Wednesday 2nd Week of Easter
Mass for the Supreme Knight and Entourage
April 19, 2023
St. Ignatius Rooms, Gesu
Witness of History
The Apostles, of themselves unlearned and uninfluential are arrested. Yet they find themselves set free from prison and proceed to teach in the temple area. They are proclaiming the Name above every other name, Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord.
In the 4th and 5th centuries, when Christianity became legal, ambitious and unworthy men sought to become bishops for the power they could wield. The Lord raised up St. Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil the Great, and the redoubtable St. Augustine of Hippo, not to mention Benedict of Nursia.
In the 12th century, as the faith of many was unraveling, and crowds of destitute people began to overwhelm the populace, God raised up Francis of Assisi, himself a beggar, but whose audacious project the powerful pope, Innocent III, approved. And what of Dominic Guzman, whose mendicant friars shared the poverty of the masses, so that they could share with them the riches of Christ?
In the 14th century, Catherine of Siena, herself illiterate, made bold to demand that Pope Gregory XI move the papacy back to Rome from Avignon. She did not relent until he did so.
In the 16th century, as the Church sought to recover from the Protestant Reformation, God raised up a wounded soldier in whose rooms we have gathered to worship. Working in and through Ignatius, God unleased one of the most powerful evangelical movements of all time, as Ignatius and his companions brought the Gospel to the ends of the earth. It was here, in 1549, that he wrote the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, here where he wrote some 7,000 letters to his men in the field, his missionaries.
At the end of the 19th century, a priest meets in a church basement with twelve men. There is born the world’s largest (and best) fraternity of men.
God So Loved the World
Our Gospel is John 3:16: “God so loved the world that he gave us his only begotten Son…” God continues to love the world and to give his Son. This is what we celebrate in the Easter season. His love is everlasting. His love is invincible. The darkness does not overcome his light. With the little we contribute, the Lord does amazing things, far beyond our reach.
Celebrating the Eucharist, the Paschal Victory of God’s only begotten Son, and celebrating in this place whence the Gospel went forth to the ends of the earth – let us set aside every discouraging thought, take heart, and rejoice, for the Lord truly is with us and through us wishes to do great things. Here we beg the intercession of Ignatius of Loyola, that our efforts to evangelize, catechize, and form men as virtuous men, as practicing Catholics, as husbands and fathers will flourish.
So long as we seek the greater glory of God, we shall succeed beyond our plans and beyond our dreams. Vivat Jesus!