The Will of God in the Oblate Tradition
1. THE FOUNDER
From the moment of his conversion in 1807, when he began a deep personal relationship with God, Eugene de Mazenod considered the will of God as the guiding principle of his life. One of the earliest indications of this can be found at the time he had decided to become a priest. Knowing that his mother would not be too happy with his decision, he asked his sister to gently break the news to her, but nevertheless reminding her clearly that “we are all obliged to submit ourselves to the will of the Master”. [1]
This had not been a hasty decision on his part. On the contrary, he had sought the assistance of two of the best spiritual directors in the country, Fr. Duclaux in Paris and Fr. Magy in Marseilles, the latter of which assured him that his vocation was “as luminous as the full noon of a bright summer’s day”. [2] Such consultation and direction was a normal part of Eugene’s process of discerning the will of God.
A few years later, while preparing for his ordination, his basic desire to do God’s will was still very alive, as we see in the intentions of his first Mass: “The grace to know (God’s) holy will, 1° for the type of ministry which I must undertake; 2° in all my daily activities no matter how insignificant they may seem, and a constant attention to his inner voice so as to do nothing that is not according to his good pleasure”. [3]
Eugene spent the first few years of priesthood in an uncertain condition, waiting for God’s will to manifest itself in some way with regard to his form of ministry or state of life. At times he felt strongly attracted to a contemplative life-style, but the missionary calling was even stronger. But even within the active apostolate there were many possibilities which he could pursue. His friend Forbin-Janson made very strong appeals to him to join his Missionaries of France. This was a very attractive proposition from many points of view, and would have satisfied many of his desires. But was it his deepest desire? Was it what God wanted? These were the questions that mattered to Eugene: “I still do not know what God wants of me but am so resolved to do his will that as soon as it is known to me I will leave tomorrow for the moon, if I have to”. [4]
He had to wait another year for some clear sign as to the direction he should go. It came in the form of a strong movement of grace which left him in no doubt that he should found a missionary society to minister in the Provence region: “It is the second time in my life that I see myself moved to resolve something of the utmost seriousness as if by a strong impulse from without. When I reflect on it, I am convinced that it so pleased God to put an end to my irresolution”. [5]
As he always did in making decisions, Eugene checked out his inspiration with his immediate superior, who was at that time the Vicar-General of the diocese. He agreed that Eugene should begin a missionary society, and, for Eugene, that confirmed God’s will for him, because he recognized “the voice of God” [6] in his superior.
The Society that Eugene founded went through many trials, especially in its early days. At times it seemed as if it would never get on a firm foundation, but be subject to the whims of the local bishops. Roman approval was essential for its survival, and yet Eugene wondered if he was being too presumptuous to seek such measures. Only the strong persuasion of his saintly companion, Albini, convinced him that he should at least try. Many times during his stay in Rome he was tempted to give up the idea, because it seemed almost impossible to achieve, but eventually he was able to let go of his worries and fatigue, and accept whatever outcome presented itself: “Abandoning myself confidently to divine Providence who had protected me in a very tangible manner hitherto, I said to M. the Archpriest: ‘I leave this matter in your hands; I ask nothing but the fulfillment of the plans of God’.” [7]
Seeking God’s will meant first of all that he “neglect no means that human prudence can suggest”, [8] but then ultimately accepting whatever God sends: “You know that we are guided by Divine Providence; therefore, we must always proceed in the direction it seems to indicate. One who acts with this submission to the Divine Will has no need for self-reproach even though what is lawfully desirable is not attained”. [9]
Eugene summed up this dual aspect in an earlier letter to his first companion: “One must remember the saying of Saint Ignatius that in affairs we must act as if success depended on our skill and to put in God all our confidence as if all our efforts could produce nothing”. [10]
In 1832 Eugene was appointed Titular Bishop of Icosia. Among other things, it was a way of affirming the rights of the Holy See to name titular bishops without the consent of the French Government. The implications of such a step were serious from Eugene’s point of view. It was likely to put him in a very difficult position in relation to the French authorities, not to mention the burden it would add in terms of ministry. Nevertheless he was able to see beyond all personal complications and discomfort, and welcomed whatever God had in store for him: “All that you have done for me in the course of my life is too vividly present to me. I still feel so strongly today the efforts of it, that I cannot but count on your infinite goodness and throw myself in total abandonment to your paternal care, resolved now and always to do whatever you demand of me, should it cost me my life. I am only too happy to consecrate the few days that remain for me to spend on earth to do your holy will, in adversity as well as prosperity, approved or blamed by the world, in the midst of consolations or weighed down by sorrows. Because I do not know what is in store for me in the new ministry that I am about to begin. In any event, I know that nothing will happen to me that you do not will, and my happiness and my joy will be always to do your will”. [11]
