46 — UNION OF WILL

Presence of God. — O Lord, take my whole will and transform it into Yours.

Meditation

1 — The first most precious result of the unitive power of love is the perfect union of man’s will with God’s will. As love develops, it has so emptied the soul of everything contrary to the divine will and has so impelled it to love and will only what God Himself loves and wills, that little by little weak human will has fully conformed and united itself to the divine will, to the point that from two wills there has been made but one, “which is God’s will, and this is also the soul’s will” (St. John of the Cross, Living Flame 2, 11, 3). In all its deliberate acts, the soul is no longer guided by its own so defective and inconstant personal will, but is guided and moved solely by God’s will, in which it has lost its own, and lost it through love. “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it,” Jesus said (Mt. 16, 25); seized by love for God, the soul has renounced for Him every personal willing, has willed to lose in Him every desire, every taste, and now this loss becomes the greatest gain because it finds its will totally transformed in God’s will. Could it have hoped for a more advantageous exchange? “The state of divine union - says St. John of the Cross - consists precisely in the soul’s being, according to its whole will, transformed into God’s will” (Ascent II, 2). In whole and not only in part, in whole and not only in things of greater importance but also in the smallest and most minute, so that the divine will truly becomes the soul’s only motive: what it does, says, thinks is “in every way only God’s will” (ibid.). Magnificent state that raises the creature to the height of the Creator, that carries it from the level of human life to that of divine life! To reach it, it was worth the soul undergoing a bitter purification by which it was “stripped and flayed of its old skin” (Dark Night II, 13, 11), that is, of its defective will; it was worth renouncing itself and all things!

2 — Speaking of perfect union with God’s will, St. Teresa of Jesus writes: “This is the union I have always desired and never cease asking of God, because it is the clearest and safest” (Interior Castle V, 3, 5). The Saint, who had experienced the efficacy and sweetness of mystical graces of union by which the soul cannot “doubt that God has been in her and she in God” (ibid., 1, 9), does not hesitate to prefer to such delights perfect union with God’s will. For only in such union consists the essence of holiness, whereas mystical graces are a means to reach it, a most precious means because the quickest, but still means and not end; the end lies solely in complete conformity of one’s own will to the divine will. Besides, it does not depend on us to choose the “shortcut” of mystical graces rather than take the ordinary way of generous and persevering effort; this depends solely on God, who is master of His gifts and “distributes them as He wills, when He wills, and to whom He wills, without doing injustice to anyone” (ibid., IV, 1, 2).

What matters supremely is to know that the state of union with God is not reserved to a few privileged souls but is open to every soul of good will, even if it must be content to travel the ordinary way, “the little way,” as St. Therese of the Child Jesus called it, or “the cart-road,” as Blessed Maria Bertilla called it. Instead of being concerned about the road, we must be concerned to be fully generous, because only souls that know how to give themselves entirely to God arrive at union with Him. “Take heed - writes St. Teresa of Avila to her daughters - that to acquire what I speak of [union with God], He requires that you reserve nothing for yourselves. Whether little or much what you have, He wants it all for Himself: greater or lesser will be the graces you receive, but always in proportion to what you see you have given” (Interior Castle V, 1, 3). The more generous we are in our gift, the more God will come to meet us with His grace and sustain us by His omnipotent action; for taking the ordinary way certainly does not mean being left without divine help. This may be more hidden and less comforting than that offered in mystical favors, but it will not therefore be less real and effective.

Colloquy

“O Lord, how efficacious is the gift of the will! If we made it generously, it would draw You, the Omnipotent One, to make one thing with our weakness, transforming us into You, the creature into the Creator.

“The more You see that the gift of our will is shown not by words of compliment but by fervor of works, the more You draw us to Yourself; and raising the soul above itself and above all earthly things, You prepare it to receive very great favors. You esteem this gift so highly that from this life You do not cease rewarding it from this life: the soul no longer knows what to ask You and You continue always to give. And, not content with uniting her to Yourself by making Yourself one thing with her, You begin to delight in her, to reveal Your secrets to her, to make her understand what she has gained in You and to let her glimpse the happiness You have prepared for her. You begin to treat her with greater friendship, giving back to her not only the will she gave You but also giving her Yours. And these two wills will agree very well, because, seeing that the soul does what You want, You too will do what she desires.

“My God, how precious is the union the soul attains with You after establishing itself in submission to Your will! Oh, what a desirable union this is! Happy the soul that has reached it! She has peace in this life and the next, because, apart from the danger of losing You, O Lord, and of seeing You offended, there is nothing that can afflict her: not poverty, not sickness, not even death, seeing clearly that You know how to dispose things better than one knows how to desire!” (St. Teresa of Jesus, Way 32, 11-12; Interior Castle V, 3, 3).