03-14-2021, 02:39 PM
Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence (page 95)
1. Consoling truths (page 95)
Trust in God's wisdom
When God sends us trials
Loving recourse to God
Practice of trustful surrender
2. Adversity is useful for the just and necessary for sinners (page 109)
We must trust in Providence
Unexpected advantages from our trials
Opportunities for acquiring merit and saving our souls
3. Recourse to prayer (page 117)
To obtain what we want
To be delivered from evil
We do not ask enough
Perseverance in prayer
Obstinate trust
It is one of the most firmly established and most consoling of the truths that have been revealed to us that (apart from sin) nothing
happens to us in life unless God wills it so. Wealth and poverty alike come from Him. If we fall ill, God is the cause of our illness; if we get
well, our recovery is due to God. We owe our lives entirely to Him, and when death comes to put an end to life, His will be the hand that
deals the blow.
But should we attribute it to God when we are unjustly persecuted? Yes, He is the only person you can charge with the
wrong you suffer. He is not the cause of the sin the person commits by ill-treating you, but He is the cause of the suffering that person
inflicts on you while sinning. God did not inspire your enemy with the will to harm you, but He gave him the power to do so. If you
receive a wound, do not doubt but that it is God Himself who has wounded you. If all living creatures were to league themselves
against you, unless the Creator wished it and joined with them and gave them the strength and means to carry out their purpose, they
would never succeed. You would have no power over me if it had not been given you from above, the Savior of the world said to Pilate. We
can say the same to demons and men, to the brute beasts and to whatever exists -- You would not be able to disturb me or harm me as
you do unless God had ordered it so. You are sent by Him, you are given the power by Him to tempt me and to make me suffer. You
would have no power over me if it had not been given you from above.
If from time to time we meditated seriously on this truth of our faith it would be enough to stifle all complaint in whatever loss
or misfortune we suffer. What I have the Lord gave me, it has been taken away by Him. It is not a lawsuit or a thief that has ruined you
or a certain person that has slandered you; if your child dies it is not by accident or wrong treatment, but because God, to whom all
belongs, has not wished you to keep it longer.
Trust in God's Wisdom
It is then a truth of our faith that God is responsible for all the happenings we complain of in the world and, furthermore, we
cannot doubt that all the misfortunes God sends us have a very useful purpose. We cannot doubt it without imputing to God a lack of
judgment in deciding what is advantageous for us.
It is usually the case that other people can see better than we can ourselves what is good for us. It would be foolish to think that we
can see better than God Himself, Who is not subject to any of the passions that blind us, knows the future and can foresee all events
and the consequences of every action.
Experience shows that even the gravest misfortunes can have good results and the greatest successes end in disaster. A rule also
that God usually follows is to attain His ends by ways that are the opposite to those human prudence would normally choose.
In our ignorance of what the future holds, how can we be so bold as to question what comes about by God's permission? Surely it
is reasonable to think that our complaints are groundless and that instead of complaining we ought to be thanking Providence. Joseph
was sold into slavery and thrown into prison. If he had felt aggrieved at these apparent misfortunes, he would really have been feeling
aggrieved at his happiness for they were the steps to the throne of Egypt. Saul loses his father's asses and has to go on a long vain hunt
for them. But if he had felt annoyed at the great waste of time and energy it caused him, his annoyance could not have been more
unreasonable as it was all a means of bringing him to the prophet who was to anoint him king of his people.
Let us imagine our confusion when we appear before God and understand the reasons why He sent us the crosses we accept so
unwillingly. The death of a child will then be seen as its rescue from some great evil had it lived, separation from the woman you love the
means of saving you from an unhappy marriage, a severe illness the reason for many years of life afterwards, loss of money the means of
saving your soul from eternal loss. So what are we worried about? God is looking after us and yet we are full of anxiety! We trust
ourselves to a doctor because we suppose he knows his business. He orders an operation which involves cutting away part of our body
and we accept it. We are grateful to him and pay him a large fee because we judge he would not act as he does unless the remedy
were necessary, and we must rely on his skill. Yet we are unwilling to treat God in the same way! It looks as if we do not trust His wisdom
and are afraid He cannot do His job properly. We allow ourselves to be operated on by a man who may easily make a mistake -- a mistake
which may cost us our life -- and protest when God sets to work on us.
