Of Some Facts That Will Render This Exercise of Conformity with the Will of God Easy and Pleasant

THAT this exercise of conformity to the will of God may be made to us easy and pleasant, it is necessary ever to bear in mind the foundation that we laid at the beginning, to the effect that no adversity or affliction can come to us that does not pass through the hands of God and is not checked and registered by His will. Christ our Redeemer taught us this truth, not only in word, but also by His example. When on the night of His Passion He bade St. Peter sheathe his sword, He added: The chalice that my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? (John xviii. 11). He did not say “the chalice that Judas and the scribes and Pharisees have contrived for me,” for He knew well that all these were nothing but creatures who waited upon the Father; and what they did in malice and envy, the eternal Father in His infinite wisdom and goodness ordained for the healing of mankind. So he said also to Pilate, who said that he had power to crucify Him or to set Him free: Thou shouldst not have any power over me, were it not given thee from on high (John xix. 11); which means, as the saints explain, “were it not done by the counsel and ordinance of God.” Thus all comes from on high by the arrangement and order of God.

The Apostle St. Peter says this marvelously well in the fourth chapter of the Acts, explaining that saying of the prophet: Why have the nations raged, and peoples devised vain plans, against the Lord and against his Christ? (Psalm ii. 1). He says in explanation: Truly in this city Herod and Pontius Pilate allied themselves with the Gentiles and with the people of Israel to carry out that which thy power and counsel had determined should be done (Acts iv. 27). The princes and powers of the earth allied themselves together against Christ our Redeemer to execute and carry into effect what had been decreed and determined in the consistory of the most holy Trinity; they could not go beyond that. And we see that, when God did not will it, all the power of Herod was insufficient to deprive Him of life as a child; and, though Herod massacred all the babes in the neighborhood from two years and under, he could do nothing with Him Whom he sought because He did not will to die then. And the Jews and Pharisees many times sought to lay hands on Christ and put Him to death. On one occasion they took Him to the top of a mountain on which their city was built, to cast Him headlong; and, says the holy Gospel, He passing through the midst of them went his way (Luke iv. 30)—in great peace, because He had not chosen that manner of death, and so they could not put Him to it. Another time they sought to stone Him and already had their hands lifted up on high with their stones to throw at Him; and Christ our Redeemer very quietly set Himself to reason with them and ask them: Many good deeds have I done you: for which of them seek ye to stone me? (John x. 32). He did not permit nor give them leave to stir their hands, because his hour was not yet come (John vii. 30). But when the hour was come at which He had determined to die, then they were able to do what He had determined to suffer because He chose it and gave them leave then to do it. This is your hour, and the power of darkness (Luke Xxli. 53), as He said to them when they came to take Him. Every day I was with you in the Temple, and ye did not lay hands on me, because the hour was not come; now it is come, and so you see me here, J am he (John xviii. 8). What did Saul do there, a figure of Christ’s persecutors; what diligence and contrivance did he use to get David into his hands, a king of Israel against a private man, persecuting one flea, as David himself says (I Kings xxiv. 15; xxvi. 20). And for all that he could do nothing, for the reason that God had not given him into his hands (I Kings xxiii.

14). And therein lies the whole point. St. Cyprian observes very well on those words, Lead us not into temptation (Matt. vi. 13), that all our fear and all our devotion and attention in temptations and distresses should be set on God, because neither the devil nor anyone else can do us any harm if God does not first give him power to do it.

In the second place, although this truth, well established, is sufficient and of great efficacy to conform us in all things to the will of God, nevertheless we must not stop there, but pass on to another truth that follows from this and is noted by the saints. It is this, that along with the fact that all things come from the hand of God we are further to understand that they come for our good and improvement. The pains of the damned come from the hand of God, but not for their improvement and correction, but for their chastisement. But as for the pains and labors that God sends men in this life, whether they be just or sinners, we must always so trust in His infinite goodness and mercy as to believe that He sends them for our good and because that is what makes better for our salvation. So said holy Judith to her townsmen when they were in that affliction and so grave crisis, surrounded by their enemies: Let us believe that God hath sent us these troubles, not for our ruin, but for our amendment and profit (Judith viii. 27). Of a will so good as that of God, a will that loves us so much, we may rest assured that He seeks only what is good, and what is better and more suited to our condition.

Thirdly, to profit more by this truth (and this is a most efficacious means of attaining conformity to the will of God), we must not be content with understanding speculatively and in the abstract that all things come from the hand of God, take it mechanically and at the word of command, like soldiers firing a volley, simply because faith tells us so or because so we have read or heard, but we must actuate and quicken that faith, bringing ourselves to understand and feel it practically. So we must come to take all things that happen to us as if we saw visibly and sensibly Christ our Lord saying to us: “Take, son, this that I send you: My will is that you do or suffer just now this and this.” In this way it will be very easy and pleasant to conform ourselves in all things to the will of God. Surely, if Jesus Christ Himself in person were to appear to you and say: “See, son, this is what I want of thee; I want thee to suffer for Me just now this hardship or infirmity; I want thee to serve Me in this office or ministry”—though it were the hardest thing in the world, you would do it with hearty good will all the days of your life and count yourself very lucky in that God was pleased to make use of you in that way; and by His commanding it you would understand that that was the better thing and more proper for your salvation and you would not doubt of it, nor even at first thoughts would you ever turn against it.

In the fourth place, it is needful that at meditation we should exercise ourselves, and put our strength into this exercise, digging and going deep into this rich mine of the providence, so paternal and so particular, that God has over us, because that is the way to strike on the treasure, as we shall further declare in the following chapters.