St Ignatius of Loyola - homeless

 

Image credit: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-56364339

On seeing that today, July 31st, is the feast day of St Ignatius of Loyola, I decided to read a bit about him. Like many people, my first resort is Google which led me to that source of all knowledge, Encyclopaedia Britannica which told me that Ignatius was born in Spain, one of 13 children in a noble, relatively wealthy family. He became a knight until a cannonball took him within a whisker of death, smashed his legs - and his dreams of fame on the battlefield.

After nearly dying... "In February 1522 Ignatius bade farewell to his family and went to Montserrat, a place of pilgrimage in northeastern Spain. He spent three days in confessing the sins of his whole life, hung his sword and dagger near the statue of the Virgin Mary as symbols of his abandoned ambitions, and, clothed in sackcloth, spent the night of March 24 in prayer."

Now here is where it became really interesting for me. Read on with Britannica...

"The next day he went to Manresa, a town 48 km from Barcelona, to pass the decisive months of his career, from March 25, 1522, to mid-February 1523. He lived as a beggar, ate and drank sparingly, scourged himself, and for a time neither combed nor trimmed his hair and did not cut his nails. Daily he attended mass and spent seven hours in prayer, often in a cave outside Manresa."

Think about how Ignatius would be labelled today if he tried being a homeless beggar who neither combed nor trimmed his hair, and did not cut his nails. Mental health and addiction stereotypes spring to my fertile imagination. Anyway, he went on to found the organization we know today as "The Society of Jesus" or simply, "The Jesuits". 

St Ignatius of Loyola was declared patron of all spiritual retreats by Pope Pius XI in 1922. He is also considered by some a patron of soldiers but, can he be more fittingly considered a patron of homeless people?

Who are the shepherds?

 

When I first heard the readings for mass this Sunday (16th Sunday: Jeremiah on selfish, lazy shepherds, Psalm 23, Jesus the Good Shepherd having compassion on the people in the Gospel,) my thoughts went immediately to judging and condemning the shepherds of today and the era we have inherited - spiritual shepherds such as bishops and priests who have brought scandal upon the Church, and political leaders who refuse to see beyond the next election and the need for economic growth as an end in itself regardless of the human, social and environmental cost.

Two women brought me back to myself: the first woman, my wife, read to me a reflection by Sister Mary McGlone (second woman) published in the National Catholic Reporter. Sr McGlone reminds us that we are all shepherds to the extent that we have a sphere of influence with other people; that being a shepherd is not just about the power and authority of those in charge, but also bringing others - any others -  nourishment (prepare a table, green pastures,) peaceful refreshment (still waters,) solidarity and encouragement in the dark valleys of fear and anxiety.

The Good Shepherd doesn't try to do this out of obligation, like the hired hand who will fail. The key is compassion.  Compassion will even induce us to alter our own plans for ourselves, as Jesus did in today's Gospel reading: Jesus wanted to take the apostles on a quiet retreat, but then "… he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them..."

Who are the people in need within our sphere of influence? Perhaps the Good Shepherd wants to reach them through the hands and voices of the likes of you and me. Meanwhile I thank God for the two lady shepherds who brought me this insight.

Reflection Regarding the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation Residential School Gravesite Near Kamloops, BC

 

(The following reflection by Archbishop Emeritus Sylvain Lavoie OMI is reproduced from SSVP Canada News, Jun 23, 2021)

The  discovery  of  215  children  found  buried  at  the  Kamloops  Indian  Residential  School  in  unmarked graves on the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation community is surely impacting all of us. We have probably all felt some or all of the emotions of shock, disbelief, dismay, anger, shame, sorrow and profound grief. And we have all have questions, many unanswered questions that need to be asked in the coming days and weeks: when did this happen, how did this happen, how could this have been allowed to happen, who could have allowed this to happen? This shared history of residential schools profoundly impacts residential school survivors, and indeed all Canadians, and certainly us as a Society.

