When we are made to suffer, it is for your consolation and salvation. When, instead, we are comforted, this should be a consolation to you, supporting you in patiently bearing the same sufferings as we bear. And our hope for you is confident since we know that sharing our sufferings, you will also share our consolations"
CorinthiansMore than any other author, St. Ignatius in his spiritual exercises provides the best explanation of the interaction between consolations and suffering or desolations.
St. Ignatius sees us all in need of holiness. He says that when we are earnestly seeking to rise in the service of God, it is characteristic of God to provide a positive consolation by way courage, strength, tears, inspiration and peace. So God encourages us by removing all obstacles so that we can move forward in faith.
However, as you can imagine, St. Ignatius stresses that the evil one, during our movements towards greater goodness, wants to discourage us. Therefore, we may often feel under attack by anxiety, sadness, fear, or other types of disturbances that are meant to throw us off course. So the evil one, according to St. Ignatius, will work through desolations. In the case of persons moving towards greater goodness, the desolations would be negative experiences, things that will disturb us from moving in a positive direction. Such urgings as: "I don't feel well enough", "I'm too old for this", or "I don't have time" are everyday examples of the excuses we can use to sabotage our growth to holiness.
St. Ignatius goes on to say that for anyone who is moving from good to worse, the very opposite is true. The evil one proposes apparent pleasures, filling our imagination with sensual delights and gratifications. These would be positive desolations, the purpose of which is to lead us into greater sinfulness. Such urgings as: "Have another drink", or "Your Gambling win is coming" are examples of the enticements we may receive.
During those times when we are moving from good to worse, God will use the opposite method from that expressed above by giving us negative consolations. If we are moving towards greater sinfulness, God guides us in making the use of good reason, to abandon the pleasurable way by stinging the conscious and filling us with remorse. God wants to stop us from hurting ourselves and others to a further degree.
St. Ignatius then goes on to describe consolations as anything that brings us into greater relationship with God. As mentioned above, these can be a positive experience if we are going from good to better, or a negative experience if we are going from good to worse. God will work in whatever way he can to bring about our holiness.
This is why St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians makes the very confusing statements:
"As the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so, through Christ, does our consolation overflow.
When we are made to suffer, it is for your consolation and salvation. When, instead, we are comforted, this should be a consolation to you, supporting you in patiently bearing the same sufferings as we bear.
And our hope for you is confident, since we know that, sharing our sufferings, you will also share our consolations"
Consolations that bring about a greater relatedness with God can be both pleasurable or positive, or unpleasant or negative, depending on which way we are moving in our spiritual lives.
Discernment of the movements of the Spirit within ourselves as to which direction we are going is the key to identifying consolations and desolations.
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