Here we see the detachment or “holy indifference” that was to characterize Eugene’s life more and more from this time on. Indeed it was not long after his return to Marseilles when he was severely put to the test. The Prefect of the region headed a campaign to denounce Eugene as subversive, portraying him as secretly abetting the activities of the former regime, and describing him as “a very dangerous Carlist and Ultramontane” [12] The accusations were bad enough, but much more serious was the fact that the Holy See took them seriously and had Eugene recalled to Rome. However he did not have much difficulty in showing up the falsity of the reports about him, and was able to see how God works even through human error: “There is no need of regrets when one has done one’s best. God makes use even of human mistakes to achieve his purpose. I do not know what he expects of me; all I know is that he governs with his wisdom those whose sole purpose is to work for his glory. I am attracted by the thought of peace and quiet. I have good reason to be weary of human injustice. And so I act accordingly, in view of my soul’s good, even though I should obtain it for a time only. If God has decided differently, he will direct events and bend the will of his creatures in such a way as to achieve his ends… We who call upon the Lord must find our consolation above all in the thought that we are guided all unseen by his Providence”. [13]
On returning to Marseilles it was not long until the slander began again, and this time it led to the drastic step of Eugene’s name being struck off the electoral list. And worse still, when he sought to fight this in the courts he received a strong reprimand from Rome, obliging him to withdraw his appeal. A few months previous to this he had reiterated a principle that he had always lived by, that “whenever the Holy Father speaks, I will make it a duty to conform myself to his will, no matter what sacrifice it imposes on me”. [14] In the new situation, where the injustices of men were forcing him to lose everything that was dearest to him, including the very favour of the Holy Father himself, could he live those words with conviction? Here is his reply to the Vatican Secretary of State: “Whatever the result, may the will of God be done. All the legal advisors 1 consulted assured me of complete success. By withdrawing my appeal I am submitting to an iniquitous decision made against me and to the evil consequences that would flow from it; but neither the advantages of which I was assured, nor the disadvantages which I must now fear, could make me hesitate where the will, or even a simple desire of the Head of the Church is concerned”. [15]
All human consolation was gone. He was prepared to lose everything and retire simply to the seminary in Marseilles, because nothing had value if it was not God’s will. But even as he was adjusting to the situation that was forced on him, God had other plans in motion that would bring about reconciliation. Fr. Guibert diplomatically arranged everything with the French authorities and all that was required of Eugene was that he write a letter to the King to show his good will. But the one thing that Eugene still held on to was his dignity and he refused to cooperate. [16] A few days later Fr. Tempier, to whom he had made a vow of obedience in 1816, reprimanded Eugene, reminding him one more time that God’s ways are not always ours: “But why would you not give in to this path that Providence can offer you?” [17] Eugene had to eat his own words, and thereby gave up the last thread of resistance. The struggle was long and hard, but he was finally able to trust completely in God, convinced that “Providence wants us to grow in the midst of tribulations” and that “contradictions must come”. [18] Even though he was now laden with extra responsibilities as Bishop of Marseilles, he was a new man experiencing the freedom of the Spirit: “It is this divine Spirit which from now on must be the absolute Master of my soul, the only mentor of my thoughts, of my desires, of my affections, of my entire will”. [19]
From the outset, Eugene had been keen to expand the Congregation beyond the confines of the south-eastern corner of France, and indeed this possibility was recognized in the first Constitutions and Rules. [20] He had already made several attempts at bringing this about, but all were in vain. It seemed that God’s time had not yet arrived, but had to wait until the willing horse was tamed and trained to hear only the Master’s instructions. In previous attempts to expand, Eugene himself had taken the initiative, and they failed. On one occasion he retracted from a possible opening in Algeria for fear of numbers: “The Lord will manifest his will to us when it pleases him, we will try to aid his plans but I am alarmed at the smallness of our numbers when considering a colony”. [21]
