Appendix
Sermon on St. Ignatius de Loyola, by St. Alonso Rodriguez
V. p. 86.
“Vias Tuas Domine demonstra mihi.” “Shew, O Lord, Thy ways to me.”
Ps. xxiv., 4.
It is written of the daughter of Pharaoh, how once, on walking with her maidens by the banks of the river Nile, she cast her eyes upon it, and saw floating in the stream a little wicker basket; and how, when at her command it was brought to her, she found in it a very beautiful boy; and how she had the boy taken out, and brought up, and she grew exceedingly fond of the child.
The daughter of the king is a type or figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary, daughter of the Eternal Father, Mother of God, Spouse of the Holy Ghost. And as this Lady, whilst in the midst of her handmaidens, the virgins, was looking, with the glance of her exalted judgment on the banks of the river Nile, that is to say, on this world, she cast from heaven her most merciful gaze on the river of this world and saw in it a most beautiful boy. This Lady drew him thence, had him brought up, and she loved him tenderly. This boy was Father Ignatius, who was engulfed in this world. Our Lady took him out of it, for whilst he was engulfed in the world, he was indeed but a boy in virtue, but when he was taken out of it, by this our Lady, and instructed, and converted to his God by means of her prayers, he ceased to be a child, and became a man. Those only can be called men who quit the world; those who do not, cannot be called anything but children. God indeed wrought great things by him through the intercession of our Lady. And that we may be able to speak somehow of the greatness of St. Ignatius, let us beg our Lady to obtain for us grace to do so, and the more to induce her, let us say the “Hail Mary.”
“Vias Tuas Domine demonstra mihi.” We are told, in Holy Scripture, of Moses, that when he saw an Egyptian oppressing God’s chosen people, moved with zeal on behalf of his countrymen, he killed this man, and then left the house of the king and of the king’s daughter, and went to the desert to tend sheep. St. Ignatius is here represented to us; for, urged by God, as he was a man of valour, like another Moses, by his great diligence, and by the grace of God, he killed a man, because by his sins he was inflicting injuries on God’s people and on God himself. But the man St. Ignatius killed was not like the one whom Moses killed. For Moses killed a man other than himself, and this is no very brave deed; but Ignatius killed and overcame his own self, and this is a feat, the greatest that any man can perform in this life. “Beati mortui qui in Domino moriuntur.” Moreover, he was not content with being dead to self by mortification, but he also killed the devil and the world, by conquering them and bringing them to his feet.
To do this ought to be our care, as it was the care of St. Ignatius. And this he so strongly enjoins us in his rules, when he says that we must follow Christ “as He is the way that leads men to life.” This consists in ever seeking our own abnegation and continual mortification. This ought to be our care; this we ought to study day and night; instead of indulging ourselves, we ought to persecute ourselves as becomes truly humble men; this spirit ought to be found in our prayers, for a prayer which does not draw from it a spirit of mortification is to be suspected. Let us look to this point which St. Ignatius so much valued, lest at the end of our lives we may find that we have plenty of leaves, but very little fruit.
As the first Moses fled in fright to the desert, and abandoned all the favours he had in the king’s house, so this second Moses took flight and went to the desert of solitude to converse with God, leaving all the favours and pleasures he had in the world, and exchanging them for solitude, where he bitterly wept over his sins and changed his life into a better one, spending his time there in long and fervent prayers, in penance and in mortification. “Vias Tuas Domine demonstra mihi.” There the path to heaven was shown to him. There he wrote the “Exercises” which were revealed to him by God, that by means of them he might also be of profit to others.
And as, Moses in the desert tending his flocks saw one day, a bush, which, though green, was burning and yet not consumed; and as, whilst he was desiring to go and see this mystery, God told him not to approach the place without taking off his shoes,—this bush which burnt and was not consumed is a type of God made Man,—so in like manner our holy Father, like another Moses, took off the shoes, not of his feet, but of all inordinate affections of this life, so that he was well prepared to approach the bush of prayer, and in this bush Christ is represented, and in the flame arising from it, the most Holy Godhead as it is perfect unity. And so it was that this most brave Captain was a man of great prayer, both to the Divinity and to the Humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. For we see that he had a great devotion to the Most Blessed Trinity, from the special communications which he received from It, and also to the Humanity of Christ our Lord, for our Lord Himself appeared to him, and promised him that He would be propitious to him at Rome.
And as, when Moses was conversing with God, He saw that he was a man of valour, and He spoke to him and asked him to be the leader and captain of his people, though he refused this through humility; so it happened with this saintly man, our Father. For as God saw that he had great capabilities, He chose him as the leader of his people to fight against the heretics for His glory, as indeed he did.
God told Moses to take off his shoes, by which is meant all earthly and carnal affection, in order to speak to Him. For it is certain that for so high a dignity as that of speaking to God it is necessary that the soul should have no savour of the world, but should live in the greatest purity and be like to an angel. And to this state our Father arrived, for he took off the shoes of affections to this life, and left all for God, and thus his spirit of prayer was so great.
Again did Moses speak with God, and this Our Master sent him as captain of His people against Pharaoh, and so Moses working wonders, with the help of God, overcame Pharaoh and released his own people from captivity. He outwitted Pharaoh, and all his people, and they and Pharaoh were lost in the Red Sea. And thus freedom was restored to the people of God so that they all made great rejoicings and festivities, and gave thanks and praise to God for having delivered them from their enemies. The same, in His own way, did God with our Father Ignatius, for God took him out of the world to make him the captain and defender of His own people, so great a number of whom were in slavery, that Ignatius might free them from the bondage of the heretics and of Satan, who already held many prisoners in his power. And he, through the favour of God, by his teaching and holy life, delivered them from this bondage, and when they were free, they sang the praises of God who had delivered them from the captivity of Satan.
And just as God gave to His own people, after he had freed them, the manna of Heaven and sustained them by it; so God refreshed divinely and with the manna of Heaven, those who had been freed by our Father from the power of the heretics. And this manna is God Himself, this manna is that most exalted kind of food, the Blessed Sacrament of the altar, with which He will feed us till He leads us to the land of promise, which is Eternal Glory.
