We live in the midst of negative cultural news. Many of the foundational principles of our Judeo-Christian roots seem to be pushed out of the public square. The number of Christians and Catholics slip every year and the number of people who claim no religious preference rises. We rightly feel great urgency to do something in our Church to change the tide.
But, of course, we know the Church has faced critical challenges in helping people to live their faith at every age. Take, for instance, the 16th century. The great schism launched by Martin Luther in 1517 was spreading throughout Europe. The Church was plagued by layers of corruption. Many priests were uneducated, ineffective preachers who were incapable of shepherding their flocks through these challenges. By the mid-16th century, the Church in northern Europe was in trouble.
I picture St. Ignatius of Loyola meeting with Pope Clement VII in 1528, eleven years after Luther separated from the Church. This didn’t happen, but it’s interesting to imagine.
He meets with the Pope and tells him he has a solution to the Church’s problems of evangelization. Seeing the future, he tells the Pope that by 1581 he will raise up an army of 5,000 people (likely over 2,000 priests) working to re-evangelize Europe and awaken it to the riches of the Gospel found in the Catholic Church. This new movement would establish 144 colleges in order to form and educate missionary disciples. By 1615, he would have 13,000 members (5,000-6,000 priests) and 372 colleges spread across Europe and spreading the Gospel in remote corners of the globe.
If St. Ignatius of Loyola would have needed money to start this movement, how much would the Pope have been willing to invest in order to support him? How many people and how much time would he have been willing to dedicate to launch this movement of missionary disciples?
The Pope, knowing the future, would be eager to make the necessary investments. “Just name the request”, he might say. Then, brimming with curiosity, he would ask St. Ignatius, how he would do this. Certainly he would start with amazingly produced rallies all across Europe, featuring members of the royalty and other popular figures to draw the crowds. Or perhaps he would pour himself into a captivating book that would transform the lives of the elite and trickle down to the masses.
But St. Ignatius, without skipping a beat, would actually tell the Pope that he plans to gather six men together over his years of study at the University of Paris. He will start by living with and investing in the first two. Those two will invite four others to join them. His big plan was to invest in these six men—sharing life together, eating together, praying and studying together, caring for the sick together, and growing deeper in Jesus together.
The Pope would be baffled. Surely a massive, growing movement like St. Ignatius described couldn’t come from seven men in Paris. How could these seven men, in a period of less than fifty years, expand into such a force all across Europe?
But then, as the Pope considered the investment, he might remember the prophet Zechariah’s encouragement in Zechariah 4:10 to not despise small beginnings. He might also recall the small beginnings of Jesus with the first twelve disciples. So, in hope, the Pope would give St. Ignatius his blessing, promise whatever necessary investment for the work to begin, and send him to Paris.
Where are the Ignatiuses of today? Where will evangelization movements arise to push back the darkness? Where is the zeal of St. Paul, the passion of St. Francis, and the preaching of St. Dominic?
New evangelizing movements won’t be launched through amazing sermons, rallies, and expertly-produced content. We will launch them the same way St. Paul established the Ephesians, St. Francis the Franciscans, St. Dominic the Dominicans, and St. Ignatius the Jesuits. They will be launched through small beginnings: small, deep, formation efforts grounded in deep friendship and shared reflection on the humility, love, and marvels of Jesus.
What will the millions of Catholics do when they come alive in their baptisms? How will they evangelize and change the course of history? We will know when we, like St. Ignatius of Loyola, do not despise small beginnings—when we have hope that formation in small groups of Catholics (formation only happens in small groups) will bear great fruit by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Every parish can launch evangelizing movements of Catholics through the small beginnings of patient formation. This is what the Church has always done—from Acts 2, to St. Paul, to St. Dominic, to St. Ignatius of Loyola, up to the present.
Until we stop despising the small beginnings of transformative formation, we will continue to see depressing statistics. When we embrace the poverty and foolishness of small beginnings, even in the midst of such urgency, we will start seeing the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
