Jesus Christ,
God made man,
embarks on the redemption of the world.

He restores God’s plan of love.
He reconciles men with his Father
and man with his fellow man.

With his light and through his grace
he invites me
to take my personal place
within the life of the Trinity
and, as a consequence,
within the world of men.

Contemplated through the Symbolic Call of an Earthly King

(1) This juncture in the Exercises poses a very serious problem for us: Who should go beyond this point to make the three remaining weeks? In the Eighteenth Annotation St. Ignatius writes: “If the director sees that the retreatant has little aptitude or little natural ability, that he is one from whom little fruit is expected … let him go no further to take up matters of election on the choice of the way of life and any other exercises that are outside the First Week.” This ability to proceed further is a gift, but it should be understood as the ability of a person to live the spiritual life in the fervor and generosity of love. Never did St. Ignatius exclude from the Christian elite the humble, the uneducated, or the poor of spirit. His experience was like that of St. Francis de Sales, who confessed: “I have found God full of sweetness and perfume among the highest and hardiest mountains, where many simple souls cherish him and adore him in complete truth and sincerity.” So we should read in St. Ignatius’ wise recommendation nothing more than that every retreat should be adapted to the temperament and the grace of the retreatant.

(2) In Christian life there are not two faiths, two hopes, and two charities (see Eph 4:5). All the baptized have the vocation to be “perfect as [their] heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48). But there are hundreds of degrees of generosity, hundreds of ways to distinguish oneself in his service, and these differences depend on temperament and grace.

(3) The image of the temporal king—an image borrowed from the chivalry of Ignatius’ time—may cause problems for some people today. If such is the case, they should recall the image some of the Jews had about the Messiah at the time of Christ, that is, that he should be a military leader, God’s Chosen One who would restore the kingdom of Israel and lead her people to victory and to the conquest of the world. If the Biblical image of a military leader shocks some, then these people might substitute for it a political figure, or an inspired thinker, a great reformer, or an academic leader.

Place yourself in the presence of God and make the prayer beginning the meditation considering how God watches you. Then make the act of reverence and humility.

Ask him to inspire you and help you.

Composition of Place

This will be to see with the imagination the synagogues, villages, and towns where Christ our Lord preached.

I will ask for what I want and desire. Here it will be for the grace not to be deaf to the Lord’s call but to be prompt and diligent to accomplish his most holy will.

First point. I will imagine an earthly king chosen by God our Lord himself, to whom all Christian princes and people pay respect and obedience.

He is therefore a leader who enjoys the prestige of having been the one chosen out of all Christendom by God himself, an extraordinary chief whose program and whose promises are wonderful.

Second point. I will consider how this king speaks to all his own: “My will is to conquer all the lands of the infidels. Therefore, whoever would wish to come with me must be content with the same food as I, the same drink, the same clothing, etc. He must also labor with me by day and watch with me by night, etc., so that he can share with me in victory just as he has shared with me in suffering.”

The conditions for being a companion of the king are therefore most exacting and demanding. Accepting companionship with him implies a “co-sharing” with him in the strictest sense of the term. That is, it covers all of the circumstances and every moment of one’s whole life. It means partaking of his toil and sufferings as well as of his victory, which from this moment on has been guaranteed.

Third point. I will consider what type of an answer his faithful subjects will give a king who is so generous and so compelling. If anyone refused the invitation from such a king, he would deserve to be reprimanded and considered fainthearted.

Here we are introduced to an extremely important feature in the spiritual teaching of St. Ignatius, his appeal to the “heart” of a person, to his noblemindedness, his affinity for deep, intimate friendship, generosity, enthusiasm. We are reminded here of the advice we gave the retreatant before beginning the Exercises, namely, that his primary disposition for receiving gifts and favors from God should be generosity, offering his entire will and liberty to God so that he may dispose of him, make use of him, according to his will.

First Point: Facts and Reality

The whole scope of this contemplation is in St. Ignatius’ question: “How much more . . . ?” and then his invitation to the retreatant to draw the inferred conclusion.

If an invitation of an earthly king to his subjects is so wonderful, …how much more is it worthy of consideration that we look at Christ our Lord, the eternal King, who invites the whole universe and at the same time each person in particular to come before him. To these he says, “It is my will to conquer the whole universe and all my enemies and thus to enter into the glory of my Father. Therefore, whoever wishes to come with me should labor with me, so that in following me in suffering he may follow me also in glory.”

We are in a setting that is right out of the Gospels:

(1) Jesus is the eternal King.

(2) His call is made to the heart of each person. “Follow me.” “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt 16:24; Mark 8:34). “No one who does not carry his cross and come after me can be my disciple” (Luke 14:27).

(3) His purpose is to “recapitulate” in himself the whole universe, visible and invisible. In the text of the Ephesians upon which we have already meditated, St. Paul writes: “[God the Father] has let us know the mystery of his purpose, the hidden plan he so kindly made in Christ from the beginning to act upon when the times had run their course to the end: that he would bring everything together under Christ as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth” (Eph 1:9–10).

(4) Moreover, the victory in Christ’s battle is already certain: “I have conquered the world”, he says at the hour of his Passion (see John 16:33).

Second Point: The First Response

I will consider that all those who have sound judgment will offer themselves unreservedly for this task.

Very important: the invitation is the same to all; the difference comes in the responses. Christ our Lord invites all men: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48). Each one responds to this call according to his grace, in the mystery of his personal fidelity.
This first response is already very lofty. It is total, without reserve. Everything is accepted. But between this response and that of the insignes, that is, those who “distinguish or signalize” themselves, there is a distance that separates the love that comes from making a choice from reasonable motivations, including even personal interests, and a pure, unselfish love that is willing to take risks in the unconditional gift of self.

We will meet the two types of responses again (the response of reasonable people and that of the insignes) during the course of the Second Week, the week of “choices”.

Third Point: The Response of the Insignes

These make the same response as those who are reasonable, but they make it differently. They make it with their whole heart.

Those who shall be more desirous to show affection and signalize themselves in entire service of their King and Lord of all will not only offer themselves entirely for the work but, more, will also act against their selfishness and against all worldly love and make offerings of greater value and more importance, saying:

Eternal Lord of all things, I make my offering with your favor and help, before your Infinite Goodness and before your glorious Mother and all the saints of your heavenly court; I want and desire, and this is my deliberate choice, provided that it is only for your greater service and praise, to imitate you in bearing all injustices and contempt, and all poverty, both real and spiritual, if your Most Holy Majesty wishes to choose and admit me into this state of life.

We should carefully note that in this offering there is no question of religious life, or of religious poverty, but of the evangelical poverty of the Christian.

It is possible that we would falter before making such an offering. Some might then advise us to ask God at least for the desire to desire to make such an offering. But it would be better to …say: consider to what extent Christ has loved you. “[He] loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). And then, relying on his grace, agree to go wherever he would like you to go. Say with St. Paul: “Scio cui credidi” (I know in whom I have put my trust) (2 Tim 1:12).Beginning with the Second Week and during the rest of the retreat it will be most profitable to spend some time reading the Bible (especially the New Testament) or some life of a saint. The important thing is to choose these readings to complement the spirit of the meditations of the particular week in the Exercises where one finds oneself.

Important note: It is obvious that this contemplation is connected with everything Jesus Christ has revealed to us about the “Kingdom of God” and the “Kingdom of heaven” and, as a consequence, with everything that touches on preaching the Gospel in the world and with the mission of the Church here on earth. This is a meditation that is far-reaching and very difficult because the distinction between “temporal” and “spiritual” is complex, yet this distinction is of paramount importance. Reread, for example, the bewildering dialogue between Jesus and Pilate: “‘So, then you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘It is you who say that I am a king. I was born for this; I came into the world for this; to bear witness to the truth’” (John 18:37; cf. 19:13-16, 19-23). Then recall that the apostles found it difficult indeed to free themselves from the image of a military Messiah in charge of a temporal kingdom (Acts 1:6-9). Then there is the example of Paul, who had no hesitation about taking his images out of a military armory: “Put on the full armor of God. . . . And you must take on salvation as your helmet and the sword of the Spirit, that is, the Word of God” (Eph 6:10-17).

What are the elements that go into making up the mystical life of a Christian? St. Paul gives the complete answer to this question when he writes to the Galatians (2:20): “I have been crucified with Christ, and yet I am alive; yet it is no longer I, but Christ living in me.”

The mystical life is essentially “being united” with Jesus Christ and through him with the Father. It consists of growth in grace, and grace is simply God’s life, the divine life in us. The mystical life of a Christian is therefore a growth in faith, hope, and charity. Here on earth the culmination of this life is the martyr, the one who dies with Jesus Christ to live with Jesus Christ.

Consequently this life consists of entering into the mystery of Jesus in order to die with him so that I can be raised up with him. This is the life of the “new creature” that here on earth we live through faith and hope and that after our death we shall live in the full light of the vision of glory.

In order to express this reality of our Christian life, of living out this unity with Christ in life and in death, St. Paul has created a whole vocabulary of verbs that begin with the prefix sun in Greek (cum in Latin), that is, “with”. A meditation on the Call of the King from St. Paul’s point of view will enable us to see his call and also his Kingdom in their various spiritual dimensions.

Place yourself in the presence of God and say the prayer to begin the meditation.

Ask him to inspire you.
Composition of Place

Either Jesus’ speaking with Nicodemus on the need for man’s being “reborn” (John 3:4) or on Calvary at the time when the centurion’s lance pierces Jesus’ side (John 19:43).

I will ask for what I want and desire. Here, I will ask not to be deaf to the call of the eternal King but to be prompt and diligent to accomplish his most holy will.

First Point: Baptism: “Plunged” into Jesus’ Death in Order to Be Raised up with Jesus

It is baptism (and the act of faith that it supposes) that transforms us with Jesus Christ into sons of God.

Romans 6:2-11: “Are you not aware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Through baptism into his death we were buried with him so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life.” In verse 5 St. Paul insists: “If we have been united with Christ [complantati] through likeness to his death, so shall we be through a like resurrection.”

What is the life of Christ? After our baptism, what is our life? “His life is a life for God. In the same way, you must consider yourselves dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus.”

Second Point: “In novitate vitae”: In a New Life

The effect of baptism is immediate. Our spiritual resurrection is not the same as the resurrection to come. It is a resurrection in faith, one that has taken place here and now.

As of now we are the “resurrected”.

What does this mean?

(1) It means we are “dead to sin” and that as a result we must, with Christ, fight against all of his “enemies”, that is, against our concupiscence and selfishness: “Our old self was crucified with Christ to the Cross” (Rom 6:6). “God has rescued us from the …power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his beloved Son. Through him we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins” (Col 1:13–14).

