HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND WHEN THE GROUND SHIFTS BENEATH OUR FEET? 500 YEARS AFTER IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA FOUND HIS ANSWER WHILE RECOVERING FROM A BATTLEFIELD INJURY, A JESUIT ALUMNUS SEEKS LESSONS TO HELP US WITH THE INSTABILITY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
THE 500-YEAR ECHO B Y R E V. J O S E P H S I M M O N S , S . J . , A R T S ’ 0 4
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“Up to his twenty-sixth year, the heart of Ignatius was enthralled by the vanities of the world,” says his autobiography. “His special delight was in the military life, and he seemed led by a strong and empty desire of gaining for himself a great name.” This year marks the 500th anniversary of St. Ignatius’ cannonball injury in Pamplona, which led to his isolation and slow recovery at age 26 at the Loyola family castle in the Basque country. Ignatius’ conversion is a story familiar to those in Jesuit education: The bedridden soldier lay in forced isolation for months; during his convalescence he daydreamed about his life choices and desires up to that point, struggling to let go of fading dreams of battlefield glory and courtly favor. Little did he know where his search for idle distractions would lead. His autobiography tells us: “As Ignatius had a love for fiction, when he found himself out of danger, he asked for some romance novels to pass away the time. In that house there was no book of the kind. They gave him, instead, The Life of Christ, by Rudolph [of Saxony], and another book called the Flowers of the Saints, both in Spanish. ... This reading led his mind to meditate on holy things, yet sometimes it wandered to thoughts he had been accustomed to dwell upon before.” Gradually he found that reading about others’ lives shed important insights on the direction of his own.
