| When He Wills to Employ Us, We Are So Cowardly! |
,We are begin our reflections this week, pulling from a new book by St. Francis de Sales called Of Devotion, and of the Principal Exercises of Piety. Let us join together and return to this most basic and essential principal of Devotion.___________________________________________To prepare for our chat, please read the article, which is reproduced below, and review the questions at the end.Click for Living Jesus Chatroom  Image by Slavan_Art from PixabayTo acquire this promptitude, in which the virtue of devotion consists, we must avail ourselves of several considerations. The first is, that God so wills it; and there is indeed good reason that we should do His will, for we are in the world only for that purpose. Alas, we every day ask of Him that His will be done; and when it comes to be done, we have so much trouble! We offer ourselves to God so often; we say to Him on every occasion, Lord, I am all yours, behold my heart; and when He wills to employ us, we are so cowardly! How can we say that we are all His, if we will not accommodate our will to His? The second consideration is, to think on the nature of the commandments of God, which are sweet, gracious, and loving, not only those which are general, but also the particular commandments of each one’s vocation. What is it, then, that renders them hard to you? Nothing, in truth, except your own will, which wishes to reign in you at whatever cost; and the things which perhaps that will would desire, if they were not commanded, being commanded, it rejects. Among a thousand delicious fruits, Eve chose that which had been forbidden her, and which, no doubt, she would not have eaten, had she been at liberty to do so. In one word, we like to serve God according to our own will, and not according to His. Saul was ordered to smite Amalec and utterly destroy all that was there (1 Kings xv.); he did destroy every thing except what was valuable, and that he reserved and made a sacrifice of it. But God declared that He desired no sacrifice that was contrary to obedience. God commands me to save souls, and I wish to remain in contemplation; the contemplative life is good, but not to the prejudice of obedience. It is not for us to choose according to our will; we must will what God wills; and if God wills that I should serve Him in one capacity, I must not will to serve Him in another. God wills Saul to serve Him in the quality of a king and captain, and Saul wills to serve Him in the quality of a priest and a sacrificer. There is no doubt that the latter quality is more excellent than the former; but nevertheless this is not the way to please God; He wills to be obeyed. This is remarkable. God had given manna to the children of Israel, which was a most delicious viand, and they would none of it, but desired and longed for the onions of Egypt. (Numbers xi. 5.) Our feeble nature evermore wishes its own will to be done, and not God’s will. But in proportion as we have less of our own will, that of God will be more easily observed. The third consideration is, to reflect that there is no vocation which has not its annoyances, bitternesses, and vexations; and much more, if we except those who are fully resigned to the will of God, each person would willingly change his condition for that of others. Those who are married would wish not to be so; and those who are single would wish to be married. Whence comes this general disquietude of minds, unless from a certain dislike which we all have to constraint? But it is all one. Whoever is not fully resigned, he may turn to this side or to that, he will never find repose. Those who have a fever find no place to their mind. They have not remained a quarter of an hour in one place, when they would be in an other. It is not the bed that causes their restlessness, but the fever which torments them every where. A person who has not the fever of self-will is contented every where, provided that God is served. Such a one does not trouble himself about what capacity God employs him in; provided that he does His divine will, it is to him all one. But this is not all: we ought not only to do the will of God, but in order to be devout, we ought to do it cheerfully. If I were not a Bishop, it may be that, knowing what I do know, I would not wish to be one; but being such, not only am I obliged to do what that painful vocation requires, but I ought also to do it joyously, and to be pleased with it, and find delight in it. It was St. Paul’s lesson, “each person, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called them” (1 Cor. vii. 24.). He must not bear other people’s crosses, but his own cross; and in order to bear his own, our Lord would have him deny himself (St. Matt. xvi. 24), that is to say, his own will. “I would like to have this or that;” “I would be better in this place or that:” these are temptations. Our Lord knows well what He is about; let us do what He wills; let us remain where He has placed us. You ought not only to be devout and to love devotion, but you ought to make it amiable, profitable, and agreeable to each person. The sick will love your devotion, if they are charitably consoled by it; your family will, if they find that it makes you more attentive to their good, more reasonable in the management of affairs, more gentle in reproving those who are subjected to you. Your husband will love it, if he perceive that in proportion as your devotion increases, you are more cordial with regard to him, and more kind in the affection you entertain towards him; your relatives and friends will rejoice at it, if they observe in you more frankness, more support and compliance with their will when not contrary to that of God. In short, you ought, as far as possible, to render your devotion pleasing and amiable. Reflections: If we are supposed to accommodate our will to God’s, is this really just God being controlling and wanting us to do what He wants?Why is obedience better than sacrifice? And is obedience a kind of sacrifice?St. Francis mentions a certain disquietude we have in our vocations: married being jealous of the single life, the single being jealous of married life. Could it also be because neither of these ways of life are our ultimate goal? In heaven we are neither married nor given in marriage and will be like the angels (cf. Matthew 22:29-30). But we also will not be living according to a religious order’s rule. Could our disquietude be also because we are not yet where we belong?If we are not supposed to be discontent with our current place and vocation, is it wrong to long for heaven? Are we thereby giving in to the temptation of saying, “I would be better in this place or that”?How can we do the will of God cheerfully, especially when it calls for us to die to ourselves and embrace suffering, etc.?Marriage as well as a celibate life within the Church is where most people throughout Christian history have found the will of God as it lies within their vocation. But what of the growing number of people who never get married, or get married later? What is their vocation as a single person? The same question can be asked for the widow or widower. Sign up for our Living Jesus Chat Room:Come to our Living Jesus Chat Room, 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM Eastern Time U.S. |