But what does it mean to be like Jesus? For example, does it mean to imitate Jesus (assuming that it is somehow possible to imitate him)?
The American Jesuit Walter J. Ong (1912-2003) addresses this question in his short piece "Mimesis and the Following of Christ" in the journal RELIGION AND LITERATURE, volume 26, number 2 (Summer 1994): pages 73-77. Briefly, Ong argues that Jesus in the gospels is portrayed as calling for people to follow him, not calling for people to imitate him (whatever that might mean). In this view, Jesuits claim to be followers of Jesus, but not necessarily imitators of Jesus (whatever that might mean).
Arguably Jesus is portrayed in the four canonical gospels as a kind of cultural warrior and hero. For this reason, imitating Jesus could be understood to mean imitating him as a cultural warrior. But the spirit of following might not necessarily entail being a cultural warrior.
In any event, we might wonder if the self-described Christians who originally used the term "Jesuitical" in the pejorative sense meant that they (the detractors) did not perceive the historical Jesuits as imitating Jesus as they (the detractors) expected them (the Jesuits) to. In other words, the distinction that Ong develops between imitating Jesus and following Jesus is an important distinction to understand.
Of course the cardinal-electors who elected Pope Francis to be the new pope were aware that he was a Jesuit. As a result, they surely must have understood that Jesuits tend to be Jesuitical in the non-pejorative sense of the term. But any Jesuit who is Jesuitical in the non-pejorative sense may for this reason be open to the charge of being Jesuitical in the pejorative sense. Surely the cardinal-electors must have understood this possibility as well.
But when we consider how Jesuits themselves understand what it means to be a Jesuit, we should consider St. Ignatius Loyola to be the primary exemplar of what it means to be a Jesuit. He was a mystic, and all Jesuits aspire to be mystics.
However, as far as I know, Pope Francis has not publicly claimed at any time in his life that he has had profound mystical experiences of the order of St. Ignatius Loyola's profound mystical experiences. No doubt this has been the case with most Jesuits over the centuries.
Nevertheless, Jesuits over the centuries have considered St. Ignatius Loyola to be a great spiritual master and exemplar. As a result, they aspire to follow his example, just as they also aspire to follow Jesus's example. So what does it mean to follow the example of St. Ignatius Loyola?
In the introduction to his translation of Gracian's book THE POCKET ORACLE AND ART OF PRUDENCE (2011; orig. ed., 1647), mentioned above, Robbins makes a relevant comment: "Reading early modern Jesuit lives of Ignatius, it is striking how the saint's recorded actions and attitudes embody the specifics of much of Gracian's advice, or vice versa" (page xliii).
Gracian was a moralist and a stylist. His famous book consists of 300 maxims, most of which are accompanied by a brief explanation. They are not arranged in any obvious order. So reading them in the order in which they are numbered involves a hop-skip-and-jump from one topic to the next to the next. Occasionally, some of them can be connected with one another thematically. For example, one theme involves what Robbins renders as "moral sense." As a stylist, Gracian wrote each accompanying explanation/commentary is a staccato style, not in a long-winded Ciceronian style. As Robbins notes, Gracian's style is Senecan, not Ciceronian (page xxx).
The culminating maxim and its commentary, numbered 300, says the following:
"In a word, a saint [like St. Ignatius Loyola?], which says it all at once and for all. Virtue links all perfections and is the centre of all happiness. It makes a person prudent, circumspect, shrewd, sensible, wise, brave, restrained, upright, happy, praiseworthy, a true and comprehensive hero. Three S's make someone blessed: being saintly, sound, and sage. Virtue is the sun of the little world of [humankind] and its sphere is a clear conscience. It is so fine, it gains the favour of both God and [humankind]. Nothing is worthy of love but virtue, nor of hate and vice [e.g., as expressed in the pejorative sense of "Jesuitical"]. Virtue alone is real, everything else is a mere jest. Ability and greatness must be measured by virtue, not by good fortune. It alone is self-sufficient. Whilst someone is alive, it makes them worthy of love; when dead, of being remembered" (page 112).
Gracian's thought here is consistent with the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. The Jesuits helped promote the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. Robbins makes it abundantly clear that Gracian's thought about prudence is deeply attuned to St. Thomas Aquinas's thought. For a study relevant to Gracian's above-quoted explanation/commentary, see A. N. Williams' book THE GROUND OF UNION: DEIFICATION IN AQUINAS AND PALAMAS (1999).
No doubt Gracian and other early Jesuits saw St. Ignatius Loyola as embodying all of these qualities.
But does Pope Francis embody all of these qualities? If he does, it would not be hard to understand why the cardinal-electors would be willing to elect him to be the first Jesuit pope.
Christopher Maurer also published an English translation of Gracian's book as THE ART OF WORLDLY WISDOM: A POCKET ORACLE (Crown Business/Random House, 1992). In his introduction to his translation, Maurer points out that both Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) admired Gracian's book. Schopenhauer translated Gracian's book into German. His translation was published posthumously in 1862. Maurier quotes Nietzsche saying that "Europe has never produced anything finer or more complicated in matters of moral subtlety [than Gracian's book has]" (quote on page vi).
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