God's Will and Living the Present Moment

     There is a SUPERB little book, considered one of the ten greatest Christian spiritual writings of all time, called "Abandonment to Divine Providence" by Fr. Jean Pierre de Caussade. Other translations are titled "Self Abandonment to Divine Providence" and "The Sacrament of the Present Moment." It is thought that St. Therese based some of her thoughts on abandonment on his writings.

     I cannot recommend de Caussade highly enough. His book deals with how to be holy by simply accepting the duties of one's state in life as God's Holy Will for you in the present moment.

     The only Grace God gives us is the Grace to live in the present moment. The past is gone, and if confessed, the sins of our past are forgiven and forgotten by God. We only have the Grace from God to live the present moment. We do not have the Grace right now to deal with tomorrow or next week or next year. God will give us that Grace when that moment comes. If we keep reliving the past, or try to deal with tomorrow's troubles today, we will fail and fall, because all we have is the Grace necessary for this present moment.

     Satan defeats us by causing us to regret the past and worry about the future, when all we have the Grace for is the present. Of course that Grace is sufficient to overcome any temptation or deal with any hardship or suffering, if only we abandon ourselves to the Grace of God's Divine Providence that He makes available at every moment.

     De Caussade's primary point is, then, that all that is necessary to become a saint (it is understood of course that the faithful must first observe the laws of the church and the commandments) is to live our daily lives in complete and utter abandonment to God's Will made manifest in our duty and state in life. That Will is revealed to us by our the duties, joys, and sufferings of the present moment. Of course, God never actively wills us suffering or evil, but sometimes His permissive will allows suffering (a result of Original Sin) for our own sanctification and salvation as well as the salvation of all sinners.

     If we accept all these as a sublime gift from God, not fighting or rejecting them constantly or always regretting the past or fearing the future, then we will indeed be saints, because that is all that God asks of any of His children. A saint may therefore be a wife living a hidden life of chores and changing dirty diapers, or it may be a life of one called to extraordinary duties such as Mother Theresa, but if both equally abandon themselves to the duties of their state in life they are equally saints in God's eyes.

     So forget the past, whose sins are forgiven and forgotten, don't worry about the future, because you do not at present have the Grace necessary to deal with it, and live in complete abandonment the duties, joys and sufferings of the present moment, which is nothing more or less than God revealing to you His Holy Will. Use to their fullest those gifts of wisdom and intellect God has bestowed upon you. (And don't look for signs in the sky from God for direction---he gave us a brain and expects us to make use of it.)

     God asks nothing more than this, and if we do it we will indeed be saints. Of course, it is very simple. But just because something is simple that does not mean it is always easy. The Cross is simple, but it was not easy.