First Principle and Foundation

- Angels of Creation by Edward Burne-Jones

Here's another post about Ignatius of Loyola's spirituality as we approach his memorial day .......

Near the start of Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises is the First Principle and Foundation, Ignatius' view of the purpose of life in relationship .... Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul. And the other things on the face of the earth are created for man and that they may help him in prosecuting the end for which he is created ...

I like the way William Barry SJ describes Ignatius' Principle and Foundation in his book, Letting God Come Close: An Approach to the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, because it reflects the experiences I've had myself when I've looked at the stars or the clouds and been filled with a longing to merge with the universe ....

"[...] As it stands in the Spiritual Exercises, the Principle and Foundation is a rather dry theological statement of the reality of the human situation. People often fail to recognize that this set of truths is based not so much on deductions from theological premises as on reflection on lived experience ....

When I have the experience of desiring "I know not what," I am experiencing God as creating me now in all the particulars of my present existence. I do not worry about my past failures and sins or about what the future might hold. I feel at one with the universe and as whole as I could possibly be. Moreover, the desire I experience is the deepest desire within me. That desire is in tune with God's one intention in creating the universe, and this desire can become the ruling passion of my life if I let it .... Ignatius spells out the implications of the foundational experience of God's creative touch in the Principle and Foundation."

What brought this up was a short past Compass article by John English SJ. In it he is responding to an earlier article opining that Ignatius, in his First Principle and Foundation had shown a utilitarian approach to nature, seeing it as having no intrinsic worth but as valuable only in how it can be useful to us. Fr. English disagreed. Here's part of the article .....

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St. Ignatius's Approach to Nature Was Not Utilitarian

- by John English SJ

In her article in the May/June issue of Compass, Anne Lonergan .... traces the origins of the instrumental view of nature and suggests that "the famous `Principle and Foundation' of St. Ignatius's Spiritual Exercises exhibits the same instrumentality: `Everything else on earth has been created for man's sake.'" As a practitioner of the Spiritual Exercises in the late twentieth century I would like to comment on these words.

While I can understand Lonergan's concern, the actual words suggest relationship rather than dominance, as "for man's sake" implies. The text itself goes beyond the strictly utilitarian: "The other things on the face of the earth are created for man to help him in attaining the end for which he is created" (Sp. Exx. [23]). Today we might wish to say, "The other things on the face of the earth are created as companions to assist us and all of the earth to attain the fullness of relationship with God." My experience in listening to people's prayer over the First Principle and Foundation is that they are captivated with the need for freedom with regard to all that is not God--a freedom that involves a correct relationship with all creatures and is negated by the abuse of our companions on the way to union with God ....

Ignatius relates to creatures in a personal way. In the exercises on sin he calls us to "a cry of wonder accompanied by surging emotion as I pass in review all creatures. How is it that they have permitted me to live, and have sustained me in life!...And the heaven, sun, moon, stars, and the elements; the fruits, birds, fishes, and other animals--why have they been at my service!" (Sp. Exx. [60]). Similarly, in the "Contemplation to Obtain the Love of God," Ignatius has us "reflect on how God dwells in creatures...elements...plants...animals....So God dwells in me" (Sp. Exx. [235]).

Besides the misunderstanding of the Spiritual Exercises as a book of doctrines, we also need to be wary of the post-Enlightenment approach to spirituality as a vertical and individualistic relationship with God. This was totally out of Ignatius's ken. His whole life was communal. He realized that salvation and spirituality were communal affairs. So he could see the Spirit of God in all creatures. Today we need to question our post-Enlightenment assumptions and approach the First Principle and Foundation in a more nuanced way ....

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You can read more about the First Principle and Foundation at Ignatian Wiki