Setting Captives Free: Personal Reflections on Ignatian Discernment of Spirits

by Timothy M. Gallagher

Overview

In this new volume, Fr. Gallagher explores additional understandings and applications of the Ignatian rules. These personal reflections have arisen from the delight—and the labor—of learning and sharing the rules, witnessing the joy and hope they have given to so many. These Ignatian guidelines set captives free from the discouragement and sadness of spiritual desolation. They offer hope precisely where persons may have felt hope was not possible—and so release new energy for the spiritual journey.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780824599393
Publisher:	PublishDrive
Publication date:	04/01/2018
Sold by:	PUBLISHDRIVE KFT
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	709,603
File size:	648 KB

About the Author

Father Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V., was ordained as a member of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, and has taught, assisted in formation work, and served two terms as provincial in his own community. He is the author of several books on the spiritual teaching of St. Ignatius of Loyola and Venerable Bruno Lanteri, founder of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary.

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CHAPTER 1

Sensual Delights and a Stinging Conscience

Don't you feel Him in your heart, weighing you down, worrying you, never letting you be, and drawing you on at the same time, enticing you with a hope of tranquility and joy?

— Alessandro Manzoni, The Betrothed

The first two rules, like the third and fourth (spiritual consolation — spiritual desolation) and the fifth and sixth (harmful changes in desolation — helpful changes in desolation), form a pair. In them, Ignatius explains how the good spirit and the enemy work in persons in two contrasting situations: those moving decisively away from God and into serious sin (rule 1), and those moving decisively toward God in increasing freedom from sin and growing service of God (rule 2).

These rules are the following:

First Rule. The first rule: In persons who are going from mortal sin to mortal sin, the enemy is ordinarily accustomed to propose apparent pleasures to them, leading them to imagine sensual delights and pleasures in order to hold them more and make them grow in their vices and sins. In these persons the good spirit uses a contrary method, stinging and biting their consciences through their rational power of moral judgment.

Second Rule. The second: In persons who are going on intensely purifying their sins and rising from good to better in the service of God our Lord, the method is contrary to that in the first rule. For then it is proper to the evil spirit to bite, sadden, and place obstacles, disquieting with false reasons, so that the person may not go forward. And it is proper to the good spirit to give courage and strength, consolations, tears, inspirations and quiet, easing and taking away all obstacles, so that the person may go forward in doing good.

Manuscript evidence suggests that Ignatius added these two rules at a later time, after the rules that now follow them. In the Spanish Autograph, the most authoritative manuscript, the numbers of the subsequent rules are changed twice to accommodate the two new rules. Ignatian scholarship generally recognizes in these changes a confirmation that the present first two rules were composed later than the rules that follow. Why then did Ignatius add these two rules and place them at the beginning of the series?

Time and experience most likely revealed to Ignatius the need to clarify from the outset that the actions of the good spirit and of the enemy change according to the subjective disposition of the persons in whom they act — that is, the direction these persons have chosen and are pursuing in their spiritual lives. It is critically important to grasp this fact if we are to apply the rules correctly. A failure to do so will cause serious errors in understanding which spirit is at work in a person's experience, with consequent harm to the person.

If persons are moving decisively away from Godand into serious sin (rule 1), the enemy, Ignatius says, will induce complacency and even delight in this way of life (first half of rule 1). The goal of the enemy, obviously, is to keep these persons on this path. The good spirit, on the contrary, will trouble these persons, never leaving them in peace (second half of rule 1). The goal of the good spirit, again obviously, is to move these persons away from this sinful life and toward God, their only true source of happiness.

If persons are moving decisively away from sin and toward God (rule 2), the tactics of the two spirits reverse. Now the enemy will attempt to trouble these persons so that they will desist from their progress toward God (first half of rule 2); the good spirit, on the other hand, will bring them joy to encourage their continued growth toward God (second half of rule 2).

Such teachings indicate that to apply the rules correctly to a person's experience, we must first verify the subjective disposition of the person — the direction this person has chosen and is pursuing in the spiritual life: Is this person moving away from God and living a life of serious sin? Or is this person striving to overcome sin and grow toward God in love and service?

If the person is moving away from God and living a life of serious sin, then the action that induces complacency and even delight is of the enemy. In this situation, the action that troubles and disturbs the person is of the good spirit.

If, however, the person is moving away from sin and toward God, then it is the enemy who will trouble and disturb the person. The good spirit, on the contrary, will bring joy and peace to the person.

As regards the first situation, an important point is touched here. We say — and rightly — that our God is a God of peace. But our God is above all a God who loves his children too much ever simply to let them go (Mt 18:12–14), and who is willing to trouble the hearts of those who stray in the hope of leading them back to him, the only true source of their joy.

To understand, then, the peace-inducing or troubling action a person may experience in the spiritual life, we must first ask: Is this person heading away from God or toward God? When we have verified this, we will know which spirit is at work in this person's experience.

