Desiring Sickness?

Dear Our Lady of Ransom Family,

Ever since my first silent retreat, my daily routine has included a prayer that was composed by my friend St. Ignatius Loyola called the  First Principle and Foundation. I must confess, however, that I’ve always struggled with the last part of it, and especially so over the past couple of weeks. Ignatius says: “on our part, we want not health rather than sickness, riches rather than poverty ... long rather than short life … desiring and choosing only what is most conducive for us to the end for which we are created.” That’s a hard pill to swallow.

This past week I was having some health problems, and, out of an abundance of caution, my doctor sent me to get tested for COVID-19. Thankfully it came out negative, but I have to admit that in those 24 hours between test and result, I was sure hoping for health rather than sickness! Who wouldn't? Is Ignatius saying that health is a bad thing? Of course not. What he is saying is that there is something even more important.

The most important thing in our lives is to grow in our personal relationship with Jesus Christ in a way that allows us to say one great “yes” to His saving work in our lives. Everything else is secondary to that. The greatest disease to infect modern man is how easy it is, in our comfortable and seemingly self-sufficient world, to numb ourselves to the very hunger that is meant to draw us to the Lord. When misused, this hunger tries to fill itself with the food the world offers, a food that can never really nourish our souls. The emptiness within us that is meant to be a blessing to draw our hearts and minds to the Lord, becomes instead a source of hurt and pain. “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you,” as the great Saint Augustine famously penned, and if we try to find rest in anything but the Unchanging One, fear, hurt and worry will be our lot. But when we recognize that all of our desires, all of our emptiness, all of our longings are meant to draw us to the Lord's love, then we find a peace and joy far beyond what this world can offer.

Everyone is realizing how fragile our world is. Society has been overturned by a virus, invisible to the naked eye and yet having nearly unchecked power to devastate our health, our economy, our interpersonal relationships. Our hearts are now confronted with the passing and fragile nature of this world, and this is an opportunity of historical proportions. It is an opportunity that we desperately need; one that we can never be prepared for but must be open to when it comes; one that can reconnect us to our identity as beloved children of our Heavenly Father... 

… if we let it! 

Right now, it  is sickness and poverty that are inviting us to reflection on our lives and how God is inviting us to something more.

The veil that obscured the truth that our world is passing and chaotic has been, in part, pulled aside for us. Now is a time especially graced for us to evangelize the world, to proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ and Him crucified (cf 1 Cor 2:2). The Carthusian religious order has a motto that demands our reflection in the current situation:  Stat crux dum volvitur orbis. The cross is steady, while the world is turning.

“On our part, we want not health rather than sickness, riches rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, long rather than short life … desiring and choosing only what is most conducive for us to the end for which we are created.” And what is that end for which we are created? To “praise, reverence and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save {our} soul.” It’s about salvation. It’s about being so fully transformed into the image of Christ that our God can draw us into the eternal embrace of the Trinity, the communion of life and love that is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. 

There is no need to be fearful or anxious when, as Saint Ignatius reminds us, everything can draw us ever-the-more deeply into God's loving embrace.

St. Ignatius Loyola – Pray for us.
Our Lady of Ransom – Pray for us.

In Christ,

Fr. Matt Bozovsky
Pastor
Our Lady of Ransom