"The church, when it is self-referential, thinks, without realizing it, that it provides its own light; it stops being the 'mysterium lunae' and gives rise to the evil which is so grave: spiritual worldliness (according to [the French Jesuit theologian Henri] de Lubac, the worst evil into which the church can fall) - living to give glory to one another. To simplify, there are two images of the church: the evangelizing church that goes out from itself; that of the 'Dei Verbum religiose audiens et fidenter proclamans,' or the worldly church that lives within itself, of itself, for itself. This should illuminate the possible changes and reforms to be realized for the salvation of souls.
"Thinking of the next pope: a man who, through the contemplation of Jesus Christ and the adoration of Jesus Christ, may help the church to go out from itself toward the existential peripheries, that may help it to be the fruitful mother who lives 'by the sweet and comforting joy of evangelizing'" (quoted on page 218; the ellipsis is in Borghesi's text; I have added the bracketed material here).
As we know, the cardinal-electors decided that Cardinal Bergoglio was the right man to elect the next pope. In any event, I want to enter Cardinal Bergoglio's quoted statement into consider for our reflection, along with all the other prompts for our reflection that Conwell offers us in his 2003 book about Nadal and St. Ignatius Loyola. Conwell's other prompts for our reflection include numerous quotations from Vatican II's Decree on the Appropriate Renewal of the Religious Life (of religious orders and institutes such as the Society of Jesus) and numerous other quotations from decrees of recent General Congregations of the Society of Jesus.
Concerning the possibility that the Holy Spirit may have inspired the cardinal-electors to elect Cardinal Bergoglio as the new pope, I would draw your attention to what Conwell says about the Holy Spirit in his 2003 book Walking in the Spirit:
"Walking in the Spirit, then, encompasses more than being in tune with the Spirit; it emphasizes that the Spirit is calling the tune and initiating the music, prompting the walker to fall in step. One filed with the Spirit does not possess a quality deserving of congratulations, but is the object of the Spirit's action, the Spirit who has the quality of filling others; one seized by the Spirit or impelled by the Spirit is the object of the Spirit's seizing and impelling power. If walking in the Spirit entails proclaiming the Good News in the Spirit, loving in the Spirit, praying in the Spirit, and delighting in the Spirit, it reveals even more that the Spirit is proclaiming the Good News in the one who walks in the Spirit, that the Spirit is loving in, praying in, delighting in the one walking in the Spirit [e.g., St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Francis of Assisi]. The Spirit makes the moves in the one who through the Spirit freely moves [e.g., Pope Francis]" (page 56).
In this passage, Conwell mentions "that the Spirit is loving in" "the one walking in the Spirit." Thus, Conwell here suggests that agape forms of love are rooted in the Holy Spirit. In this way, the Jesuit vow of chastity is rooted in the Holy Spirit. For Nadal, according to Conwell, "it would seem [from his summary of the Constitutions written by St. Ignatius Loyola], life in the Society [of Jesus] can be summed up in words suggested by Luke 11:28: 'Blessed are they who hear the word of God [prayer] and obey it [obedience],' adding out own, 'in love (chastity), key words to bring out some of the overtones in the phrase 'walking in the Spirit'" (page 49; the bracketed material is Conwell's).
Conwell further amplifies Nadal's words on the next page: "The Spirit is the source of prayer, from which flows love, which expresses itself in chastity and obedience" (page 50; Conwell's italics).
Subsequently, Conwell says, "Chastity is a response of love to the call of Christ [in what Conwell prefers to refers to as the Call of the King meditation in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola (standardized numbered paragraphs 90-99)], a full and complete commitment to the person of Jesus, and everything else in Jesuit life flows from it. Obedience flows from love, is an act of love, rather than love being an act of obedience. Ignatius is almost silent on chastity, not out of prudish reluctance to speak of it, but because the need for chastity was so clear to him that he thought it would be clear to everyone. Furthermore, after this section [in Nadal] on chastity the reader [of Conwell's 2003 book] will understand better and affirm more easily Nadal's remarks about obedience" (page 62; I have added the bracketed material here).
Next, Conwell says, "When Nadal explains the vow of chastity, he focuses on the experience of Ignatius who 'when he left his homeland [to go to the Holy Land], fearing for his chastity, took a vow, taking our Lady as his advocate, and he experienced this as a special grace" (page 62; Conwell's bracketed material). (Conwell's reference here to "our Lady" is to the Roman Catholic veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary.)
The American Jesuit psychiatrist and Freudian analyst W. W. Meissner (1931-2019) has written extensively about the feminine dimension of Ignatius Loyola's psyche during his recuperation from being wounded in battle in Pamplona in 1521, during his famous religious conversion, in his 1992 book titled Ignatius of Loyola: The Psychology of a Saint (Yale University Press). For all practical purposes, what Meissner describes involves Ignatius Loyola's efforts to access the optimal form of the Queen archetype in his psyche.
Subsequently, Conwell says that "in the Formula of the Institute [of the Society of Jesus], the only mention of chastity is in connection with belonging to a community ready to be sent anywhere in the world to bring God's word" (page 66; Conwell's italics; my bracketed material; the Formula of the Institute is the subject of Conwell's 1997 book Impelling Spirit).
Simply stated, chastity is about being capable of agape love.
Conwell also says, "In the Formula [on the Institute of the Society of Jesus], chastity precedes mission. In the Constitutions chastity precedes obedience, being sent. In the Constitutions Ignatius is not concerned about the purity of a spirit that has no body [i.e., angels, whose name means messengers]. He is concerned with imitating in the mind and in the body the purity of one sent by God, the purity of a messenger of God's word" (page 66; my bracketed material; Conwell's italics).
In addition, Conwell says, "The foundation and source of chastity, its whole meaning, is love. Unchastity is either disordered love or disordered passion that pretends to be love. Ignatius moved from a chastity that fears and shrinks from the world to a chastity that loves the world and goes out to it the way the Son entered fully into it" (page 67). (In Roman Catholic trinitarian theology, Jesus Christ is referred to as the Son.)
So even if the Roman Catholic Church were to dispense with the vow of chastity for diocesan priests, the Society of Jesus and other religious orders and institutes would retain the vow of chastity, because it is essential for agape love.
Now, when spiritual sons and daughters of St. Ignatius Loyola respond to what Conwell prefers to refer to as the Call of the King meditation/contemplation in the Spiritual Exercises, they are thereby learning to access the optimal form of the King archetype in their psyches rather than the "shadow" forms of the King archetype).
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