St. Alphonsus Maria de Ligouri
2. Conformity in all Things.
The essence of perfection is to embrace the will
of God in all things, prosperous or adverse. In prosperity, even sinners find
it easy to unite themselves to the divine will; but it takes saints to unite
themselves to God’s will when things go wrong and are painful to self-love. Our
conduct in such instances is the measure of our love of God. St. John of Avila
used to say: “One ‘Blessed be God’ in times of adversity, is worth more than a
thousand acts of gratitude in times of prosperity [20].”
Furthermore, we must unite ourselves to God’s will
not only in things that come to us directly from his hands, such as sickness,
desolation, poverty, death of relatives, but likewise in those we suffer from
man -- for example, contempt, injustice, loss of reputation, loss of temporal
goods and all kinds of persecution. On these occasions we must remember that
whilst God does not will the sin, he does will our humiliation, our poverty, or
our mortification, as the case may be. It is certain and of faith, that
whatever happens, happens by the will of God: “I am the Lord forming the light
and creating the darkness, making peace and creating evil [21].” From God come
all things, good as well as evil. We call adversities evil; actually they are
good and meritorious, when we receive them as coming from God’s hands: “Shall
there be evil in a city which the Lord hath not done [22]?” “Good things and
evil, life and death, poverty and riches are from God [23].”
It is true, when one offends us unjustly, God does
not will his sin, nor does he concur in the sinner’s bad will; but God does, in
a general way, concur in the material action by which such a one strikes us,
robs us or does us an injury, so that God certainly wills the offense we suffer
and it comes to us from his hands. Thus, the Lord told David he would be the
author of those things he would suffer at the hands of Absalom: “I will raise
up evils against thee out of thy own house, and I will take thy wives before
thy face and give them to thy neighbor [24].” Hence too God told the Jews that
in punishment for their sins, he would send the Assyrians to plunder them and
spread destruction among them: “The Assyrian is the rod and staff of my anger .
. . I will send him to take away the spoils [25].” “Assyrian wickedness served
as God’s scourge for the Hebrews [26] is St. Augustine’s comment on this text.
And our Lord himself told St. Peter that his sacred passion came not so much
from man as from his Father: “The chalice which my Father hath given me, shall
I not drink it [27]?”
When the messenger came to announce to Job that
the Sabeans had plundered his goods and slain his children, he said: “The Lord
gave and the Lord taketh away [28].” He did not say: “The Lord hath given me my
children and my possessions, and the Sabeans have taken them away.” He realized
that adversity had come upon him by the will of God. Therefore, he added: “As
it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done. Blessed be the name of the Lord [29].”
We must not therefore consider the afflictions that come upon us as happening
by chance or solely from the malice of men; we should be convinced that what
happens, happens by the will of God. Apropos of this it is related that two
martyrs, Epictetus and Atho, being put to the torture by having their bodies
raked with iron hooks and burnt with flaming torches, kept repeating: “Work thy
will upon us, O Lord.” Arrived at the place of execution, they exclaimed:
“Eternal God, be thou blessed in that thy will has been entirely accomplished
in us [30].’’
Caesarius points up what we have been saying by
offering this incident in the life of a certain monk: Externally his religious
observance was the same as that of the other monks, but he had attained such
sanctity that the mere touch of his garments healed the sick. Marveling at
these deeds, since his life was no more exemplary than the lives of the other
monks, the superior asked him one day what was the cause of these miracles.
He replied that he too was mystified and was at a
loss how to account for such happenings. “What devotions do you practice?”
asked the abbot. He answered that there was little or nothing special that he
did beyond making a great deal of willing only what God willed, and that God
had given him the grace of abandoning his will totally to the will of God.
“Prosperity does not lift me up, nor adversity
cast me down,” added the monk. “I direct all my prayers to the end that God’s
will may be done fully in me and by me.” “That raid that our enemies made
against the monastery the other day, in which our stores were plundered, our
granaries put to the torch and our cattle driven off -- did not this misfortune
cause you any resentment?” queried the abbot.
“No, Father,” came the reply. “On the contrary, I
returned thanks to God -- as is my custom in such circumstances -- fully
persuaded that God does all things, or permits all that happens, for his glory
and for our greater good; thus, I am always at peace, no matter what happens.”
Seeing such conformity with the will of God, the abbot no longer wondered why
the monk worked so many miracles [31].
[20]St. John Avil. Letters 41.
[21]Isaias 45:6, 7.
[22]Amos, 3:6.
[23]Eccli. 11:14.
[24]2 Kings, 12:11.
[25]Isaias, 10:5, 6.
[26]St. Aug. in Ps. 73.
[27]St. John, 18:11.
[28]Job. 1:21.
[29]Ibid.
[30]ML (Vitae Patrum) 73-402, etc.
[31]Caesarius: Dial. distin. 10: cap. 9.
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