Now, eleven ears later, he was faced with another possibility of expanding. This time the initiative was not his, but rather that of Bishop Bourget of Montreal who was desperate to have some missionaries to help him. Eugene’s heart expanded at this new call; this was the moment he had been waiting for. His impulse, despite the still-ailing numbers, was to say “yes” straight away, but he refrained, recognizing the need to pray, reflect and consult the Congregation on such an important decision. Discernment involved more than Eugene’s personal intuition even though that was now undeniably sharp. He used every means at his disposal to check it out and then, satisfied that it was indeed the call of God, he delayed little in sending out six active men to the new mission fields of Canada. Soon after there followed several other new missions: in England, Ceylon, and Natal. What had evaded him for so long had all of a sudden come in abundance, because it was now “God’s good time”. [22]
From now on we see a man who was free to follow Divine Providence in all its expressions. In his letters to his missionaries he shared much of what he personally experienced, reminding them time and time again to put their complete trust in God’s providential care, despite shortage of men and funds, and in the face of all kinds of trials: “You have nothing to do but let Divine Providence take its course”. [23] “Providence will find us the means eventually to give more scope to this mission”. [24]
Even when God took some of his men in their prime, he did not hesitate to say, “your holy will be accomplished in us”. [25] This did not mean that he was not upset at these sad events. Accepting God’s will often involved a lot of pain, as we see in an earlier letter: “However resigned one must be to the decree of Divine Providence, I will not be less miserable for the rest of my sorrowful life, after losing two men such as these”. [26]
Abandoning himself to Divine Providence did not mean a carefree reckless approach to life. Rather it meant cooperating with God with due prudence. To Father Cooke he said, “one must no doubt have confidence in Providence, but one must not tempt it”. [27] Eugene was well aware that missionary zeal could lead one to throw caution to the wind and overstep the mark: “Let us not underestimate the goodness of God. He will not fail to furnish us the means in proportion to the needs he knows we have. Our desires always run a little too far in advance of the approach of Divine Providence”. [28]
Sometimes it was even necessary to forego the work for the sake of one’s health: “One must unhesitatingly desist from work when it cannot be done according to the will of Providence”. [29]
To one of his missionaries who was complaining about the nomination of Father Guigues as bishop, Eugene gave one of his longest and clearest lessons on how to live God’s will, especially in a situation where one’s own judgement is contrary to what is being asked: “In this lowly world, my dear friend, one must not be too exclusive in one’s opinions when not knowing how to resign oneself to things that are not going in the direction one wishes. We must recognize that above our feeble conceptions there is a sovereignly wise Providence who conducts all things by ways unperceived and often incomprehensible to the ends He proposes; and when His most holy will is manifested to us by events, it is our duty to submit ourselves without fretting and to abandon entirely our own ideas which then cease to be legitimate and personal. What then must be done? Let us believe we were mistaken and put all our efforts into deriving all possible benefit from the position in which the good God places us. One should then regret having pronounced oneself too strongly in a sense contrary to that which divine Providence has chosen. Instead of murmuring, let each be concerned with his duty and confide himself to the goodness of God who never leaves us in the lurch when we are what we should be. I like to repeat that we must comply with joy, happiness and the most entire surrender to the most holy will of God and cooperate with all our power in the accomplishing of His designs which can only be for the greater glory of his holy name and our own good, that is, the good of us who are his submissive and devoted children. Let no one draw back from this attitude and henceforth let all misgivings cease, all murmurs, all statements quite contrary to these incontestable principles”. [30]
This was no mere theory, but the fruit of lived experience over many years. It was only because of Eugene’s fidelity to these “incontestable principles” that the Oblates of Mary Immaculate became established in the Church as a strong body of missionaries. It is not surprising that he insisted on the same disposition in his own men, because otherwise they could not be who they were meant to be. He continued to exhort them along these lines for the rest of his life, and even in his final moments on this earth, in between bouts of unconsciousness or semi-consciousness, he was frequently heard to murmur, “How I would like to see myself die so that I might freely accept the will of God”. [31]
2. CONSTITUTIONS AND RULES
In the early editions of the Constitutions and Rules, there was no specific mention of the term “will of God” or its equivalent, but rather an indirect reference in the sense of “submitting one’s own will to the will of the superior” [32] in the practice of religious obedience. The understanding was that the will of the superior represented the will of God for his subjects.
