“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me,
that I may perfect His work.” John 4:34
Perfection is founded entirely on the love of God, and perfect love of God means the complete union of our will with His. Therefore, the more we unite our will with the Divine Will, the greater will be our love of God.
To do God’s will: this was the goal upon which the saints constantly fixed their gaze, for in this consists the entire perfection of the soul. Even Our Lord Jesus came to earth not to do His own will but “the will of Him who sent me.” And “whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is heaven, he is my brother, sister, and mother.”
The greatest glory we can give to God is to do His will in everything. This is the summit of perfection and to it we should always aspire. This should be the goal of all our works, desires, meditations, and prayers. Therefore those who give themselves to prayer should concentrate solely on this: the conformity of their wills with the divine will. They should be convinced that this constitutes their highest perfection. The more fully they practice this, the greater they will make in the Interior Life.
God is not glorified merely by the accumulation of our prayers and works but by the quality and measure of our love, and our resignation to and our union with His holy will. Though God asks for sacrifices, He does not want sacrifices. “For obedience is better than sacrifice,” and we cannot offer God anything more pleasing than our will. For he who gives God his will, gives himself, and gives everything he is. The man who follows his own will independently of God’s will is guilty of a kind of idolatry. Instead of adoring God’s will, he in a certain sense adores his own.
God wills only our good; God loves us more than anybody else can or does love us. His will is that no one should lose his soul, that everyone should save and sanctify his soul: “Not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance.” “This is the will of God, your sanctification.”
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 a reflection of our love of God.
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, and death; but likewise in those we suffer from man, such as contempt, injustice, loss of reputation, loss of temporal goods, and all kinds of persecution.
On these occasions we must remember that while God does not will the sin, He does will our humiliation, our poverty, and our mortification. For though these adversities are evil, they become good and beneficial when we receive them as coming from God’s hands. We must not therefore consider the afflictions that come upon us happening by chance or solely from the malice of men; we should be convinced that what happens, happens by the will of God.
If then He sends us suffering in this life, it is for our own good. For “all things work together unto good.” Even chastisements come to us, not to crush us, but to make us mend our ways and save our souls: “Let us believe that these scourges of the Lord have happened for our amendment and not for our destruction.” Therefore we should most confidently abandon ourselves to all the dispositions of Divine Providence, since they are for our own good.
When, therefore, something adverse happens to us, let us accept it from His hands, not only patiently, but even with gladness, as did the Apostles “who went from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus.” Yet still more pleasing to God is the union of one’s will with His will, so that their will is neither to rejoice nor to suffer, but to hold completely amenable to His will and to desire that His holy will be fulfilled.
Acting according to this pattern, one not only becomes holy but also enjoys perpetual serenity in this life. For “to those that love God, all things work together unto good.” Those who love God are always happy, because their whole happiness is to fulfill, even in adversity, the will of God. This is the beautiful freedom of the sons of God. This is the abiding peace that, in the experience of the saints, “surpasses all understanding” (apatheia). He who unites his will to God’s experiences a full and lasting joy––full, because he has what he wants; lasting, because no one can take his joy away from him, since no one can prevent God’s will from happening.
Sickness is the acid test of spirituality, because it discloses whether our virtue is real or sham. O, what modern heresies abound––those ancient doctrines of devils––regarding health, wealth, and the "faith" to cast out all suffering and claim from God's treasure only selfish pleasure? When God sends spiritual darkness and desolation, his true friends are known.
When a soul begins to cultivate the spiritual life, God usually showers His consolations upon her to wean her away from the world; but when he sees her making solid progress, He withdraws His hand to test her and to see if she will love and serve without the reward of sensible consolations. “In this life,” as St. Teresa used to say, “our lot is not to enjoy God, but to do His holy will.” “Love of God does not consist in experiencing His tenderness but in serving Him with resolution and humility.” “God’s true lovers are discovered in times of aridity and temptation.”
This earth is a place of merit, which is acquired by suffering, and heaven is a place of reward and happiness; and the real delights and happiness that will constitute our reward are reserved for heaven. Hence, in this life the saints neither desired nor sought the joys of sensible fervor but rather the fervor of the spirit toughened in the crucible of suffering.
It is important to lay great stress on this point, because some souls, beginners in the spiritual life, finding themselves in spiritual aridity, think God has abandoned them or that the spiritual life is not for them; thus they give up the practice of prayer and lose what they have previously gained. The time of aridity is the best time to practice resignation to God’s holy will. The saints have all experienced desolations and abandonment of soul. Even our Redeemer cried out on the Cross: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”
Also, we should be united to God’s will in regard to the time and manner of our death. Yet, the true lover desires to be with his beloved. The person who has little desire for heaven shows he has little love for God. We cannot see God while we remain here on earth; hence the saints have yearned for death so that they might go and behold their beloved Lord, face to face.
We should unite ourselves to the will of God as regards our degree of grace and glory. True, we should esteem the things that make for the glory of God, but we should show the greatest esteem for those that concern the will of God. The only virtues worthwhile are those that draw the soul to holiness of life, namely, the virtue of uniformity with God’s holy will. So if God does not wish to raise us to the heights of perfection and glory, let us unite ourselves in all things to His holy will, asking Him in His mercy, to grant us our soul’s salvation. If we act in this manner, the reward will not be slight which we shall receive from the hands of God who loves above all others, souls resigned to His holy will.
Finally, we should consider the events which are happening to us now and which will happen to us in the future, as coming from the hands of God. Everything we do should be directed to this one end: to do the will of God and to do it solely for the reason that God wills it. No longer will we consider what is the will of God for us, but rather what it is in itself. For our life is in His will.
During our pilgrimage in this world, we should learn from the saints now in heaven, how to love God. The pure and perfect love of God they enjoy there consists in uniting themselves perfectly to His will. For a single act of uniformity with the Divine Will suffices to make a saint. To this end we should always invoke the aid of our holy patrons, our guardian angels and above all, of Our Blessed Mother Mary––the most perfect of all the saints––because she most perfectly embraced the Divine Will.
To walk more securely on this road we must depend on the guidance of our superiors in external matters, and on our directors in internal matters. Above all, let us bend our energies to serve God in the way He wishes. Let us always and ever only what God wills; for doing so, He will press us to His Divine Merciful Heart.
If, devout soul, it is your will to please God and live a life of holiness and happiness in this world, unite yourself always and in all things to the Divine Will. Reflect that all the sins of your past wicked life happened because you wandered from the path of God’s will. Direct all your thoughts and prayers to this end, to beg to God constantly in meditation, Communion, and visits to the Blessed Sacrament that He help you accomplish His holy will.
Form the habit of offering yourself frequently to God by saying, “My God, behold me in Your presence; do with me and all that I have as You please.” You will surely become a saint. If during life we have embraced everything as coming from God’s hands and if at death we embrace death in fulfillment of God’s holy will, we shall certainly save our souls and die the death of martyrs.
Let us then abandon everything to God’s good pleasure because, being infinitely wise, He knows what is best for us; and being all-good and all-loving––having given His life for us––He wills what is best for us. Let us rest secure in the conviction that beyond the possibility of a doubt, God works to affect our welfare infinitely better than we could ever hope to accomplish or desire it ourselves. The fulfillment of God’s holy will should be the greatest consolation of our life.
To this end let us familiarize ourselves with certain texts of Sacred Scripture that invite us to unite ourselves constantly with the divine will. Above all, let us cherish the prayer of Our Lord, which He Himself taught us, and pray that God’s will be fulfilled on earth with the same perfection with which the saints do it in heaven. Let this be our practice, and we shall be certainly become saints. May the Divine Will be loved and praised!
THE ESSENCE & SUMMIT OF PERFECTION