“All of you who have been baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with him” (Gal 3:27).

The result of this is that we go beyond “co-sharing with Christ” in his work to a veritable unity in Christ. In order to express this marvelous and mysterious reality, St. Paul created a formula that has no equivalent anywhere in the Greek language: En Christô, that is, in Christ.

(2) What we have become, in Jesus Christ the Son of God, and what we will be in the future are explained to us by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans (8:16–17): “You have received a spirit of adoption through which we cry out, ‘Abba’ [Father]. The Spirit himself gives witness with our spirit that we are children of God. But if we are children, we are heirs as well: heirs of God, heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so as to be glorified with him.” The Holy Spirit is the great craftsman in creating our unity with Christ, and he does so just as he unites the Father and the Word in the Trinity.

(3) The three theological virtues accompany divine grace in us:

Faith, which enables us to live the invisible and makes the invisible present, real, to us.

Hope, which enables us to possess the invisible now.

Charity, which unites us with the invisible.

These virtues reach their fullness according to how the Christian lives out his baptismal grace and how he progresses in becoming united with Christ. They always remain the “rock” upon which his total Christian life is built.

As long as we are on this earth, this “new life”, which we receive in baptism and in our initial act of faith, should expand and grow.

(1) This growth always takes place with Christ, in terms of the regular fluctuation of death and resurrection, as it appears:

a. Through the sacramental life, particularly in the Eucharist.

b. By our acceptance of our human condition, that is, our death and everything that prefigures that death in us. It is the deepening of St. Paul’s statement: “In my own flesh I fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body, the Church” (Col 1:14).

c. Through all that we do on both the purely human and the spiritual levels. It is through our activities that we are engaged here on earth in the very same combat in which Christ was involved.

d. Through our life of serious prayer. By our contemplation and through the mediation of love, our prayer becomes divine life within us: “The Spirit too helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in speech” (Rom 8:26).

(2) Through an intensification and a purification of faith, hope, and charity within us. We can come to appreciate the usefulness of “nights”, whatever their origin—from the spirit or the senses—because they strip away from us everything that is nonessential, and they force us to center ourselves on God alone.

(3) Everything in our lives that appears to us, either from close range or from afar, to be associated with the witness of the martyr (trials, persecutions, religious vows) is of the greatest worth in uniting us with Christ, of “plunging” us into the mystery of his death and Resurrection.

Fourth Point: It Is in Heaven Where the Full Maturation of This Grace Is Realized. There We, Who Have Suffered with Jesus Christ, Will Be Victorious with Him

(1) There is only a flimsy veil between grace and glory. If, as St. John says, “we are God’s children now, what we shall be later has not come to light . . . when it comes to light we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2); then, between grace and glory there is only “a twinkling of an eye [ictus oculi]” (1 Cor 15:52).

(2) Yet, from now on, this “new life” must be seen as reality, and our eyes must see all things as God sees them: “New heavens and a new earth” (Rev 21), because for the person who lives in faith, hope, and charity, heaven is already here on earth.

I will carry on a conversation with Jesus Christ in which I will renew my offering of service in the Kingdom to him. And I will listen to him say to me: “Dilexi te… I love you, and I have delivered myself for you.”

I will also talk over all of this with the Blessed Virgin Mary, asking her that I may “be placed with Jesus Christ” (St. Ignatius summed up in this formula his whole notion of sanctity), and I will ask her to teach me to be content to be “the companion of Jesus”, to be “one” with him. “This alone is enough for me”, as the dying St. Bernadette said, clasping her crucifix.

I will conclude with the Our Father and the Hail Mary.

Place yourself in the presence of God and make the preparatory prayer.
Ask him to help you.

I will call to mind the history of the subject that I will contemplate. Here it will be from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians (4:3–6): “In the same way, while we were not yet of age we were like slaves subordinated to the elements of the world; but when the designated time had come, God sent forth his Son born of a woman, born under the law, to deliver from the law those who were subjected to it, so that we might receive our status as adopted sons.” This contemplation will then unfold like a triptych with three panels side by side. In the first panel we see the three Divine Persons, how they are looking down on the whole expanse of the world filled with men who live under the slavery of sin. In the central panel we see them determining from their eternity to send the Second Person to become man to save the human race. Finally, in the third panel we see that when the fullness of time arrives, they send the Angel Gabriel to our Lady. At each point of my contemplation I will return to these three scenes of the triptych.

Let us now follow up on the realities that these Biblical scenes represent and on the particular historic event that is taking place.

Composition of Place

Here I will see the great extent of the earth’s surface, where so many people of so many diversified backgrounds have lived in the past, are living in the present, and will live in the future.

Especially I will consider the house and room of our Lady at Nazareth in Galilee, seeing it as a place of light amid so much darkness and shadows.

I will ask for what I want and desire. Here it will be an interior knowledge of the Lord, who is made man for me so that I may love him more and follow him more closely.

First Point: I Will Look at the Persons Depicted in These Scenes

(1) The various people throughout the world. I will see them in their great variety of dress and ways of living, where they are, and what kind of civilizations they have: some are white, others black; some are at peace, others at war; some are weeping, others laughing; some are in good health, others sick; some are being born, others dying.

We have here the same theme of contrasts and the same kind of description as we find in Ecclesiastes 3:2–9: “A time to be born and a time to die.” All of this is quite existential. The stress is on a real awareness of the human condition in its diversity and its contrasts.

This pagan world is a world of slavery, rivalries, war, hate. Except for a few people of goodwill, or the “just” who have remained upright, it is a world that never witnesses an act of the love of God or hears a cry of fraternal charity.

(2) I will see and consider the three Divine Persons, enthroned in their majesty. They look upon the whole world and all the people who are living in such blindness and corruption. What has become of the people whom they created “in their own image and likeness”? In what a state do they live and die!

(3) I will look at Mary at prayer in her room at Nazareth, and I will consider the angel greeting her. Full of grace, full of love for God, full of love for men.

I will reflect on these scenes and draw spiritual profit from them.
Second Point: I Shall Listen to the Words Spoken

(1) What are the people saying? What does their speech mean as they converse with one another? How many lies, examples of false witness, errors, etc.? How often do they speak to God or against God? Let us reflect for a moment on the “news” diffused today throughout the world by the press and all types of mass media.

(2) What are the three Persons saying? Eternal words! Just as one day they said, “Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness” (Gen 1:26), today they say, “Let us redeem the human race.”

And I will reflect on what St. John said: “Yes, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (3:16). “God’s love was revealed in our midst in this way: he sent his only Son to the world that we might have life through him” (1 John 4:9).

Also what St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians (1:4): “God chose us in him [our Lord Jesus Christ] before the world began, to be holy and blameless in his sight, to be full of love . . . through Christ Jesus to be his adopted sons.” The unique and eternal Word of God!

(3) Reread the Gospel account of the remarkable conversation between the Virgin Mary and the Angel Gabriel at the Annunciation (Luke 1:26–38).

I will reflect on all I hear to draw spiritual profit from these words.

Third Point: I Will Look Closely at the Actions of the Persons Depicted in These Scenes

Actions reveal what is in the heart; they disclose our deepest feelings, and they measure the amount of our love.

(1) The men on the face of the earth. How far are we from the new commandment: “Love one another!” The world is an extended # SECOND WEEK

…battlefield where each person looks out for his own interests, every one of which is determined by his ambition, passions, and covetous desires.

(2) The Father who “sends” his Son. His Son replies, “I am here, Father, to do your will!” The Father pardons men; the Son offers himself and delivers himself to them. The divine “mission” is thereby begun—a mission that, after the death, Resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, will be carried out by the Holy Spirit until the end of the world.

(3) The Verbum caro factum est (the Word was made flesh) is fulfilled in Mary. Let us adore in silence.

Let us give the full sense, the real, and the very concrete sense to this “caro factum est”, as St. Paul does: “His Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh” (Rom 1:3) . . . “from them [our fathers] came the Messiah (I speak of his human origins)” (Rom 9:5).

This realism is very important for the accuracy of our religious thinking on this subject of the Incarnation. We must eliminate from such terms as the Eucharist, the Cross, the Resurrection, and the Divine Motherhood anything that smacks of the hazy or the fuzzy. We are dealing here with Reality, a Reality even more real than that grasped by our senses.

Even in his time St. John bewailed the false teachings regarding the Incarnation: “Many deceitful men have gone out into the world, men who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh” (2 John 7).

I will look at our Lady as she humbles herself and gives thanks to the Divine Majesty.

I will then draw spiritual profit from the considerations on this point.

Finally, I will converse with the three Divine Persons, with the eternal Word incarnate, and with the Virgin Mary, asking them, according to inspirations I now feel within me, to help me in every way to follow more closely and imitate better our Lord, …who has just now become man “for me”: “He loved me, and he became incarnate for me.”

I will end my contemplation with an Our Father, and with the angel at the Annunciation I shall repeat the Hail Mary.

Place yourself in the presence of God and make the customary prayer at the beginning of the contemplation.

Ask him to inspire you.

I will call to mind the history of the mystery: our Lady, about nine months pregnant, and Joseph set out from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem, the city of David, in Judea, to enroll in the census that the Emperor Augustus had recently ordered and to pay the tribute that the Emperor had imposed on all the lands conquered by Rome.

Composition of Place

Here I will see in my imagination the road going from Nazareth to Bethlehem: its length, breadth, the foothills it goes through… I will also see the cave at Nazareth, the manger where the Savior was born; his hardships; his needs; how Mary and Joseph are attending to everything in a spirit of poverty.

I will ask for what I want and desire. Here it will be to know our Savior who has become man for me so that I may love him more and follow him better.

First Point: I Will Look at the Persons

Our Lady and St. Joseph; then, after he is born, Jesus. I will make myself a poor or lowly, unworthy servant. I will watch them, …contemplate them, and serve them in their needs, just as if I were present, with all the devotion and respect possible.

Then I will reflect upon myself and draw spiritual profit from it.

Second Point: I Will Listen to, Observe, and Contemplate What Mary and Joseph Are Saying

No complaints, no bitterness: “Let it be done to us according to God’s will.” I will listen to the exchange between them and the innkeeper: “There was no room for them in the place where travelers lodged.” And then they finally found this cave-stable at the summit of a shepherd’s field, much like the caves that one can see today in the Holy Land.

Then I will reflect upon myself and, I will draw spiritual profit from it.

