Book 2, Chapter 1
-Part 7-
“I teach all souls a general means of arriving at that state which [you, god,] will assign to them; all that i ask from them is the will to abandon themselves to thy leading; you will make them arrive infallibly at what is best for them.” (Page 50)
Complete abandonment to the leading of God is quite different from following Him whenever we feel like it, or when we cannot see our own way through something, or when crisis comes. In the quiet of every day, we ordinary people are to be found having consciously placed our will aside so that God may work unimpededly to bring us to what Father C calls “a point of excellence.” (Page 51)
This statement may be placed as a kind of banner over everything else that he says:
“I preach faith to them: self-abandonment, confidence and faith; the will to be the subject and instrument of the divine action and to believe that in every moment and in all things this action is simultaneously applied according to the state of the soul’s goodwill; that is the faith i preach.” (Page 50)
Here we are again reminded that God's graceful divine action – His willingness to be present to us at every moment – must be met with the willingness of the believer to receive and respond to this presence. The believer is acted upon by the primary force of God’s grace, to which there follows the believer’s cooperation, acceptance or agreement with this continuous action of God.
When Jesus first invited the Apostles to follow him, it is clear that they had heard him and responded by following him. Perhaps our very first cooperative act is to listen when God speaks. Had any of the Twelve simply sat tight and refused to follow, we could say that they had not heard Jesus, or that they had heard but did not respond with obedience. Or, they may have been merely afraid.
I will note here in passing that on the first day of John the Baptist’s identification of Jesus as “this is he,” there is no recorded response from the onlookers in the Gospel of John (Chapter 1). On Day One of Christ’s ministry, he had one herald and zero followers.
What we do see on the part of the disciples is the will to abandon themselves to God’s leading. This is the first-order response on the part of any disciple in order to apprehend what Paul calls “the prize”: “But one – on one hand forgetting the things behind, on the other hand stretching forward to the goal I seek, the prize that is the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)
I have left the above quote in its rather raw original Greek rendering to show the stark, emphatic way Paul pounces upon the prize. To convey the meaning, we translate his opening phrase this way: “But this one thing I do …” Literally, there are only two words, very forceful blows: “But one.” Like two cannon shots fired to call attention to Paul’s summary of the whole of Christian life.
“Ka-bam!” if you like.
That is to say, if we are good at anything, if we strive toward any singular skill, it should be in regard to living consciously within the upward calling of God. That God wants us to be like Him and to dwell with Him through all eternity – these are the greatest pair of truths regarding the human person. Often these two ideas are fused into one theological concept – that is, union with God. The Eastern Church uses the term theosis[1] to describe this fusion. An utter transformation of the human person takes place as one is transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, delivered from the entanglements of sin, and qualified or officially established to take one’s place among those whom God has made fit for union with Him. (See Colossians 1:12-13.)
As a spiritual being, the human person in some way concurs with this process, allows it to happen, and takes whatever action God requires to bring about the best, most complete renovation of the person. This is an echo of the exemplary fiat or “yes” of Mary, where she said, “Be it done unto me according to Your will” (Luke 1:38).
This is the aim to which Father Caussade points when he says, “You (God) will make them arrive infallibly at what is best for them.” (Page 51.)
To whatever extent we fail to realize this, the whole of our personal existence will be weakened. Philosophically, we will look for other ways to meaningfully define ourselves. Spiritually, we will doubt the lovingkindness and authority of God in our lives. God as we know Him will not be enough of a basis for us. We will seek out other definitions, other loves and other authorities to help us determine our place in the universe.
In a profound way we will come to dismiss our essential spirituality.
As we embark on these excursions, we find that the culture around us does not prize St. Paul’s prize, nor does it consider his goal as anything other than ridiculous. Any culture that chooses to misunderstand and discard God’s definition and role for humanity will never see the light of the life He offers. So this is no small mistake. This is a massive disaster.
The believer in possession of an unremarkable belief – a common, thoughtless, uninvolved belief – may find himself in another form of the same disaster. Caussade will next addresses himself to this defect.
[1] The process of a worshiper becoming free of hamartía ("missing the mark"), being united with God, beginning in this life and later consummated in bodily resurrection … II Peter 1:4 says that we have become “ . . . partakers of divine nature.” Athanasius amplifies the meaning of this verse when he says theosis is “becoming by grace what God is by nature.” (OrthodoxWiki.org)
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