| |
V.- FINDING IN
CHRIST THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE.
(Assimilating the graces of the First Week)
St. Ignatius advises
that: "It is my role as a director to adapt the Spiritual
Exercises to each retreatant, in view of his age and maturity, his
education, and also his potential and his talents. I should decide
what exercises would prove useless or even harmful to a retreatant
because of a lack of physical strength or natural ability as well
as what exercises would benefit and perhaps challenge a retreatant
who is properly disposed and endowed. I may often discover that a
retreatant at this particular time of life has neither the ability
nor sometimes the desire to go beyond what is ordinarily described
as the exercises of the First Week. So, too, I should make the
judgment whether the full Exercises would be profitable to a
particular retreatant at this time ..." (18th Annotation).
This annotation has
often been understood within the framework of the retreat,
relating to the retreatant's capacity to pray, to his willingness
to go further into the second week. In this assumption it is
understood that if the retreatant has already made the Exercises
of the First week and is willing to step into the Second and Third
weeks, understands the topics and knows how to pray by himself,
obviously is capable and prepared to go further. The presence of
consolations in these longer retreats seem to confirm our
evaluation.
Nevertheless when we
observe the retreatant's behaviour in real life we might question
our criteria and look for a deeper meaning in St. Ignatius
annotation. Some years ago I was deeply involved in a lay movement
of Ignatian inspiration. Every two years young men and women, of
18 to 30 years of age, made the long retreat of 30 days as part of
the formation program. For most of them the long retreat was a
very rich religious experience: they felt the love of Christ,
cried for their sins, contemplated the mysteries of Christ,
understood the different spirits, the saving power of the Pascal
Mystery, enjoyed the presence of God. Often times during the
retreat they shared with each other deep spiritual experiences.
After the retreat
these excellent young people went back to their groups, and were
very active in apostolic projects. Only God knows all the good
this movement did to young people for many years. But as the years
went by these young apostles finished their studies, landed new
jobs, fell in love, got married and left the movement.
Unfortunately few years later most of them had lost their
apostolic zeal, had little respect for the hierarchical Church,
did not feel bound by most moral precepts and seemed to have
serious faith crises. Looking back on this group of young people
formed at an school of Ignatian spirituality we find that at the
time they made the long retreat they had not yet been exposed to
many human experiences: success and failure, apostolic generosity
and moral weakness, falling in love, feeling lonely. Their
knowledge of God had not yet been tested by the humbling
challenges of obedience.
The communication with
God during the retreat was real and effective at that moment of
their lives. But very soon they underwent new experiences, which
they did not bring up to prayer, thinking they knew God's ways
well. Too sure of themselves they were easily deceived. Ignatius
gave us the Spiritual Exercises to teach us humility, obedience
and Discernment of God's will. We can say that they had not
assimilated the graces of the retreat. May be the ill digested
Long Retreat had something to do with their faith crisis.
In other cases we have
seen young people making the Exercises of the second and third
week with sincere fervour, seemingly understanding the Call of the
King, the Two Standards. Yet some months later, when facing the
new experiences of falling in love, getting married, they didn't
know how to bring these experiences to prayer, proved to be
emotionally immature, and sometimes had serious failures.
Another spiritual
danger in those who advance in the process of the retreat, making
longer retreats without actually assimilating the graces of each
stage is a certain "spiritual pride". It seems that making the
Exercises of eight days or the Long Retreat in daily life gives
them a "title" of higher apostolic formation. It is as if they had
gained a moral superiority within the group. Some of them become
utterly sure of themselves, extremely sensitive to any criticism
or even doubt about their knowledge of Ignatian Spirituality or
God's ways for that matter. They seem to have become allergic to
authority or outside control. They are creative in liturgies,
ideas and projects but lacking knowledge they go too far, they
take wrong ways.
Finally, another
unfortunate experience we see in those who advance too fast on the
Exercises without actually assimilating them are some illusions
and unrealistic expectations. These young men and women seem to
enjoy the retreats, to the point of making several Retreats on the
same year. They exaggerate the time given to prayer and apostolic
projects, looking down on the worldly responsibilities. It is as
if they could not find meaning in the normal life of family
duties, in their studies or professional work. Their spirituality
seems too romantic. If these exaggerations go undetected the whole
group can drift away from reality into the clouds of fanaticism.
Some immaturities and
excesses in an apostolic group are inevitable. We all go through
periods of exaggeration before we can reach the unwavering heights
of balance, prudence and wisdom! Some among us might even be prone
to exaggerations. These temporary or isolated excesses are not
dangerous provided that they don't go undetected or encouraged. It
is the task of the guide to step on the breaks, give information
and help the group stay on the solid ground of Christ's Spirit and
obedience to the leaders of the Church.
Previous
Next
|
|