Third Point: I Will Watch and Reflect on What They Are Doing

What a suffering-filled trip they are making! All of this so that the Lord will be born in poverty. And at the end of this journey, after all of the toil, the hunger and thirst, the heat and cold, the injustices and indignities, he is going to go and die on a Cross. And all of this for me.

Then I will reflect on myself and draw some spiritual profit from it.

I will talk over all of these things with Mary, Joseph, and the Infant Jesus, humbly, respectfully, even as a lowly servant would converse with his master. This contemplation and the former exercise on the Incarnation can be made with great profit using the Application of the Senses. This is especially the case when either contemplation is made as a repetition.

The Gospel account of this mystery (Luke 1:51–52) shows great reticence—because it is so profound a mystery. St. Ignatius presents it in this way:

(1) Jesus was obedient to his parents. He grew in wisdom, age, and grace.

(2) He appears to have practiced the trade of a carpenter, as St. Mark seems to imply: “Is this not the carpenter?” (Mark 6:3).

Place yourself in the presence of God and make the customary preparatory prayer.

Ask him to inspire you.

Composition of Place

The little town of Nazareth, and, in the midst of a neighborhood, the house of Joseph the carpenter.

I will ask for what I want and desire. Here it will be for an intimate knowledge of our Lord, who became man for me, so that I may love him more and follow him better.

The hidden life of Jesus at Nazareth is a “folly and scandal according to the flesh”. We would like to emphasize here these three principal paradoxes.

(1) A progressive self-effacement. We remember the gradual steps involved in this emptying out of the Word of God about which St. Paul spoke to the Philippians (2:6-11). Here are the first stages of this process, which he undertook himself: the Word was made flesh. He was born a tiny infant … in a humble, needy family. His boyhood was that of an apprentice … in a service trade. “And he was obedient to them”, his father and mother.

(2) Meanwhile, as he matured, he increased in a number of human virtues: “Size and strength, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him”, as St. Luke recounts (2:39). He grew up and developed like all youngsters who are on the way to becoming adults. And he is God!

(1) Like the Philippians text to which we alluded, the various steps the Word of God took to empty himself out at Nazareth were balanced by the triumph of life and the glory of God.

“After all, you have died [to the ways of the world]! Your life is hidden now with Christ in God. When Christ our life appears, then you shall appear with him in glory” (Col 3:3-4). At Nazareth the hidden Christ lived in God and for God. And this is the way he saved the world.

(2) At Nazareth, as in Jerusalem, as in his public life, as at Calvary, he is “about my Father’s business”. The important thing is not to do this or that. Rather, it is to be at the exact place God’s Providence points out to us—through the different events that take place in our lives, our temperament, our age, our talents—where we should be. And we are to be there with the greatest amount of spiritual energy we can muster.

(3) In the life of Christ our Lord there is a disproportion between the time of hidden silence (thirty years) and the time of public activity (three years). We see to which option God’s heart is inclined. The silence of Nazareth is a silence filled with God, full with his will being accomplished with love — a silence of truth where all human falseness, artificiality, and appearances are done away with to the advantage of the Real — a silence filled with intimate conversations and simple encounters with the Father. The redemptive value of silence, obscurity, and of all the “nights”.

Third Paradox: The Work and Prayer of the Trained Laborer

The craftsman, as symbol of the humble but effective coworker in God’s creative labor . . . through his job, his toil, his insecurity, his service to his neighbor. His is a contribution to the world that is being made. What “worth” can be given to a carpenter at Nazareth? Much. Because here is where God placed him. He accomplished his task to the best of his ability, transforming it with his redemptive vision and with his prayer on earth.

What kind of Our Father must be that which Jesus, Mary, and Joseph say from the depths of their souls!

Nazareth is indeed the sum total of our life, the life of every person Christ has come to divinize. Tomorrow it may be the intense, exceptional mystery of the Passion. But today it is the sanctifying “little way”: our ordinary work, our simple concerns, our meager efforts. The run-of-the-mill, ordinary people are a sacred people, a royal people. At Nazareth the Beatitudes are already prefigured.

In closing, I will enter into conversation with:

God the Father. I will adore him in his creation and in his Providence. I will tell him of my desire to “praise, reverence, and serve him” with my humdrum life, with the ordinary kind of work I do.

The Divine Child of Nazareth. I will tell him of my desire “to be with him” in humility, silence, work.
The Virgin Mary and St. Joseph … I will ask them for their faith in the mystery of Christ, the God made man.

I will say the Our Father in the company of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. What a meaning Nazareth gives to the meditation on the first principle and foundation we made the first day of our retreat: man is created to love God, which is another way of saying that he “is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord”. Everything is love, That is, all can be summed up in terms of living for love, in love, and through love.

This contemplation and the previous one on the life of Jesus at Nazareth should also be seen as a diptych. The first contemplation depicted Jesus’ obedience to his parents; here we will focus on his obedience to his Father in heaven.

Place yourself in the presence of God and make the customary prayer beginning the contemplation.

I will call to mind the history of this mystery as it is recounted by St. Luke in 2:41–50.

Composition of Place

Here it will be the road that goes from Nazareth to Jerusalem and also the temple.

I will ask for what I want and desire: here an interior knowledge of Christ our Lord, made man for me, so that I can love him more and serve him better.

First Point: Jesus Goes up to Jerusalem with His Parents to Celebrate the Passover There

I will see Mary and Joseph—and Jesus along with them—mingling with the nameless crowd of people on their way to the temple for the feast. I will imagine their spirit of prayer, their charity toward each other and the people they come in contact with, and their conversations.
Jesus, serious, reserved in the boyish manner of a twelve-year-old.
And then:

— Before the temple … and all that that means for a young Jew, particularly for him: Would he not one day say, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I shall rebuild it”?

— Before the law: “I have come not to destroy the law but to fulfill it.”

— Before Jerusalem … and during the Passover … what were his thoughts? Look at him closely. Between him and Mary there are periods of silence, exchanges of glances, charged with the future and fidelity to his Father in heaven.

Second Point: Jesus Remains in Jerusalem without His Parents’ Knowing It

Joseph and Mary leave Jerusalem in the company of the caravan. The feast is over, and a large crowd forms again to leave the city. They have seen Jesus a number of times in the group, and so at the moment of departure they are not worried that he is not there with them.

Jesus makes a very serious decision. This is his hour for a first epiphany, for a first “transfiguration” during which something of his infinite wisdom will be revealed to the people about him. He remains at Jerusalem.

He stays behind. Let us think about this decision:

— He knew his parents would think that he was in the caravan bound for Nazareth.

— He knew that when they noticed his absence, they would be concerned, agonized, his Mother particularly.

— He knew that he was going to cause them pain, humiliation before their friends and acquaintances; cause them to bring their remorse in prayer to God.

…and there, at the very center of their being, that word will take life, germinate, and produce fruit: “His Mother stored up all these things in her heart.”

I will talk over all of these things with Jesus our Lord, admiring him, questioning him, and listening to him, just as the doctors in the temple did. Then I will converse with Mary and Joseph.

I will end with an Our Father.

We have meditated on the example that Christ our Lord has given us on the first state of life. This state consists in observing the Ten Commandments (he was obedient to his parents at Nazareth). Then we meditated on the example that the same Savior gave us of the second state of life, the state of evangelical perfection (leaving his Mother and foster father, he remained in the temple to devote himself exclusively to his eternal Father). While continuing to contemplate Christ’s life, we are now going to focus on creating in ourselves the most favorable dispositions possible for making the choice to live our life according to the love of God alone.

This implies that we must make a completely free choice. It therefore means getting rid of any passion, any illusion, any pressure, so that we may come to a decision from our own reasoning, enlightened by faith and helped along by God’s grace.

By way of introduction to our search to find God’s will in our life so that we can make a choice—a search that will be prolonged over the following seven days of our thirty-day retreat—we are going to examine Christ our Lord’s “intention”, his plan for the world, in this next Exercise, and conversely, we shall also look at Satan’s intention and his plan. In this Exercise we shall also see how we should order or dispose ourselves to genuine love in whatever state of life that God our Lord would will to place us here in this world.

But let us first state here precisely where we are in our retreat:

(1) We have already made ourselves perfectly indifferent with …respect to all created things, and we have freely made the decision to prefer God to all things.

(2) We have also chosen to respond, as far as we are able, with an unqualified Yes to the call of Christ our leader.

(3) We know that the perfection of love can be found and reached in every state of life—married, single, religious. Christ our Savior was speaking to every Christian when he said, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

(4) At this stage in the retreat, the retreatant is going to choose a state of life, or, if he has already made this choice, he will be asking himself what specific option he can make that will reform his life, thus making it better. Whether he fits in the first category or the second, the retreatant will be looking for what the will of God is in his life here and now. And he is going to do his best to respond to God’s will realistically and with total honesty.

The One of Christ, Our Supreme Leader and Lord, the Other of Lucifer, the Enemy of God and Man

Place yourself in the presence of God and make your preparatory prayer.
Ask him to inspire you.

I Will Call to Mind the History

Using Ignatian imagery, I will consider the profound drama of humanity. This consists, as St. John expresses it, in the struggle between Darkness and Light, or in the thinking of St. Paul, in the struggle between Spirit and Flesh, or as St. Augustine visualizes it, in the struggle between the City of God and the City of Man. On the one hand, I will picture Christ, who calls and who wishes to unite all men, and on the other, I will imagine Lucifer, who draws men away from Christ and makes them his own disciples.

Composition of Place

If it helps me, I will see in my imagination two plains. The first is a great plain about Jerusalem, where our Lord, the sovereign Leader of the “just”, stands. The other plain is about the region of Babylon, and here is where Lucifer, the enemy of Christ and the enemy of our human nature, takes his place.

If this tableau seems to me to be too imaginative, I will picture Christ our Lord before me. It is evening, and he appears tired after a whole day of preaching. He is engaged in an evaluation of his …apostolate, balancing hostility or indifference (which he meets uninterruptedly and with every step he takes) with the love that he awakens in a number of hearts, the joy he communicates, and the glory that he gives to his Father.

I will ask for what I want and desire. Here I will ask for a knowledge of the tactics of Lucifer and for help and grace to guard myself against them. I will also ask for a knowledge of the true life, which our true and sovereign Leader, Jesus Christ, teaches, and for the grace to imitate him.

First Point: I Will Imagine Lucifer in His Camp

If it helps, the retreatant should read the description of Lucifer in the twelfth chapter of the book of Revelation: “The huge dragon, the ancient serpent known as the devil or Satan, the seducer of the whole world”. Or one can more simply, and with more realism, picture what the Gospel pejoratively calls “the world”, using as an example some of our modern “Babylons”: where Lucifer is with all his seductions, all his snares, all his tactics for lying and for blinding and even corrupting every man’s conscience.

