THE PRACTICE OF DISINTERESTED LOVE IN THE SERVICE OF GOD
We would seldom know God’s permissive will apart from the daily events. Hence as long as we are unaware, we should cling to it as God’s will shown or indicated to us. But as soon as his divine majesty’s good pleasure becomes evident, we must immediately submit ourselves and obey it lovingly. My mother or myself is ill in bed. How can I tell whether or not God willed the sickness to be fatal? Certainly, I know nothing about it. However I am very sure that, while I await the result that God’s permissive will has ordained, he wants, by his declared will, me to do everything possible to get well. Hence, I will do this faithfully without forgetting what I can properly contribute to this purpose. However, God’s will may permit the disease to get the better of the remedies and finally in death. If so, as soon as I am certain of this from the way things have gone, I will lovingly accept it in the highest point of my soul, whatever reluctance I may feel in the lower part of my soul: Yes Lord, I will say, I truly desire this, because such is your good pleasure (Mt 11:26). So it has pleased you, now it is to my pleasure too. I am the humble servant of your will.
But if God’s permissive will is declared to me before the actual event, as he did to great St. Peter over the way he was to die (Jn 21:18, 19); to St Paul of his chains and imprisonment (Acts 20, 23, 21, 11), to Jeremiah the destruction of his beloved Jerusalem, to David about his son’s death (2 kgs 12:14), then at that very instant we must unite our wills with God’s after the example of great Abraham. Like him, if we are so commanded, we must fulfil the eternal decree even by the death of our own children. So admirable was the union of the patriarch with God’s will. He believed that it was the permissive will of God for him to sacrifice his own child. So he found strength to take up that sacrifice so courageously.
So wonderful was the will of the child who meekly submitted to his father’s sword in order to make God’s permissive will at the cost of his own death. But, take note Theotimus, there is one feature we find here, that of the perfect union between a disinterested heart and God’s permissive will. See Abraham with a sword in hand, arm raised, ready to give the death blow to his beloved, his only child. He does this to please the divine will. At the same time see the angel who, as the messenger of God’s will, stops him at once (Gen 22:10-12). Immediately he holds back from striking and he is equally prepared to sacrifice or spare his son in the presence of God’s will; the child’s life or death are indifferent to him, where God’s will makes itself felt. When God commanded him to sacrifice the child (Isaac), he did not become sad. When God dispensed him from it, he did not rejoice either. It was all the same to this great heart so that God’s will may be fulfilled.
Yes, Theotimus, God often enough, in order to train us in such perfect disinterestedness, inspires us with most lofty plans. But he does not will that they succeed. Then we confidently, courageously and constantly begin and carryout the work as far as possible. Thus we are to accept meekly and calmly whatever the outcome of our enterprise as it pleases God to grant us. St. Louis was inspired to cross the seas to conquer the Holy Land. The outcome was contrary and he humbly accepted it. I esteem more highly calm submission than the nobility of the project.
St. Francis [of Assisi] went to Egypt to convert the Muslims or to die a martyr among the unbelievers. Such was God’s will. Nevertheless, he came back again without having done either the one or the other. Such too was God’s will. It was equally God’s will that St. Anthony of Padua should desire martyrdom and not obtain it. The blessed [St] Ignatius of Loyola set on foot the Society of Jesus, he saw so many beautiful fruits. He foresaw many more in the future. Yet, he had the courage to resolve that even though he should see it all destroyed, which should be the bitterest disappointment he could experience, then within half an hour he would be unwaveringly calm in God’s will. The saintly and learned preacher of Andalusia, John of Avila, planned to form a society of reformed priests dedicated to the service of the glory of God and had already made great progress in his plan. When he saw that the Jesuits were having the same mission, he thought that they were sufficient for the needs of the day and with unparalleled meekness and humility he stopped his project.
Oh how blessed are such souls! They are bold and strong in undertaking whatever God inspires them. Yet they are ready and humble to give them up when God so desires. These are characteristics of most prefect disinterestedness. It is to stop doing some good when it pleases God and to stop half way when God’s will, which is our guide, ordains it. Jonas was greatly at fault in being angry because God, as he thought, did not fulfill his prophecy upon Nineveh. (Jonah 4:1) Jonas did God’s will in proclaiming the destruction of Nineveh but he mixed his own interests and will with the choice of God. So when he saw that God did not fulfill his prediction in the strict sense of the words used in announcing it, Jonas was angry and grumbled shamefully.
If God’s permissive will were the only motive of his [Jonas’] actions he would have been as well content in seeing it accomplished as in the remission of the punishment Nineveh had deserved. He would have been satisfied seeing the punishment for the fault Nineveh had committed. We desire that whatever we undertake or manage should succeed, but we cannot reasonably expect God to do everything to our liking. If God intended Nineveh to be threatened but not destroyed, because the threat is sufficient to correct it, why should Jonas complain?
If that is so, are we not to bother about anything and abandon our matters to the mercy of events? Not at all, Theotimus. We must not forget anything that is required for bringing the work God has put in our hands to a successful completion. But this is always on condition that, if the result is unfavourable, we will lovingly and calmly embrace it. We are commanded to take great care over things that concern God’s glory and are in our duty. We are not responsible for the outcome since it is not within our power. Take care of him, the inn-keeper was told in the parable of the poor man who was half dead on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho (Lk 10:30-35). “He was not told" as St. Bernard remarks, “to cure him" but take care of him. Hence the Apostles with unparalleled affection preached to the Jews, first, though they knew that eventually they would have to leave them as fruitless soil and turn towards the Gentiles ( Acts 13:46, 47). It is for us to plant and water carefully, but giving the increase belongs only to God ( 1Cor 3:6).
The great Psalmist made this prayer to the Saviour, as if crying out in joy and as a foretaste of victory: O Lord, by your beauty and good grace, bend your bow, proceed happily and mount the horse (Ps 45:2-4). It is as though he meant to say that by the characteristic of holy love shot into human hearts, this love would make itself the master of humans so as to manage them according to his pleasure just like a well trained horse. O Lord, you are the royal knight who turn the hearts of your faithful lovers in every way. Sometimes you give them full freedom, and they run at full speed, in the tasks to which you inspire them. Then when it seems good to you, you make them break in the middle of the career and at the height of their activity.
Further, if a task undertaken by inspiration fails through the fault of those to whom it was committed, how can we say that a man must then comply with God’s will, because someone says to me that it is not God’s will that prevents success but my own fault, of which the divine will is not the cause? It is true, my child, that your fault did not occur by God’s will, because God is not the author of sin. But it is, however, God’s will that your fault should be followed by the failure of your enterprise as a punishment of your faults. Although his goodness cannot allow him to will your fault, yet his justice does make him will the punishment you suffer for it. Thus God was not the cause of David’s sin, but God truly inflicted upon him the punishment that was due to his sin. He was not the cause of Saul’s sin but certainly he was responsible for the punishment as victory eluded Saul’s hands
Therefore, when it happens that in punishment of our faults the sacred projects do not succeed, we are to detest our sins by sincere repentance and accept the punishment we get for it. Just as sin is against the will of God, so also the punishment is according to His will.