Doing God's will, your sanctification - 3

Oh, how great is the peace of the soul whose will is in all things conformed to the will of God! As she wishes only what God wills, the soul always has whatever she desires; for all that happens in the world, happens by the will of God.

I. Whom can we ever find more solicitous for our welfare and for our salvation than God? To make us understand this truth, He likens Himself at one time to a shepherd going through the desert in search of His lost sheep; at another to a mother who cannot forget her own child. Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb (Is. xlix. 15). Again, to a hen gathering and sheltering her chickens under her wings, that they may suffer no injury: Jerusalem, Jerusalem .. . how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldst not (Matt. xxiii. 37). In a word, according to David, God surrounds us with His good-will in order to save us from all the assaults of our enemies. Lord, thou hast crowned us as with a shield of thy good will (Ps. v. 13). Why, then, do we not abandon ourselves entirely into the hands of this good Father? Would it not be folly in a blind man, placed in the midst of precipices, to reject the guidance of a father who loves him, to follow the way suggested by his own caprice?

Happy the soul that permits itself to be conducted in the way in which God leads it. Father St. Jure relates that a certain young man, desirous of entering the Society of Jesus, was rejected because he was blind of one eye. Who would not have said that the defect was a great misfortune to the poor young man? But that defect was the occasion of the happiest end that he could meet; for on account of it he was received into the Society for the Indian Mission. He went to India, and had the happiness of dying for the Faith. The Venerable Balthazar Alvarez used to say that "the Kingdom of Heaven is the kingdom of the lame, the tempted, and the abject." Let us, then, as if blind, permit ourselves to be guided by God along whatever road, the rough or the smooth, He may be pleased to conduct us, secure of finding in it eternal salvation. St. Teresa used to say: "Our Lord never sends a cross without rewarding it with some favour, when we accept it with resignation."

II. Oh, how great the peace of the soul whose will is in all things conformed to the will of God! As she wishes only what God wills, she always obtains whatsoever she desires; for all that happens in the world happens by the will of God. It is related that King Alphonsus the Great, being asked whom he esteemed happy in this life, wisely answered: "He who abandons himself entirely to the Divine will of God." And, in reality, does not all our inquietude arise from this cause—that things do not happen according to our wishes, and that we resist the Divine will? St. Bernard says: "God justly ordains that they who refuse to be sweetly ruled by Him should rule themselves amid difficulties and troubles." But, on the other hand, they who will only what God wills, always find their wishes accomplished, and therefore are always in peace, as well in prosperity as in adversity. When, then, you see a person in sadness, tell him that he is sad because he is not resigned to the will of God. The Saints, even in the midst of persecutions the most severe and torments the most painful, knew not what it was to be sad. And why? Because they were united to the Divine will. Whatsoever shall befall the just man, it shall not make him sad (Prov. xii. 21). Hence Cardinal Petrucci has wisely said that this frail and fleeting world is but a scene of woes. Its most pleasing amusements and pleasures have the appearance of joys, and they are torments. While in following Christ suffering may appear painful but it gives true joy.