In the temporary Rule of 1966, we notice a considerable shift in style, and a more explicit reference to the will of God as something we look for together. First of all we see how obedience is presented as a disposition towards our heavenly Father, with Christ as our model: “Following Christ, whose meat it was to do the will of his Father, who sent him, and who became obedient unto death, the missionaries will be ever attentive to the voice of God, so as to cooperate with his plan of salvation”. [33]
The superior was now seen, not so much as being above the others in his community, but rather as the one who unites the members in their common search for the will of God: “A closely-knit group around their superior, they will see in him a sign of their unity in Christ and accept with faith the authority he holds. Together let them strive to discover the will of God and help one another to fulfill it”. [34]
Each individual must also share the responsibility of discerning the hand of God in events around him: “Instructed by the Word of God he will contemplate the action of the Lord in the world, discerning the signs of the times and the beckonings of the Spirit in all events”. [35]
The 1982 Rule retained and developed this new line of thought. Christ is again proposed as our model. Like him, “we too listen attentively for the Father’s voice so that we may spend ourselves without reserve to accomplish his plan of salvation”(C 24).
True freedom is found in doing what God wants of us, and for us Oblates, “religious obedience is our way of making real the freedom of the Gospel, in common submission to God’s will (Gal 5:13)” (C. 25).
Discerning the will of God is no longer seen as the prerogative of the superior alone, but rather as the responsibility of each and every member of the community: “As individuals and as a community, we have the responsibility to seek the will of God. Decisions which express this will are best reached after community discernment and prayer” (C. 26).
Finally the 1982 Rule has something to say in relation to the General Chapter. It is described as “a privileged time of community reflection and conversion. Together, in union with the Church, as we discern God’s will in the urgent needs of our times, we also thank the Lord for the work of salvation which he accomplishes through us” (C 105) [C 125 in CCRR 2000].
Summing up, we can say that, up to 1966, the Rule reflected the general state of theology and life in the Church at the time, whereby the will of God was found largely in commandments and precepts which had to be obeyed. In religious life it was found in the Rule and in the decisions of superiors, who were seen to represent Christ. The 1966 and 1982 Rule reflected a much more Gospel-based and Christ-centred approach to the Christian life and to religious life. On the basis of a renewed understanding of community life, each person is called and helped to hear the voice of God in his own heart and see His work in events around him. Ultimately a decision may have to be taken by the superiors, but this is the last step in a process of discernment which involves everyone.