If we could see all He sees we would unhesitatingly wish all He wishes. We would beg Him on bended knees for those afflictions
we now ask Him to spare us. To all of us He addresses the words spoken to the Sons of Zebeedee: You know not what you ask -- O
blind of heart, your ignorance saddens me. Let me manage your affairs and look after your interests. I know what you need better
than you do yourselves. If I paid heed to what you think you need you would have been hopelessly ruined long ago.
When God sends us trials
If you would be convinced that in all He allows and in all that happens to you God has no other end in view but your real advantage
and your eternal happiness, reflect a moment on all He has done for you; you are now suffering, but remember that the author of this
suffering is He who chose to spend His life suffering to save you from everlasting suffering, whose angel is always at your side guarding
your body and soul by His order, who sacrifices Himself daily on the altar to expiate your sins and appease His Father's anger, who comes
lovingly to you in the Holy Eucharist and whose greatest pleasure is to be united to you. We must be very ungrateful to mistrust Him after
He has shown such proofs of His love and to imagine that He can intend us harm. But, you will say, this blow is a cruel one, He strikes
too hard. What have you to fear from a hand that was pierced and nailed to the cross for you? -- The path I have to tread is full of
thorns. If there is no other to reach heaven by, do you prefer to perish forever rather than to suffer for a time? Is it not the same path
He trod before you out of love for you? Is there a thorn in it that He has not reddened with His own blood? -- The chalice He offers you is
a bitter one. But remember that it is your Redeemer who offers it.
Loving you as He does, could He bring Himself to treat you so severely if the need were not urgent, the gain not worthwhile? Can
we dare to refuse the chalice He has prepared for us Himself?
Reflect well on this. It should be enough to make us accept and love whatever trials He intends we should suffer. Moreover it is
the certain means of securing our happiness in this life quite apart from the next.
Loving recourse to God
Let us now suppose that by these reflections and the help of God you have freed yourself from all worldly desires and can now say
to yourself: All is vanity and nothing can satisfy my heart. The things that I so earnestly desire may not be at all the things that will bring
me happiness. It is difficult for me to distinguish what is good from what is harmful because good and evil are nearly always mixed, and
what was good for yesterday may be bad for today. My desires are only a source of worry and my efforts to realize them mostly end in
failure. After all, the will of God is bound to prevail in the end. Nothing can be done without His command, and He cannot ordain
anything that is not for my good.
After this let us suppose that you turn to God with blind trust and surrender yourself unconditionally and unreservedly to Him,
entirely resolved to put aside your own hopes and fears; in short, determined to wish nothing except what He wishes and to wish all
that He wishes. From this moment you will acquire perfect liberty and will never again be able to feel troubled or uneasy, and there is
no power on earth capable of doing you violence or giving you a moment's unrest.
You may object that a person on whom both good and evil make the same impression is a pure fiction. It is nothing of the kind. I
know people who are just as happy if they are sick or if they are well, if they are badly off or they are well off. I know some who even
prefer illness and poverty to health and riches.
Moreover it is all the more remarkable that the more we submit to God's will, the more He tries to meet our wishes. It would
seem that as soon as we make it our sole aim to obey Him, He on His part does His best to try and please us. Not only does He answer our
prayers but He even forestalls them by granting the very desires we have endeavored to stifle in our hearts in order to please Him, and
granting them in a measure we had never imagined.
Finally, the happiness of the person whose will is entirely submitted to God's is constant, unchangeable and endless. No fear
comes to disturb it for no accident can destroy it. He is like a man seated on a rock in the middle of the ocean who looks on the fury of
the waves without dismay and can amuse himself watching and counting them as they roar and break at his feet. Whether the sea is
calm or rough, whichever way the waves are carried by the wind is a matter of indifference to him, for the place where he is firm and
unshakeable.
That is the reason for the peaceful and untroubled expression we find on the faces of those who have dedicated themselves to God.
