THE CONFORMITY OF OUR WILL WITH THAT OF GOD IN WHAT IS DECLARED BY HIS COMMANDMENTS
God has an intense desire to make us keep his commandments. How could he express it better than by the great rewards he offers to those who keep his law and by the terrible punishments with which he threatens those who break the law? That is why David cries out: O Lord You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently (Ps 119:4).
Gratifying love, seeing God’s desire, wishes to please him by keeping the commandments. Benevolent love desires that everything submits to God. As a consequence it submits our desires and our wills to the declared will of God. From this arises not only the observance but also the love of the commandments. David extols this love in an extraordinary way in the 119th Psalm. He seemed to have composed it only for his purpose:
Oh, how I love your law!
It is my meditation all day long (Ps 119:97)
Truly I love your commandments
more than gold, more than fine gold (Ps 119: 127)
How sweet are your words to my taste,
Sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Ps 119: 103)
To arouse us to this holy and salvific love of the commandments we should contemplate their admirable beauty. For there are some activities which are bad because they are forbidden. There are others which are forbidden because they are evil. Likewise there are activities which are good because they are commanded. Others are ordered because they are good and very useful. Thus all are good and very lovable because the commandment gives goodness to some which otherwise would not have it. It gives an increase of goodness to others which without being commanded do not cease to be good. We do not receive a gift so willingly from the hands of an enemy. The Lacedemonians did not want to follow a very sound and good advice until a good man repeated the same to them. On the contrary, a gift is never so pleasing as when a friend offers it. The most gentle commandments become bitter if a tyrannical and cruel heart imposes them. The service done by Jacob seemed to him as royal because it proceeded from love (Gen 29: 20). Oh! How sweet and desirable is the yoke of heavenly law which such an amiable King has laid down for us.
Many keep the commandments as if they are swallowing medicines. They keep them because of the fear of being damned at death rather than for the joy of living to the liking of the Saviour. So there are persons who are reluctant to take medicine only because it has the label medicine. Similarly there are those who have a dread of activities which are commanded only because they are commanded. It is said that there was such a man. He lived in the great city of Paris for 80 years, quite happy, never going out. Suddenly he was ordered by the king to remain in the city for the rest of his days. Then he went out to see the countryside which he had never desired earlier during his life.
A loving heart, on the contrary, loves the commandments. The more difficult they are, the more sweet and pleasant it finds them. It is because it pleases the Beloved more perfectly and gives him greater honour. The heart bursts into praise and sings hymns ofjoy when God teaches it his commandments and justifications (Ps 119:171). The pilgrim who goes cheerfully singing on his way, indeed, adds the effort of singing to that of walking. Yet by this increase of toil he actually overcomes weariness and lightens the hardship of journeying. Similarly, the sacred lover finds immense delight in the commandments. So nothing gives him so much courage and comfort in this mortal life as the graceful burden of the precepts of God. Hence the Psalmist cries out : O Lord, your justifications or commandments have been for me melodious songs in this place of my pilgrimage (Ps 119: 54). It is said that mules and horses laden with figs suddenly sink under the weight and lose all their strength. Sweeter than figs is the law of the Lord. But a rude man who is like a horse or a mule without understanding (Ps 32: 9) loses all courage. He cannot find the strength to carry this lovable burden. On the other hand, a branch of the tree Agnus castus[1] preserves from weariness the traveller who carries it with him. Likewise the cross, the mortification, the yoke, the law of the Saviour who is the true Chaste Lamb (1Pet 1: 19) is a burden which relaxes, comforts and refreshes the hearts of those who love his divine Majesty. “We do not feel what we love as a burden at all. In case there is some difficulty it is a burden of love." The pain mixed with holy love is bitter sweet, more agreeable to the palate than pure sweetness.
Divine love makes us compliant to the will of God. It makes us observe diligently his commandments as the absolute wish of his divine Majesty which we wish to please. Thus the delight with a gentle lovable force comes before the necessity of obeying what the law imposes on us. It converts this necessity into the virtue of love and all the difficulty into delight.
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[1] Agnus Castus. Chaste Lamb: an aromatic tree also called Chaste- tree and Abrahams Balm. Kerns TLG P. 327. See also IDL, Pt.3, Ch. 3 Last Para.