3. THE SUPERIORS GENERAL
Father Léo Deschâtelets, on the occasion of a General Chapter, gave some central characteristics of Oblate life and spirituality as he experienced it. One of these he entitled “Absolute confidence in Divine Providence”, and we hereby give the full text of his elaboration of the theme:
“Oblates do not let themselves be stopped by external circumstances; as long as they see that God, through his Church, calls them to a certain work, a certain apostolate, they give themselves to it totally. Promptness in obedience characterizes them, because they know they are helped by Providence in all their undertakings. The Rule gives us a beautiful keynote that I always like to recall: ‘And thus, filled with unbounded confidence in God, they are ready to enter the combat, to fight, even unto death, for the greater glory of his most holy and sublime name’ (Preface). How many times we have taken on works solely on the help of Providence! If one looks at history, it often seemed reckless to accept such and such a work entrusted by the Church. And yet, letting ourselves be guided by our absolute confidence in God, we accepted the apostolate that was offered to us, and often to the surprise of other congregations, we succeeded. The fact that the Congregation sprang in to life so quickly depended not so much on external circumstances which were in its favour, but rather on this total abandonment and confidence in divine Providence. And still today, the works that we direct, we conduct as well as we can, convinced that we will never be lacking God’s grace, just as we never lacked it in the past. This is the characteristic of the Oblates, it seems to me, to always forge ahead to work with detachment for the glory of God, the good of the Church, the salvation of souls, knowing that if it is God who has called us to this service and who has entrusted us with a certain concrete apostolate, this same God will give us all necessary help. If God does not wish us to take on a certain apostolate, that’s fine; we leave it to others! But if the Church calls us, we throw ourselves into work with all our strength, we forge ahead, proud to work for the Church, and sure that God helps those who help themselves.” [36]
General chapters have great significance in the life of the Congregation. They are privileged moments for reflecting on where we have come and where we are going, on how we are being faithful to the charism in the Church and the world of today. No one was more aware of this than Father Jetté when he was preaching at the Opening Mass of the 1986 Chapter. He highlighted two dispositions that were necessary for a fruitful chapter:
“1° Together, striving to know God’s will is the first of these dispositions and the reason for our gathering. What is God’s will for us today? In terms of a Gospel response to the salvation needs of the present-day world, what does God expect of us, of the Congregation?
2° Wanting to know what is right and good and asking God to keep us in the light of truth and understanding is the second of these dispositions.”
He carries on, showing the link between the two: “If we really want to accomplish God’s will, we need to ask his light, to want the truth: first of all, the truth about who and what we are, about our vocation within the Church, about the spirit our Founder has bequeathed to us, and also the truth about the world of today, its values and shortcomings, about the new mankind that is shaping it”. [37]
A few weeks later, in the course of the same chapter, Father Marcello Zago was elected as the new Superior General and his spontaneous comment reflected his acceptance of God’s will: “The wishes expressed by the capitulars are for me the will of God, and I accept out of love for the Congregation, the mission, and the Church”. [38]
Thus, the very last words of the outgoing Superior General, and the very first words of the new, highlight this fundamental aspect of the spirituality of our Founder and our charism.
Treatment of the Theme in the History of Spirituality [39]
1. OLD TESTAMENT
God created man and woman; therefore, as created beings, they are completely dependent on God. However, He created them in his “own image and likeness”, as persons who have the capacity of a loving personal relationship with their creator. Genesis shows how God loved them, surrounding them with his benevolence. But they, instead of conforming to God’s will, accepting that they were created beings, wanted to assert themselves and become like God, and indeed oppose him. Thus they refused God’s call to a right relationship, and sin had taken root in them. God punished them, but did not abandon them. Later he called Abraham who responded positively to the invitation to be the Father of a new people who would follow God’s plans. In communicating his name to Moses, God revealed himself as a person; his will was therefore of a personal nature, and not as an outside force impinging on the person. God revealed his will in the covenant on Mount Sinai, but this did not transform Israel into a people totally submitted to the will of God. Written on tablets of stone, the law remained in a certain sense an external condition, incapable of bringing about perfect adhesion between God and man. But God announced a new covenant that would be written in men’s hearts (Jer 31:31-34), that would make possible total conformity between God’s will and man’s.
2. NEW TESTAMENT
In the New Testament God sent his Son Jesus to definitively reveal his free and absolute love and will (Jn 1:18; Heb 1:2), so that man could conform himself to the image of God by being “conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom 8:29). The will of the Father is at the origin of the new creature who is born “of God” (Jn 1:12). Man is no longer tied to the law, but goes beyond it. For a Christian, to do the will of God means living like Jesus, which means living a relationship of love as Jesus did with his Father. Carrying out the will of the Father creates intimate links with Jesus (Mt 12:50) and, in being united with Jesus, the disciples are also united among themselves. The Ecclesia thus becomes the privileged place where the will of the Father is communicated, discerned, and carried out.