Practice of trustful surrender
It remains to be seen how we can attain to this happy state. One sure way to lead us to it is the frequent practice of the virtue of
submission. But as the opportunities for practicing it in a big way come rather seldom, we must take advantage of the small ones which
occur daily, and which will soon put us in a position to face the greater trials with equanimity when the time comes. There is no one
who does not experience a hundred small annoyances every day, caused either by our own carelessness or inattention, or by the
inconsideration or spite of other people, or by pure accident. Our whole lives are made up of incidents of this kind, occurring
ceaselessly from one minute to another and producing a host of involuntary feelings of dislike and aversion, envy, fear and
impatience to trouble the serenity of our minds. We let an incautious word slip out and wish we had not said it; someone says something
we find offensive; we have to wait a long time to be served when we are in a hurry; we are irritated by a child's boisterousness; a boring
acquaintance buttonholes us in the street; a car splashes us with mud; the weather spoils our outing; our work is not going as well as
we would wish; a tool breaks at a critical moment; we get our clothes torn or stained -- these are not occasions for practicing heroic virtue
but they can be a means of acquiring it if we wish. If we were careful to offer all these petty annoyances to God and accept them as being
ordered by His providence we would soon be in a position to support the greatest misfortunes that can happen to us, besides at the same
time insensibly drawing close to intimate union with God.
To this exercise -- so easy and yet so useful for us and pleasing to God -- another may be added. Every morning as soon as you get up
think of all the most disagreeable things that could happen to you during the day. Your house might be burnt down, you might lose
your job or all your savings, or be run over, or sudden death might come to you or to a person you love. Accept these misfortunes should
it please God to allow them; compel your will to agree to the sacrifice and give yourself no rest until you really feel prepared to wish or not
to wish all that God may wish or not wish.
Finally, if some great misfortune should actually happen, instead of wasting time in complaint or self-pity, go throw yourself at
once at the feet of your Savior and implore His grace to bear your trial with fortitude and patience. A man who has been badly
wounded does not, if he is wise, chase after his assailant, but makes straight for a doctor who may save his life. Even if you wanted to
confront the person responsible for your misfortune, it would still be to God you would have to go, for there can be no other cause of it
than He.
So go to God, but go at once, go there and then. Let this be your first thought. Go and report to Him what He has done to you.
Kiss the hands of God crucified for you, the hands that have struck you and caused you to suffer. Repeat over and over again to Him His
own words to His Father while He was suffering: Not My will but Thine be done. In all that Thou wishest of me, today and for always,
in heaven and on earth, let Thy will be done, but let it be done on earth as it is done in heaven.
1. Consoling truths (page 95)
Trust in God's wisdom
When God sends us trials
Loving recourse to God
Practice of trustful surrender
2. Adversity is useful for the just and necessary for sinners (page 109)
We must trust in Providence
Unexpected advantages from our trials
Opportunities for acquiring merit and saving our souls
3. Recourse to prayer (page 117)
To obtain what we want
To be delivered from evil
We do not ask enough
Perseverance in prayer
Obstinate trust
It is one of the most firmly established and most consoling of the truths that have been revealed to us that (apart from sin) nothing
happens to us in life unless God wills it so. Wealth and poverty alike come from Him. If we fall ill, God is the cause of our illness; if we get
well, our recovery is due to God. We owe our lives entirely to Him, and when death comes to put an end to life, His will be the hand that
deals the blow.
But should we attribute it to God when we are unjustly persecuted? Yes, He is the only person you can charge with the
wrong you suffer. He is not the cause of the sin the person commits by ill-treating you, but He is the cause of the suffering that person
inflicts on you while sinning. God did not inspire your enemy with the will to harm you, but He gave him the power to do so. If you
receive a wound, do not doubt but that it is God Himself who has wounded you. If all living creatures were to league themselves
against you, unless the Creator wished it and joined with them and gave them the strength and means to carry out their purpose, they
would never succeed. You would have no power over me if it had not been given you from above, the Savior of the world said to Pilate. We
can say the same to demons and men, to the brute beasts and to whatever exists -- You would not be able to disturb me or harm me as
you do unless God had ordered it so. You are sent by Him, you are given the power by Him to tempt me and to make me suffer. You
would have no power over me if it had not been given you from above.
If from time to time we meditated seriously on this truth of our faith it would be enough to stifle all complaint in whatever loss
or misfortune we suffer. What I have the Lord gave me, it has been taken away by Him. It is not a lawsuit or a thief that has ruined you
or a certain person that has slandered you; if your child dies it is not by accident or wrong treatment, but because God, to whom all
belongs, has not wished you to keep it longer.
