CONSIDERATION XXXIV
Conformity to the Will of God
"In His pleasure is life." Ps. xxx. 5.
First Point.
ALL our salvation and all our perfection, consist in loving God. " He that loveth not . . . . abideth in death." (i S. John iii. 14.) " Charity, which is the bond of perfectness." (Col. iii. 14.) But the perfection of love consists, then, in the uniformity of our will with the Divine will. Since this is the chief effect of love, according to S. Dionysius, to unite the wills of those who love, so that they have but one heart and one will. So therefore our repentances, our communions, our alms-deeds, please God in proportion as they correspond with the Divine will, since otherwise they are not virtues but defects, and worthy of correction.
It was principally to teach us this truth by His example, that our Blessed Lord came down from heaven. Mark what He said on coming into the world, as the Apostle writes, " Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldst not, but a Body hast thou prepared Me. . . . Then said I, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God." (Heb, x. 5,7) " Thou, My Father, hast refused the victims offered by men, Thou willed that I should sacrifice to Thee by death that Body which Thou hast given Me. Behold Me ready to do Thy will." And this He expressed frequently, saying, " I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me." (S. John vi. 38.) And by this He desires that