How did Ignatius come to understand the working of the two spirits in these two contrasting situations? In all likelihood, he first learned this through Spirit-guided reflection on his own experience. In the years preceding his conversion at age thirty, Ignatius lived the experience of the first rule — the person moving away from God and into a life of serious sin; after his conversion, he lived that of the second rule — the person moving away from sin and toward God. Remarkably, once Ignatius gave his heart to God, those years of sin became a source of grace for generations: his understanding of how the spirits worked in him at that time has helped many to understand their own experience. I find in this a powerful reflection on God's mercy: when we give our hearts to God, there is nothing in our lives — no matter where we have been or what we have done — that God cannot turn to good.

"From Mortal Sin to Mortal Sin"

To whom does the first rule apply? Who specifically are these "persons who are going from mortal sin to mortal sin" in whom the enemy and good spirit work in the way described? The answer is less evident than may appear, because Ignatius uses the term "mortal sin" in two different senses.

Often in his Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius employs the phrase "mortal sin" in the sense common today, as grave sin in contrast with venial sin. Thus, for example, in the Exercises persons pray for "a sense of shame and confusion, seeing how many have been condemned eternally for a single mortal sin" (SpirEx 48), whereas God's mercy has spared them from a similar fate. Ignatius speaks likewise of the person who "will not consent to any mortal sin or venial sin or even to what has any likeness to a deliberate sin" (SpirEx 349). In these cases and in many others, Ignatius uses the phrase "mortal sin" as we do today with the meaning of grave sin in contrast to lighter or venial sin.

At other times, however, Ignatius employs the phrase "mortal sin" in the sense of "capital sin," that is, the seven capital (root) tendencies toward sin that we experience as a legacy of original sin. Thus, at one point in the Exercises, Ignatius invites persons to examine themselves on "the ten commandments and the seven mortal sins" (SpirEx 238). And again, "In order to know better his faults against the mortal sins, let him look at their opposites; and so to avoid them better, let the person propose and seek with holy exercises to acquire and retain the seven virtues contrary to them" (SpirEx 245). In such texts, Ignatius uses "mortal sin" not as grave sin but as capitalsin — these seven root tendencies — thereby extending the range of "mortal sin" beyond grave sin alone.

The question thus arises: Who is this person who is "going from mortal sin to mortal sin"? Does Ignatius intend here those like the young Augustine before his conversion, that is, persons who are far from God and living confirmed lives of grave sin? Are these the only persons to whom rule 1 applies? Or might these be persons who love the Lord but at some point sin venially or commit even lesser faults with respect to one or another capital sin — persons who, for example, slip into slight movements of pride, anger, envy, jealousy, or any of the capital sins? Depending on how we answer, rule 1 may apply to very different persons.

With respect to the text alone, both interpretations are possible, and various commentators have favored one or the other. On this basis, one may adopt either the stricter interpretation ("mortal sin" means grave sin) or the broader ("mortal sin" means the seven capital sinful tendencies). The latter widens the range of rule 1 to include even small areas of regression in otherwise progressing Christians. In such areas of regression — lighter or venial sins, negligence in prayer, diminishment of apostolic zeal, and so forth — the enemy, this interpretation says, induces contentment of heart and the good spirit induces trouble of heart. Such areas of regression obviously exist, and in this interpretation, Ignatius intended rule 1 to clarify how the spirits work in them.

Though the broader interpretation is textually possible, I incline to the first interpretation, that when Ignatius speaks of a person "going from mortal sin to mortal sin," he intends the phrase "mortal sin" as grave sin. I hold this position for several reasons.

First, this is rule 1, the rule in which, together with rule 2, Ignatius lays the most basic groundwork for discernment of spirits. From a pedagogical perspective, I find it almost impossible to believe that Ignatius would intend to introduce from the outset the refined applications of the broader interpretation. Long experience in teaching the rules has shown me that listeners would be confused were I to present rule 1 in this broader light. As Ignatian author Jules Toner, SJ, writes, "In Rules I:1–2 [the first two rules], Ignatius, as a good pedagogue, has stated pure cases in order to communicate an initial understanding that is unconfused by complexities."

Second, in persons "going from mortal sin to mortal sin," Ignatius says, the enemy "is ordinarily accustomed to propose apparent pleasures to them, leading them to imagine sensual delights and pleasures." That the enemy would ordinarily propose sensual delights and pleasures to persons far from God and confirmed in grave sin is not difficult to imagine. It is harder to see why Ignatius would mention only this tactic of the enemy were rule 1 to apply to progressing Christians who may slip lightly in some aspect of their spiritual lives. Why not include an inducement to anger, pride, envy, sloth, or jealousy? Experience confirms that Christians in this situation experience such tactics of the enemy.

Third, the parallel with rule 2 also suggests that "mortal sin" here means grave sin. The persons of rule 2 are persons "going on intensely purifying their sins and rising from good to better in the service of God our Lord." These persons are not simply drifting in the spiritual life or progressing slightly but are progressing with intensity, spiritually rising from good to better. The energy and decisiveness of such persons in their movement toward God suggest a like energy and decisiveness in those "going from mortal sin to mortal sin" in the parallel rule 1. If this is so, then the stricter interpretation of the rule is more likely to be accurate: "mortal sin" signifies grave sin.

