Antonio Sagardoy OCD
(Christliche Innerlichkeit 5/1996, Austria)
In various writings of St. Teresa of Jesus, the theme of "God's will" is repeatedly discussed. Italics indicate citations from the works of St. Teresa of Jesus in the following article.
- What is God's will?
According to you, daughters, what is God's will? That we may be so perfect that we will be one with the Son and the Father, as Jesus Christ asked. How far we have to go to achieve this! (5H 3,7).
The highest degree of perfection does not consist in inner comforts and lofty ecstasies, nor in visions and prophecies, but in the alignment of our will with what God wants, so that knowing His wishes, we fervently desire what He wants, whether it is bitter and painful, or joyful and pleasant, because that is what the Lord wants. (Z 5,9).
- We do not always understand God's will
(Jesus) also knows our great wretchedness, which often pretends not to know what God's will is. If you tell a thoughtless rich man that it is God's will for him to moderate his eating and at least give bread to someone who is dying of hunger, he will have countless objections to not listening to you, for he wants to act as he pleases. And if you remind a gossip that God's will commands us to love others as ourselves, he cannot stand you and nothing will convince him.
Or to say to a religious who enjoys comfort and freedom that he is obliged to set a good example, that he should not fulfill God's will only in words, for he has sworn and promised to do so; and that it is God's will for him to keep his promises, and that he acts against them if he causes scandal, even if he does not severely break them; that he must keep the poverty he promised without deviation, for that is what the Lord wants; just tell him all of this, but he will not listen to you. Very few would fulfill the words with which he turned to the Father for us: Your will be done. (C 33,1).
- All perfection consists in uniting our own will with God's will.
a) Seeking
Devout people easily recognize that the driving force of our effort to live by faith is not what seems good to us, but God's plan for us. In seeking God's will, it is not always easy to look to Him and not so much to ourselves, to what it brings to Him and not so much what it brings to us.
Because we are human, we can only grow step by step:
- Teresa decides to do nothing against God's will;
- she accepts God's plan for her;
- she surrenders herself into God's hands;
- God can treat her as His own possession;
- Teresa longs for God's will to be fulfilled in her life.
Her willingness to fulfill God's will makes Teresa very open in her life:
- despite difficulties, she does not cease to establish a monastery in Avila, for the Lord made her understand that it is His will;
- she is willing to change her decisions when she finds that God expects something different from her, for example when establishing in Palencia...
b) Trust
1) Limitations
Illness and suffering give us daily problems: it is not easy to see situations that are unpleasant and weigh on us always in light of God's will.
Firstly, a person desires to be healthy. Teresa often finds herself in this state. As a young person, she is confronted with illness. After an inner struggle – for being ill entails many limitations and obstacles – she arrives at an 'Yes'. This 'Yes' means identifying with God's will.
... I remained completely stiff, although it gradually improved over about three years. When I began to crawl on all fours, I thanked the Lord. I bore it with great patience. I was very surrendered to God's will. (Ž 11,2).
To find another value and give consent to it is a prerequisite for accepting actions and situations that seem negative to us. Everything becomes relative. The important thing is only not to offend Him. I am willing to accept everything because it comes from His hand:
Do, Lord, what you want! Only may I not offend you or lose my virtues, if you have given me one in your sovereign goodness. I want to suffer, Lord, for you also suffered. May your holy will always be fulfilled in me! (Ž 11,12).
Those who can fully accept that God means well with them find themselves in a position where they can entrust themselves to God without worry. They know they are in good hands and are not afraid:
And it seems appropriate to me to reiterate what I have already stated: to completely surrender into God's embrace. Does He want to take the soul to heaven? There is nothing better. To hell? Let them not worry about that, for she would go there with her Good. Does He want to remove her from the world? For that is precisely what she desires. Does He want her to live a thousand years? So be it. She no longer belongs to herself; she belongs only to God. Let Him deal with her as He wishes and worry about nothing else. (Ž 17,2).
2) Desire
A few years later, Teresa experiences another developmental phase.
After she has dealt with specific situations, there comes a moment when she longs to do God's will.
A progressive relationship with God leads her to a disposition of availability. 'Your wish is my command', as we commonly say!
