Friday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Year A

Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Loyola 

Jeremiah 26:1-9

Psalm 69:5. 8-10. 14

Matthew 13:54-58

Truth, painful yet heals

In an argument with someone sometime ago, he said something that got me thinking for a while. He said no matter the gods or God you pray to or whatever ideology you believe in, there is one thing about the world which all of us face, this is suffering. This is evident even in the current state of the world. 

There is a general dislike towards suffering and anything that causes pain. Most or even all of us will prefer to subscribe to gain without pain than the popular saying that "no pain no gain".  

The parallel of today's gospel in Luke 4:16-30 throws more light on the reason why Jesus went to his hometown.  He went because it was the jubilee year, hence what he taught about.  In the jubilee year, everyone was to return to his or her hometown, people's property were restored to them, even slaves were to be set free and so on.  It is a year of liberation. 👼

So when Jesus proclaimed liberation for his people, and they looking at the state in which they were, slaves to the Roman empire, they saw a contradiction in what Jesus proclaims to and for them. So he was not even welcomed to participate in the benefits of the jubilee year since he was to be at his hometown during that time.   

This is what we see about our world. Liberation has been proclaimed for us through the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we mostly reject this reality. Because the wisdom in it is beyond our reasoning, we totally reject it. ✋

Knowing that God is looking at you throughout your entire life, and cares for you and where you are going is a truth that when realized allows a real experience of liberation. In his suffering, the saint whose memorial we celebrate today realized God's love for him. ❤

St. Ignatius' life shows what the suffering of the world should open our eyes to see. The sufferings of this world should remind us of how much we have fallen, and why we must endeavour to allow God to forge us into formidable sword fit for our King.

"the sword's strength came from the five thousand blows it suffered, a trial of fire and a baptism of water; thus rose a weapon of magnificent beauty...a sword fit for a King, but first it has to find its master."

This quote from the recent movie about him has really influenced me. We must first find our Master, the true surgeon to heal us with his truth. The truth mostly hurts, just as Jeremiah made the Israelites recognize that there is a breach in the walls of their life. St. Ignatius with the mind of a soldier and with his spiritual exercises made the Church on earth realize why it is called the Church Militant.  

He showed how we can allow God to make us soldiers for his Kingdom. A doctor heals but the method or medicine for treatment always come with some sort of pain. God came to bear all our sufferings on himself. This is a completely different method of healing and this is the truth we must put our faith in.  

"I once asked a man to break my leg, so that it could heal and be whole again; for the same reason, I needed God to break my spirit. Fortunately God is a much better surgeon than man."  St. Ignatius of Loyola

St. Ignatius calls us like saint Paul to always do everything for the greater glory of God [Ad maiorem Dei gloriam (AMDG)]. This has become the motto of the Jesuits, which he founded.

By

 

Sylvester Amakye-Quayson 

Edited by 

Michael Owusu Amponsah