Humanity today finds itself entangled in unending wars, hatred and violence, climate change and environmental degradation, the resurgence of dictatorships and ultra-nationalism, deeply divided and polarised societies, sophisticated systems of disinformation and fake news, internet and social media addiction, unethical uses of artificial intelligence (AI), and more. In a word, we live in a messed-up world.
Where, then, do we find hope—for ourselves and for the world? Does the spiritual legacy of St Ignatius offer anything to a troubled humanity? In the Second Week of the Spiritual Exercises, St Ignatius invites us to contemplate the mystery of the Incarnation:
“…in this case, how the three Divine Persons were looking at all the flatness or roundness of the whole world filled with people, and how the decision was taken in Their eternity, as They saw them all going down into hell, that the second Person would become human to save the human race. Thus when ‘the fullness of time’ came, They sent the angel Gabriel to Our Lady.” (Exx. 102)
In this contemplation, we are invited to beg for the grace of an interior knowledge of the Lord who became human for me, so that I may love and follow Him more closely. In prayer, we encounter a God who remains faithful even when we are not. We come to know a merciful God—foolishly and madly in love with a sinful humanity. We rejoice in a God who has not given up on us and who sends Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity, to become one of us, so that we may be reconciled to God and learn anew what it truly means to love. Through Jesus Christ, we are drawn into His redemptive mission—one that leads us from sin and death into the fullness of grace and life.
In his recent papal bull Spes non confundit, Pope Francis reflects on the words of St Paul: “Hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Rom 5:1–2, 5). It is in the certainty of God’s love—revealed in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ—that our hope is firmly grounded.
Pope Francis reminds us that true hope is rooted in God’s grace. And this grace can be glimpsed in the signs of the times, assuring us that there is “immense goodness present in our world, lest we be tempted to think ourselves overwhelmed by evil and violence. The signs of the times, which include the yearning of human hearts in need of God’s saving presence, ought to become signs of hope.” In this Jubilee Year, Pope Francis calls us to recognise these signs and to become pilgrims of hope—witnesses and bearers of hope, especially to the oppressed and the marginalised.
As we celebrate the feast of St Ignatius, we give thanks for his enduring spiritual legacy—one that continues to inspire, encourage, and accompany us in our pilgrim journey of hope, even in the midst of a broken world. +AMDG+