Trust in God's Wisdom
It is then a truth of our faith that God is responsible for all the happenings we complain of in the world and, furthermore, we
cannot doubt that all the misfortunes God sends us have a very useful purpose. We cannot doubt it without imputing to God a lack of
judgment in deciding what is advantageous for us.
It is usually the case that other people can see better than we can ourselves what is good for us. It would be foolish to think that we
can see better than God Himself, Who is not subject to any of the passions that blind us, knows the future and can foresee all events
and the consequences of every action.
Experience shows that even the gravest misfortunes can have good results and the greatest successes end in disaster. A rule also
that God usually follows is to attain His ends by ways that are the opposite to those human prudence would normally choose.
In our ignorance of what the future holds, how can we be so bold as to question what comes about by God's permission? Surely it
is reasonable to think that our complaints are groundless and that instead of complaining we ought to be thanking Providence. Joseph
was sold into slavery and thrown into prison. If he had felt aggrieved at these apparent misfortunes, he would really have been feeling
aggrieved at his happiness for they were the steps to the throne of Egypt. Saul loses his father's asses and has to go on a long vain hunt
for them. But if he had felt annoyed at the great waste of time and energy it caused him, his annoyance could not have been more
unreasonable as it was all a means of bringing him to the prophet who was to anoint him king of his people.
Let us imagine our confusion when we appear before God and understand the reasons why He sent us the crosses we accept so
unwillingly. The death of a child will then be seen as its rescue from some great evil had it lived, separation from the woman you love the
means of saving you from an unhappy marriage, a severe illness the reason for many years of life afterwards, loss of money the means of
saving your soul from eternal loss. So what are we worried about? God is looking after us and yet we are full of anxiety! We trust
ourselves to a doctor because we suppose he knows his business. He orders an operation which involves cutting away part of our body
and we accept it. We are grateful to him and pay him a large fee because we judge he would not act as he does unless the remedy
were necessary, and we must rely on his skill. Yet we are unwilling to treat God in the same way! It looks as if we do not trust His wisdom
and are afraid He cannot do His job properly. We allow ourselves to be operated on by a man who may easily make a mistake -- a mistake
which may cost us our life -- and protest when God sets to work on us.
If we could see all He sees we would unhesitatingly wish all He wishes. We would beg Him on bended knees for those afflictions
we now ask Him to spare us. To all of us He addresses the words spoken to the Sons of Zebeedee: You know not what you ask -- O
blind of heart, your ignorance saddens me. Let me manage your affairs and look after your interests. I know what you need better
than you do yourselves. If I paid heed to what you think you need you would have been hopelessly ruined long ago.
When God sends us trials
If you would be convinced that in all He allows and in all that happens to you God has no other end in view but your real advantage
and your eternal happiness, reflect a moment on all He has done for you; you are now suffering, but remember that the author of this
suffering is He who chose to spend His life suffering to save you from everlasting suffering, whose angel is always at your side guarding
your body and soul by His order, who sacrifices Himself daily on the altar to expiate your sins and appease His Father's anger, who comes
lovingly to you in the Holy Eucharist and whose greatest pleasure is to be united to you. We must be very ungrateful to mistrust Him after
He has shown such proofs of His love and to imagine that He can intend us harm. But, you will say, this blow is a cruel one, He strikes
too hard. What have you to fear from a hand that was pierced and nailed to the cross for you? -- The path I have to tread is full of
thorns. If there is no other to reach heaven by, do you prefer to perish forever rather than to suffer for a time? Is it not the same path
He trod before you out of love for you? Is there a thorn in it that He has not reddened with His own blood? -- The chalice He offers you is
a bitter one. But remember that it is your Redeemer who offers it.
Loving you as He does, could He bring Himself to treat you so severely if the need were not urgent, the gain not worthwhile? Can
we dare to refuse the chalice He has prepared for us Himself?
Reflect well on this. It should be enough to make us accept and love whatever trials He intends we should suffer. Moreover it is
the certain means of securing our happiness in this life quite apart from the next.
Loving recourse to God
Let us now suppose that by these reflections and the help of God you have freed yourself from all worldly desires and can now say
to yourself: All is vanity and nothing can satisfy my heart. The things that I so earnestly desire may not be at all the things that will bring
me happiness. It is difficult for me to distinguish what is good from what is harmful because good and evil are nearly always mixed, and
what was good for yesterday may be bad for today. My desires are only a source of worry and my efforts to realize them mostly end in
failure. After all, the will of God is bound to prevail in the end. Nothing can be done without His command, and He cannot ordain
anything that is not for my good.
