June 9, 2003

"The Call of the King, Part II"

The famous meditation that Ignatius uses to help us make this transition is to contrast Jesus, who is a King (a leader, a shepherd, any way you want to look at the leadership of Jesus) against someone whom we admire who also is a leader and role model.  Ignatius said to contrast the wonderful qualities of that person, as great as they may be, with the same qualities in Jesus. 

Then we take a look at Jesus in contrast.  What kind of a person is Jesus?  How does what Jesus offers me compare to what this other person can offer me?  In other words, "What's His platform?  What does Jesus promise me?  What attributes and graces does this other person that I admire so much promise me?  How would I respond to the invitation of the King Himself?  Would I join Him, not only in His journey, not only in his ideals, not only in what He promises me, but also as He promises me suffering and trials as well?"  Remember, He said, "Blessed are those persecuted for holiness' sake" (Mt 5:10).  Blessed. 
 
So in this meditation we start making choices.  We start to see the King.  We start to see His platform, His ideals, what He's going to offer us, and almost subconsciously we will start making choices-we want this, we don't want that.  We might kind of pick and choose.  Do we want the whole package deal of this particular leader?  This is the Bellwether Himself, the Divine Bellwether. 
 
Ignatius says we will start to come into a deeper, more contemplative level of prayer now.  When we have been looking at sin, our prayer has been partially contemplative, but we have been doing a lot of questioning.  We have been doing a lot of meditative type of prayer.  We have been doing more of an active type of prayer.  We're going to start to see a shift in our prayer now.  There are many forms of prayer, but contemplative prayer will start to emerge at a deeper level now because we're watching the movement of the King.  We're listening to what He is offering.  Ignatius says this is a good time to use fantasy in this meditation.  We do this with imagery and the child within us. 

Some serious and hard decisions may surface at this time.  We can go through life putting a lot of things on the back burner.  But when we come into focusing on the King, His lifestyle and what He is offering us, we have to take a long hard look if we are going to make that choice to follow and accept His invitation.  We will begin to realize that the things that we normally compromise on or think are not that big of a thing are not little.  Catherine Doherty has a wonderful book called The Gospel without Compromise.  It's very difficult to live the Gospel without compromise.  So watch for the compromise. 

We might have some serious or hard decisions to face, but the main thing is that we are going to hear Jesus calling.  He is inviting.  He is inviting us as a friend.  Ignatius encourages us to turn to Him at this part of the retreat as a friend.  We want to know what He thinks.  We want to know what He wants.  We want Him to share our journey.  We don't want to walk this walk alone.  So it is extremely important to establish this relationship and to be aware that this is what Jesus wants.  He's inviting us into His life as a friend.  He will give us His idea of the Kingdom.  Jesus said, "The Kingdom of God is within you" (see Lk 17:21).   Many times we have no idea of what He's talking about.  Jesus gave His life for this Kingdom and His identity as King.  He stood before Pontius Pilate and said, "Yes, you're right.  I am a King."  That was the big  question that crucified Him.  He could have said, "No, I'm not really a king.  I'm not going to be any threat to you, Pontius Pilate.  You don't have to worry about Me."  But Pontius Pilate said, "Are you a king?"  And Jesus responded, "My Kingdom does not belong to this world" (Jn 18:36).  That decided the fate of Jesus.

So we can see why St. Ignatius wants us to look at the spirit of the world to see what's in us that is of the world and what is not of God's Kingdom because that has to go so the King can come with His Kingdom.  His Kingdom will always be the fruits of the Spirit-tremendous freedom and peace and joy and love.  He's calling us to be His helpers in this mission.  We'll start to see that the call of the King is an invitation to come into His mission as well. The call that He gave 2000 years ago wasn't enough.  He gives every generation the call.  He gives it to each person.  So here we are, 2000 years later, receiving the call to come and be His close followers, His helpers, His friends.  Ignatius feels that at this time of the retreat we are in a place of humility.  We know we have been forgiven, we have seen our sins, and we have seen that God loves us in spite of them.  He almost loves us more because of them.  So we are in a place of gratitude and that's where we can hear the invitation.  So watch for it, ponder it, and respond to it. ("The Call of the King" will be continued next week.)

Excerpt from Mother Nadine's "Heart-to-heart Listening: The Call of the King," 2000.