Eastertide Journey: the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola as a Guide for Transformative Growth in Faith

We are about to wrap up the Third Week of Easter and enter the week of Good Shepherd Sunday. It means that we have come almost half way on our Easter journey.  Out of the 50 days of this celebratory Paschal season, following the 40 days of penitential Lenten season, we are to experience what Paschal Mystery means, especially what the Resurrection means, in our daily lives. At the same time, we prepare ourselves for Pentecost.

Easter is not singular day. It is a continuum, like a spectrum, spanning over 50 days, from Resurrection Sunday to Pentecost Sunday, with its Second Sunday celebrated as the Divine Mercy Sunday, to complete its Octave.  The Fourth Sunday is known as Good Shepherd Sunday, as its Gospel readings on all cycles are taken from John 10 to address Jesus as the Good Shepherd. In fact, there is a shift in the tread of Gospel readings on Good Shepherd Sunday.

On Cycle A, the Gospel readings for the first 3 Sundays of Easter (John 20:1-9; 20:19-31; Luke 24:13-35) remind us how the disciples encountered the risen Christ and how they truly came to terms with the Resurrection and how their lives had been impacted by their understanding of the Resurrection. All of these Gospel narratives remind us that the disciples struggled in understanding the Resurrection.  From the Good Shepherd Sunday (Fourth Sunday of Easter) on, the Gospel readings address Christological themes, such as Jesus’ role as the Good Shepherd to help us deepen our understanding of who Jesus is. For the first three Sundays of Easter, the Gospel readings guide us how we can come to terms with the resurrection of the Lord, while the remaining of Easter Sunday Gospel readings are to give us new insights not only as to who Jesus is but also as to what Paschal Mystery is about. This process of understanding is very important for us to consummate Easter with Pentecost.

As we are about to start the fourth week of Easter, by now, we are to have had personal encounters with the risen Christ.  If we are like the disciples in the Gospel stories read for the first three Sundays of Easter, we, too, must have struggled what the resurrection really was about.  

Of course, we have read the scriptures. So, we “know” that Jesus died and was raised on the third day.  We recite this through the Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed. However, it is often on cerebral level. However, experiencing what we recite in these creeds and what we know from reading the scriptures about the death and the resurrection of Jesus on a much deeper personal level, with full emotions? Without this deep subcerebral experience of Paschal Mystery, our Easter would end up as “mere another Easter to pass”, nothing but superficial festivities with dinning out, Easter eggs, and Easter bunnies.

Easter, in deed, is about our spiritual transformational growth, in response to our joy of experiencing the risen Christ. Perhaps, the best example of this is the burning hearts that Cleopas and the other disciples had when they experienced the risen Christ in their amidst (Luke 24:32).  With their burning hearts with passion, they abandoned their original itinerary to go further away from Jerusalem but to return to Jerusalem immediately, in spite of advancing evening time, to share their joyful Easter experience with the rest of the disciples. They did not wait until the sunrise.

According to the Gospel narrative for the Third Sunday of Easter on Cycle A (Luke 24:13-35), Cleopas and the other disciples left Jerusalem with their hearts heavy with grief. Perhaps, they visited Golgotha about 3 pm to memorialize Jesus’ death. Then, they left there for Emmaus, which is 7 miles away. On their way, while they were talking about what happened to Jesus in retrospect, unbeknownst to them that it was the risen Christ, Jesus joined them. Noticing that they were taking about him but did not recognize him, Jesus asked them what they were talking about. In response, they began “preaching” to Jesus about what happened to the man, Jesus the Nazarene. Then, Jesus confronted their ignorance, saying, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!”(Luke 24:25), and began enlightening them by opening the Scriptures. As the risen Christ opened the Scriptures, the disciples’ hearts began to lighten up. By the evening time in Emmaus, they obviously became quite interested in listening to the risen Christ’s teaching on the Scriptures more. So, they asked him to stay for the evening with them. Then, Jesus broke the bread at supper to open their eyes, and they immediately recognize the risen Christ. At the same time, they also realized that they hearts were burning, and the fire was already turned on when the risen Christ began opening the Scriptures on the way to Emmaus.  Then, they just could not keep their Easter experience to themselves even it was already dark and unfit to travel. So, they just dashed back to Jerusalem to share their great Easter experience.

This is a kind of experience we need to have during the 50 days of Eastertide. But, if possible, it is better to have such an experience before Good Shepherd Sunday rolls in.  Of course, everyone’s Eastertide journey is different. So, while some people have had such Easter experience already, others may not yet have.

Whether you have already had or not, my Easter season recommendation is to go over the Fourth Week segment of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.  This segment spans from #218 to #237, with #219 reflects the first thing on the Resurrection Sunday morning and #239 corresponds Pentecost.  The Spiritual Exercises encourage us to engage in what David Tracy calls “mutually critical correlation” of our own lived life experience to Christian texts, including the Scriptures, with our senses fully utilized. Thus, engaging in the Exercises is neither merely intellectual nor emotional, but rather it is a holistic experience. It ultimate purpose is to be drawn much more closer to Christ.  After all, Eastertide is a period for us to increase our intimacy with Christ, because it is to aid our transformative growth, as well as a consequence of our transformative growth in faith.  Think of getting closer to Christ as engaging in the Gospel stories from Good Shepherd Sunday on.

In the Fourth Week segment of the Spiritual Exercises, one important thing to be mindful of is increasing appreciation of God’s grace and joy as a result of it.  With this, we can be in synch with St. Ignatius of Loyola on the Suscipe prayer at #234:

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. Thou hast given all to me. To Thee, O Lord, I return it. All is Thine, dispose of it wholly according to Thy will. Give me Thy love and Thy grace, for this is sufficient for me.

Prompted by our joy of experiencing the risen Christ, we become more receptive and appreciative of what Pope Francis calls “current of grace”.  In fact, its powerful form is the Divine Mercy, gushing forth from the Sacred Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us (Diary of St. Faustina, 186-187), recalling our memory to the blood and water gushing out of the crucified body of Christ (John 19:34).  With this, we can link Good Friday in Paschal Triduum back in Lent to our Easter joy and appreciation. This can be enhanced by connecting the Third Week segment of the Spiritual Exercises to the Fourth Week segment.

As Easter effects continues to prompt our transformative growth, we gain better insights and meaning on Christ’s suffering and death, as we now can associate these to our current Easter joy and appreciation. Furthermore, we rejoice over our personal encounter with the risen Christ, we come much more closer to him. As our intimacy with the risen Christ grows, we become more willing to surrender everything related to our egos and to be one with Christ (i.e. John 17:21; 1 Corinthians 6:17). This way, we become less influenced by flesh but more by the Holy Spirit (i.e. Romans 8:9), and then, our own lived life experiences can make mutually critical correlation to these words of Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Having the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola as a practical guide, we are likely to maximize meaningfulness of our Eastertide journey of growth and transformation.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!