First Principle and Foundation (2)

Last week I wrote about the principle of Ignatian Spirituality which is to develop the first principle and foundation of your spiritual life.  The first principle and foundation of Ignatian Spirituality is:

God created human beings to praise, reverence, and serve God, and by doing this, to save their souls. God created all other things on the face of the earth to help fulfill this purpose. From this it follows that we are to use the things of this world only to the extent that they help us to this end, and we ought to rid ourselves of the things of this world to the extent that they get in the way of this end.

The question which came to mind when considering this is, how do we know if the first principle and foundation is true to who we are created to be?  What if someone has determined that their first principle and foundation is to gain as much money, or material goods, or power that they can, and heaven help anyone who stands in their way.  There does not seem to be anything that will determine, in and of itself, that a first principle and foundation is what will be good for the world or for the individual who professes this.  Christians can, of course, base their first principle and foundation on the Great Commandment of Jesus i.e., to love others as he loves us and to love our neighbours as ourselves.  This seems to be, what you could say, is what lies beneath the first principle and foundation of Ignatian Spirituality.

I was reminded recently, when considering this question, of a traditional aboriginal teaching to help us further unpack this question:

A wise elder is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.

“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old man simply replied, “The one you feed.”

This states the quandary quite clearly.  It is possible to have a first principle and foundation that feeds either of the wolves which are inside each of us.  We have the free will which God has given us to decide which wolf we feed. 

Another way of looking at this issue, which is not directly a religious one, is to examine it from the perspective of unity and division.  Does a principle and foundation work for unity or does it promote division in our lives and in the community?  Northrop Frye, the great literary critic and author of the Great Code, addressed this in his preface to The Bush Garden, subtitled, Essays on the Canadian Imagination:

Real unity tolerates dissent and rejoices in variety of outlook and tradition, recognizes that it is man’s destiny to unite and not divide, and understands that creating proletariat and scapegoats and second-class citizens is a mean and contemptible activity. 

That was written circa 1970 and is ever so true today where the mean and contemptible activity which strives for disunity seems to fill the news. 

Which wolf will you feed on your journey?  May you be blessed to feed the one which brings love and unity.