Dirty Underwear?

Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, priest

Readings for Monday
Biographical Information about Saint Ignatius of Loyola

Reflection:

My first thought as I read the first reading from the book of the Prophet Jeremiah was, “If I had used that analogy in a homily, I would have gotten in trouble.” Jeremiah speaks of being ordered to procure a loincloth (underpants) to wear them and not to wash them. Later he is ordered to bury them and then later come back and dig them up. Not surprisingly, the dirty underpants he had buried had rotted.

I must admit, while the analogy was crude (in a topical sense), I did get my attention. What Jeremiah was saying was that the Father had offered to keep the people of Israel close to him (as close as undergarments, a very familiar or intimate image). But because they had rejected Him by not following his decrees and precepts, they had rejected Him (not he them) and as a result, that intimate relationship was now as useful as rotting underpants. His call, through this rather disgusting image, was to return to God, to come back to his grace.

In the Gospel, Jesus is talking about that same faith through parables, short ones. His parables, the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the yeast, were more savory than the one used by Jeremiah. They say something even more profound. They tell us that our faith, as we live it, will grow and become strong if we wish. It will bear fruit beyond all proportion to its initial size, like yeast in bread; a small amount raises the whole dough.

So where do we go today with these stories? What do we take into the world of work, school, or social interaction? We take the lesion that first says follow God in all we do (or we could become as useful as rotted underpants) and if we do that well, the little we do can have tremendous impact on those around us. We can, quite literally, transform the world.

Our prayer for today is that we, through our actions and words, can be the catalyst in the lives of others. That through us, others might see the face of God and have hope. We can do no better that the person whose feast day we celebrate, St. Ignatius of Loyola. With just a few friends, he started the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, whose numbers now are in the hundreds of thousands and whose works have spread the word of God over much of the non-Christian world.

Let us pray also today that the work of the modern order he founded will continue to bear fruit and that its servants remain faithful to the example he set.

Pax