Meditating this morning on that passage of Holy Scripture which tells us
that the life of man is in the good will of God,[1] I reflected that to
live according to the will of the flesh, that is, according to the human
will, is not really life, since the prudence of the flesh is death; but
that to live according to the will of God is the true life of the soul,
since the grace attached to that divine will imparts a life to our soul far
higher than the life our soul imparts to our body.
The divine will is our sanctification, and this sanctification is the gate
of eternal life; of that true life in comparison with which the life which
we lead on earth is more truly a death. To live in God, in whom is true
life, is to live according to His will.
Our life, then, is to do His will. This made St. Paul say that he lived,
yet not he himself, but that Jesus Christ lived in him,[2] because he had
only one will and one mind with Jesus Christ, I was rejoiced to find that
unconsciously my thoughts on this subject had followed closely in the
track of our Blessed Father's when he meditated on the same passage. This
I discovered on reading these words in one of his letters:
"This morning, being alone for a few moments, I made an act of
extraordinary resignation which I cannot put on paper, but reserve until
God permits me to see you, when you shall know it by word of mouth. Oh! how
blessed are the souls who live on the will of God alone. Ah! if even to
taste a little of that blessedness in a passing meditation is so sweet to
the heart which accepts that holy will with all the crosses it offers, what
must the happiness be of a soul all steeped in that will? Oh! my God, what
a blessed thing is it not to bring all our affections into a humble and
absolute subjection to the divine love! This we have said, this we have
resolved to do, and our hearts have taken the greatest glory of the love of
God for their sovereign law. Now the glory of this holy love consists in
its power of burning and consuming all that is not itself, that all may be
resolved and changed into it. God exalts Himself upon our annihilation of
ourselves and reigns upon the throne of our voluntary servitude."
[Footnote 1: Psalm xxix. 6.]
[Footnote 2: Gal. ii. 20.]