Scripture Readings

• First Reading: 1 Cor 2:1-5

• Responsorial Psalm: Dan 3:52, 53-54, 55ac+56, 57-58, 82-84, 85-87

• Alleluia Verse: Mark 1:17

• Gospel: Matt 10:24-27

Reflection on Today’s Feast

By Fr. Jim Carr, SJ

Who is the most Christ-like person you have ever met?  Does a particular person immediately come to mind?  We know the answer of one early Jesuit to that question.  Fr. Peter Canisius said it was Fr. Peter Favre, hands down.  Consider what Canisius wrote to a friend.  At the time, Canisius was a seminarian in Germany.  But he was looking for a new way of being a priest, one that broke through the confines of parish and monastery.  He heard about a priest who had arrived recently in the city of Mainz.  He belonged to a new kind of religious order, one which sounded just like what Canisius was looking for.  During a break in classes, he arranged a trip to Mainz, hoping to meet up with Fr. Favre.  They met, and Favre invited Canisius to stay a month and make the Spiritual Exercises with him!  He did, and then wrote this to a friend:

“I made a good voyage to Mainz and found to my great happiness the man of whom I was in quest, if indeed he is a man and not an angel of God! Never have I seen nor heard… any man of such shining sanctity. His desire of desires: it is to labor in union with Christ for the salvation of souls. …All his words are full of God; he is never tedious or wearying to his listeners. He enjoys such reputation that many religious, learned doctors, and bishops have taken him for their guide in the spiritual life… For my own part, I can hardly find words to tell you how his Spiritual Exercises have inspired me with fresh strength and fortitude… I feel altogether invigorated & changed into a new man.”

Canisius was not alone in experiencing Peter Favre this way.  Over a thousand similar testimonies about Favre exist.  Peter Favre was simply one of the most loving, accepting, Christ-like priests that many contemporaries had ever met.  It is this aspect of Peter that the Jesuit lectionary calls to our attention on his feast day.  Jesus said, “It is enough for the disciple to become like his teacher.”  It was no accident that Peter became so much like Christ, his teacher.  He worked at it -- especially in his daily prayer and at the daily Eucharist.

Here is just one example of Favre’s dedication to become like Jesus.  This is from a journal entry in October, 1541.  While saying Mass one day, Peter had felt uneasy when his mind turned to thoughts of the “defects of certain persons.”  We all likely can associate with that!  But Peter was doing it in the middle of presiding.  Not desiring this, he pushed the thoughts away. 

Later in the day, while praying, Peter’s eyes were opened.  Jesus, he realized, did not push enemies away, but kept on loving them.  In fact, the greater the hatred shown to him, the more Jesus gave proof of his love.  He did not banish them from his presence or mind.  Even on Calvary, Jesus so loved his tormentors that he forgave them from the Cross.  With such thoughts as these, Peter realized that he had missed a golden opportunity for imitating Christ at Mass.  Rather than push away the thoughts of difficult persons, he should have welcomed those very persons into the Eucharistic prayer.  Bringing them into the heart of the liturgy would be the best way for his own heart to be softened and opened toward others.  What better way to follow Christ’s injunction to: “Do this in memory of me.” 

There was a time, before he met St. Ignatius, when Peter was very self-critical; he would have judged himself harshly for failures to love as Jesus loved.  By this point in his life, however, he understood that no matter how unloving, or ungrateful, or how otherwise imperfect a disciple he was, in Jesus, there was NEVER a thought of pushing him away.  The greater Peter’s need of forgiveness, the more Jesus invited him to draw closer to learn his merciful his heart.

Of the many ways we might profit from the example of Peter Favre, we’d do well to take away this one lesson from his journal.  Jesus has never and will never push us away, has never put us out of his mind and heart, even in the moments of our biggest failures.  That should give us plenty of pause before we give ourselves permission to distance ourselves from others because of “certain defects” in their character.  Praying for and loving difficult people only increases the chances that someday one of those people will see a strong resemblance of Jesus in us.

Previous Reflection

August 2, 2022 – by Fr. Adam Rosinski, SJ

What good ever came out of your college dorm room? Peter Faber would have no trouble answering this question.

For those of us who survived college, we know that roommates are an...interesting...part of the whole experience. Some are great. Some are, well, not so great. During my time at the University of Scranton (go Royals!), I was lucky enough to have 2 really great experiences of roommates. At the start of freshman year, I was randomly matched with a roommate who grew up in the Philadelphia area, like I did, and was also a die-hard Philly sports fan, like I am. We were also both interested in studying hard, having lots of fun, and going to Mass every Sunday. We weren't the perfect fit, but we were pretty good, and we helped each other get through freshman year together.

When senior year rolled around, I had the chance to move off campus into a dirty old house with 5 good buddies, 4 of whom I rowed with on the crew team. In fact, the 5 of us rowed in the same boat. We had all kinds of different interests (for example, 2 are now doctors, 1 is a cop, and 1 is a Jesuit priest), but we balanced each other out and helped each other have a really awesome senior year of college, and we're all still in touch to this day.

Plenty of good came out of my relationships with my college roommates, but (at least so far) nothing nearly as good as what came out of the relationship that Peter Faber had with his.

In 1529, a man named Iñigo de Loyola arrived at the University of Paris to begin his studies, and he ended up moving in with two other students who had already been rooming together for some time. One was a fellow Spaniard named Francis Xavier, and the other was a Frenchman by the name of Peter Faber. Like most college roommates, the three had varying interests and reasons for being at school. Iñigo, of course, was in the midst of a profound conversion experience and really, really excited about this new book he wrote (which would later be called his Spiritual Exercises). Xavier was a handsome nobleman who was also an excellent athlete with great aspirations for worldly glory. Faber seems to have been more intellectual and pious. He tutored Loyola in academics and he apparently suffered from scruples, a type of spiritual perfectionism.

We might imagine that the most annoying part of this rooming situation was Iñigo's incessant badgering of his roommates, trying to convince them to make his "Spiritual Exercises." Faber was relatively easy to win over (Xavier, well, not so much...but that's a different story), and after making the retreat, he found a bit of peace from the scruples that tortured him. As it has been for countless people ever since, this experience was transformative for Faber. He went on to be numbered as one of Ignatius' "First Companions," and helped his former roommate to found the Society of Jesus. He also made the ministry of the Spiritual Exercises one of his principal works for the rest of his life.

In 1539, a year before the Society of Jesus was formally approved, Ignatius sent Faber to Parma and for the next seven years till his death, he went from town to town at the request of kings and bishops guiding men and women in the Spiritual Exercises, helping them come to know the love of Christ. Eventually, he was sent to Germany, and instead of initiating structural reforms, Faber worked to renew the hierarchical Church one person at a time. While hard on himself, Faber was gentle with others and became a gifted pastor of souls, winning others for Jesus. Ignatius would later admit that Faber was the best at giving the Exercises.

Faber's final journey came in 1546 when he traveled to Rome. Once there, he was reunited with his old college roommate and, exhausted from his labors, Peter Faber died in Ignatius' arms at the age of 40.

After many years as a Blessed, Peter Faber was canonized a saint by Pope Francis on December 17, 2013.

To this day, the Spiritual Exercises remain the central ministry of the Society of Jesus. May we continue to draw inspiration from the work of Peter Faber.

Saint Peter Faber, devoted roommate and master of the Exercises, pray for us!