Ever wonder why Jesuits are so humble and simple. They do not care much about public adulation and praises.
I once had a teacher who was a Jesuit priest. I was a bit struggling with my term paper. "Luckily" (at least for me) He died before the end of the term hence I had all the time in the world to finish my work. Anyway the relevance of the story is that, during his wake, his coffin was placed in the chapel without anyone holding a vigil or guarding it. At first I was shock, thinking that those bloody Jesuits were so selfish to leave their brother in that state. Now I understand their concept of humility. SJ for simple Jesuits.
An excerp from Ignatian Spiritual Exercise:
Saint Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), Founder of the Jesuits
Spiritual Exercises, 2nd.Week, 12th.Day (trans.Thomas Corbishley)
«Follow me »
The three ways of humility. The first way of humility is necessary for salvation. It consists in my subjecting and abasing myself as far as I can, so that I always obey the law of God our Lord, at least to this extent: even if men were to offer to make me Lord of the entire creation, even were my life threatened, I should yet not think of breaking any commandment, divine or human...
The second way of humility is more perfect than the first. It means that I so submit myself that I neither seek nor desire to be rich rather than poor, I do not try to be well thought of rather than disregarded, I do not want to live many years rather than few, where the service of our Lord God and my own salvation are equally promoted...
The third way of humility is the most perfect. Supposing that I have attained to the first two ways, and granted an equal measure of praise and glory to God, I desire to be poor along with Christ in poverty rather than rich, to be insulted along with Christ so grossly insulted, rather than to be thought well of: I would rather be thought a helpless fool for the sake of Christ who was so treated, rather than to be thought «wise and prudent» in the world's eyes (Mt 11,25).
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