heart, who shall do all my wills. The Lord also says: a soul that is conformed to my will shall have for her name my will. Thou shall be called my pleasure in it.[1] Yes, for in this happy soul, because self-will is dead, only the will of God lives.
Ah! happy the soul that can always say with the sacred Spouse: My soul melted when he spoke. My soul melted as soon as my beloved spoke. Why does she say melted? Listen: what is rendered liquid no longer retains its own shape, but takes the form of the vessel in which it is contained. Thus, loving souls do not retain their own wills, but conform them to whatever their beloved wills. This conformity implies a will docile and pliant in all things pleasing to God, compared with the obdurate will that resists the divine will. An instrument is said to be a good one when it is obedient to the person that employs it; if it refuse to obey, of what use is it? For example, were a pencil to resist the hand of the painter, — if, when drawn to the right, it should turn to the left; if, when drawn downwards, it should seek to move upwards, — what would the painter do? Would he not instantly cast it into the fire?
Some place their sanctity in works of penance, others in frequent Communion, others in reciting many vocal prayers. But, no: St. Thomas says that perfection consists not in these things, but in submission to the divine will. " The perfection of the human soul consists in its subjection to God." Works of penance, prayers, Communions, are good, inasmuch as God wills them; hence they serve only as means to unite us to the divine will.
- ↑ Is. lxii. 4.
