Ignatian Spirituality and Right Vision

At the beginning of his book, Fr. Fleming writes:

It's often said, "I'll believe it when I see it." but Ignatius Loyola reverses the saying: "When I believe it, I'll see it."

He begins with this quote because he asserts that "Ignatius thought that the right vision lies at the heart of our relationship with God." As religious who espouse the ideal of seeing God in all things, Jesuits and those involved in Ignatian Spirituality must necessarily believe that God can be found in all things if they are to see God in all things.

I think there is something to be said about "self-fulfilling prophecies." For example, if I sit at table and immediately judge that the next 30 minutes will be excruciating pain with the person I am sitting with, then that outcome is probably more likely to pan out. But, as people made in the image of God, I think we are called to see each other in the way that God sees us. Despite our sins and our failings, we continue to be loved unconditionally, no exceptions. I don't think we could ever love on the level that God loves, but we can certainly image that love of God towards one another.

Ignatian Spirituality is a calling into deeper and greater life, and Jesuits believe that greater life to be found in God. We seek to marvel at the work of God around us, in us. Where were those moments of great joy in our day? Where can God be a source of healing and reconciliation in our lives? We recognize the work of God as True gift in our lives--what were those moments in our day that were gifts to us? Do we believe God to be found in those gifts? Can we see God as a result of that faith?

A healthy spiritual life is a healthy way of seeing the world, of seeing one another, of seeing ourselves. Oftentimes, however, our way of seeing is very unhealthy. Distorted vision can lead to very unhealthy practices, leading to metaphorical and even literal death. Ignatian spirituality seeks to get us in the practice of seeing in a healthy way through the grace of God. Through prayer and the examen, we seek to instill habits that bring us life.

Let us pray for the grace of seeing the world in the way God sees, that our eyes can more readily recognize God's gifts throughout our life. And, let us pray that new ways of seeing may form us into the people that God desires us to be.

On Seeing

I've been thinking lately about the faculty of seeing. Ask the question 'what do you see', and you may be surprised at the variety of viewpoints. I'm sure many of you have seen this image before.


Some may see a decrepit, elderly woman with a long face who forlornly looks down in sadness. That long chin, at another glance, becomes the neck of a beautiful woman, the pimple that of a simple nose. Eyes have turned into ears. What do you see? If you say an elderly woman, you are right. If you say a beautiful young woman, you are also right. All, of course, depending on your perspective.

Our perceptions, our lenses through which we see the world, shape how we live and interact in this life. If you primarily see people as Democrats or Republicans, liberal or conservative, then obviously that is the primary way in which you will interact with others. And, that is the primary way in which you will probably judge others. You may see the world with utter paranoia, believing that everyone is out to get you. You may be right. Hence, you will probably be looking at everyone around you with extreme, excessive, even obsessive, suspicion. Perhaps you see everything with great joy. You are not afraid to give a big hello to everyone you see, to have a heart-to-heart even with a stranger on the subway--you are always smiling, always bubbly, and always super sweet. And perhaps you are the one to see those people as obnoxiously happy.

When I was at L'Arche in Tacoma, WA, I lived with a core member named Bobby. He was a few years older than I was, but his mind was as developed as that of a year old toddler. Most things we do for ourselves he cannot do. He cannot walk, he cannot bathe on his own, he cannot take care of his own BM's (a euphemistic way of talking about bodily functions in the medical realm), etc. Yet, he is still the happiest person I have ever met in my entire life. He does not see as 'developed' minds see--he does not think, at least I did not witness it, in our same categories. If you were in range, he would literally reach out to you, regardless of who you were. Sometimes I would wonder what it was like to think like Bobby as I observed him laughing for no apparent reason. What's so funny? Well, probably seeing something I wasn't seeing.

Sometimes I read the news and grow in helplessness and despair--news outlets affecting, one may even say monopolizing, how we see. Do you ever wonder how your thinking would be affected if we did not have news? No one to constantly remind us how messed up some things are? Not necessarily a major critique of news in general, but just to point out how much our thinking, our seeing, is tied to the news outlets. And sometimes what they show us is exactly what we need to see. I don't necessarily envy those who must decide what makes the news and what doesn't. There's a lot of power there...

As a Jesuit scholastic, I am in training to look at the world with a particular viewpoint (in many ways, that training never ceases). We seek, as Jesuits, to think how Christ thinks, to see how Christ sees, to place Him at the center of our lives. The question, then, is how we are to know how Christ thinks and how Christ sees. Well, Sacred Scripture is one indicator. For example, in today's famous Gospel passage, Jesus shows great compassion to the woman caught in adultery. The Scribes and the Pharisees see the law which states that they should stone such a woman. Jesus, though, does not see with condemnation but with charity and love. Christ is the way in which I have freely chosen to orient my life--Christ as the lens from which all else emanates. I do not think I will ever clearly see the world as He sees it, but I can strive towards that end.

All of us clearly have particular ways of seeing the world. But, I think it is important to ask ourselves whether our primary ways of seeing are healthy. How do you see your life? How do you see the world? Are there things in your life in which you need to see in a new light? Do your ways of seeing bring harm and destruction to others? To yourself? If so, how do you wish to see differently?