What precisely is the will of God manifested by Jesus? In announcing that the Kingdom of God is close, Jesus says that we must be converted in order to enter it. Our conversion means leaving everything in order to possess God. A Christian must love God more than his father, wife, and fields, even more than his own life (cf. Mt 19: 29; 6: 33). Jesus invites the person to make a total choice of God, and he shows the way by his own example of giving his life for his friends (see Jn 15: 13). It is the will of God that we love in the same way, but how to do that concretely is something we must gradually discover. One must learn how to look for and discern the will of God (cf. Rom 12:2; Eph 5:81-11, 17). The desire to discern the conduct that it most agreeable to the Father in every circumstance becomes the internal motivation of the disciple (Ph 1: 9ff.; Col 1: 9ff). The will of God is discovered, moment by moment, by listening to the voice of the Spirit within us, by testing it, and by submitting to it (Cf. Gal 5: 16; 1 Th 5: 21). It demands a refinement of one’s supernatural sensitivity which is given by the Spirit, and which develops through the constant practice of prayer and love (Cf. Ph 1: 9-10; 1 Jn 5: 14).
3. SOME REPRESENTATIVES FROM THE HISTORY OF SPIRITUALITY
The saints are the people who have lived God’s will in their own lives, and so they are the most qualified to speak about it. We now look at the teaching of some of the great saints who helped greatly towards a more complete understanding of the theme.
St. Teresa of Avila states quite clearly that “the highest perfection consist not in interior favours, or in great raptures, or in visions, but in the bringing of our wills into conformity with the will of God”. [40] This basic truth is repeated by many of the great saints. Doing God’s will means, according to St Therese of Lisieux, “being that which he want us to be”. [41] Alphonsus Liguori distinguishes conformity from uniformity: “Conformity means that we unite our will with God’s will; but uniformity implies more: it means that we make only one will out of the divine will and our own, so that we want nothing but what God wants, so that God’s will alone is ours”. [42] Ascetical practices and sacrifices are all good in their own right, but the sacrifice of our will is what pleases God most, “because in giving him other things… we give to God the things that are ours; but in giving him our will, we give him ourselves”. [43]
In another place Alphonsus gives very strong views regarding ordinarily good things which are not willed by God: “God is pleased by mortifications, meditations, communions, works of charity for our neighbours, but when? Only when they are according to his will. Whenever they are not according to the will of God, not only is he not pleased with them, but he detests and punishes them”. [44]
St. Vincent de Paul makes the same point in blunt terms: “A good deed is bad if it is done when God does not want it”. [45]
Regarding how to find God’s will, St. Ignatius of Loyola gives a masterly method in his Spiritual Exercises. A key theme is “the end” for which man has been created, namely to praise, reverence, and serve God, our Lord, and by this means to save his soul. All else must be subjected to this end. In this subjection lies the basis of Ignatian indifference, in that one should not prefer health to sickness, riches to poverty, honour to dishonour, a long life to a short life (cf. par. 23). The spiritual exercises are ways of “preparing and disposing the soul to rid itself of all inordinate attachments, and, after their removal, of seeking and finding the will of God in the disposition of our life for the salvation of our soul”. [46]
St. Francis de Sales distinguishes two ways in which God’s will is manifested in ordinary life: the “signified will”, and the “will of good pleasure”. The signified will consists of “the commandments of God and the Church, the counsels, the inspirations, and the rules and constitutions”. [47] In other word, it is already revealed and written down to some extent, and is a constant guideline for our living. The will of good pleasure, however, is manifested “in every event, in everything that happens to us, in sickness and death, in affliction, in consolation, in things that are favourable or unfavourable”. [48] We cannot plan for all that will happen to us, so we must be ready to accept whatever comes, for “nothing is done, besides sin, except by the will of God”. [49] This demands great trust and freedom, to believe, as St Francis of Assisi did, that “all we have to do is to be careful to obey God’s will and to please him”. [50]