What then of failures such as venial sin, slight faults, or imperfections? How do the good spirit and enemy work in persons who love God — progressing Christians — who may regress in some limited area of their spiritual lives? If the stricter interpretation of rule 1 — that "mortal sin" signifies grave sin rather than capital sin — is true, does Ignatius treat of such lesser regressions elsewhere in the rules?

Our earlier caution against viewing these rules as a treatment of any spiritual situation that may arise applies once again. Nonetheless, in a later rule Ignatius explicitly mentions times when "we are tepid, slothful, or negligent in our spiritual exercises" (rule 9), and explains how discernment applies in such situations. In persons who love God but, at some point, grow "tepid, slothful, or negligent" in some aspect of their spiritual lives, God will withdraw consolation, Ignatius says, and will permit the enemy to bring spiritual desolation (rule 9). In God's intention, Ignatius explains, the discomfort of such desolation will alert them to the area of negligence and so lead them to eliminate that negligence.

In rule 9, as in rule 1, the action of the good spirit is unsettling: permitting the discomfort of spiritual desolation (rule 9) and stinging and biting in the conscience (rule 1). In both, the goal is the same: if the person is open to the action of the good spirit, that unsettling action will lead the person to a spiritually healthy change. The unsettling action, however, of rule 9 (spiritual desolation) is less stark than that of rule 1 (stinging and biting in the conscience). We would expect this to be so, since the faults of rule 9 (negligence, sloth, or tepidity in spiritual exercises) are lesser than those of rule 1 (grave sins). I believe that rule 9, more than rule 1, reveals Ignatius's thought on discernment regarding lesser faults.

"Through the Synderesis of Reason"

In persons going from mortal sin to mortal sin, Ignatius writes, the good spirit works by "stinging and biting their consciences through their rational power of moral judgment." A more literal translation would read: "stinging and biting their consciences through the synderesis of reason [por el sindérese de la razón]." What is synderesis, and why does Ignatius employ this term in rule 1?

In my earlier book, I avoided this term for the sake of clarity. In the present setting, we may explore this term and see what it adds to our understanding of rule 1.

Synderesis is, writes theologian Servais Pinckaers, OP, the intuitive knowledge or "the primordial perception of the good proper to man." Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger describes synderesis as "an inner sense, a capacity to recall, so that the one whom it addresses, if he is not turned in on himself, hears its echo from within. He sees: 'That's it! That is what my nature points to and seeks.'" In classic scholastic theology, synderesis is the "natural or innate habit of the mind to know the first principles of the practical or moral order without recourse to a process of discursive reasoning."

What does this mean? Synderesis describes the deep, innate sense in the human person of the basic principles on which all right action must be based. Every human person possesses this sense of these basic principles: it is the "primordial perception" of which Pinckaers writes, and the inner awareness that exclaims, as Ratzinger affirms, "That's it! That is what my nature points to and seeks." In scholastic terminology, it is the "habit of the mind" that knows "the first principles of the practical or moral order." The most basic of these principles, St. Thomas writes, is that good is to be done and evil avoided.

No human persons, wherever they have been in life, whatever they may have done, whatever they may be doing at present, no matter how far they may be from God, can ever escape or deny this innate awareness — this synderesis that tells them that good is to be done and evil avoided. This deep, connatural, and inescapable synderesis, Ignatius says, is the human space in which the good spirit will work in persons "going from mortal sin to mortal sin."

The profound message is this: that God — in Francis Thompson's lovely image, the relentless Hound of Heaven — will not give up the effort to call the human person back to himself (Lk 15:3–32) and to the only life that can bring happiness, here and in eternity. When persons are "going from mortal sin to mortal sin," and all other motivations — love of God, the desire to live uprightly, the hope of bringing others to Christ, the effort to live one's vocation well, zeal for the spread of the Gospel, and so forth — fail, the good spirit will work in the one space that remains: the synderesis deeply inscribed in their hearts. These persons may strive to ignore this synderesis, and the enemy may assist this effort; yet no matter how they try, they cannot escape it. Precisely here, therefore, is where the good spirit will work.

(Continues…)

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments,
Introduction,
Text of the Rules,
Prologue: Be Aware, Understand, Take Action,
1. Sensual Delights and a Stinging Conscience,
2. Placing and Removing Obstacles,
3. When the Soul Is Inflamed with Love,
4. Darkness of Soul,
5. In Time of Desolation Never Make a Change,
6. Spiritual Means for a Spiritual Struggle,
7. When You Think That You Can't, Know That You Can,
8. "Let Him Think that He Will Soon Be Consoled",
9. "It Is Better for You That I Go",
10. "One Who Is in Consolation",
11. Portrait of the Mature Person of Discernment,
12. When the Enemy Weakens and Loses Heart,
13. "His Manifest Deceits Have Been Revealed",
14. Freedom Where We Feel Least Free,
Conclusion: Setting Captives Free,
Notes,
Index of Names,