Second Point: I Will Consider Lucifer’s Activity

He makes his presence universal, either directly or through his demons, or through perverse men—sending some to this city or that, throughout the whole world, so that no province, no place, no state of life, no single person is overlooked.

Consider the text: “Enraged at her [the Virgin Mary’s] escape, the dragon went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep God’s commandments and give witness to Jesus.”
Third Point: Lucifer’s Tactics

Consider the discourse Lucifer addresses to those he scatters throughout the world. In essence it comes down to this: they are first of all to tempt men through their cravings for riches (this is the way it usually all begins) so that men will then more readily be carried away by the empty honors of this world and finally by overweening pride. Therefore, the first step is wealth and the power it brings; the second, worldly honor, and the third, pride. By these three passions, the devil will lead a man to all the other vices.

We recognize in this description the three “concupiscences” about which St. John writes (I John 2:15–16): “If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love has no place in him, because everything that there is in the world—disordered bodily desires, disordered desires of the eyes, pride in possession—is not from the Father, but it is from the world.”

We should now imagine Christ our Lord, our sovereign and true Chief, in a way that is the total opposite of Lucifer’s.

First Point: I Will Consider Christ Our Lord

In the plain around Jerusalem where he so often traveled during his earthly life. His attitude is humble; his appearance handsome, attractive, nobleminded. Grace radiates from his whole person. He is one of those men who attract and fascinate others solely by the force of his presence; his enemies regarded him as a seducer.

Second Point: I Will Consider the Words That Christ Our Lord Addresses to All His Servants and Friends

As he sends them throughout the world, he commissions them to search out all men of any and every condition and to help them by: I. First of all, attracting them to seek the highest spiritual poverty and, should the Divine Majesty be better served and would will it, even to embrace actual poverty.

(2) And then leading them to the desire to strive for (or at least to esteem) humiliations and contempt. For it is from humiliations and contempt that a person is led to humility, that is, to a sense of reality about our human condition.

So there will be three steps in our approach to evangelical perfection:

• The first is poverty as opposed to riches.

• The second is humiliations and contempt as opposed to worldly honor.

• The third is humility as opposed to pride.

By these three steps, Christ’s servants and friends lead men to all the other virtues.We encounter again in this Meditation on Two Standards the problem that we have already seen in the meditation on the Kingdom, namely, are we dealing here with a normal or an exceptional type of Christianity? Our answer here is the same as it was previously: the call is one and is addressed to each Christian, but the response is different depending on the mystery of generosity in each soul. There are the “reasonable” people, who give themselves totally, all the while weighing their motives, which are, of course, good motives. Then there are those who wish to distinguish or signalize themselves, the insignes, and who give themselves freely, without any conditions attached. Finally, there are those still who hold themselves back and continue to throw themselves into the “vanity” of appearances. We will look at these various nuances later in all of the meditations touching on the election, that is, during practically the whole of the Second Week of the Exercises. It is up to each person to know himself, to weigh his own grace, and to respond with all his heart to the Dilexit me, “he loved me . . .”

I will talk this matter over with our Lady, asking her that she obtain for me from her Son and Lord the grace to be received under his standard:

(1) in the highest spiritual poverty and, should the Divine Majesty be better served and pleased to choose me, even in actual poverty;
(2) so as to imitate him more, in accepting all the humiliations and injustices that come into my life, provided that I can take on these without causing anyone to sin and without offense to the Divine Majesty.

I will recite a Hail Mary.
I will make the same prayer to her Son, asking him to obtain for me the same graces from his Father. And I will say the prayer Soul of Christ.
I will ask the Father to grant me these same graces. And I shall say an Our Father.

Faced with Making What Seems to Them to Be the Best Decision

This Exercise is made within the context of the Meditation on Two Standards. Its purpose is to help us decide on the option that seems to us to conform best to the will of God for us. St. Ignatius chose poverty or the sincere desire to give up a certain amount of money as a theme that has inspired this exercise. A person can also substitute honors, success, a social position—anything that stands for wealth and power in the eyes of men.

Place yourself in the presence of God and make the prayer to begin the exercise.

Ask him to inspire you.

I will place before my mind’s eye the history St. Ignatius proposes. There are three classes of men. Each one of them has acquired a certain sum of money, but not solely from the love of God have they become rich. All three groups wish “to save their souls” and find the peace of God our Lord by freeing themselves from their attachment to this money, which weighs heavy on them and makes them feel uneasy. Hence they want to quiet their consciences.

Composition of Place

I will picture myself in the presence of God our Lord and all the saints, eager that I may know and desire what is most pleasing to his Divine Goodness for me.

I will ask for what I want and desire. This will be the grace to # SECOND WEEK

…choose whatever is more for the glory of his Divine Majesty and whatever is better for the salvation of my soul.

First group. The men in this first group would like to rid themselves of the attachment they have to the sum of money so that they will be able to find the peace of God our Lord and save their souls. But they never find the means to do so before the hour of death overtakes them.

Second group. Those in the second group want to rid themselves of the attachment, but they wish to do so in such a way that they will keep the money. They want God to come around to what their position is. So they decide not to give up the money, not to go to God, even though a spontaneous surrender of the money would be the best course of action for them.

Third group. Those who are in the third group want to rid themselves of the attachment to the money, and they want to do it in such a way that they are not inclined either to keep it or to give it up. What they want is either to hold on to it or to give it up according to whatever God our Lord will inspire them to do and what will seem to them the better decision in terms of the greater service and praise of his Divine Majesty. Meanwhile, men in this class see themselves as being totally unattached to either one good or another. They try not to make a choice for either one or the other until they are impelled to do so by whatever they judge to be for the greater service of God alone. As a result of this decision, their desire is to be in a position where they can better serve God our Lord. It is on this basis that they keep or give up a particular good.We should note that when we feel some attachment opposed to actual poverty or some repugnance toward it, when we are not indifferent to poverty or riches, it is very helpful to get rid of this inordinate attachment. We should beg in the colloquies, even in spite of our repugnances and feelings, that our Lord choose us to serve him in actual poverty, and we should insist that we want it and should plead for it, provided that it be to the service and praise of his Divine Goodness. It is indispensable to be rooted in total indifference if we want our choice of life to be an act of true spiritual liberty.
I shall talk over these matters at the end of this exercise with our Lady, with Christ our Lord, and with the Father, just as I did in the Meditation on the Two Standards.

The Meditation on the Two Standards has introduced us to the heart of the matter. We have seen how the world of its very nature is divided between good and evil, Christ and Satan, light and darkness, spirit and flesh. And so now comes the moment for the retreatant either to choose his state of life or to reform himself in the state of life he has already chosen.

In traditional spiritual language this choice is called “the election”.

This election process will extend to all of the meditations and contemplations during the whole course of the Second Week.

As a final preparation for the election process, it will be most helpful for the retreatant to look at three methods of procedure that are designed to inculcate within him a sincere love of God. St. Ignatius and some other spiritual writers have designated these models the “degrees of humility”. Actually, however, they are degrees of our love for God. We suggest that the retreatant reflect on them frequently during the day and that he pray peacefully the prayer recommended in the colloquies.

The First Degree or Kind of Humility: A Humility That Is Necessary for Salvation

It consists in this: that as far as possible I subject and humble myself to the degree that I obey the law of God our Lord in all things. The result will be that I would not consider breaking any one of the commandments of God or the Church that binds under the pain of mortal sin, even if I were to gain the whole world or even if my life depended on it.

This first sort of humility is of no small importance. It describes a person who already has a sincere attachment to the will of God, an authentic degree of love for God.

The Second Degree of Humility: Better Than the First

It consists in this: I have attained to this state of soul when I do not look for or seek riches as opposed to poverty, or honor rather than contempt, or a long life as opposed to a short one, provided that the service of God and the salvation of my soul be equally assured. With this kind of humility I would not consider committing one venial sin, not even for all creation, not even at the risk of saving my life. The person who has the second degree of humility is truly indifferent and can enjoy interior liberty, which is indispensable in making an election. He loves God with a very high degree of love in which, however, there is still a trace of legalism or excessive juridical thinking.

In these first two degrees of humility it is easy to identify the attitude of “the reasonable people” that was described in the contemplation of the Kingdom of Christ. Although love here is sincere and energetic, it does not yet realize what motivates it, and therefore it does not realize its capacity.

The Third Degree of Humility: the Most Perfect Humility

The third degree of humility corresponds to the love of the insignes in the contemplation of the Kingdom.

It includes the first and second type, but it adds to them this: in order better to imitate Christ our Lord and really be more like him, I want and choose poverty rather than riches; humiliations with Christ humiliated rather than honors, supposing that the praise and glory of the Divine Majesty be the same; and I prefer to be regarded as a man of no account and a fool for Christ, who was the first to pass for such, rather than be esteemed as a wise and …prudent man in this world. The person who has this disposition goes beyond the stage of indifference; he has submitted to a personal love of Jesus Christ. This is the Nos stulti propter Christum (we are fools on Christ’s account) of St. Paul (I Cor 4:10). Let us call to mind here the “follies” of Francis of Assisi, Francis Xavier, the Curé d’Ars, etc., but let us also not forget the generosity of so many men and women who not only accept sorrows and pain and hardships in their lives but also rejoice in them because this “poverty” makes them resemble Jesus Christ all the more. Let us also call attention to the fact that if this inner disposition on the part of the retreatant is genuine and sane, it will not exclude his wanting to “cure” what is painful in his life, nor will it preclude any effort to escape from suffering. Rather, it means that if the effort proves unsuccessful, the person should rejoice that God permits him to participate so intimately in the sufferings of his Son. (See Note One: Penance, pp. 51–53.)

Colloquies. An excellent exercise for the person who wishes to attain to this third kind of humility will be to remake the three colloquies from the Meditation on the Two Standards. In these he should beg our Lord to be pleased to choose him for this third degree so that he may imitate him better and serve him more, provided that equal or greater service and praise be given to his Divine Majesty.

In every good election, as far as it depends on us, our intention ought to be simple. I should consider only the end for which I was created: the praise of God our Lord and the salvation of my soul. Therefore, whatever choice I make should be such as to help me reach this end. I ought not to subordinate the end to the means but the means to the end.

For example, many decide first of all to marry (which is an end) and then choose the service of God in marriage. There are others who want first to embrace this particular career and afterward to serve God in it. Such persons do not go straightaway to God, but they want God to come directly to their inordinate attachments. They make a means of the end and an end of the means. What they ought to put in first place they in fact put in second place. Good order requires that we first of all want to serve God, who is our end, and after that we then decide to embrace this career, or to get married, and so forth, because this choice for us is really the best means to love God and to serve him in others.

