Jesuits

An article by Malcome Gladwell appeared in New Yorker magazine, Sept 12, 2005 and appeared posted at the pastors.com website too.  Peter Drucker, a close friend of Warren, is quoted in the article as saying of Rick Warren, “He's building an army, like the Jesuits.'"

“Like the Jesuits?” Who or what are the Jesuits?

The Jesuits are a religious order of monks said to be started by Ignatius Loyola, in 1540. The Jesuits, also called the Society of Jesus, became eventually known as an army created with the purpose of overthrowing the reformation started by Martin Luther, (which the pope declared to be heresy.) Jesuits, then and now must make take oaths and vows when considering being part of the order, they make vows of poverty, chastity, and strict obedience to the hierarchy of the Church. Ignatius is known to have written: "I will believe that the white that I see is black if the hierarchical Church so defines it."

Still  headquartered in Rome, still sworn by oaths and vows, the Jesuits are still fulfilling their mission in the world, and they are commonly considered to be the “foot soldiers of the Pope” his army.

In addition to strict allegience and the carying out of missions, the Jesuit Order  is trained to carry out the daily practices of  the “spiritual exercises” of Ignatius, (a program of meditations, prayers, considerations, and contemplative practices that exercise mind memory and imagination.) This is because Ignatius desired to make this style of contemplative mysticism a part of everyday church life and to use it as a way of rebuilding the Church after the reformation.

Jesuits pursue high level education. They are consecrated to the Blessed Virgin under the name, Madonna Della Strada and are considered the largest religious order in the Catholic Church. They are historically said to be the ones who carried out the pope’s orders during the Inquisition to "dispel heretics."

In their pursuit of education, they often subsequently serve as educators  and many famous colleges and universities in the United States are founded and run by Jesuits. In the US these include, Loyola Marymount University, University of San Francisco, Loyola University Chicago, (and other Loyola named Universities,) the Boston College, Wheeling University, Rockherst University, Seattle University, Gonzaga University, Georgetown University and Marquette University, to name a few.


Rick Warren says he is building healthy churches the result of which will be "an army of people serving God," fulfilling his purposes... going on a mission to rid the earth of all it's evil... mainly poverty and disease. Jesuits do that too...so maybe they have something in common.

It is not just the Rick Warren devotees or the Jesuits who have cornered the market on doing good in the world, either.  People do good works every day, people of every religion, Christians of every denomination give their life in service.. not serving the world, but Jesus.  Jesus said,  "the poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me."

Some insist on believing that the Kingdom of God is of this earth, and they will do anything to justify it, and take dominion of it.  Believing that the  "the end justifies the means," they attempt to accomplish good here on Earth by force and by violence, or so the scriptures say.

This should not be.

God doesn't need an army, he has one, and it stands while God does all the work.  IT stands throughout time and eternity built on love, His love for us.  The gates of hell cannot prevail over it either.  Jesus didn't need an army...  He even once told Peter to put away his sword, and this he did as he healed the ear that Peter cut off from a man during Jesus' arrest.  He reattached the ear, completely.

God takes nothing by force.  He lays his life down.  He is kind and gentle, lowly and meek.

God  is God; and as God who can do anything, he has nothing to prove.  He has no reputation to defend.  He simply is and was, and is to come, and God is Love.