The true spouse of Jesus Christ/Chapter 14

by Alphonsus Liguori

CHAPTER XIV.

RESIGNATION TO THE WILL OF GOD.

I.

The Merit of Resignation to the Divine Will.

St. John Chrysostom says that all the perfection of the love of God consists in resignation to the divine will. As hatred divides the wills of enemies, so love unites the wills of lovers, so that each wishes only what the other desires. " True friendship of persons consists in wishing and not wishing the same thing," says St. Jerome to Demetriades. Hence the Wise Man says: They that are faithful in love shall rest in him.^[1] Souls that are faithful in loving God acquiesce in all that he wills.

Since nothing is more dear to us than self-will, the sacrifice of it is the most acceptable offering we can present to the Lord. This is the sacrifice that God himself continually asks of us with so much earnestness. My son, give me thy heart.^[2] Son, give me your heart, that is, your will. Nothing else that we offer to God can content him as long as we reserve our own will. I explain myself by this example: If you had two servants, one of whom labored continually, but always according to his own will; the other performed less work, but was obedient to all your directions, —you would certainly entertain a great regard for the latter, and little or no esteem for the former. Oh! how often do we deceive ourselves by desiring to engage in certain undertakings in order to please ourselves without seeing that they are not conformable to the divine will. How often do we act through self-love, saying: But what I wish to do is conducive to the glory of God. But let us be persuaded that the greatest glory that we can give to God is to conform ourselves to his divine will. Blessed Henry Suso used to say: "God is not so much glorified when we abound in lights and spiritual consolations as when we submit to the divine will and pleasure." Hence Blessed Stephana of Soncino saw among the seraphim certain souls whom she had known on earth; and she learned by revelation that they had attained that sublime elevation by the perfect union of their will in this life with the will of God.

All the malice of sin consists in wishing what God does not will; for then, says St. Anselm, we in a certain manner endeavor to rob God of his crown. He who wishes to follow his own will against the will of God takes, as it were forcibly, from God his crown; for as the crown belongs only to the sovereign, so to do his own will (without dependence on others) belongs to God only. Samuel said to Saul that to refuse to conform to the divine will is a species of idolatry. It is like the crime of idolatry to refuse to obey! It is called idolatry because, in refusing to conform to the divine will, man, instead of adoring the will of God, adores his own will. Now, since all the malice of a creature consists in contradicting the Creator, so all the goodness of the creature consists in a union with the will of the Creator. He who conforms himself to the divine will becomes, as the Lord said of David, a man according to God's own heart. I have found David . . . a man according to my own heart, who shall do all my wills. The Lord also says: a soul that is conformed to my will shall have for her name my will. Thou shall be called my pleasure in it.^[3] Yes, for in this happy soul, because self-will is dead, only the will of God lives.

Ah! happy the soul that can always say with the sacred Spouse: My soul melted when he spoke. My soul melted as soon as my beloved spoke. Why does she say melted? Listen: what is rendered liquid no longer retains its own shape, but takes the form of the vessel in which it is contained. Thus, loving souls do not retain their own wills, but conform them to whatever their beloved wills. This conformity implies a will docile and pliant in all things pleasing to God, compared with the obdurate will that resists the divine will. An instrument is said to be a good one when it is obedient to the person that employs it; if it refuse to obey, of what use is it? For example, were a pencil to resist the hand of the painter, — if, when drawn to the right, it should turn to the left; if, when drawn downwards, it should seek to move upwards, — what would the painter do? Would he not instantly cast it into the fire?

Some place their sanctity in works of penance, others in frequent Communion, others in reciting many vocal prayers. But, no: St. Thomas says that perfection consists not in these things, but in submission to the divine will. " The perfection of the human soul consists in its subjection to God." Works of penance, prayers, Communions, are good, inasmuch as God wills them; hence they serve only as means to unite us to the divine will. But all perfection and sanctity consists in doing the will of God. In a word, the divine will is the rule of all goodness and virtue. Because it is holy, it sanctifies all, even the most indifferent actions, when they are done to please God. The will of God is your sanctification;^[4] says the Apostle. The accomplishment of the divine will is the sanctification of your souls.

I know well that men cheerfully conform to the will of God in prosperity, but are afterwards unwilling to submit to it in adversity. But this is great folly; for they thus suffer doubly and without merit from the evils that befall them, since, whether they wish or wish not, the will of God shall be accomplished. My counsel shall stand, and all my will shall be done. When, then, a person in sickness does not accept his pains with patience, but gives way to anger, and complains of every one, what does he do? Does he by his impatience get rid of his pains? No: on the contrary, he increases them, because by resisting the will of God he loses his peace, and still endures the same pains. Who hath resisted him, and hath had peace?^[5] But were he to embrace his sufferings in peace, he would feel his pains less sensibly, and would derive consolation from the thought of pleasing God, by accepting crosses from his divine hands.

Oh! what pleasure does he give to the Lord, who in the time of tribulation says with David: I was dumb, and I opened not my mouth, because thou hast done it.^[6] My God, I have shut my mouth, and have not dared to speak, because I know that Thou hast done it. No; there is no one that is better able than God to promote our welfare, or that loves us more than our Creator. And let us be persuaded that whatever he does, he does for our good, and because he loves us. Many things appear to us to be misfortunes, and we call them misfortunes; but if we understood the end for which God sends them, we should see that they are graces. It appeared a calamity to King Manasses to be deprived of his kingdom, and to be made a slave of the prince of the Assyrians: but these misfortunes were blessings; for after his downfall he returned to God, and did penance for the wickedness of his life. And after that he was in distress, he prayed to the Lord his God; and did penance exceedingly before the God of his fathers. We labor under a vertigo, and therefore many things appear to us to go to ruin; and we know not that it is our giddy head that makes them appear to us different from what they are in reality. Such a nun may say: How does it happen that everything goes astray with me? No, sister, but you go astray: your will is crooked; for all that happens comes from God. He does all for your welfare, but you know it not.