(1) The matters about which we should make an election evidently ought to be good or at least indifferent in themselves and approved by our holy mother, the hierarchical Church, that is to say, they should not be bad or contrary to the Church.

(2) There are some choices that fall under the category of being made once and for all: choices such as the priesthood, being married, and the like. Others are choices that can be changed, for example, accepting some obligation, acquiring or relinquishing property.

(3) In the case of an unchangeable choice, once it has been made, no further choice can be considered because it cannot be undone (for instance, marriage, the priesthood, and the like). The only thing to be said here is that if this election was not made as it should have been, that is to say, if it was made in conjunction with inordinate attachments, one should be sorry for having made it, and then he should continue living a good life along the path that was poorly chosen. But we should not consider this election as a vocation that conforms to the will of God since it was a faulty election. There is a great deal of erroneous thinking in this matter. A vocation that comes from God is pure and undefiled, without any admixture of sensuality or inordinate attachments.

(4) On the one hand, when one deals with an election that can be changed by the person who has made the choice correctly, that is to say, he made it without compromising with the views and principles of the world, there is no place for making a further choice. In this case he should make the effort to conduct himself …the best way he can within the framework of the choice he has made.

(5) But on the other hand, if this choice was made about matters that are subject to change and was made in a dishonest and disordered way, there is an advantage to remaking the choice in a correct way so that it will bring forth an abundant harvest and will thereby be pleasing to God our Lord.

other matter that falls under the category “changes I am free to make”.

(2) It is helpful to keep before my eyes the purpose for which I was created: to praise our Lord and save my soul. Furthermore, I must remain indifferent, without any inordinate attachments, so that I do not have any more inclination or desire to choose one option and reject another than I do to reject one and choose the other. I shall remain like a swinging needle of a compass, poised to turn toward what I feel will conform most to the glory and praise of God our Lord and the salvation of my soul.

(3) I shall then beg God our Lord to be pleased to move my will and let me know interiorly what I ought to do to praise and glorify him more when faced with the choice I am considering and that in the light of this knowledge he will enable me first to make an exact and faithful examination of the matter before me, and then that he will enable me to proceed in making my choice according to his holy will and good pleasure.

(4) Afterward I shall mull over in my mind and will weigh the advantages and benefits that would come solely for the praise of God our Lord and for the good of my soul in each case, for example, if I were to keep a particular responsibility or not. Then I would do the opposite, weighing the disadvantages and dangers that would accrue by my holding on to this charge.

Then I shall repeat the process, this time by considering the advantages and benefits that would come from giving up the responsibility and then considering the disadvantages and dangers that would result.

(5) After analyzing and debating the problem with all the pros and cons in this way, I shall consider which of the alternatives seems the most reasonable. This way I shall come to make my choice because of healthy, reasonable motives as opposed to some kind of emotional intuition.

(6) After making my choice, I shall most eagerly place it before # SECOND WEEK

…God our Lord in prayer, and, offering him my choice, I shall pray that if it is for his greater service and glory, his Divine Majesty may be pleased to accept and confirm my choice.

First rule. The love that moves me and causes me to make my choice must descend from on high, from the love of God; therefore the person who makes a choice must feel within himself that the only motive for his preference in making his choice is this love for his Creator and Lord.

Second rule. I shall imagine a man whom I have never seen or known but who is in a situation similar to my own and for whom I would wish every possible blessing. And I shall think about what I would advise him in making his choice for the greater glory of God our Lord and for the greater progress of his soul.

Third rule. I shall imagine that I am at the point of death, and I shall consider what inclinations and attitudes I would have liked to have had then when I was making the present election. I shall go entirely by the results of this consideration in deciding how I should now make my choice.

Fourth rule. I shall imagine myself at Judgment Day. I shall then ask myself what decision would I have wished to have made concerning the matter at hand. The rule of conduct I would have wished to have followed then I shall adopt now, so that when I am judged I shall be able to enjoy complete happiness and sheer joy over my decision.

Fifth rule. Now that I have put into effect the rules given above, which are meant for my salvation and eternal repose, I shall make my election. And when I have made it, I shall waste no time in bringing it in prayer to the presence of God our Lord, offering it to him so that his Divine Majesty may be pleased to receive and confirm it, if such a reception and confirmation are to his greater service and praise.

(1) It seems to me that it is against all reason to set up a hierarchy among the three types of election. God guides souls as he wishes. Is St. Peter of lesser importance than St. Paul because he was not thrown to the ground on the road to Damascus? And just because St. Francis de Sales heard God’s call from his boyhood days, does this mean he is less entitled to be a spiritual guide than the converted sinner St. Ignatius? Just asking such questions is to answer them!

(2) In number 6 of the First Way of Making a Choice (pp. 130–31) and in the fifth rule of the Second Way of Making a Choice (p. 131), Ignatius uses the words to confirm and confirmation of a person’s choice by the Holy Spirit. This idea could cause difficulties for the director and the retreatant. What does interior confirmation by the Holy Spirit mean? We follow the wise interpretation given by Father Joseph de Guibert, S.J.,The Theology of the Spiritual Life, trans. Paul Barrett, O.F.M. Cap. (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1953), 118–19. who writes that after the choice is made, a positive confirmation should not be excluded; however, the term refers to a negative confirmation, by which he means that if God does not indicate to me interiorly that my choice is contrary to his will, I shall consider it as being conformed to his will. This way of interpreting the inspirations of the Holy Spirit seems to me to conform best to a reasonable theological understanding of the relationship between human reason and the light of faith.

It is possible that some of the people who will make this retreat are already committed to a permanent state of life, such as marriage, or the priesthood, and there may be others who do not have the …opportunity or desire to make a choice on matters that may be changed. The methods for making a choice that we have outlined here will still be very useful in helping such retreatants better reform their lives.

As a way to set out in this direction and attain this end, every retreatant might use the exercises and methods of election indicated above to help him give a religious dimension to his life—how he should conduct his affairs and how he ought to give witness by word and example to his Christian commitment among those persons with whom he comes in contact each day. He might also use them to examine himself on how much of his time, energy, and money he should reserve for his family, his work, and his community and how much he should give to the poor and to different Church-related activities. As the criterion for what he does, let him desire and look for nothing beyond the greater praise and glory of God our Lord. He should remind himself that he will make progress in his Christian life in proportion as he surrenders selfishness and seeks simply the Kingdom of God in all his undertakings.

Let us also note that these guidelines for making a choice can be used outside of the retreat as well—in those situations that call for decisions in the everyday social, familial, and even professional life of the Christian.

Even though I have made my election, I shall continue making meditations designed to impress upon me the spirit of Jesus Christ.

Put yourself in the presence of God and make the preparatory prayer.
Ask him to inspire you.

I will call to mind the history of this mystery (see Luke 4:1–13 or Matt 4:1–11).

Composition of Place

The desert: Jesus alone. After his baptism by John the Baptist, Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit to the desert, where he fasts forty days and forty nights. He is tempted three times by Satan. After he overcomes this triple temptation, angels come and wait on him.

I will ask for what I want and desire: an intimate knowledge of Christ our Lord, who is made man for me, so that I may love him more and follow him more closely.

First Point: After He Had Been Baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus Went to the Desert, Where He Fasted Forty Days and Forty Nights

(1) I will consider Jesus wanting solitude before beginning his encounter with men … eager to come face to face again with his Father … his joy … his eternity. At the hour of his Passion, he will say, “I can never be alone; the Father is with me” (John 16:32). Yet here, now, in this mystery, he says it already.
(2) This being alone with the Father is really the true “place” for Jesus. The forty days in the desert are the prelude to all those times he prayed during the night that the Gospels will tell us about.

(3) Listen to this prayer of Christ and savor it. It is a filial prayer, a prayer in which he places himself at the service of the Father, offering himself unreservedly for the Father’s mission, with perfect freedom of his will and total unselfishness. His only will is to do the Father’s holy will. This is pure love, the love of the Son for his Father.

(4) It is the Holy Spirit who “leads Jesus to the desert”. He is the one who is the great designer of God’s activity in the souls of men and in the world.

(5) Jesus fasts for forty days. I will scrutinize him here. I will ask myself why he fasts. I will think about the demands of penance on every person who strives to experience true prayer and the “interior freedom” of the children of God. Fasting is the symbol of a total rejection of our attachment to the good things of this earth; it turns the soul toward “heavenly food”. To hunger for justice . . . to hunger for God. After his meeting with the Samaritan woman (John 4:32), Jesus said to his disciples, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” Yet here the Gospel tells us, “At the end of his fast he was hungry.” Jesus is as truly man as we are.

Second Point: He Was Tempted by Satan Three Times

We will contemplate this “temptation” of Jesus. It is directed toward our instruction and profit.

Let us listen to the dialogue, going deep into the heart of the two actors in this scene in order to understand interiorly the integrity and loyalty of Jesus our Chief, on the one hand, and on the other, the wiliness and ruses of Satan. We have here acted out before us the Meditation on the Two Standards in which we have the following elements: 1. There is the temptation to live a dazzling, magical, exceptional life: “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to turn into bread.” “Scripture has it, ‘Not on bread alone shall man live.’” Jesus, the son of the carpenter, will live as ordinary people live, taking his place in society as a man like each of us.

(2) There is the temptation to amass worldly power: “I will give you all this power and the glory of these kingdoms.” “You shall do homage to the Lord your God; him and him alone shall you adore.” Jesus seeks only the Kingdom of God, the glory of his Father.

(3) There is the temptation to dazzle and seduce the crowds: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for Scripture has it, ‘He will bid his angels watch over you.’ . . . Jesus said to him in reply, ‘It also says, “You should not put the Lord your God to the test.” ’ ” Jesus would perform miracles only “to give glory to his Father”, at the hour fixed by his Father, in the circumstances that God’s Providence would dictate. He would not “tempt” his Father but would obey him.

(4) Finally, we should take note of the fact that Jesus fends off Satan’s temptations by citing Scripture (the eternal Word of God), but also that when Satan tries to seduce Jesus, he too makes use of the words of Scripture. Reflect on the description of the dialogue between Jesus and Satan.

