manresa, Ignatius decides that God wants him to “help souls”. He sets off from Manresa to follow Jesus as closely as he can and help others to come to know the Jesus he has fallen in love with. Later on, Ignatius discovers that he cannot bring others to Jesus alone, so he gathers companions – whom he calls “friends in the Lord” – who are liked-minded so that together they can proclaim the good news of Jesus and “help souls”.
I hope that we at Trinity will use the life of Ignatius as our guide and strategy to realise our mission. First and foremost, I hope we deepen our relationship with Jesus together. We do this when we pray, read the Scriptures, participate in good liturgy, and learn as much about the Lord as possible. But, like Ignatius, we cannot do this all alone. We need each other and a committed community of “friends in the Lord” who will walk alongside us, support us, and challenge us. We cannot be committed to Jesus if we are not committed to community and friendship. Our service to others flows from our relationship with Jesus and one another.
Our hearts, hopefully burning with love for Jesus and committed to community, will grow as we seek new ways of reaching out to the men and women of our time in their diverse needs.
Ignatius and his companions courageously responded to the needs of the Church and people of their time. Today, we begin a journey that I hope will result in our love for Jesus being ever-deepened and concretely shown in our commitment to this community. On the firm foundation of love and commitment, we can reach the people of our time and help them come to know the Lord—no matter who they are, where they come from, or what they have done or failed to do.