We hear harsh words from the prophet Jeremiah today from six centuries before Christ’s birth. Even though Israel was told that the people would confront disaster if they did not repent and turn back to the Lord, they become angry and indignant, wanting to put the prophet Jeremiah to death. Sometimes we don’t want to hear God’s message. In my prison ministry, I remember one prisoner at the state prison in Yazoo City telling me that when he was in the process of committing the crime that put him into prison, he knew that God was trying to tell him that he was doing something wrong, but he did not want to hear what God was saying and did it anyway. Sometimes we turn our back on the Lord and ignore him. Through Jeremiah, the Lord tells the people of Israel that they will be treated like Shiloh if Israel does not repent. Shiloh was an ancient shrine that had been destroyed by the Philistines.
St Ignatius of Loyolas, the saint we celebrate, would admit that for many years in his life, he had turned his back on God. Ignatius was born in 1491, the year before Columbus sailed for America. He had a brother who sailed with Columbus. He was the youngest of 11 children from a family in the Basque country in mountainous area of Northeastern Spain. He was trained to be a member of the royal court and to be a solider, but while fighting at the siege of Pamplona in 1621, he suffered a broken leg that had to be re-broken after it was not set properly. His friends carried him more than a hundred miles back from the sight of battle to his family’s ancestral home. Ignatius was confined to his bed for a long period of time during his recuperation from his injuries, where he learned about saints such as St Dominic and St Francis of Assisi. He also read stories about Christ and his ministry. This brought about a profound conversion of faith. After spending time as a hermit in a cave and time wandering as a pilgrim, where he was able to reflect upon his vocation, Ignatius enrolled in the University of Paris at the age of 30 to become a priest, a very advanced age to be in formation for the priesthood. He had to study Latin with young boys in order to get ready for his study of theology. Even though Ignatius had turned his back on God for most of his early life, he had opened his life to God after that battle injury. From the humble beginnings of his conversion, he wrote his spiritual exercises while trying to discern God’s will for him in his life. With a group of good friends from the University, Ignatius of Loyola went on to found the religious order of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, an order of priests that still has great influence in Catholicism today. We celebrate Ignatius of Loyola today. May we pray that his prayers and intercessions accompany us on our own journey.
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