2 8 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 5 - 2 Fa l l 2 0 1 9 wards one another; it is a culture with a prevailing dictate of fashion and keeping up with media trends, etc. (Rupnik 2002, 60). From time to time, we can pause in our routine way of life, feel regrets, and even enter into the sacrament of reconciliation. After a short while, however, many of us return to the way of life we are accustomed to. In the phase when a person “goes from one grave sin to another”, the evil spirit plays with emotions, while the good spirit takes care of reason in order to detach it from the emotions and create discomfort, we call remorse. Peace and discomfort are states somewhere in-between reason, will and emotions. Peace can be defined as a state in which our emotions and reason are in harmony, working together towards one common goal. On the other hand, discomfort arises when emotions and reason are in conflict working towards separate goals (Rupnik 2001, 77). We are all familiar with a situation when our desires get into a conflict with rational judgement telling us, “[a]lthough it is pleasant, you know that what you are getting yourself into is not going to be good…” Surely, at times discomfort can even be provoked by contrasting thoughts. Important is to acknowledge that we all have a natural tendency to seek peace and follow the alluring movements that might not lead us to the good, even if they help us rid ourselves of the inner conflict. We often refer to it as rationalization of will when we come up with all the reasons that justify our behavior and action. Naturally, we can be very resourceful in finding enough arguments to justify our decisions or actions. In fact, we are somewhere between two poles of our being. We constantly need to discern where we are in our life and where we are heading. In the two following rules of discernment, Ignatius shows us what is happening in the soul of a person who has decided to enter into the relationship with God and helps us make sense of it. The second rule explains how “[i]n the case of those who go on earnestly striving to cleanse their souls from sin and who seek to rise in the service of God our Lord to greater perfection, the method pursued is the opposite of that mentioned in the first rule. Then it is characteristic of the evil spirit to harass with anxiety, to afflict with sadness, to raise obstacles backed by fallacious reasonings that disturb the soul. Thus, he seeks to prevent the soul from advancing. It is characteristic of the good spirit, however, to give courage and strength, consolations, tears, inspirations, and peace. This he does by making all easy, by removing all obstacles so that the soul goes forward in doing good.” (Ignatius of Loyola 1968, 315). While the characteristic of the evil interior movement is to break the unity between a human being and God by raising doubts, the good spirit affects our emotional life when we experience peace, joy from a prayer, or love for God. We perceive our life as full of hope and purpose. Ignatius refers to this positive experience as consolation, which can also manifest itself through tears. The third rule describes consolation as follows (Ignatius of Loyola 1968, 316): I call it spiritual consolation when an interior movement aroused in the soul, by which it is inflamed with love of its Creator and Lord, and as a consequence, can love no creature on the face of the earth for its own, but only in the Creator of them all. It is likewise consolation when one sheds tears that move to the love of God, whether it be because of sorrows for sins, or because of the sufferings of Christ our Lord, or for any other reason that is immediately directed to praise and service God. Finally, I call consolation every increase of faith, hope, and love, and all interior joy that invites and attracts to what is heavenly and to the salvation of one’s soul by filling it with peace and quiet in its Creator and Lord. However, it is important to note that consolation can be linked with some problems that can arise at the beginning of someone’s spiritual life. At this crucial time, consolation might be perceived as a criterion for assessing the quality of the spiritual life. It needs to be pointed out that one must cautiously distinguish the time of consolation and its previous cause. Moments of natural consolation that come from listening to music, singing, a thought we heard in a sermon, natural beauty, watching sunrise or emotional religious events occur in our lives quite often. Divinely effected consolation must not be confused with the consolations when a believer experiences beautiful moments of joy that accompany his or her faith but do not inherently come from that faith. In this sense, consolation is caused by some external impulse [2]. For Ignatius, consolation is first and foremost the consolation without any previous cause, although he does not undermine the significance of natural consolation in our spiritual life, provided that it leads us to the good. The divine consolation is always coupled with the increase in hope, faith, and love for God. It must always be reflected in the context of relational orientation towards God. We must bear in mind that for Ignatius, consolation is not the goal of spiritual life. Nor it is the assessment criterion of the spiritual life quality. It could even become a problem. When our interest is limited to seeking consolation, we might later
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzgxMzI=