It is very important, it is even absolutely necessary, in the spiritual life, that we should be able to distinguish clearly, with regard to our interior dispositions, between what God actually asks of us and what we ought to ask of God or rather between what He has a right to expect from us, and what He wishes us to expect from Him.
For the want of a clear discernment in these two things, we often fall into very trying doubts and perplexities about our state; we are discontented with ourselves when there is no occasion to be so, or we are delighted with ourselves, and think God is delighted with us, when He is not; we complain of the designs of Providence, and murmur against them unjustly; and in the end we commit many real faults and expose ourselves to the danger of giving up everything. Let us then try, by the light of truth, to distinguish between these two different things, and to fix each one clearly in our minds, that we may be able to make of them afterwards the rule of our judgments and the guide of our conduct.
God only asks from us what it depends upon ourselves to give. This principle is self-evident. Now, only one single thing depends upon us, and that is, the good use of our liberty, according to the actual measure of grace which is enlightening our mind and exciting our will.
God then asks of us, in the first place, a constant attention to what is passing in our own hearts, and to His Voice which will speak to us there. This constant attention is not so difficult as we might think, if once we love God sincerely and are determined to please Him in all things.
He asks of us that we shall never give ourselves up to anything which can distract us from this attention, whether it be exterior amusememt, or curiosity, or undue attachment to any object, or useless thoughts, or voluntary trouble and agitation of mind, from any cause whatever; He also asks that when we notice that anything in particular has the power to distract us from this attention to the voice of grace, we shall at once give up that thing and put it away from us. But we must not imagine that either the duties of our state of life, or domestic troubles, or the ordinary events of every day, or the courtesy we owe to society, can of themselves injure this interior recollection; we can preserve it in the midst of all these things. And, besides, after one has used a little violence towards one’s self for a time, this recollection becomes so natural that one scarcely perceives it, and seldom or ever loses it.
God asks of us a full, perfect, and faithful correspondence to grace, in all circumstances in which we may find ourselves. The grace of beginners is not the same as that of those who are more advanced, and the grace of those who are advanced is not the same as that of those who are consummated in the way of perfection. A disposition which is good in a beginner is not so in one who is more advanced; such and such a practice is proper for one state, and would not be so for another. We must, then, understand how to take them up and leave them, following the instinct of grace, and not to attach ourselves to any one of them with any kind of obstinacy. Still less must we desire to raise ourselves above our present state, until God Himself raises us; nor must we undertake or wish for what is beyond our strength, or imagine we can do what we admire in the saints, or think we may allow ourselves certain liberties which God grants only to those souls who have passed through every sort of trial.
God asks of us, that when we have once given ourselves to Him, we shall never take ourselves away from Him; that we shall never act on our own responsibility, but always consult Him in everything, and also those guides whom He has given us to direct us, especially when we wish to do anything extraordinary: He asks that we shall remain passive and submissive to His will in any state in which it pleases Him to place us; that we shall never do anything of ourselves to go out of this state, on the pretext that it is too painful for human nature, and that we cannot bear it any longer. We must not ask Him to deliver us from a temptation, or a humiliation, or an interior trial, if He wills that we should be tempted, or humiliated, or tried, for our greater purification; but we must ask of Him the courage and strength to bear it to the end.
What God asks of us, above all things, is the entire resignation and abandonment of ourselves to Him a resignation of all without exception and for ever. But as this abandonment has its degrees, and goes on increasing, until in the end we lose ourselves utterly in Him, we have simply to keep ourselves in a general disposition to sacrifice to Him each thing as He asks it of us; and when the occasion presents itself, to make the actual sacrifice. There is, then, no necessity to anticipate anything, or to imagine ourselves in circumstances where, perhaps, we shall never be, or to exhaust our strength beforehand by wondering if we could bear such and such a trial. All this is useless, and even dangerous: useless, because we never can foresee the future, or form a just idea of any situation, whether interior or exterior, in which we may be placed; and dangerous, because by such thoughts we expose ourselves to presumption or to discouragement. Entire resignation of self leaves to God the care of the future, and only occupies itself with the present moment.
God does not ask of us either sensible devotion or those great lights and fine sentiments on which self-love feeds but too much. These graces depend on Him alone: He gives them and takes them away when He pleases. There is, then, no necessity for being desolate and miserable if we have no sensible devotion at prayer or Holy Communion, if we are dry, stupid, heavy, incapable of any pious feeling. Still less must we think that prayer and communion made like this is worth nothing. Self-love might so judge, but God judges differently.
God does not ask that we keep our imagination captive in such a manner that we are absolutely masters of our thoughts. This does not depend upon us; but it does depend upon us never willfully to dwell on thoughts that disturb our peace, to despise them, not to allow them to trouble and torment us, and in this, as in all else, to be guided by the decisions of our director. It does not depend upon us, either, to be free from temptations against purity, against faith or hope. These are temptations which God may permit for our greater advancement. We may ask submissively, as Saint Paul did, to be delivered from them; but if God answers us, as He answered Saint Paul, “My grace is sufficient for thee” we must bear these temptations with humility, and fight against them as well as we can, using the means prescribed by obedience.
In all those events which depend upon Providence or the will of others God asks of us entire submission, and that we should try to draw from them as much profit as possible, both for His glory and our own sanctification, being persuaded, as Saint Paul says, that ” all things work together for good to them that love God.”
With regard to all our undertakings, even the most holy, in which we are engaged by the Will of God, He only asks of us our faithful labour, our careful application, and the employment of the means in our power; but He does not ask of us success: that depends on Him alone; and He sometimes permits, for our greater good, that the success should not be according to our hopes and intentions.
This is in some slight degree, and briefly, what God asks of us, and what depends on the good use of our free will. As to what we must ask of God, it is quite certain that we are not fit judges as to what is best for us, or what would harm us, and we cannot do better than leave it entirely to God. Our best plan is, then, to keep in general to what the law teaches us we must necessarily ask for, and to observe a holy indifference with regard to all those things which are not absolutely necessary to our perfection.
One thing we must ask is, that we may know God, and know ourselves; what He is, and what we are; what He has done for us, and what we have done against Him; what He deserves, and what He has a right to require of us; the value of His grace, and the importance of making good use of it.
We must ask for a perfect and entire trust in Him, a trust which will reach so far as to make us say with holy Job, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.”
We must ask that we may love and serve God, at the expense of any sacrifice of ourselves, without the slightest regard for our own interest, solely for His glory and the accomplishment of His good pleasure.
We must ask for the spirit of faith, which will raise us above all testimony, above all assurance, above all reason; that is to say, our faith will rest, not on human testimony, not on any mere feeling of assurance, not on mere reason, but simply and solely on the Will of God, as revealed to His Church; and this bare and simple faith will sustain us in the most obscure darkness, in the deprivation of all sensible support, and will keep us in a profound peace, though we may feel as if suspended between heaven and hell.
We must ask for a spirit of blind obedience, which will make us die to our own judgment and our own will, which will make us act against what appears to be reason and our own natural aversions, which will neither allow us to reflect or to reason, because it is certain that the ways of God are above all our thoughts and contrary to all our natural inclinations, and that we shall never advance in the way of perfection until we cast ourselves blindly and without reserve into what may appear to us at first as an abyss, unfathomable and without resource.
- taken from Manual for Interior Souls, by Father Jean Nicolas Grou