|
Section 5 - Nature and Grace the Instruments of God.
The less capable the soul in the state of abandonment is of
defending itself, the more powerfully does God defend it.
The one and infallible influence of the
divine action is invariably applied to the submissive soul at an
opportune moment, and this soul corresponds in everything to its
interior direction. It is pleased with everything that has taken
place, with everything that is happening, and with all that
affects it, with the exception of sin. Sometimes the soul acts
with full consciousness, sometimes unknowingly, being led only by
obscure instincts to say, to do, or to leave certain things,
without being able to give a reason for its action.
Often the occasion and the determining reason are only of the
natural order; the soul, perceiving no sort of mystery therein,
acts by pure chance, necessity, or convenience, and its act has no
other aspect either in its own eyes, or those of others; while all
the time the divine action, through the intellect, the wisdom, or
the counsel of friends, makes use of the simplest things in its
favour. It makes them its own, and opposes so persistently every
effort prejudicial to them, that it becomes impossible that these
should succeed.
To have to deal with a simple soul is, in a certain way, to have
to deal with God. What can be done against the will of the
Almighty and His inscrutable designs? God takes the cause of the
simple soul in hand. It is unnecessary for it to study the
intrigues of others, to trouble about their worries, or to
scrutinize their conduct; its Spouse relieves it of all these
anxieties, and it can repose in Him full of peace; and in
security.
The divine action frees and exempts the soul from all those low
and noisy ways so necessary to human prudence. These suited Herod
and the Pharisees, but the Magi had only to follow their star in
peace. The child has but to rest in His Mother's arms. His enemies
do more to advance His interests than to hinder His work. The
greater efforts they exert to thwart, and to take Him unawares,
the more freely and tranquilly does He act. He never humours them,
nor basely truckles to them to make them turn aside their blows;
their jealousies, suspicions, and persecutions are necessary to
Him. Thus did Jesus Christ live in Judea, and thus does He live
now in simple souls.
In them He is generous, sweet, free,
peaceful, fearless, needing no one, beholding all creatures in His
Father's hands, and obliged to serve Him, some by their criminal
passions, others by their holy actions; the former by their
contradictions, the latter by their obedience and submission. The
divine action balances all this in a wonderful manner, nothing is
wanting nor is anything superfluous, but of good and evil there is
only what is necessary.
The will of God applies, at each moment,
the proper means to the end in view, and the simple soul,
instructed by faith, finds everything right, and desires neither
more nor less than what it has. It ever blesses that divine hand
which so well apportions the means, and turns every obstacle
aside. It receives friends and enemies with the same patient
courtesy with which Jesus treated everyone, and as divine
instruments. It has need of no one and yet needs all. The divine
action renders all necessary, and all must be received from it,
according to their quality and nature, and corresponded to with
sweetness and humility; the simple treated simply, and the
unpolished kindly. This is what St Paul teaches, and what Jesus
Christ practised most perfectly.
Only grace can impress this supernatural character, which is
appropriate to, and adapts itself to each person. This is never
learnt from books, but from a true prophetic spirit, and is the
effect of a special inspiration, and a doctrine of the Holy
Spirit. To understand it one must be in the highest state of
abandonment, the most perfect freedom from all design, and from
all interests, however holy. One must have in view the only
serious business in the world, that of following submissively the
divine action.
To do this one must apply oneself to the
fulfilling of the obligations of one's state; and allow the Holy
Spirit to act interiorly without trying to understand His
operations, but even being pleased to be kept in ignorance about
them. Then one is safe, for all that happens in the world can work
nothing but good for souls perfectly submissive to the will of
God.
|