~ an excerpt from “The First Jesuits” (p.65-67)

Ignatius‟ s story was somehow the story of every Jesuit and, hence, revelatory of the deepest meaning of the Society as a whole. The story was basically one of the inner life of the soul. It moved in this sequence: a conversion to God from a previously unsatisfying or disordered life; visitations from God in the form of consolations, clarification of vision, dispositions to give oneself in God‟s service that resulted in an „election‟ to follow these dispositions; a period of probation and trial like that Ignatius experienced at Manresa; and a life thenceforth inspired by the desire „to help souls.‟ Just as God had guided and aided Ignatius in this course, so God guided and aided every Jesuit. Early Jesuits such as Nadal, Polanco, and Laínez did not doubt that the Society was somehow of divine inspiration, as the Constitutions themselves indicated. They sometimes spoke of its true founder as God, who used Ignatius as his instrument. They believed, of course, that God had earlier done the same through Benedict, Dominic, Francis, and other founders of religious orders. The Jesuits were simply the latest in this ongoing series of divine interventions. Nadal often reviewed these initiatives for his brethren. According to him, the essence of life of a member of a religious order was seeking the highest spiritual good. This premise allowed Nadal to assert that in persons such as Adam before the Fall and Abel and Seth after the Fall religious life predated the coming of Jesus. „There have been religious since the beginning of time.‟ When Jesus came, he gave specification to the pursuit of holiness, especially in his words to the rich young man „If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me‟ (Matt. 19:21). Central to this invitation was divesting oneself of earthy possessions, done either in actuality or „in spirit.‟ The emphasis on poverty in the Exercises in fact echoed this and similar passages from the New Testament. Nadal believed that Jesus extended to all the invitation to perfection and that „evangelical perfection‟ was attainable in a variety of circumstances and conditions of life and did not require membership in a religious order. However, the circumstances and conditions included preeminently the Society and religious orders in general, in which poverty was „actual‟ rather than „spiritual‟ and to which celibate chastity and obedience under a superior were conjoined.
What Jesus counseled the young man, the twelve special disciples, or Apostles, had already put into practice. This led Nadal to the conclusion that the Christian specification of religious life antedated Jesus‟ creation of Christian priesthood and the ecclesiastical hierarchy, which did not take place until the Last Supper and after Jesus‟ resurrection from the dead respectively. In considerations like these emerged the fundamental meaning that Nadal attached to the designation „apostolic‟ for the Jesuit vocation. That vocation was an imitation and revivification of the lifestyle of the first disciples of Jesus. Religious reformers and enthusiasts had since the eleventh century invoked the vita apostolica as warrant for their programs, and they meant different things by the expression. For Nadal, however, it meant essentially abandonment of worldly attachments and acceptance of Jesus‟ commission to preach and to heal – „and all this before there were either priests or bishops.‟ If Nadal saw Jesuits following the path trod by Ignatius, he also saw them following a much older path: „Our vocation is similar to the vocation and training of the Apostles: first, we come to know the Society, and then we follow; we are instructed; we receive our commission to be sent [on ministry]; we are sent; we exercise our ministry; we are prepared to die for Christ in fulfilling those ministries.‟