An Ignatian Model of Church?
I teach sophomore high school Church History. Not an easy task, I suppose. The text we use begins with an introduction to the word church and the various models of church that one can think about when trying to understand what we mean when we use that oft-loaded word. In an attempt to discover a unique way to approach this somewhat complex topic, I created a quiz for my students to take: “What is your model of church?” It’s admittedly unscientific and intentionally absolutist, but I still think it is an interesting excercise to introduce the notion of models of church.
This got me thinking: what is the Ignatian model of church? If Ignatius were to take my silly little quiz, what would he score? While I’ve not read much of Ignatius’ correspondance and can certainly not claim to be an expert in his thought, I reflected on what I do know about the first Jesuit. Clearly Ignatius had no strong aversions to the institutional church; he willingly entered formation for the priesthood when it became clear that would be the conducive route for his ministry and his Society pledged absolute loyalty to the Pope. He was undoubtedly a disciple of Christ willing to live counterculturally – how else can you explain his time at Manresa or his extensive work among the sick in Paris? His emphasis on the church as Body of Christ is evident in his depth of insight into the ways his directees and companions had so many different gifts and talents to contribute. Sacramentality was a core component of Ignatius’ vision also – in the Exercises he stresses the importance of the Eucharist and Reconciliation explicitly. A more implicit sacramentality is found in his recognition of the movements of the Spirit in the world. The Society of Jesus was (and remains today) a missionary organization, so Ignatius’ desire to perpetuate the “Herald” aspect of the church can not be disputed. There is no clear “model of church” that Ignatius seemed to favor.
This left me thinking Ignatius would probably come to the same conclusion that I have: any models of church we attempt to create are ultimately deficient. At the end of the day, the church is both all and absolutely none of these models. These frameworks help us understand various aspects of the church, but also tend to trivialize the interdependency of these assorted functions of the Church. The Church ultimately is a complete mystery. A beautiful, glorious mystery I am thrilled to be a part of…
Photo: “The Mystery Light“by att21 from Flickr (Used under Creative Commons license)
No related posts.
