Tuesday
of 20th Week in Ordinary Time
August 19, 2014 8:30am
Saint Ignatius, the founder of
the Jesuits, has a little saying that goes like this:
Riches to Honors to Pride.
Ignatius’ idea is this.
Riches – money, material
possessions, competence, success, status, titles – all of these things and
others like them can constitute Riches.
These Riches can lead to Honors –
being recognized and well thought of by others and then even wanting that and
counting on that for our sense of self-esteem.
And then Honors can lead to Pride
– feeling self-reliant, being caught up in ourselves and our own goodness.
Ignatius sees this – Riches to Honors
to Pride – he sees this as perhaps the main source or main cause of sin and evil
in our world.
In contrast to this, Ignatius
calls us to the virtue of Humility.
And he describes Humility as
living as close to the truth as possible – living as close to the truth as
possible.
So we need to live as close to
the truth as possible with God: recognizing that all that we have and are comes
from God; admitting that we still need to understand the truth about the
mystery of God more and more.
And we need to live as close to
the truth as possible with ourselves: coming to know ourselves as best we can,
and working just to be ourselves, definitely not pretending or trying to be
more than what we are.
And we need to live as close to
the truth as possible with others: being ourselves, speaking what we think
God’s way is and at the same time being respectful and not judgmental of others.
This is how Ignatius describes
Humility.
Ignatius calls us to be cautious
about Riches and not allow them to lead us to Honors and then to Pride.
It is, I suggest, a good way to
understand the message of both of today’s readings.