For religious, obedience to the Rule and to the superior are particularly emphasised as part of God’s will. St. Elizabeth of the Trinity says that “the Rule is there, from morning to night, in order to express the will of the good God for us instant by instant”. [51] Regarding obedience to a superior St. Ignatius says in his Constitutions that “he ought to hold it as certain that by this procedure he is conforming himself with the divine will more than by anything else he could do while following his own will and different judgement”. [52]
In short, the saints teach us that doing God’s will, moment by moment, in the small things as well as the large, is the only sure way to holiness, and that outside his will, no matter how good it may seem, nothing has value. They all echo the sentiments of Pope John XXIII: “My true greatness lies in doing the will of God totally and perfectly”. [53]
4. THEOLOGICAL SYNTHESIS
The fundamental disposition of the Christian is to live God’s will in imitation of Jesus who did nothing but his Father’s will (Jn 4: 34; Jn 6: 38; Lk 22: 42; Heb 10: 7). This is the only sure way to perfection or holiness (Mt 7:21). It is not an impersonal predetermined blue-print for living that is forced on one by God; it does not mean resigning oneself in a fatalistic way to whatever comes, but rather it is a call to freedom, to discover what one really wants and who one really is. [54] It is discovered moment by moment in the small as well as the big things, by listening to the voice of the Spirit within us, in our own conscience which is a privileged place for knowing God’ will (see L.G. 16; G.S. 16).
Often in the past the will of God was considered in a limited way, associated with a passive acceptance of tragedies and sufferings of any kind. But in fact there is an active as well as a passive attitude in a full understanding of it. Adherence to the so-called signified will of God is manifested by faithfulness to the commandments, docility to the evangelical counsels and to inspirations, and obedience to the Church and to our superiors. [55] Our union with the will of good pleasure is indeed shown by accepting the tribulations that God permits. In both cases, however, one should have a “holy indifference” or complete detachment from the alternatives that are set before one.
Love and prayer are essential conditions for finding God’s will, and ecclesial communion is often best expressed and assured by confiding in a spiritual director. Discerning God’s will demands a supernatural sensitivity that only develops with practice. Living God’s will is ultimately the same as living God, because his will is not distinct in reality from his essence: “God and his will coincide: to proceed in God’s will is to proceed in God”. [56]
Conclusion
The theme “will of God” has been the specific subject of only a few studies in Oblate spirituality. [57] Perhaps the lack of such studies is precisely because it is such a fundamental theme in every spirituality. As one author expressed, “everything that we could say about Blessed Eugene de Mazenod… in relation to the ‘will of God’, one could affirm for every other founder, every other saint” [58]. This does not, however, make it any less important; on the contrary, we have seen how Eugene followed the great tradition from St Ignatius to St. Francis de Sales in orienting his whole life in terms of seeking the will of God in all things. His great biographer Leflon made frequent references to this dimension [59], and much earlier, Baffie alluded to his great confidence in God: “As soon as he fully understood, by the light of faith, that a certain work was pleasing to the divine will, he immediately applied himself to perform it”. [60] From many of the letters we have seen, it is abundantly clear how much Eugene wanted his Oblate sons to live in the same way.
The reappearance of this theme in recent years would seem to indicate that it does indeed belong to the very heart of Oblate spirituality. The 1982 Constitutions, which make several direct references to it, present the theme in its biblical sense, as a fundamental disposition of Christ, “whose food was to do the will of the one who sent him” (Jn 4: 34) (C 24), and which must be imitated by us. The kind of language and the practice of this have perhaps changed somewhat since the Founder’s time, but the reality remains the same. In 1826, as the Congregation was receiving the new name of Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Eugene exclaimed prophetically: “May we understand well what we are!” [61] In every age we continue to grow into who and what we are meant to be insofar as we live the will of God, just as Mary did, our patroness and model (C 10). As Oblates, we are called to a certain identification with Mary, [62] to be united with her in the words, “let it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).
ANTHONY BISSETT
