Priests spend a lot of time in hospitals, and we are often privileged to see our faithful people receive diagnoses that include suffering. The prospect of protracted pain can lead to fear, disbelief, anger, confusion, and a host of other emotions.
Their conversations with physicians usually focus on the physical consequences of their illness and how long those consequences will last: “Will I have pain for the rest of my life? What will my recovery time be like after surgery? How long before I’ll be able to return to my normal routine?”
It is not surprising that people in spiritual desolation also want to know how long they will have to endure their suffering. Psalm 13 offers an example: “How long, Lord? Will you utterly forget me? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I carry sorrow in my soul?”
Rule 8 and Time
In our series of articles on the First Week rules, we have now arrived at Rule 8. In this rule, Ignatius says the following about the maturing Christian:
When one is in desolation, he should strive to persevere in patience. This reacts against the vexations that have overtaken him. Let him consider, too, that consolation will soon return, and in the meantime, he must diligently use the means against desolation which have been given in the sixth rule.
Notice that Ignatius avoids any specificity about how long desolation will last. In Rule 9, he will explain that God sometimes allows desolation because it can promote the salvation of our soul. A corollary is that God will allow it for as long as it is conducive to our salvation. He alone knows how long that will be. To quantify the duration of spiritual desolation would be to presume knowledge of the divine plan that is simply not accessible to us.
I suspect that God’s unwillingness to give us a time frame for the return of consolation is akin to his reason for not revealing the time when He will return in glory. If Jesus revealed that his second coming would occur several centuries from now, we would be tempted to ignore His counsels to live a life of constant readiness. If He told us that He would be returning this evening, we might succumb to panic. Better for us not to know the day or the hour—only that He is coming “soon,” as He tells us thrice in Revelation 22. Our lack of knowledge allows us to prepare as though he will come tonight, yet continue with our daily responsibilities as though we’ll be around for a while.
Likewise, if Jesus told us that present desolation would end just a few minutes from now, we might be tempted to wait passively until time expired, thus forfeiting the spiritual growth that would have resulted if we had actively opposed the desolation. Conversely, if He told us that days of continued desolation were in store, we might be tempted to abandon the struggle, for the prospect of even a few days of desolation can seem intolerable when the desolation is particularly intense. Accordingly, Ignatius simply uses the word “soon” to describe the time when consolation will return.
Why “Soon” is not an Empty Word
The Autobiography of St. Ignatius describes a temptation that our Basque saint experienced at an early stage of his pilgrimage with the Lord:
“During those days . . . a harsh thought came to trouble him by pointing out the hardships of his life, as if someone were saying within his soul, ‘How will you be able to endure this life for the seventy years you have yet to live?’”
The enemy’s false reasoning went as follows: “The spiritual life is going to get harder and harder. You will not be able to keep this up for decades and decades. So why not quit now?” I have noticed a similar dynamic in some retreatants as they begin to understand the rules for discernment of spirits. While most are greatly encouraged, some become afraid. Newly armed with weapons to combat the enemy, they fear the looming battle in which they will be summoned to use them. Might it be better to avoid getting in over my head?
Such Christians (and Ignatius himself in the above example) are experiencing in real time the discouraging tactics described in Rule 2. The enemy, aware that the battle will now be more difficult for him, is making desertion seem like the best option. He would have us imitate Sergeant Schultz from the classic sitcom Hogan’s Heroes, who had an uncanny ability to avoid being sent to the front.
Ignatius, however, wasted no time in responding to the temptation:
“Believing that the thought came from the enemy, he answered inwardly and with great vehemence, ‘O miserable being! Can you promise me an hour of life?’ So, he overcame the temptation and remained at peace.”
After a moment of desolation, Ignatius recognized the source of the desolation and the bald-faced lie behind it. God promises eternal life and all the means we need to attain it. The enemy has nothing of real value to offer as an alternative, so his only recourse is to make the competitor’s costs seem too high. The instant that Ignatius recognized what was happening and acted against the desolation, the burden of 70 years of imagined hardship disappeared! (How’s that for “soon”?)
I do believe that with experience, we can recognize patterns that allow an educated guess as to how long desolation will last. Vocation directors sometimes encounter candidates who initially experience desolation at the prospect of priesthood or religious life, and they assume that the desolation will continue if they enter the seminary or convent. In reality, they begin to experience at least some consolation when they surrender themselves to God and take the next good step in their vocation.
Likewise, I cannot recall ever giving a 30-day retreat or even an 8-day retreat in which the retreatant experienced absolutely no consolation. However, a retreatant’s first experience of desolation often occasions the belief that they will feel this way for the duration of the retreat. If the director acquaints them with the First Week rules and the retreatant applies them, consolation returns “soon” —often by the following day.
If desolation continues for weeks or months, we may not be dealing with spiritual desolation as Ignatius describes it. Could nonspiritual causes be at work? Might there be an underlying physical cause of their condition? Or, might they be experiencing what St. John of the Cross called the “dark night of the soul”—a very different phenomenon from spiritual desolation as described in Rule 4? (For an account of the difference between spiritual desolation and the dark night of the soul, see Appendix 2 of Fr. Jules Toner’s A Commentary on Saint Ignatius’ Rules for the Discernment of Spirits, or Chapter 4 of Fr. Timothy Gallagher’s book Setting Captives Free.)
The great doctor of the Church St. Teresa of Avila mastered the meaning of “soon,” and beautifully expressed it in her famous prayer:
“Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience makes doubtful what is certain, and turns a very short time into a long one. Dream that the more you struggle, the more you prove the love that you bear your God, and the more you will rejoice one day with your Beloved, in a happiness and rapture that can never end.”
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This post was first published on Ignatian Discernment Institute and is reprinted here with permission.
Image: Unsplash
