I have an attraction to the spirituality of St. Ignatius, the central aspect of his spirituality is the first principle and foundation, quoted below.
Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul.
And the other things on the face of the earth are created for man and that they may help him in prosecuting the end for which he is created.
From this it follows that man is to use them as much as they help him on to his end, and ought to rid himself of them so far as they hinder him as to it.
For this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things in all that is allowed to the choice of our free will and is not prohibited to it; so that, on our part, we want not health rather than sickness, riches rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, long rather than short life, and so in all the rest; desiring and choosing only what is most conducive for us to the end for which we are created.
I think St. Matthew the tax collector follows this first principle and foundation in today’s Gospel. He only wanted to follow Christ even if that meant a life of poverty, not much honor, and all the other things that he suffered in his own life. He is a martyr of the faith. Personally, this is something that isn’t easy, I desire health, a long life, and so on and so forth. In my mind, these are good things, things that should we should strive for. St. Ignatius though calls us to be indifferent to all things so that we can choose to serve praise and do God’s will. It doesn’t mean that trying to be healthy or living a long life is a bad thing it just simply means if God calls you into sickness or even to end your life short that you accept it because you want to serve and love God. The Apostles can show us an example of how to desire God beyond all things even our own life.
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