Probably many of us have received messages or comments from others – family, friends, acquaintances, fellow workers, expressing some of the above reactions. A friend who was a former chief, politician and businessman,  called  me  to  express  his  frustration,  indignation  and  anger.  He  had  international connections, stressed that the impact of this was huge, and that it was placing the church, as well as the Oblates, in a very dark, negative light with especially the media. One person even questioned her involvement  with  a  program  that  is  being  hosted  by  our  Star  of  the  North  retreat  Centre,  precisely because it is an Oblate centre. Another former parishioner wrote to say she was questioning the church now.

What makes something that is already bad perhaps even worse, is the fact that one of our venerable bishops, Vital Grandin, is quoted saying something that is as racist as even the first prime minister seems to have been – that Indigenous children need to be taken away from their families and civilized until there is “nothing Indian left in them except their blood.” And I read in the  Delmas  history  book,  my home parish, how Fr. Delmas worked to convince the Indigenous to trust the government’s offer for basically the forced take-over of their land and wanted a favour to establish a French Catholic colony there.

So,  what  are  we  to make  of  all  this,  and  how  should  we  respond,  as  a  Catholic  society  dedicated  to serving the poor and marginalized, when this ugly reality reveals the poverty, mistakes and weakness of the Church, and threatens to marginalize us?

Psychologists offer us three options when danger or threat is on the horizon, as this development surely is – fight, flight or freeze. We can react by being defensive and fight back, as some are urging us to do (“Why is no one defending Bishop Grandin?” is a question posed to us already). We can try to flee into defensiveness, justifying and rationalizing. Or we can simply sit and do nothing, trying to ignore all the painful revelations and comments, hoping it will all pass.

None of these responses, tempting as they are, will help in any way. Our best response is to be humble, honest, open and transparent, and see this as a moment of purification and humiliation for the Church, and for us all. We need to remember that God turns everything to the good for those who love God, and trust that in all of this darkness and pain, God will draw some good, even if it is a more humble, compassionate and faithful body of believers. 

We  need  to  be  patient,  and  meet  the  challenge  of  doing  three  things  exceptionally  well – face  the reality, accept the reality, and deal with the reality. We need to face the truth of what has happened, and what will continue to surface as surely more such scenarios will be discovered. We need to accept that members of our faith community, and in my case, religious community of the Oblates, somehow, in whatever historical context they were in, allowed this to happen.

Then  we  need  to  move  towards  what  Jesus  teaches  us  in  the  gospel  of  Matthew – forgive  the perpetrators  of  this  awful  reality,  and  apologize  for  the  fact  that  it  was  done  by  whomever  was responsible.  Above  all,  we  need  to  listen  from  the  heart  to  the  pain  that  especially  the  Indigenous peoples  are  feeling,  as  this  will  trigger  past  memories  of  abuse,  racism,  discrimination,  neglect, indignity, and humiliation for many.

One lady who attended a Catholic day school, not a boarding school, sent me an email sharing her anger at the treatment she received from one sister in particular as a Métis student, how the Métis all sat at the back of the class, how she was not allowed to go to the bathroom during class, then was teased for being smelly all day. She vividly shared the impact that abuse had on her, but also how she had managed to work her way through that intense pain to a place where she now experienced some serenity. What she needed to heal that inner wound, newly scraped open, was to be heard and affirmed. And that we can all do.

We  need  to  let  this  development  not  just  play  itself  out,  but  spur  us  on  to  even  greater  levels  of compassion, understanding, and awareness as we continue to serve the poor. Let us resolve to work together with all levels of our church leadership to finally be more open, humble and honest about our mistakes  in  the  past,  and  change  any  attitudes  of  not  really  caring  in  the  present.  May  we  all  work together to heal this dark history, encourage the bishops to unite around the call for a papal apology, and  be  willing  to  provide  funds  to  help  the  process  of  truth-telling,  instead  of giving  it  to  lawyers  to mitigate litigation. 

And above all, let us pray for greater compassion and understanding for all of us – Indigenous and non-Indigenous, that this dark night of the soul will lead us all to a place of greater wellness as a church, a society and a country.

Archbishop Emeritus Sylvain Lavoie OMI
National Spiritual Advisor