Third Point: “When the Devil Had Finished All the Tempting He Left Him, to Await Another Opportunity”, Says St. Luke. St. Mark and St. Matthew Add, “And Angels Waited on Him”

Jesus has unmasked the ruses of Lucifer. But the struggle between Jesus and Lucifer will go on for three more years. Lucifer will have his hour of victory—during the Passion. But all will end with his final defeat and the definitive victory of Christ. The Meditation on Two Standards is not a fable but the real, everyday, historical reality, the very warp and woof out of which our lives are made.

Contemplate the peace that prevails in the final scene: Jesus surrounded by the “celestial choir”. He is served by angels.

In closing, I will talk these matters over with Jesus our Lord. I will ask him for the grace that I too may encounter solitude, silence, prayer, and moderate but nevertheless authentic penance, for it is in such a “desert” that my soul will most truly and surely find him.

I will say the Our Father.

The retreatant making this contemplation has the choice of taking one of the New Testament scenes—or indeed all of the scenes—depicting Jesus calling one or another of his apostles: his first meeting with Peter and Andrew (John 1:35–42); their total definitive commitment to him (Matt 4:18–22; Mark 1:16–20); the call of Philip (John 1:43–44) and Matthew (Matt 9:9).

The vocation of the apostles obviously captured the attention of St. Ignatius, who added the following note, which we should keep in mind:

“We can consider this call under three aspects: (1) that the apostles were unschooled and from a humble background, (2) the dignity to which they were so gently called, and (3) that the gifts and graces they were given raised them above all of the Fathers of the Old and New Testaments.” In these few lines we have the whole connotation of what we mean by “the apostles”.

We are going to present in this contemplation the scene from Luke 6:12–16 where Jesus “called his disciples and selected twelve of them to be his apostles”, and we will follow up on this call with Mark 3:13–19 and Matthew 10:1–4.

Place yourself in the presence of God and make the beginning prayer.
Ask him to inspire you.

I will call to mind the history of this event as it is described in the Gospel. Jesus tore himself away from everyone and went off by himself to the mountain; here he spent the night in prayer. At daybreak he called his disciples and chose twelve from among them to be with him so that he could send them to preach the good news; he gave them the power to expel demons.

Composition of Place

We are along the banks of Lake of Gennesaret: the flat lands follow the shoreline, and the mountain is in the background.

I will ask for what I want and desire: an intimate knowledge of Christ our Lord, who was made man for me, so that I can love him, follow him, and serve him more. Or in the words of St. Ignatius at La Storta, I will ask for the grace “to be with Jesus Christ” (“to be with him”, as the Gospel says).

First Point: The Call of the Twelve

I will take a part in this scene.

(1) What are the constituent parts of this call? He chose them after spending the whole night in prayer. He constituted them

• To be with him.

• To be sent out by him to preach. Later on St. Paul would say of him, “He sent me to preach the Gospel” (I Cor 1:17).

• And to heal and to expel demons.

(2) We already know a number of the Twelve who were chosen:

• John and Andrew (John 1:40–42),

• Simon, who was named Peter, that is, “Rock” (John 1:40–42),

• Philip and Nathanael (John 1:43–51),

• Simon, Andrew, John, and James (Luke 5; Mark 1; Matt 4) (the miraculous catch of fish, the fishermen’s nets, fishers of men …)

• Matthew (Levi) (Matt 9; Mark 2; Luke 4) We still do not know the others at this point. We should take note of the terrible phrase of the Synoptics: “And Judas Iscariot who turned traitor”. The mystery of God’s choices!

Second Point: What Jesus Made of His Apostles

(1) Even though he gave them no other “vocation” than that of being his disciples—all are called to be “sons of God”.

(2) Nevertheless he gave them

— an intimacy with him in his work of redemption; he made them his “coworkers”, collaborators; he invited them to live the “with me” with a greater intensity;

— all his powers to teach, sanctify, govern, to be other Christs in this world. The hierarchy of the Church is inaugurated here; the ministerial priesthood is already outlined.

In short, what we have here already is the teaching “not to be worried and not to fret about so many things, for few things are necessary, indeed, only one”, the unum necessarium, the coming of the Kingdom of God here below.

Such is the vocation of the apostle—a vocation that can unfortunately one day be disclaimed: Judas.

Third Point: What Is the Type of Education That Jesus Gave His Apostles to Enable Them to Pass from Their “Unschooled and Humble Backgrounds” to the Quality of Being Apostles?

Like all the Jews of their time, these men espoused the dream of restoring the Kingdom of Israel: a temporal kingdom that would be powerful and rich. They had to progress to the idea of the Kingdom of the eternal King in the Meditation on Two Standards, that is, a Kingdom that is spiritual, humble, poor, charitable, willing to mete out forgiveness.

This progression, this gradual purification of their dream, which allowed them to enter through faith into the true King # SECOND WEEK

…dom of God, sums up the whole drama in the formation of the apostles.

The progress took place slowly.

Unquestionably Jesus got some clear and consoling results, such as Peter’s confession at Caesarea Philippi; the fidelity of the Twelve after the discourse on the Bread of Life at Capernaum; the transfiguration; Peter’s protestation when Jesus wanted to wash his feet.

But even after the Passion and Resurrection, the old dream of a temporal kingdom remained with them: one time before the ascension “when appearing to them over the course of forty days . . . they asked, ‘Lord, are you going to restore the rule to Israel now?’ ” (Acts 1:6).

Only the Holy Spirit would at last transform them … Pentecost … a very short time after the descent of the Holy Spirit, Peter and the apostles began to preach. They preached about the death and Resurrection of Christ, and about the true Kingdom of God. They faced up to the wise and powerful of this world, but they were armed with only the peaceful and formidable weapons of God’s strength and goodness.

In ending my prayer, I will converse

— with Jesus Christ, asking him to “choose” me for true and sincere love; never to let me betray him but to love and serve him.

— with Peter, an apostle to whom I feel so much akin.
I will recite the Our Father.

There is no question about it: the best way for us to penetrate into the spirit of Christ our Lord is to meditate slowly on the Sermon on the Mount. Today, then, we will pause to consider the Beatitudes, which Matthew places at the beginning of this Sermon (5:3–16). These Beatitudes sound the theme running through the whole sermon (and we should not divorce them from the “woe to you” verses found in St. Luke 6:24–26).

Put yourself in the presence of God and make the prayer for beginning the meditation.

Ask him to inspire you.

I will call to mind the history of the mystery: after the long years of preparation he spent in the hidden life, after his baptism in the Jordan, the time of penance in the desert, his first preaching experiences, Jesus today is going to promulgate his law and will present the first organizational draft of his plan of action. He has passed the night in prayer. In the early morning he chose the Twelve. He comes down now to the shoreline. The crowds begin to assemble. He retraces his steps a bit up to the higher ground.

Composition of Place

The crowds of people take their places along the shoreline of the Lake of Gennesaret. Some are seated in the typical fashion of the Near East; others are standing. Jesus has selected a little incline up from and facing his audience, and from here he will begin speaking like a doctor of the law. It is springtime in Galilee. Jesus raises his eyes and sees the crowds that press in upon him and have now become silent. Behind the people is the clear, blue lake. Beyond it, and along the horizon on the opposite shore, rise up the mountains where the city of Safed is built. Seated there Jesus dominates all reality, all ages, all the worlds.

I will ask for what I want and desire: either for the grace of the Kingdom: “Not to be deaf to his call but prompt and diligent to do his most holy will”; or for the grace of the Two Standards: “An understanding of the true life, which the true and supreme Chief teaches, and the grace to follow him more closely”.

First Point: Beati: Blessed Be . . .

Appreciate the melodious, irresistible force that this word has on the hearts of these men and women who make up the crowds listening to Jesus; on the human heart today.

(1) Be careful, however, not to give this word blessed a soft, sweetish connotation. André Gide said that Christianity was une religion de pleutres (a religion for wimps). No, it is not that. The sufferings and the hardships of those who are listening to Christ here would never stand for that. It is just the opposite with them: they have a firm desire for happiness. Feel that same sentiment alive in the people of today’s world.

(2) Jesus immediately situates this blessedness only where it can be really found, that is, in the Kingdom of heaven.

“The Kingdom of God is theirs” is the opening and closing sentence of the Beatitudes. In between we have: “They shall see God” . . . “They shall be recognized as the children of God” . . . “consoled . . . satisfied”, “They shall have mercy shown to them”, “They shall have the earth as their inheritance.”

This is a new earth, a new order, new values that Jesus is going to set up: supernatural, of course, but also a world of creation restored in peace and charity—or at least it is one that will tend toward this restoration because of the thrust he gives it … leaven … salt … light of the world. What if these Beatitudes were the charter for our world here on earth? What a change there would be in our dealings with one another!

(3) We should not forget that there are two possible responses to this invitation on the part of the Lord to live the Beatitudes: the response of those we called “reasonable” above—people who understand that the Beatitudes can be the wisdom of man and at the same time the wisdom of God (and this is very beautiful and very true!). And then there is the response of the insignes. These accept the position of the reasonable, but they want to go beyond their arguments and choose the Person of Christ our Lord, his way, his Cross. Dilexit me (he loved me).

(4) I will try to appreciate all of this by considering the joy that Christ our Lord promises and brings to the world: his joy, his complete, abundant joy. … May my joy live on!

Joy should be “the gigantic secret of those who believe in Jesus”—the joy of those who have conquered.

(5) This is really the way that the crowds understand the words of Jesus. (Cf. Matthew’s account of the effect of the Sermon on the Mount [7:28–29]: “Jesus had now finished what he wanted to say, and his teaching made a deep impression on the people because he taught them with authority, unlike their own scribes.”)

Second Point: Who Are These “Blessed” of the Sermon on the Mount?

They are the mistreated of this life, victims of political systems, rejects of pharisaical religions: fishermen, publicans, laborers who subsist on what they make from one day to the next. They are the minores, the ptókoí: they are all lumped together under the category of “the poor”.

The first Beatitude summarizes the rest because those that follow are simply repeating the first under different names. The first Beatitude can be called the Beatitude of those with empty hands. The central law of the spiritual life is this: we must always come before God with empty hands. Grace is a gratuitous gift.

Christ takes up the word poor in the sense it was already given by the prophet Zephaniah (2:3): “Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth. . . . Seek justice and humility.” In another place, St. Matthew would call them “the poor in spirit”. The “humble”, the ill-provided and oppressed, are more open to the Kingdom of heaven than the powerful and rich. But “poverty”, in order to be the poverty of the Beatitudes, has to be seized onto for one’s own use, freely accepted in a direction of truth and interior liberty.

Here in this consideration we are thrust once more into the dynamics of the Meditation on the Two Standards.

Third Point: The Beatitude of Christ

The model, source, and ideal of these “blessed” is Christ our Lord himself.

