Chapter IX. Of the spirit of the Company of Jesus

The spirit of our Company is a participation in that of Jesus Christ, and consists particularly in this, that the Company is connected with Him as a body specially appropriated to Him. This is why it is called the Company of Jesus.

St. Ignatius, who would have obedience to be the mark by which his children should be distinguished from other religious, enjoins them to "pay no regard to the personal qualities of their superior, but to see in him our Lord Jesus Christ, whose place the superior holds, and for the love of whom they are to obey him." This is the spirit of the Company, and an excellent mode of exercising ourselves in the presence of God.

For the same reason he wished to have the Company bound by an express vow to the Sovereign Pontiff, as the one who of all the world best represents Jesus Christ, being His Vicar on earth.

Our spirit ought to imitate that of Jesus, in that as Jesus was possessed of two natures, one divine and the other human, so our spirit, in relation to these, consists of two natures, the divine and the human, the interior and the exterior. According to the exterior, Jesus Christ appeared a mere man like others ; and interiorly He was hypostatically united to God. So ought we to be externally like other men in our ordinary life, but interiorly to be united to God by attention and love. We are bound to occupy ourselves with offices of zeal and charity towards our neighbour; and for this end we ought to make great exertions and practise virtue largely : such is the exterior of our spirit. The interior is to be possessed by God, and to have our soul filled with a holy disposition, which influences all we do externally, and animates it.

An interior spirit is formed by two things : 1. great self-abnegation and a great contempt of the world ; 2. a great knowledge of spiritual things, a relish for God, much prayer, dependence on the Holy Spirit, freedom of heart, and an ardent zeal.

To form the exterior spirit, what we need is great obedience, great fortitude in labours, and a great prudence in conversation.

The resemblance of our spirit to that of Jesus Christ consists in the combination of things which in appearance are contrary one to the other ; as knowledge and humility, youth and chastity, diversity of nation and perfect charity, &c : just as our Lord unites in His person the divinity and the humanity, immortality and a mortal life, sovereign dominion and the condition of a servant, &c. At the same time that He was governing the whole universe. He was conversing familiarly with sinners. So also ought we to be .disposed to perform one while the subUmest actions, at another the lowliest. This is the spirit of the Company.

The culminating point of the highest perfection in this world is zeal for souls. To form this zeal, a certain temperament is needed which is difficult to be met with, and which is the result of a mixture of opposite elements. For example, our life must combine a strong affection for supernatural things with the study of the sciences and other natural pursuits ; and it is easy to lean too much on one side. We may have too great a fondness for the sciences, and neglect prayer and spiritual things ; or if we desire to be spiritual men, we may not sufficiently cultivate natural talents, as doctrine, eloquence, prudence, from which we derive the implements of success in our ministrations.

The Spirit of God bestowed on St. Ignatius a special light for combining these things in our Institute. Others who had not this light have been so attached to solitude, penance, contemplation, that they seem to have carried the contempt of human talents to an excess.

Hence we may learn the excellence of the spirit of the Company, which honours and imitates the mode in which the divinity was united with all that was human in Jesus Christ, the faculties of His Soul, the members of His Body, His Blood, and made all divine. Thus is the Spirit of God joined in us with all that is good naturally^ as natural and acquired talents^ and makes all divine that can contribute to the glory of God.

This combination is difficult ; and this is the reason why those amongst us who do not apprehend the perfection of our spirit attach themselves to natural and human advantages, being devoid of such as are supernatural and divine. That which may do us most harm, unless we are on our guard, is an ambition for distinguished employments, vanity, a desire to be conspicuous, or carefulness about bodily comforts, unprofitable conversations, and amusements. We necessarily fall into these faults when we do not give ourselves up wholly to the interior life, because the needy hungry soul seeks something on which it may fasten and satisfy itself There is no vice so opposed to our Institution as vain-glory, because we are bound to promote the greater glory of God in all things.

By the terms of our Institute we have no peculiar ceremonial or especial offices, like other religious, because our mode of life is in this respect ordinary, and according to the practice of the Church at large. We are not on that account exempted from the particular devotions of other orders, but rather we are fitted to embrace them all, not being confined to any exclusively.

St. Ignatius desired that we should have scarcely any thing distinctive, because the end of our Institute is the greater glory of God ; and as this is preferable to all other ends, and under certain circumstances requires things incompatible with particular ends, it is necessary that we should not have any special one assigned us. But this does not prevent our embracing all on occasions when the greater glory of God demands it. The spirit of the Company renders us independent in such a manner, that we are able to enter into the spirit of other orders, and share their devotions, without in q2 this doing any thing contrary to the spirit of the Company, which, by reason of its universality, sympathises with all. It is the spirit of Jesus, who is the General of the Church. The spirit of the Company is universal in so noble a manner, that there is no state or order within the Church, distinguished by any spirit of virtue, which ours does not embrace; it comprehends all, so far as they are not exclusive of each other.

We ought to have a high idea of our vocation, a great esteem and a profound respect for our office, seeing that we are established, by the authority of the Church, of the Holy See, and of a General Council, to render to God the most noble service of which we are capable. We have succeeded to the ministry of the Apostles, not in what concerns dignity and authority, which in the sight of God is the least considerable part of their office, but in what is truly great, viz. labour for the salvation of souls, and the propagation of the kingdom of God.

Our portion is that of the Apostles. " Nos avievii orationi et ministerio verbi instantes erimus. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word." The functions of the Apostles are committed to us, the glory of God is entrusted to our hands ; what can be more exalted 1 This it is to which our profession engages us. Accordingly, we ought to treat each other with great reverence, although externally we lead but a mean and ordinary life. This very fact serves only to increase our glory ; for thus it was that Jesus Christ and the Apostles lived ; and every thing that is most eminent in the kingdom of God is based on lowliness. Jesus Christ founded His glory, the salvation of the world, and all His designs, on His poor and abject life. His ignominies, and His death. Our aim ought to be so high, that in all things we may seek, as St. Ignatius says, quod eat optimv/niy what we judge best aud most perfect ; so that the spirit of the Company obliges us to aim, not only at what is good, but at what is best. It imposes on us the strict obligation of performing all our functions in the most perfect manner ; for otherwise we are not necessary to the Church, since there are others who do the same things that we do.

We ought to judge of the dignity and perfection of the spirit of the Company not so much by what is ordinarily accomplished, as by the design of our founder St. Ignatius. This design is so high, that the holy patriarch, to render his children capable of executing it, looks for peculiar qualities in them. He obliges them to imdergo extraordinary trials. He does not admit them into the body of the Company till after several years' probation. Doubtless, without this, our functions might have been creditably and profitably performed ; for we see that persons of ordinary virtue succeed tolerably well in the same employments. Whence we ought to conclude, that St. Ignatius wished to lead us to a sublime and arduous height of perfection ; that is to say, he would have us join together things difficult of combination, continual prayer, great self-abnegation, a perfect disengagement from all things, great contempt of the world, the fulness of the Holy Spirit, with conversation, study, missions, travelling, and exterior ministrations. Now it is plain that to accomplish this combination and admixture successfully, all that our holy founder enjoins upon us is indispensable. And if we discharge our several duties in a mere commonplace way, we render profitless most of the provisions of our Institute ; for instance, the distinction of degrees, and those various and lengthened probations. It is evident, then, that in order to correspond with the essential object of our Institution, we must be distinguished for eminent virtue, and possess the apostoUcal spirit in an excellent degree ; otherwise we cannot attain to the perfection of our constitutions; we give occasion to deserved reproach; and it may be justly said, that the design of our Institute is not fulfilled, and that the establishment of the Company was needless.