This exercise will be somewhat different than those before. It is called the Meditation on Two Standards. Although it feels like it might fit more properly in the first week when we considered sin, it is really about coming to a better understanding of the reality of the world in which we live; a world that Jesus has called us to be partners with him in redeeming. There will be no Scripture passages or questions to guide us in this exercise. Ignatius' exercise alone will be enough to guide us.
We consider Christ, our Leader and Lord, our God and brothers, and we consider Lucifer, the demonic enemy of humankind, the one who sums up all the evils that beset us.
Preparation: I make the usual time to place myself before God in reverence, begging that everything in my day be more and more directed to God's service and praise.
Grace: I ask for the gift of being able to recognize the false lights of Lucifer (a name which means "bearer of light") and for the help not to be led astray; I also ask for what I desire: a graced knowledge of true human living exemplified in Jesus Christ, my Lord and my God, and the grace to live my life his way.
The Setting: There are two unequal parts in this consideration, the first one shedding light upon and giving understanding to the more important second part.
Note: really spend time reflecting and meditating on the next two sections. It may not be necessary for you to follow exactly this line of thinking (epsecially around the idea of poverty), but you might want to consider how the evil one has tempted you toward a particular sin. Consider his strategy. What are the feelings that well up in you as you're tempted? How does one sin give rise to another? Then consider how Jesus might release you from that slavery, and draw you toward justice, righteousness, beauty and truth. What is his stategy?
First Part: To sum up all the forces of evil in the person of Lucifer makes me face the enormous power and oppression if evil itself. Keeping true to my own experience of the world, let me reflect on how evil pummels the relations between nations and between peoples within a single country, so that no nation, not city, no state of life, no individual is left unscathed. I want to try to graps the strategy of Lucifer as I consider how this fals angel of light attempts to isolate and enslave men and women and the world according to a certain design. For example, people find themselves tempted to covet whatever seems to make them rich, and next because they possess some thing or things they find themselves pursuing and basking in the honour and esteem of this world. Then getting such deference raises up the false sense of personal identity and value in which a blinding pride has its root.
So Lucifer's strategy is simple and seems so light-filled and clear in its direction: riches (or "this is mine") to honour (or "look at me") to pride (or "I AM..."). By these three steps, the evil one entices people to all other vices.
Second Part: Now let me look at Jesus Christ, who calls himself "the way, the truth, and the life." I notice how gently, but intensely Jesus continues to call followers of all kinds and sends them forth to spread his Good News to all people, not matter what their state or condition. Jesus adopts a strategy which directly opposes that of Lucifer: try to help and free people, not enslave or oppress them. His method: attract men and women to the highest spiritual poverty, and should it please God, and should God draw them to want to choose it, even to a life of actual poverty. Being poor, they will then find themselves accepting and even desiring the insults and contempt of the world. They will come to live a life of true humility.
Jesus' strategy is simple too, although at first it seems a paradox. If I have been graced with the goft of poverty ("he emptied himself, becoming human.") then I am rich; if I have nothing of myself ("everything I have is from the Father"), i have no power and I am despised and receive the contempt of the world ("even to death, death on a cross"); if I have nothing, my only possession is Christ("Christ is God's") and this is to be really true to myself -- the humility of a person whose whole reality and value is grounded in being created and redeemed in Christ. Through these three steps, Jesus... lead[s] people to all other virtues (Spiritual Exercises 136-146)
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