All his life he practiced the Beatitudes.
They represent his spirit, his teaching, his law.
He came to communicate to men the beatitudes he enjoyed as Son: “Father, the hour has come! Give glory to your Son”; and why? “So that your Son may give glory to you, inasmuch as . . . he may bestow eternal life on those you gave him . . . that they may share my joy completely.”

But let us not forget that in regaining for us his joy through his Resurrection, Christ our Lord first had to pass through his “self-abasements”, that is, the Incarnation, the obedience he showed to human authority, and his death on the Cross. And me, what will I do for Jesus Christ, who has loved me so much?

I will end my meditation by talking over all of these matters with Jesus Christ. I will savor his bliss, his beatitude. I will restate my faith in his Word: “Lord,” I will repeat myself what St. Peter said to you, “to whom should we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Appreciate what this certainty really implies by spending a long time considering its implications.

I will recite the Our Father, which is part of the Sermon on the Mount. A reconsideration of the material in this meditation on the true spirit of poverty for the Christian living in the world—indeed, the most balanced and most realistic account—can be found in chaps. 14 through 16 of The Practice of Virtue, St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, 128-35.

According to many authorities of the spiritual life this mystery is the most significant event that took place during the public life of Christ because it is here that Christ lifts the veil of his self-effacement and thereby manifests himself to us, showing us at the same time who he really is, namely, the Word Made Flesh, and what his role, mission, and glory are.

Place yourself in God’s presence and make your beginning prayer.
Ask him to inspire you.

I will call to mind the history of this mystery: we are at the zenith of the public life of Christ our Lord. Peter has just “confessed” his faith in Christ at Caesarea Philippi. Jesus announced his Resurrection for the first time and then stated explicitly, “If a man wishes to come after me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross, and begin to follow in my footsteps” (Matt 16:24). “Six days later” (17:1) the transfiguration took place.

Composition of Place

Jesus climbed up a mountain (Mount Tabor, according to Tradition) with Peter (the Primate), John (the disciple whom he loved), and James (the first of the apostles who would give testimony to Jesus by shedding his blood; Acts 12:2).

I will ask for what I want and desire: an intimate knowledge of Christ our Lord, who, “veiling over his prerogatives as God”, was made man for me. And I will ask for a greater love and a more effective desire to imitate him by taking up my cross each day.

(1) Jesus ascends the mountain to pray. He brings Peter, James, and John with him.

Prayer: the contact of faith with the invisible world … being immersed in the Real, the divine. Jesus’ prayer at Tabor is a prelude to another prayer—that of Gethsemane, where he will be with the same three apostles. But on that night they will not be able to keep company with him in his agony; their eyes will be too heavy with exhaustion and emotion, and so they will sleep. Let us try to appreciate the atmosphere of death and mortification that introduces this scene of glory and joy. Six days previously Jesus had solemnly announced his death, and he asked the person wanting to follow him to be willing to take up his cross (Luke 9:23).

(2) The event:

Luke: “His face changed in appearance, and his clothes became dazzling white” (9:29).

Mark: “He was transfigured before their eyes, and his clothes became dazzling white—whiter than the work of any bleacher could make them” (9:2–3).

Matthew: “He was transfigured before their eyes. His face became dazzling as the sun, his clothes as radiant as light” (17:2).

See, relish, admire this splendor of Christ. It filled his soul.

The transformation that took place in Christ is not a change like that which occurs in the grain of wheat that mutates so as to give life to the sprout, nor is it in any way similar to the chrysalis that is metamorphosed into a butterfly. Rather it is a sudden revelation of what is already there, like a light that suddenly shines forth from some hidden place where it had been covered over.

The real problem is not how the transfiguration took place but rather how it was that this glory did not show itself the moment the Word was made flesh. How was it that the glory of the Word did not shine forth from his body all the time? Jesus wanted to save us by taking on our sinful flesh, “the wretched body of ours” (Phil 3:21). He became man not as playacting or as appearance only but out of true love.

(3) The presence of Moses (the law) and Elijah (the prophets): These two figures had risked their lives for God: Moses before the Pharaoh (Exod 3:10; 5:1) and Elijah before Ahab (1 Kings 17:1). Their presence is a tribute of respect to our Savior’s Passion.

“They… spoke of his passage, which he was about to fulfill in Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31).

Through his Cross Jesus came to “fulfill” the law and the prophets; he did not come abolish them (Matt 5:17). This fact explains the presence of Moses and Elijah at his transfiguration. Jesus is greater than Moses and Elijah, who simply announced his coming.

(4) The “human” reaction of Peter: “Master, how good it is for us to be here. Let us set up three booths, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” (Luke 9:33). Mark excuses Peter’s reaction by adding, “He hardly knew what to say” (Mark 9:6). Hear Peter speaking; contemplate him in his awe and confusion.

Jesus could have answered him with what he had already told him on another occasion: “Get out of my sight, you satan! You are trying to make me trip and fall” (Matt 16:23), because his suggestion was going against the plan of redemption.

In spite of the recent “confession” he had made at Caesarea Philippi, a confession that was so clear and formal (“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”), Peter still had a long way to go before he arrived at true faith. Jesus is gentle in the education of souls, patient in the education of our souls!

(5) The voice from heaven, the theophany:

This voice from heaven calls to mind the theophany at our Lord’s baptism in the Jordan. There, as here, the Father introduces his Son. The parallel is suggestive. (We should observe that there was nothing “dazzling” about Christ at his baptism.)

While Jesus was speaking to Moses and Elijah, “a cloud came and overshadowed them” (Luke 19:34). The cloud in Scriptural symbolism tells of the mysterious and efficacious presence of the invisible God. It was the cloud that miraculously led the Hebrews out of Egypt and far from Pharaoh (Exod 12:21), and it was the cloud that “covered the Tent of the Meeting, and the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle” (Exod 40:34).

(6) The three apostles were overcome with fear. They fell forward on the ground (Matt 17:6).

Let us recall what Moses did when God revealed his presence in the burning bush: “Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God” (Exod 3:6). One day we shall see God face to face. What distance!

Jesus raised up the apostles. He came toward them. He touched them and said, “Rise up! Do not be afraid” (Matt 17:7). “Do not be afraid”: already a Resurrection word!

Second Point: The Meaning of the Transfiguration

This mystery is at the heart of our vocation as sons of God. What we are is infinitely more beautiful than what we seem to be. Our life unfolds on two levels: that of appearances, of signs, of “things visible”; and on the “invisible” level of divine reality within us, of our “glory”—the shadowy part and the luminous part of the one and the selfsame reality. At times the Lord permits something of the invisible reality of his presence and glory clearly to be experienced from within, or he allows us to see it in some activity in which we are engaged. But it is in the ordinary where our life of faith and hope is lived.

We can read with profit such texts as:

• 1 John 3:2 (the “manifestation” of what we are),
• Colossians 3:2–4 (our “manifestation” with Christ),
• 2 Corinthians 4:17 (the present burden is light in comparison with eternal glory),
• Philippians 3:20–21 (the “transfiguration” of our lowly body into a glorified body),
• 1 Corinthians 25:51 (we will be “transformed”).

Heaven, our heaven, is already in us, now, this very day: “God has made his dwelling place in us” (John 14:23).

“Yes . . . ! Come, Lord Jesus, come!” (Rev 22:20).

Third Point: Only Jesus

Luke: “And after the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone” (11:36).

Mark: “Suddenly looking around they no longer saw anyone with them—only Jesus” (9:8).

Matthew: “When they looked up they did not see anyone but Jesus” (17:8).

“Jesus”—only, but it is enough. What difference is it if it is Jesus of the kenosis, of his self-effacements, or Jesus in his glory?

To be “with him” is enough for me.

“Jesus”—an excellent invocation; it is the prayer that says all. Compare the “prayer of the heart” in the first centuries of the Church and among the Christians of the East.

“Jesus”—as the Church prays: Per Dominum Nostrum Jesum Christum (through our Lord Jesus Christ), or, as St. Paul prays in his unparalleled expression: In Christo Jesu.

I will converse with Christ our Lord about these things in a fervent colloquy. I will take part, with humility, in the extraordinary conversation between Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. I will attempt to understand a bit better the relationship between glory and the Cross in the mystery of Jesus.

Among Christ our Lord’s miracles, perhaps none is more striking than the raising of Lazarus. Most assuredly no other page of the Gospel better reveals the human tenderness of our Lord’s heart.

Place yourself in God’s presence and make your beginning prayer.
Ask him to inspire you.

I will call to mind the history of the miracle with the help of St. John (11:1-45). Martha and Mary of Bethany have just advised Jesus that Lazarus, their brother and his friend, is very sick. Jesus tarries two days before responding to their call. In the meanwhile Lazarus dies. By the time Jesus arrives at Bethany, Lazarus has already been in the tomb four days. Jesus raises him from the dead.

Composition of Place

First of all, there is Jesus somewhere in Galilee. Then there is the house of his friends at Bethany, a stopping-off place for him when he is in the neighborhood. Finally, there is the tomb of Lazarus.

I will ask for what I want and desire: here it will be to know better the human heart of Christ our Lord so that I can love him better in return and imitate him more closely.

First Point: Lazarus Is Sick

(1) The first course of action Martha and Mary take is to inform Christ our Lord about Lazarus: “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

Will not he who has cured so many sick people intervene to save the one he loves? Merely to notify Jesus is enough to obtain a miracle—or so Lazarus’ two sisters think.

(2) But Jesus does not set off for Bethany. He stays in the place where he received the message for at least two more days. There are two opposing sentiments in his heart:

“Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus very much” (John 11:5). He knows that his absence will surprise them, even hurt them. He knows that Lazarus is going to die and that Martha and Mary will be sorely crushed.

However, “This sickness . . . is for God’s glory, that through it the Son of God may be glorified” (John 11:4). From that moment on, there is no hesitation for him because God’s glory comes before the most sacred of human sentiments. Jesus accepts the fact that for a while he may be taken for heartless, a fair-weather friend, one who is for all practical purposes unreliable.

Second Point: Jesus Returns to Bethany

(1) “Let us go back to Judea.” His decision is courageous because the Jews are looking for him. They want to stone him to death. He tells the apostles that “Lazarus is dead.” Appreciate what Thomas says in this passage: “Let us go along, to die with him [Jesus].” In a few days, during the hour of his Passion, they will leave him all alone.

(2) Bethany is in mourning when Jesus finally arrives. Lazarus has been in the tomb four days. According to the customs of the East, there are many friends and acquaintances who have come to console Lazarus’ two sisters around and about the house. From the moment Martha is told of Jesus’ approaching arrival, she hurries off to meet him.

