WISDOM OF THE SAINTS

UNIFORMITY TO GOD'S WILL
meditation based on St Alphonsus of Liquori treatise

1.Excellence of this virtue - continued (3)

A single act of uniformity with the divine will suffices to make a saint. Behold while Saul was persecuting the Church, God enlightened him and converted him. What does Saul do? What does he say? Nothing else but to offer himself to do God's will:Lord, what wilt thou have me to do Acts, 9:6. In return the Lord calls him a vessel of election and an apostle of the gentiles: This man is to me a vessel of election, to carry my name before the gentiles ibid.Absolutely true, because he who gives his will to God, gives him everything. He who gives his goods in alms, his blood in scourgings, his food in fasting, gives God what he has. But he who gives God his will, gives himself, gives everything he is. Such a one can say: Though I am poor, Lord, I give thee all I possess; but when I say I give thee my will, I have nothing left to give thee. This is just what God does require of us: My son, give me thy heart Prov. 23:26. St. Augustine's comment is: There is nothing more pleasing we can offer God than to say to him: Possess thyself of us St. Augustine in Ps. 131:3. We cannot offer God anything more pleasing than to say: Take us, Lord, we give thee our entire will. Only let us know thy will and we will carry it out. If we would completely rejoice the heart of God, let us strive in all things to conform ourselves to his divine will. Let us not only strive to conform ourselves, but also to unite ourselves to whatever dispositions God makes of us. Conformity signifies that we join our wills to the will of God. Uniformity means more, it means that we make one will of God's will and ours, so that we will only what God wills; that God's will alone, is our will. This is the summit of perfection and to it we should always aspire; this should be the goal of all our works, desires, meditations and prayers. To this end we should always invoke the aid of our holy patrons, our guardian angels, and above all, of our mother Mary, the most perfect of all the saints because she most perfectly embraced the divine will.