The Cannonball and the Holy Name
MASS In Nomine Iesu
LESSON II Tim. 2:8-10; 3:10-12
GOSPEL St Luke 10:1-9
HOMILIST Mt Revd Jerome Lloyd OSJV
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
The life of Saint Ignatius of Loyola turns upon a cannonball. In 1521, while defending the fortress of Pamplona, the young Íñigo López de Loyola was struck down. One leg was shattered and the other badly wounded. Until then he had lived as a courtier and soldier of earthly honour, eager for distinction and deeds that might make his own name remembered. He possessed courage, discipline and a formidable will, but these gifts were still arranged around himself. In a moment, the plans of the ambitious captain were broken with his bones. Yet God did not destroy the soldier in Ignatius. He conquered him, purified him and enlisted him beneath another standard.
During his convalescence, Ignatius asked for the tales of chivalry he loved. None were available. Instead, he was given a life of Christ and accounts of the saints. He noticed something decisive. Dreams of worldly exploits excited him for a while and afterwards left him empty. The thought of imitating Saint Francis or Saint Dominic was more demanding, yet left behind a durable peace. Here began that discernment of spirits which would mark his later teaching: vanity inflames and then exhausts; grace may wound pride, but it enlarges the soul.
The Introit gives us the key to his conversion: “At the name of Jesus every knee should bend.” Before Pamplona, Ignatius desired the exaltation of his own name. Afterwards, he desired only that the Name above every name should be known, loved and obeyed. The change was not from strength to weakness, nor from action to passivity. It was the conversion of strength from self-glory to divine glory. Ignatius remained a commander, but now he commanded first himself. He remained ambitious, but his ambition became the salvation of souls. He remained a soldier, but the battlefield became the human heart, the standard became the Cross, and the King became Jesus Christ.
At Montserrat he laid down his sword before the altar of Our Lady. At Manresa, God stripped him of illusion, taught him the gravity of sin and led him into prayer. There he learned that the reform of the Church begins in the soul that allows itself to be judged and reordered by God. The first territory to be recovered for Christ is memory, imagination, appetite and will. A man may speak loudly of defending the Faith while refusing to govern his temper, his tongue or his pride. Militancy without interior discipline soon becomes another form of self-assertion.
The Collect speaks of the Church militant being fortified with “a new army” through the work of blessed Ignatius. Christianity is not a private arrangement for making life agreeable. The Church on earth must contend against the world, the flesh and the devil; against error in the mind, disorder in the passions and cowardice in the will. The saints are made when grace is answered by discipline, prayer governs action, the intellect submits to truth and the will learns to obey promptly.
Ignatius did not suppose that zeal alone qualified him to teach. The former courtier sat among boys to learn Latin, then studied at Alcalá, Salamanca and Paris. He accepted poverty, misunderstanding and years of preparation because he was willing to become a beginner. Our age wants influence without formation and authority without discipline. Ignatius knew that the man who will command others for Christ must first consent to be commanded by Christ.
On the feast of the Assumption in 1534, in a chapel at Montmartre, Ignatius and six companions pronounced vows and placed themselves at the service of the Church. From that small company came the Society of Jesus, approved by Pope Paul III in 1540. Its members would preach, teach, hear confessions, defend Catholic doctrine against Protestant error and carry the Gospel across oceans. Yet the greatness of the work lay not first in organisation or intellect. It lay in the fire of today’s Communion antiphon: “I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and what will I but that it be enkindled?” That fire burned in Ignatius because first his vanity had been consumed.
The Gospel shows us the form apostolic fire must take. The Lord sends the seventy-two before His face into every place whither He Himself is to come. The apostle goes before Christ, not in place of Christ. He prepares souls for the Lord’s arrival; he does not gather them around himself. “The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers are few.” The labourer belongs to the harvest, and the harvest belongs to God. Every work and talent must therefore be judged by one question: does it lead souls more surely to Jesus Christ? Apostolic labour is corrupted when the labourer begins to love his own influence more than the kingdom he claims to serve.
This is the true meaning of Saint Ignatius’s principle: for the greater glory of God. It is not a slogan for restless activity, but a rule of renunciation. My preferences are not the measure of truth; my success is not the measure of fidelity; my comfort is not the measure of blessing. The Spiritual Exercises begin from the truth that man is created to praise, reverence and serve God, and thereby to save his soul. Everything else is to be used insofar as it helps that end and renounced insofar as it hinders it.
Perhaps every life contains some cannonball permitted by Providence: a failure, illness, humiliation, bereavement or closed door which destroys the future we had imagined. Saint Ignatius teaches us not to romanticise suffering, but to refuse to waste it. What appeared to ruin his life opened the life for which he had been created. The cannonball shattered not only his leg, but the illusion that his life belonged to himself. God may permit some cherished plan to fail because He intends to save us from a smaller destiny. We do not always understand His providence, but no suffering offered to Christ is sterile. Grace can turn the place of collapse into the place of enlistment.
The Epistle gives the cost: “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” Yet Saint Paul adds: “The word of God is not bound.” Catholics are tempted either to despair at the crisis of the Church or to imagine that fidelity is possible only when conditions are favourable. The saints did not wait for a convenient age. They became holy in the age God gave them. They did not ask whether the world would reward fidelity. They asked whether Christ was worthy of it.
At the Offertory the Lord declares: “My truth and My mercy shall be with him; and in my name shall his power be exalted.” Truth reveals the false ambitions by which we have lived; mercy does not leave us imprisoned within them. These meet perfectly in the Sacrifice of the altar. Here the Holy Name is manifested in the obedience of the Son unto death. Here the fire Christ came to cast upon the earth burns beneath sacramental veils. Here every natural ambition must bow, every self-made standard must fall, and every Christian must choose beneath whose banner he will live.
The Mass is the true school of Saint Ignatius. At this altar Christ conquers not by crushing His enemies but by offering Himself to the Father. His victory is sacrificial; His kingship is obedient; His fire is charity. If we receive Him worthily, He does not merely comfort us. He enlists us, so that our work, suffering, speech and silence may become instruments of His glory.
Let us ask Saint Ignatius for the courage to place our gifts, wounds, ambitions and plans beneath the Holy Name of Jesus; for discernment to distinguish the fever of vanity from the durable peace of grace; for humility to become beginners where God requires it; and for endurance to labour without applause. Then the cannonballs of Providence will not have the final word. The final word will be the Name before which every knee must bend. If that Name is enthroned in us now—in intellect, memory, will, body and deed—then, after the battle of this life, we may receive the crown promised in the Gradual: “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been tried, he will receive the crown of life.”
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Homilies Archive
Mass Propers
DAILY MASS ONLINE
One of the earliest online apostolates dedicated to the Traditional Latin Mass, Old Roman TV began broadcasting the Holy Sacrifice on the Feast of the Assumption, 15 August 2008. During the COVID-19 pandemic, additional programming — devotions, catechesis, and conferences — was added to support the faithful in prayer and formation.
Support the daily Holy Mass on Old Roman TV by offering a Mass intention — for loved ones, thanksgiving, or the repose of souls. Your intention helps sustain the sacred liturgy and brings grace to those you remember before God’s altar.
SUPPORT THE DAILY MASS ONLINE
Likely the world’s longest-running daily online broadcast of the
Traditional Latin Mass, streaming faithfully since the
Feast of the Assumption 2008.
This apostolate cannot continue without immediate help
Please support us with a contribution toward
chapel rent, sacristy supplies, operating costs, and web-hosting.
Our essential monthly costs reach £1,000.
Leave a Reply