After this let us suppose that you turn to God with blind trust and surrender yourself unconditionally and unreservedly to Him,
entirely resolved to put aside your own hopes and fears; in short, determined to wish nothing except what He wishes and to wish all
that He wishes. From this moment you will acquire perfect liberty and will never again be able to feel troubled or uneasy, and there is
no power on earth capable of doing you violence or giving you a moment's unrest.
You may object that a person on whom both good and evil make the same impression is a pure fiction. It is nothing of the kind. I
know people who are just as happy if they are sick or if they are well, if they are badly off or they are well off. I know some who even
prefer illness and poverty to health and riches.
Moreover it is all the more remarkable that the more we submit to God's will, the more He tries to meet our wishes. It would
seem that as soon as we make it our sole aim to obey Him, He on His part does His best to try and please us. Not only does He answer our
prayers but He even forestalls them by granting the very desires we have endeavored to stifle in our hearts in order to please Him, and
granting them in a measure we had never imagined.
Finally, the happiness of the person whose will is entirely submitted to God's is constant, unchangeable and endless. No fear
comes to disturb it for no accident can destroy it. He is like a man seated on a rock in the middle of the ocean who looks on the fury of
the waves without dismay and can amuse himself watching and counting them as they roar and break at his feet. Whether the sea is
calm or rough, whichever way the waves are carried by the wind is a matter of indifference to him, for the place where he is firm and
unshakeable.
That is the reason for the peaceful and untroubled expression we find on the faces of those who have dedicated themselves to God.
Practice of trustful surrender
It remains to be seen how we can attain to this happy state. One sure way to lead us to it is the frequent practice of the virtue of
submission. But as the opportunities for practicing it in a big way come rather seldom, we must take advantage of the small ones which
occur daily, and which will soon put us in a position to face the greater trials with equanimity when the time comes. There is no one
who does not experience a hundred small annoyances every day, caused either by our own carelessness or inattention, or by the
inconsideration or spite of other people, or by pure accident. Our whole lives are made up of incidents of this kind, occurring
ceaselessly from one minute to another and producing a host of involuntary feelings of dislike and aversion, envy, fear and
impatience to trouble the serenity of our minds. We let an incautious word slip out and wish we had not said it; someone says something
we find offensive; we have to wait a long time to be served when we are in a hurry; we are irritated by a child's boisterousness; a boring
acquaintance buttonholes us in the street; a car splashes us with mud; the weather spoils our outing; our work is not going as well as
we would wish; a tool breaks at a critical moment; we get our clothes torn or stained -- these are not occasions for practicing heroic virtue
but they can be a means of acquiring it if we wish. If we were careful to offer all these petty annoyances to God and accept them as being
ordered by His providence we would soon be in a position to support the greatest misfortunes that can happen to us, besides at the same
time insensibly drawing close to intimate union with God.
To this exercise -- so easy and yet so useful for us and pleasing to God -- another may be added. Every morning as soon as you get up
think of all the most disagreeable things that could happen to you during the day. Your house might be burnt down, you might lose
your job or all your savings, or be run over, or sudden death might come to you or to a person you love. Accept these misfortunes should
it please God to allow them; compel your will to agree to the sacrifice and give yourself no rest until you really feel prepared to wish or not
to wish all that God may wish or not wish.
Finally, if some great misfortune should actually happen, instead of wasting time in complaint or self-pity, go throw yourself at
once at the feet of your Savior and implore His grace to bear your trial with fortitude and patience. A man who has been badly
wounded does not, if he is wise, chase after his assailant, but makes straight for a doctor who may save his life. Even if you wanted to
confront the person responsible for your misfortune, it would still be to God you would have to go, for there can be no other cause of it
than He.
So go to God, but go at once, go there and then. Let this be your first thought. Go and report to Him what He has done to you.
Kiss the hands of God crucified for you, the hands that have struck you and caused you to suffer. Repeat over and over again to Him His
own words to His Father while He was suffering: Not My will but Thine be done. In all that Thou wishest of me, today and for always,
in heaven and on earth, let Thy will be done, but let it be done on earth as it is done in heaven.