47 — DIVINE HELP

Presence of God. — O Lord, who go before me, accompany me, and sustain me with Your grace, grant that this grace in me may not be in vain.

Meditation

1 — “If the soul seeks God, much more does her Beloved seek her; and if she directs to Him her loving desires,... He too on His part sends her the fragrance of His ointments, by which He attracts her and makes her run toward Him” (St. John of the Cross, Living Flame 3, 28). In its effort to reach union, the soul is never alone: God Himself comes to meet it, as it were offering His hand and drawing it to Himself by holy inspirations that enlighten the mind and by interior touches that inflame the will. These inspirations and divine touches are nothing other than the actualization of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, through which God takes direction of the soul and works in it first to purify it and dispose it for union, and then to unite it effectively to Himself through love. It is very consoling to think that this richness of divine helps belongs to the normal line of growth of the life of grace and therefore is found also on the ordinary way of holiness; this is the patrimony God keeps prepared for every soul, provided it is generous in giving itself to Him.

Therefore one must conclude with St. John of the Cross that if so few truly reach perfect union, “this happens not because God wills that few spirits be elevated” or because He is miserly with His help, “but because He finds few vessels capable of so sublime a work” (Living Flame 2, 27), that is, He finds few generous souls.

If, after many years of spiritual life, we still find ourselves far from union with God, we truly cannot attribute it to scarcity of divine help, but must blame solely our lack of generosity and fidelity to grace. St. Teresa declares strongly: “True union can always be obtained by striving to acquire it through submitting one’s own will to God’s will.” And while recognizing that “this cannot be done except at the price of great struggles,” she assures us: “there is no doubt one can reach it, provided union with God’s will is true” (Interior Castle V, 3, 3 and 5).

2 — “To arrive at union it is not necessary that the Lord give us great consolations; what He has given us is enough in having sent His Son to teach us the road” (St. Teresa of Jesus, Interior Castle V, 3, 7). Jesus is enough for us! He who not only showed us the way of divine union, but also procured for us the means to attain it.

Jesus washes and purifies our souls with His Blood, nourishes them with His Flesh, instructs them with His teachings; Jesus every day and thousands of times a day renews on the altar His Sacrifice in our favor; Jesus, glorious at the right hand of the Father, always intercedes for us obtaining and distributing graces according to our needs; Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit, His Spirit, so that He may guide us on the path of holiness; Jesus gives us His Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, so that she may be our mother, our refuge and support in difficult hours. What more do we want? Because such graces belong to the sphere of common graces granted to every soul, must we consider them less precious? Oh, if we were truly convinced of the efficacy of these means of sanctification, we would not go seeking something else and, instead of waiting for who-knows-what extraordinary favors to decide to give ourselves totally to God, we would apply ourselves to correspond with great fidelity to the graces He offers us every day with immense largeness, and thus we would surely reach the goal.

“Take courage - Teresa of Avila exhorts us - and since a little heaven can be enjoyed already in this life, let us beseech the Lord to grant that we not remain deprived of it through our own fault” (ibid., 1, 2). The heaven we can enjoy already here below is precisely the state of union with God, in which the soul, perfectly conformed to the divine will, enjoys great peace even amid the inevitable sorrows of life, always resting abandoned in the arms of divine Providence. To this happy state we can all come because we are firmly resolved to follow the road Jesus Himself showed us saying: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. You are my friends if you do what I command you” (Jn. 14, 23; 15, 14); the road He walked, willing no other food than to do His Father’s will and always doing what pleases Him. Let us follow Jesus, let us entrust ourselves to His guidance, and He, who is the way, the truth, and the life, will lead us to the longed-for union.

Colloquy

“O Jesus, in those words by which You said Your food was to do Your Father’s will, You showed us that Your will was His and His will was Yours and, having one will, You declared Yourself equal to the Father and one thing with Him. But more than this, You taught us in what way we too can become, by grace and in a certain manner, equal to God and one thing with Him. We can by doing His will, which must be the rule and the pole toward which, like a magnetized needle, our will must always aim; certainly, if we depart even a little from the divine will, we lose this equality and this union.

“O Lord, deign to unite me wholly to You as a new bride. Remove from me my will and all my desires, so that I may be able neither to desire nor to will anything except what You will. Make my will so conformed and united to Yours that from myself I can will nothing more and care no more either to die or to live, but only will what is Your will.

“My God, when I have offered You my will in all and for all, You will give it back to me, because when my will is no longer mine but I will have given it all to You, then You will be pleased that I do it in all things, since it will no longer be mine but all Yours” (cf. St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi).

“Take, O Lord, my entire liberty. Take my memory, intellect, and all my will. Whatever I have and possess, You gave it to me: to You I return all and surrender it entirely to the governance of Your will. Give me only Your love with Your grace, and I am rich enough, nor do I ask for anything more” (St. Ignatius of Loyola).