From above, many things are seen clearly; (the soul) recognizes the nothingness of earthly goods and how little they deserve to be valued by a person. She no longer wants to have her own will; she asks the Lord to take away her free judgment and hands Him the keys (of her own will). She wants to do nothing but God's will. (Ž 20,22).
This attitude reveals maturity in the development of the mutual relationship: to wish for what the other desires; to find one's own joy in the joy of another. A person like this already centers everything around 'you', and not around their own 'I'.
I realized how I had changed. I could do nothing but surrender to God's hands so that He could fulfill His will in me, for He knows better what benefits me. (Ž 27,1).
Those who personally experience the beneficial effect of God's action desire nothing more than for God to continue His work. Such a person completely entrusts himself to God.
c) Fulfilling God's will
In the book The Castle of the Interior, we find the recommendation to identify with God's will as a red thread:
Those who want to devote themselves to prayer must crave one thing – never forget this, for it is of utmost importance – to do everything to change and be far more willing to align their will with God's. In this, as I will explain shortly, lies the greatest perfection that a person may crave. The more perfectly a person unites, the greater grace they will receive from God, and the greater their progress will be on the path. (2H 1,8).
In the context of prayer, she points out the great significance of God's will: in human effort for the life of prayer, lesser or greater piety does not come to the forefront; nor does the discursive order of some method of contemplation; successful and well-formulated prayers are not decisive, but primarily the attitude of the heart: alert listening to God's word and calling, the ability to resonate (echo).
Believe me, it is not important to wear or not wear a religious habit, but to practice virtue, to submit to God's will in everything so that our lives proceed in accordance with His decisions, and to want what is done according to our will, rather than His. (3H 2,6).
Teresa emphasizes precisely that to be able to discern between the inner and the outer; secondary and essential; important and necessary; good and goal-oriented ... How clearly Teresa underscores what truly matters!
The soul must surrender into God's hands, so He can do what He wants; she must forget any of her interests and do everything possible to submit to His divine will. (4H 3,6).
To surrender into God's hands requires a considerable amount of trust: He is the potter, we are the clay; He can work with us and reshape us; He gives us the form corresponding to our mission.
d) As in heaven, so on earth
In her book The Way to Perfection, Teresa discusses the Our Father and describes it as a school of prayer. When she considers the petition "Thy will be done", she places several points here that may prompt us to reflect:
- It is not so self-evident that we utter this phrase. Why do we do it? Just because others do it too? Teresa knows that many people fear to utter this phrase because they think God will immediately fulfill their request. They are afraid of God.
- Many people have problems accepting God's will. Teresa argues very humanly. If we do not do it out of love for Jesus, then at least let us do it out of necessity:
I want to convince you in another way: Consider, daughters, that whether we want it or not, God's will will always be fulfilled: as on earth, so in heaven. And therefore, let us make a virtue out of necessity. Oh, my Lord, how wonderfully you have blessed me, that you have not left such a perverse will as mine to fulfill your will! (C 32,4).
- It is not just about uttering the phrase but also about the willingness to turn it into an act. The requirement for the readers of the book is clear: sisters, you must have in unity word and deed, what you say and all that you do.
- It is not enough that we promise the Lord everything only once. It very often happens that at one moment of enthusiasm we promise much, but shortly thereafter we take back what we promised step by step.
- Teresa has a clear vision of what God wants:
I now wish to convey to you, or rather remind you, what God's will is. Do not think that it is to give us wealth, pleasures, honors, and other earthly goods. He loves us too much to give us these things! How, then, does God deal with us? Teresa believes that those who love God more are burdened more; taking into account the courage she sees in us, and our love for Him.
e) Teresa's attitude
Teresa's great desire was to do everything for the glory of God and according to His will. Blindness and shortsightedness lead us to mistakes, even when we mean well. Teresa is aware of human inadequacy, so she writes: The Lord knows better than we do what we need.
It is simply about accepting that all the steps of our life have the character of preparation: the steps up Mount Tabor and the steps to Golgotha are always steps of preparation for resurrection.
Abbreviations: H - The Castle of the Interior, Z - The Book of Foundations, C - The Way to Perfection, Ž - Life
(Translated from German by Sister M. Zdislava of the Sacred Heart of Jesus OCD,
Carmel of St. Joseph in Prague.)
