DIVINE INSPIRATIONS LEAVE US IN FULL FREEDOM TO FOLLOW THEM OR TO REJECT THEM
I will not speak here, dear Theotimus, about the miraculous graces which almost in an instant transformed wolves into shepherds, rocks into water and persecutors into preachers. I leave aside these all-powerful vocations and these holy vehement attractions. By them God, in an instant, carried off some chosen souls from the abyss of sin to the heights of grace. He worked in these souls, so to speak, a certain moral and spiritual transubstantiation, as happened to the great apostle. He, Saul, vessel of persecution, became suddenly Paul, a vessel of choice (Acts 9:15). We must give a special rank to these privileged persons in whom it pleased God to bestow not only abundance but also floods. We may say not only generosity and outpouring but also the extravagance and lavishness of his love.
Divine justice punishes in this world by punishments which usually go almost always unrecognized and unnoticed. Nevertheless, sometimes God gives some deluges and abysses of punishments so that the severity of his wrath may be recognized and feared. Similarly, his mercy usually converts and favours souls in a manner so gentle, sweet and delicate that its movement is scarcely noticeable. All the same, sometimes it happens that this supreme goodness overflows the usual banks, like a river swollen and bursting with the superabundance of its waters floods the plain. Likewise the divine goodness makes an outpouring of his graces so forceful yet loving that in a moment it softens and fills the whole soul with blessings to reveal the riches of his love. His justice proceeds generally in the ordinary way, sometimes in the extraordinary way. So too his mercy bestows generosity in the ordinary way among common people and on some by extraordinary means.
What then are the common bonds by which God’s Providence usually draws our hearts to his love? Such indeed, as he himself indicates. He describes the means he used to draw the people of Israel out of Egypt and from the desert to the Promised Land. He says through the prophet Hosea: I drewthem with bonds ofhuman kindness and with bands oflove (Hos 11:4) and friendship. No doubt, Theotimus, we are not drawn to God by iron chains like bulls and buffaloes. Instead, we are led to him by allurements and charming attractions and holy inspirations. In short, these are the bonds of Adam and human kindness, proportionate and suitable to the human heart to which freedom is natural. The band proper to the human will is delight and pleasure. “We show some nuts to a child", says St. Augustine, and “he is drawn to love them. He is attracted by the band of the heart and not of the body." See, then, how the eternal Father draws us. Without imposing any compulsion on us, he delights us in his teaching. He puts into our hearts spiritual delights and joys. It is like sacred allurements by which he draws us gently to receive and taste the sweetness of his doctrine.
So, dearest Theotimus, in this way, our free will is not forced or compelled at all by grace. The all powerful vigour of the merciful hand of God touches, surrounds and binds the soul with many inspirations, invitations and attractions. In spite of this, the human will remains perfectly free, unfettered and exempt from all kinds of constraints and necessity. Grace is so gracious and so graciously seizes our hearts to attract them. It impairs nothing of the freedom of our will. Grace touches powerfully, yet so delicately, the strength of our spirit so that our free will in us is in no way forced. Grace has energies not to force but to attract the heart. It has a holy vehemence, not for violating but to make our freedom filled with love. It acts with power, but so sweetly that our will is not overpowered by such a powerful action. It urges us but does not oppress our freedom. So we can, in spite of its strength, consent or resist its movements as we like.
What is as wonderful as real is the fact that while our will follows the attraction and consents to the divine movement, the will follows it as freely as it resists it when it resists. Yet giving consent to grace depends much more on grace than on our will. The resistance to grace depends solely on our will. The hand of God is so loving in handling our heart. He is equally skilful in communicating to us his power without taking away our freedom. He gives us the movement of his power without hindering that of our will. He adjusts his power to his gentleness in such a way that in what concerns our good, his power gently gives us his energy. So also his gentleness preserves energetically the freedom of our will. If you knew the gift of God, says the Saviour to the Samaritan woman, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink’, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water (Jn 4:10). See, Theotimus, I beg you, the way our Saviour speaks about his attractions. If you knew, he wishes to say, the gift of God, beyond doubt, you would be moved and attracted to ask for the water of eternal life and perhaps you would ask for it. It was as if he was saying: you would have the power and you would be challenged to make a request. Yet you would not be forced nor compelled. Thus perhaps you would ask for it. For your freedom remains with you to ask for it or not to ask for it. Such are the words of the Saviour according to the ordinary edition and the commentary of St. Augustine on St. John.
Finally, someone may say that our free will does not cooperate [with the grace of God]. It does not consent to the grace by which God predisposes it. Or it cannot reject the grace and refuse him his consent. If so, he will contradict the whole of Scripture, all the early Fathers of the Church and experience. He will be excommunicated by the Sacred Council of Trent. It is stated that we can reject heavenly inspirations and divine attraction. Certainly, by this we do not mean that we can prevent God from inspiring us or from pouring his attractions into our hearts. I have already mentioned, it is done “in us" and “without us." These are the favours which God grants us even before we have thought of them. He awakens us when we are sleeping. As a consequence, we find ourselves awakened before we have even thought of it. It is for us to wake up or not to wake up. Even though he has awakened us without us, he does not want to raise us without us. Not to wake up and go on sleeping again is to resist the awakening because we are awakened only that we may get up. For it is to get up only that we are awakened. We cannot prevent inspirations from urging us and shaking us. In proportion as the inspiration urges us, we reject it so that we do not let ourselves follow its movement. Then we resist.
Suppose that the wind seized and raised up our birds, the apodes. It will not carry them very far if they do not extend their wings, do not cooperate by forcing themselves up and flying into the air into which they have been lifted up [by the wind]. On the contrary, perhaps they are attracted by the greenery which they see below. They are benumbed by lying on the ground. So they do not move with the wind. They hold their wings folded and cast themselves again to the ground. Then they have indeed received the movement of the wind but in vain, since they did not take advantage of it.
Theotimus, inspirations come before us. Before we have thought of them, they make their presence felt. But after we have felt them, it is for us to consent to them, respond to them and follow their attractions. Or it is up to us to disagree and reject them. They make themselves felt without our cooperation. But they do not make us consent without our cooperation.