St. Ignatius of Loyola: God Rewards Those Who Show Zeal for His Glory

[Stone]

God Rewards Those Who Show Zeal for His Glory
From L'Apostolat de la priere, p. 38, in The Catechism in Examples, by Rev. D. Chisholm, 1919, vol. 5, p. 397

St. Ignatius was so much imbued with charity toward his neighbor that he was accustomed to say: "If I were at the point of death, and the assurance were given me that I would immediately enter into the possession of the eternal happiness of Heaven, and if God should ask me to remain on earth for a few years longer at the risk of my salvation in order that I might gain souls to Him, I would most willingly consent to remain."

On hearing these words one day, a pious critic remarked to him that he considered it to be a most imprudent thing to expose himself to lose his own soul for the sake of saving the souls of others. "For," he added, "in such an important affair, charity to ourselves requires of us to look to our own eternal interests in the first place before those of our neighbor."

The Saint, inspired by his great zeal for the salvation of souls and filled with confidence in God, answered: "Is God perchance a tyrant, or is He so indifferent to the welfare of one whom He sees placing himself in danger for the promotion of His glory by endeavoring to save souls for whom His Divine Son died, that He would condemn such a one to hellfire? Oh, no! Such a thought would be repugnant to the goodness and mercy of God."