Ignatius and his companions left as a legacy to the Church and the world many stupendous gifts, including the Spiritual Exercises, the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), and the establishment of Jesuit institutions of learning.  These schools are often world-renowned for their standards of educational excellence, and for their students who want to turn the world upside-down.

Many students in the Ignatian tradition are "ruined for life" in the best way.  They are often articulate intellectuals, able to reflect critically on theological, philosophical, social and political questions, and act as counter-cultural prophets in the world today.  More than that, they want to "help souls," as Ignatius and his companions did.  They want to bring community to others, to be communion for others.  They do this because they are created in the image of God who desires communion, mercy and generosity above sacrifice.  In being the Body of Christ for others, in standing with the "least" in the Kingdom as Jesus did, they magnify God's glory.

Such is the story of the Jesuit martyrs and their housekeeper and her daughter at the University of Central America on the fateful night of November 16, 1989.  They were murdered because they lived the Gospel call to stand in solidarity with the poor.  No wonder at times Ignatian people feel like the prophet Jeremiah in today's first reading:  "Why is my pain continuous, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?"  Jeremiah's wound seemed incurable because he gave himself to love.

When you give yourself to love, you give yourself to the cross.  More than that, you give yourself to the hope of resurrection.  That is the pearl of great price.

As a spiritual pilgrim, Ignatius espoused the foundational principle that all of creation reflects the goodness of God.  Everything created by God is created as gift.  Every human being, humbled by failure-fatigue, is a tremendous gift, and profoundly loved by God.  It is this spirituality, founded upon gratitude and magnanimity, and born out of intense love and holy desire, to which I am most indebted as a fellow pilgrim in the Ignatian tradition.

Ignatius' "Suscipe" represents a surrender of self to God: "Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will, all I have and call my own.  You have given all to me; to you, Lord, I return it.  Everything is yours; do with it what you will.  Give me only your love and your grace.  That is enough for me."  Truly, Ignatius found the pearl of great price.

Holy Father Ignatius, you taught us to be true companions of Jesus by giving yourself to love.  In gratitude, you spent everything for that precious pearl.  By your prayers, in communion with all the saints, help us draw closer to Jesus by giving ourselves to love.