John O’Malley, a noted Jesuit historian, observes, “Ignatius redefined the traditional basis of saintliness which usually involved a degree of unworldliness.” For Ignatius, reality is more important than the ideal of any kind. Yes, O’Malley refers to Ignatius as the worldly saint. This new perspective, in turn, made me ask myself a personal and contextual question: “If Ignatius can be regarded as a worldly saint, why not a farmer? (After all, I am a Jesuit and the son of a farmer.) Is there anything common or similar between them that would help me regard the farmers also as worldly saints?” It’s in this regard I, then, realized that the life of St Ignatius is very similar to that of a farmer and there are quite a number of life-lessons like the following, that can be learnt from both of them, so that we, too, can become worldly saints.
Login to read more