(3) The conversation between Jesus and Martha:

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would never have died. Even now I am sure that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” (Think over and appreciate the bitterness of Martha’s sorrow but also her faith and hope.)

“Your brother will rise again” (his invitation to her to make an act of faith).

“I know he will rise again”, Martha replied, “in the resurrection on the last day.”

“I am the Resurrection and the life: whoever believes in me, though he should die, will come to life; and whoever is alive and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

“Yes, Lord”, she replied. “I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God: he who was to come into the world.”

Ponder over this conversation with what is the purest and strongest element of our faith in Jesus—with what is the most essential ingredient of faith.

(4) Martha called Mary secretly. Jesus is still traveling undercover; it is best to be prudent!

Mary’s act of faith.

When Jesus saw Mary’s tears, “He was troubled in spirit, moved by the deepest emotions.” And when they took him to see Lazarus’ tomb, Jesus began to weep. See him weep, appreciate the emotion that brought tears to Jesus’ eyes. “See how much he loved him.”

Third Point: The Raising of Lazarus

Jesus begins by praying, and praying in a loud voice: “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd, that they may believe that you sent me.” Thus Jesus is eager that no one misunderstand him: even the resurrection of Lazarus has to go beyond human considerations; it has to be “for the glory of God” and the faith of the spectators.

Jesus prays. He commands the dead man: “Lazarus, come out!”

Lazarus comes out from the tomb, tied hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth.

“Untie him and let him go free.”

All is so simple, in so plain a style. Jesus has complete mastery over death.

Compare his attitude with the measures of the Pharisees and Sanhedrin: “The fact was, the chief priests planned to kill Lazarus too, because many Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him on account of Lazarus” (John 12:10–11). The refusal to see so as not to believe . . . blindness and hate.

I will enter into a conversation with Christ our Lord about the content of this mystery. I will hear again the wonderful exchange between him and Martha, and I will make it my own conversation. I will talk with Lazarus. What gratitude must be his! What love he must have for him who gave back to him his life!

And us? And our baptism? And our hope for eternal life? Let us learn how to thank God.

I will end with the Our Father.

JESUS AT GRIPS WITH THE PHARISEES

The pages of the Gospel are filled with the Pharisees’ hatred for Jesus. They are going to have him put to death. Among other passages, we shall meditate on verses 47 and 48 in chapter 19 of St. Luke’s Gospel and on verses 37 and 38 in chapter 21, also from St. Luke’s account.

Put yourself in the presence of God and make the preparatory prayer.
Ask him to inspire you.

I will call to mind the history of the events that take place immediately before the Passion. Jesus teaches courageously in the temple each day. The Pharisees are present as well and are determined to have him put to death. But they do not know how to go about it, since the people, the crowds, are enthusiastic supporters of Jesus.

Composition of Place

The temple in Jerusalem: he is teaching here now, and the impression he makes on the doctors of the law is the same as it had been when he spoke to them here as a boy of twelve. He amazed them by his answers.

I will ask for what I want and desire: an intimate knowledge of Christ our Lord, who was made man for me, so that I can love him more and imitate him better.

First Point: Jesus Was Teaching during the Day in the Temple

What teaching! Truth came to light. At last the meaning of God’s written word is rediscovered, freed from the shackles and casuistry imposed by the Pharisees. The Mosaic law is accomplished, fulfilled. The fount of life that is God‑Love at this very moment is again unsealed for all who thirst. The Living Water is within reach of all, especially the humble and the little ones.

Jesus’ teaching here before the doctors and the Pharisees is simply a synthesis of all that he had been preaching about during the past three years, namely, God’s love for sinners.

“People do not pour new wine into old wineskins. . . . Nobody sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak” (Matt 9:16–17).

“The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27).

“Is it lawful to work a cure on the sabbath?” (Matt 12:9).

He called to mind the frightening words of the prophets against those who pay lip service to God but whose hearts are far from God, and against those who equate sanctity with legalistic observance and ritual practice alone (Matt 15).

And Jesus teaches with authority, not sparing his enemies. “If you are really the Messiah, tell us so in plain words”, they will finally say to him. And unambiguously he will dare to affirm who he is: “The Father and I are one. . . . I am the Son of God” (John 10:24–40).

His words go straight to the heart of the crowd: “At daybreak”, St. Luke reported, “all the people came to hear him in the temple” (Luke 21:38).

Second Point: The High Priests, the Scribes, and the Officials of the People Looked for Some Way to Put Him to Death. But They Did Not Know How to Lay Their Hands on Him Because All the People Hung on His Every Word

The Pharisees are totally obsessed by their hatred. We must feel what this hatred is really like. The Pharisees stood for:

• the most demanding type of Jewish orthodoxy,
• a type of piety based on the strictest observance of the traditions of the ancients,
• the most exacting attention to all legal purities,
• the most unyielding zeal for anything concerning the law and its customs.

The word Pharisee means “separated”. The members of this class are the pure, the perfect—but their perfection is closed in on itself; they have eliminated spirit from their religion. “The father you spring from is the devil . . . he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). And again: “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you frauds! You are like whitewashed tombs, beautiful to look at on the outside but inside full of filth and dead men’s bones” (Matt 23:27). And our Lord’s great accusation against them: “You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves have not gained access, yet you have stopped those who wish to enter” (Luke 11:52). The Good Shepherd defends his sheep, even his unfaithful sheep.

They finally decide to put Jesus to death. They pass this decision as a resolution at a meeting of the Sanhedrin (John 11:47–54). It was at this meeting that Caiaphas, the high priest, said, “Can you not see that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed?”

But even though the resolution was passed, it was not executed because the people still “marveled at the appealing discourse that came from his lips” (Luke 4:22), just as they had when they heard him preach the Beatitudes.

Third Point: He Left the City to Spend the Night on the Mount of Olives

The Mount of Olives is quite close to the temple. Just the valley of the Kidron separates the two.

What a prelude this was to the coming night he would spend there in his agony!

Recounting what took place Holy Thursday night, St. Luke will say, “Then he went out and made his way, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives” (Luke 22:39).

Consider in silence this prayer of Jesus. Discover his state of soul at this frightening time: during the day he was in the temple teaching; at night he was on the Mount of Olives resting, praying.

I will talk over these matters with Christ our Lord. Especially, I will ask him where I can find the true Life . . . and I will hear him answer me, “I am the Life.”

I will end my meditation with the Our Father.

Place yourself in the presence of God and make the prayer to begin the meditation.
Ask him to inspire you.

I will call to mind the history of the events as they are reported in St. Luke 19:29–41, St. Mark 11:1–10, or St. Matthew 21:1–9. Jesus is in the neighborhood of Bethany. He sends two of his disciples to pick up a donkey in a nearby town. He mounts the animal and rides into Jerusalem surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd of people who hail him as “he who comes in the name of the Lord”.

Composition of Place

First, the road. It goes from Bethany up to Jerusalem (fifteen stadia, or a bit more than two miles). Then the narrow streets of Jerusalem.

I will ask for what I want and desire. Here it will be for the grace to penetrate the Heart of Jesus on that day of triumph to discover there at least a few of his sentiments in order to love and imitate him more.

First Point: The Prelude to the Triumphal Procession

Jesus is going up to Jerusalem. He passes Bethphage and Bethany. He knows his hour is approaching. The hate on the part of the Jews has reached its height. It is only right that the crowd recognize him for who he is before his death — this same crowd of men and women in a few days will be stirred up by the priests and Pharisees and will cry out to Pilate, “Crucify him!” … this same crowd to whom he preached the Beatitudes … the same crowd he has been teaching for the past three years and for whom he has performed many miracles. Doubtless in this same crowd there are people whom he pardoned or cured.

Jesus stops on his way and tells two of his disciples to go to the village ahead of them, where they will find a donkey. “If anyone should ask you, ‘Why are you untying the beast?’ say, ‘The Master has need of it.’” The Master? Yes, he is recognized as such throughout the whole countryside. And the disciples found everything on their errand as he had said they would.

Second Point: Jesus Mounted the Colt, Seating Himself on the Cloaks the Disciples Had Spread out on Its Back

Matthew remarked that in doing this Jesus fulfilled what had been foretold by the prophets, particularly Zechariah (9:9): “Say to the daughter of Zion: look, your King is approaching, humble and riding on a donkey and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”

The exact text from Zechariah is even yet more beautiful and more significant: “See now, your King comes to you; he is victorious; he is triumphant”, and it continues, “He will banish the chariots from Ephraim and horses from Jerusalem; the bow of war will be banished.”

The Messiah King, as he was seen by the prophets, is humble and peaceful. He renounces the pomp and show of the kings of history and is satisfied to appear like the princes of Judah during the time of the patriarchs (Gen 49:11).

By fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah, Jesus awakens in the soul of the people the comprehensive image of the Messiah and the messianic Kingdom. And the people understand. Soon they will greet Christ with words from Psalm 118: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”, and with the shout “Hosanna!” This is the acclamation proper to “the one who saves”. And the people will perform an action spoken of by the Psalmist: “With branches in your hands draw up in procession” (Ps 118:27).

Such is the true meaning of Christ our Lord’s messianic entry into Jerusalem. It shows us what his intention was in coming into the city the way he did. It tells us that even on this day of his triumph, he is not about to take on the attitude of a proud ruler or a triumphant warlord. He is “the just man”; he is “the humble man”; he comes to rescue man from his Luciferlike pride.

Third Point: The Triumphant Procession

(1) The people spread their cloaks along the road as he passes. They cut branches from the trees and join in the triumphal procession.

(2) As the cortège makes its way past the Mount of Olives and then approaches Jerusalem, the crowd breaks out in cries: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the reign of our father David to come! Hosanna in the highest!”

(3) A few Pharisees mixed in with the crowd and advised Jesus, “Master, rebuke your disciples!” And Jesus responded, “If they were to keep silence, I tell you the very stones would cry out.”

(4) Soon all of Jerusalem is in commotion. Jesus makes his way to the temple. The blind and the lame are there. He cures them. The scribes and Pharisees ask him if he hears what the children are crying out within the temple precincts—“Hosanna to the Son of David”—and if he does, to make them stop. “Of course I hear them”, he answers. “Did you never read this: ‘From the speech of infants and children you have framed a hymn of praise’?”

I will converse with Christ about these events. I will add my own praises to the acclamations of the crowd. Especially, I will try to penetrate the sentiments of his heart: before this crowd… before Jerusalem… as he progresses along the streets, which soon will witness a procession of a different type.

I will end my contemplation with the Our Father.