And whom can we ever find more solicitous for our welfare and for our salvation than God? To make us understand this truth, he likens himself at one time to a shepherd, going through the desert in search of his lost sheep; at another to a mother who cannot forget her own child. Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb. Again, to a hen gathering and sheltering her chickens under her wings, that they may suffer no injury: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, . . . how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wing, and thou wouldst not. In a word, according to David, God surrounds us with his good-will, in order to save us from all the assaults of our enemies. Lord, thou hast crowned us with a shield of thy good will.^[7] Why, then, do we not abandon ourselves entirely into the hands of this good Father? Would it not be folly in a blind man, placed in the midst of precipices, to reject the guidance of a father who loves him, and to follow the way suggested by his own caprice?

Happy the soul that permits itself to be conducted in the way in which God leads it. Father St. Jure relates that a certain young man, desirous of entering the Society of Jesus, was rejected because he had only one eye. Who would not have said that the defect was a great misfortune to the poor young man? But that defect was the occasion of the happiest end that he could meet; for on account of it he was received into the Society only on the condition that he would consent to go on the Indian mission. He went to India, and had the happiness of dying for the faith. The Venerable Balthazar Alvarez used to say that "the kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of the lame, the tempted, and the abject." Let us then, as if blind, permit ourselves to be guided by God, through whatever level or steep road by which he may be pleased to conduct us, secure of finding in it eternal salvation. St. Teresa used to say, "Our Lord never sends a cross without rewarding it with some favor, when we accept it with resignation."

Oh, how great the peace of the soul whose will is in all things conformed to the will of God! Because she wishes only what he wills, she always obtains whatsoever she desires; for all that happens in the world, happens by the will of God. Panormitano relates that King Alphonsus, called the Great, being asked whom he esteemed happy in this life, wisely answered: "He who abandons himself entirely to the divine will of God." And, in reality, does not all our inquietude arise from this cause — that things do not happen according to our wishes, and that we resist the divine will? St. Bernard says: "God justly ordains that they who refuse to be governed by him in peace should rule themselves amid difficulties and troubles." But, on the other hand, they who wish only what God wills, always find their wishes accomplished, and therefore are always in peace, as well in prosperity as in adversity. When, then, you see a person in sadnesss, tell her that she is sad because she is not resigned to the will of God. The saints, even in the midst of persecutions the most severe and torments the most painful, knew not what it was to be sad. And why? Because they were united to the divine will. Whatsoever shall befall the just man, it shall not make him sad."^[8] Hence, Cardinal Petrucci has wisely said that this frail and fleeting world is but a scene of woes. Its most pleasing amusements and pleasures have the appearance of joys, and they are torments. But to follow Christ suffering appears painful and gives true joy.

Speaking of the saints, Salvian says: "If they are humbled, they desire their humiliations; if they are poor, they delight in their poverty: hence in every misfortune which befalls them they are content, and therefore they begin even in this life to enjoy beatitude." Crosses will certainly be painful to the senses, but this pain is in the inferior part: in the superior part of the soul peace shall reign. The saints, says Father Rodriguez, are like Mount Olympus: at the base there are showers of rain and thunderstorms, but at the summit, which is raised above the middle region of the atmosphere, there is a perpetual calm. In a word, they are like Jesus our Saviour, who, in the midst of all the sorrows and ignominies of his Passion, suffered no diminution of his peace. The more the saints suffer, the more they rejoice in spirit, knowing that in accepting their sufferings they please their Lord, whom only they love. This David experienced when he said: Thy rod and thy staff, they have comforted me.^[9] St. Teresa says: "And what greater good can we acquire than a testimony that we please God?" Father Avila has written: "One Blessed be God, in adversity, is of greater value than a thousand acts of thanksgiving in prosperity."

But such a religious says: I accept all the crosses that come to me from God, such as losses, pains, and infirmities; but how can I bear so much maltreatment and such unjust persecutions? They that thus persecute me are certainly guilty of sin, and God does not will sin. But, dear sister, do you not know that all comes from God? Good things and evil, life and death, . . . are from God. Prosperity and adversity, life and death, come from the Lord. It is necessary to know that in every action there is a physical entity which belongs to the material part of the action, and a moral entity that appertains to reason: the moral entity of the action, or the sin of the person who persecutes you, belongs to his malice, but the physical entity appertains to the divine concurrence; so that God wills not the sin, but he wills that you suffer the persecution, and it is he that sends it. When his cattle were taken away from Job, God did not will the sin of the plunderers, but he willed that Job should suffer the loss. Hence, Job said: Page:Thecompleteascet01grimuoft.djvu/433 Page:Thecompleteascet01grimuoft.djvu/434 Page:Thecompleteascet01grimuoft.djvu/435 Page:Thecompleteascet01grimuoft.djvu/436 Page:Thecompleteascet01grimuoft.djvu/437 Page:Thecompleteascet01grimuoft.djvu/438 Page:Thecompleteascet01grimuoft.djvu/439 Page:Thecompleteascet01grimuoft.djvu/440 Page:Thecompleteascet01grimuoft.djvu/441 Page:Thecompleteascet01grimuoft.djvu/442 Page:Thecompleteascet01grimuoft.djvu/443 Page:Thecompleteascet01grimuoft.djvu/444

1. Wisd. iii. 9.
2. Prov. xxiii. 26.
3. Is. lxii. 4.
4. 1 Thess. iv. 3.
5. Job. ix. 4.
6. Ps. xxxviii. 10.
7. Ps. v. 13.
8. Prov. xii. 21.
9. Ps. xxii. 4.