The last 18 months have been a period of struggle and of dealing with great loss. In March 2020, I was working as a Jesuit Volunteer in Philadelphia, making plans with some of my other volunteer year co-workers as the winter was coming to an end and spring was coming to the city. A week later, I started working from home, eventually moving home to my parents’ house in Florida, never to go back to see my friends or my clients again. In reflecting on a year full of loss and disruption, I can see where we might look to the example of Ignatius’s life in our own low moments.
For Ignatius, his “cannonball moment” was completely unexpected and changed the course of his life. Ignatius’s injury caused a disruption that left him in a state of feeling hopeless, and of questioning what would come next. I can imagine the level of stress, confusion, and misdirection Ignatius was feeling. The pandemic was my own cannonball moment, causing me to question what my future might look like or if it was even the right time to start grad school. I was sent into my own spiral caused by disruption.
Ignatius found his way through his disruption by finding and turning to God. It was in the time of recovery that Ignatius was guided by a book on the lives of the saints and inspired to live a life fulfilling God’s desire for him. In my own life, I can see where trusting God’s own journey for me has helped me through the disruption of the pandemic. In reflecting back on the journey, I can see where my cannonball moment might have affected the path I thought I was on, but I was also able to find moments of grace through the continual chaos. It is in this practice of reflection that we might be able to see the ways God is working in our own lives even in the disruption.
From Ignatius’s cannonball moment came a call for him to do something different, to be called to something greater. In our own times of disruption, we might remember the example of Ignatius’s life to find ways where we can find moments of joy or God’s love working within us.