THE LOVE OF GOD’S WILL DECLARED BY THE COMMANDMENTS LEADS US TO THE LOVE OF THE COUNSELS
O, Theotimus, how lovable is this divine will! Oh! How lovable and desirable it is! Oh, Law, all of love and all for love! The Hebrews, by the word “peace”, understand the sumtotal and perfection of all the good. It means happiness. The Psalmist cries out: Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble (Ps. 119:165). It is as if he wanted to say: “O Lord, what sweetness of love there is in your commandments! All loving kindness has seized the heart which is captivated by the love of your law.” Indeed this great king who had his heart formed according to the heart of God (1Sam. 13:14) tasted very much the excellence of the divine commandments. So he appeared as a lover enamoured by the beauty of this law like the chaste spouse and queen of his heart. Thus it seems from the continual praises which he gives it.
When the heavenly spouse wishes to express the infinite sweetness of her divine Spouse, she says: Your name is perfume poured out (Song 1:3).[1] It is as if she was saying: You are so excellently perfumed that it seems that you are perfume itself. So it is more fitting to call you ointment and perfume rather than anointed and perfumed. The soul who loves God is so transformed into the divine will that it deserves to be called the will of God rather than obedient or subject to the will of God. Hence God speaks through Isaiah that he will call the Christian Church by a new name which the mouth of the Lord shall give (Isa. 62:2), imprint and engrave in the hearts of his faithful. Then explaining this new name he says that it shall be: My will is in them (Is 62:4).[2]
It is as if he was saying that among those who are not Christians, each one of them has his or her own will at the centre of his or her own heart. But the true children of the Saviour, each one will abandon his or her will. Thus there will be only one master, universal, ruling will. This will shall enliven, govern and guide all persons, all hearts and all wills. The name of honour among Christians shall be nothing else than the will of God in them This will shall reign over all wills and transform them into itself. Thus the will of Christians and the will of our Lord shall be only one single will.
This was perfectly realized in the early Church. For the glorious St. Luke wrote: In the whole multitude of those who believed there was only one heart and one soul (Lk. 4:32). He does not intend to speak about the heart which vivifies our body nor the soul which enlivens our hearts with human life. But he speaks about the heart which gives heavenly life to our souls and the soul which animates our hearts with supernatural life. The unique heart and soul of genuine Christians is nothing else than God's will.
The life, says the psalmist, is in the will of God (Ps. 29:6).[3] It is because our natural life depends on the divine will. But our supernatural life centres around the fulfillment of God’s will. By it God lives and reigns in us. He makes us live and subsist in him. On the contrary the wicked, from the beginning, it means always, has broken the yoke of God’s law and said: I will not serve (Jer 2:20). That is why God said that he has called them from the womb of their mothers transgressors and rebels (Isa. 48:8). Speaking to the king of Tyre he reproaches him for making his heart like the heart of God (Ezek. 28:2)[4] For the rebellious heart desires to be its own master, its own will to be supreme like God’s will. It does not want the divine will to reign over its will. So the rebellious heart desires to be absolute, completely independent.
O eternal Lord, never permit it! Thus make sure that for ever my will is not done but yours (Lk. 22:42).[5] Ah we are in this world not to do our will but that of your goodness who has placed us here (Jn. 6:38). It is written about you, O Saviour of my soul, that you do the will of your eternal Father[6] (Ps. 40:7-8). By the very first act of your soul, at the very instant of your conception, you lovingly embraced the law of the divine will. You placed it at the centre ofyour heart (Ps. 40:8)[7] to reign there and rule over eternally. Ah! who will grant my soul the grace of having no other will than the will of God!
When our love is intense for the will of God, we are not satisfied with only doing God’s will that is declared to us by the commandments. We come forward to keep the counsels. They are given to us that we may keep the commandments more perfectly. The counsels refer to the commandments, said St. Thomas [Aquinas] so well. One has renounced even just and legitimate pleasures! A person rejects all riches even those which could be kept for oneself in a holy manner. O, how far away from coveting the private property of others is such a person! To do God’s will a person subjects himself or herself to the will of a human. How far away from wishing to prefer one’s own will is that person!
Once[8] David was ... in the stronghold; and the garrison of the Philistines was then at Bethlehem. David said longingly: “O that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate!” (2 Sam. 23: 14-15). As soon as he said these words, three courageous warriors set out from there hands and heads lowered. They break through the hostile army, go to the well of Bethlehem. They draw water and bring it to David. Seeing the dangers to which these noble men were exposed to satisfy his longing, David did not want to drink this water. For it was conquered at the risk of their blood and their lives. So he poured it out as an offering to the eternal God (2 Sam 23:16-17). Well, see, Theotimus, I pray you, what zeal these warriors had at serving and satisfying their master! They fly over and break through army lines with thousand dangers of losing their life, to satisfy a single, simple desire of their king.
The Saviour, while he was in this world, declared many times his will in many things like the commandments. Many others he expressed as his desires. For he praised very much perfect chastity, poverty, obedience, perfect resignation. So too he commended the denial of one's own will, widowhood, fast, ordinary prayer. Jesus said about chastity that he who could carry off the price let him take it (Mt. 19:12). He spoke the same sufficiently of other counsels. To fulfil this desire, the most courageous Christians set out. They overcame all aversions, cravings and difficulties. They attained holy perfection by following the strict observance of the desires of their king. By means of this, they obtained the crown of glory.
Certainly, as the holy Psalmist witnesses: God not only grants the prayer of his faithful but grants even their only desire. He accepts the mere preparation of their hearts for prayer (Ps. 10:17).[9] Thus he is so gracious that he does the will ofthose who love him (Ps 145:19). And why, then, shall we not be extremely jealous to follow the holy will of our Lord? Why, shall we not do, not only what he commands, but also what is pleasing to him and what he wishes? The strongest motive for noble souls to embrace a plan of the Beloved is just to know that he desires it: My soul, says one of them, melted as soon as my Beloved spoke (Song 5:6).
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[1] NRSV, in the original text (Song 1:2).
[2] NRSV has: but you shall be called My Delight is in her.
[3] This text is not found in the NRSV.
[4] Because your heart is proud and you have said: I am a God (NRSV)
[5] Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; Yet not my will but yours be done. NRSV
[6] Ps 40:7; Then I said, “Here I am”; in the scroll of the book it is
written of me. NRSV.
[7] Ps. 40:8; I delight to do your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart. NRSV
[8] See IDL, Pt IV, ch. 14 for a variation and different application.
[9] This text of the Psalm is not found in NRSV.