The Catechism of the Council of Trent/Part 4: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven
" THY WILL BE DONE."
THIS should be the prayer of all who desire to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Christ our Lord has said, " Not every one that, says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;" [1] and therefore does this petition immediately succeed that which prays for the coming of his kingdom.
But in order that the faithful may appreciate the necessity of the object of this petition, and may estimate the numerous and salutary gifts which we obtain through its concession, the pastor will direct their attention to the misery and wretchedness in which primeval guilt has involved mankind. From the beginning, God implanted in all creatures an inborn desire of pursuing their own happiness, that, by a sort of natural impulse, they may seek and desire their proper end, an end from which they never deviate, unless impeded by some external obstacle which opposes their progress. This propensity existed originally in man, and, endowed, as he is, with reason and judgment, was in him a noble and exalted principle, impelling him earnestly to desire God: but, whilst irrational creatures, which, coming from the hand of God, were good, preserved their instinctive impulse, and thus continued, and still continue, in their original state and condition, man, unhappy man, no longer guided by the innate principle of his being, ran into a devious course, and lost not only original justice, with which he had been supernaturally gifted and adorned, but, also, weakened the predominant desire of the soul, infused into it by the Creator, the love of virtue. " All have gone aside: they are become unprofitable together; there is none that doth good, no, not one." [2] " Man is inclined to evil from his youth." [3] Hence, it is not difficult to perceive, that of himself no man is wise unto salvation; that all are prone to evil; and that man is a slave to innumerable corrupt propensities, which hurry him along with precipitancy to anger, hatred, pride, ambition, and almost to every species of evil.
Although continually beset by these evils, yet, and this is the greatest evil of all, many of them appear to us not to be evils, a melancholy proof of the calamitous condition of fallen man, who, blinded by passion, sees not that what he deems salutary generally contains a deadly poison; whilst those things which are really good and virtuous, are shunned as the contrary. Of this false estimate and corrupt judgment of man, God thus expresses his detestation: " Wo to you that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." [4]
In order, therefore, to delineate in vivid colouring the misery of our condition, the sacred Scripture compares us to those who have lost the natural sense of taste, and who, in consequence, loathing wholesome food, relish only what is unwholesome. It also compares us to sick persons, for as they, whilst in a weak state, are unable to fill those offices, or discharge those duties, which require the vigour and activity of health; so, neither can we, without the assistance of divine grace, perform those actions which are acceptable to God. Should we even, thus unassisted, be able to accomplish some good, it is but trivial, and of little or no advantage towards the attainment of salvation. To love and serve God as we ought is more than our natural strength can accomplish in our present feeble condition, unless assisted by the grace of God.
Another most appropriate comparison is that by which we are likened to children, who, with a fickleness characteristic of their age, are, if left to their own discretion, hastily caught by every thing that presents itself. We, indeed, are children, the moment we are destitute of the divine protection: like them we too are the dupes of our own imprudence; and no less silly, we amuse ourselves with frivolous conversations, and fritter away our time in unprofitable pursuits. Wisdom, therefore, reproves us in the words: " O children, how long will you love childishness, and fools covet those things which are hurtful to themselves;" [5] and the Apostle thus exhorts us: " Do not become children in sense." [6] We, however, are the dupes of greater folly and grosser error than children: they may, as they advance in years, arrive at the wisdom of manhood; but, unless guided and assisted from above, we can never aspire to the divine wisdom which is necessary to salvation. Unassisted by God, and having spurned those things which are really good, we rush on voluntary destruction.
Should, however, the soul emerge from the darkness in which it is enveloped, and discover in the light of divine grace the miseries which encompass her; should man, awakening from the lethargy which oppressed his faculties, feel the law of the members, and the desires of sense, opposed to the spirit; should he despise the evil propensities of his nature which incline him to evil; must he not seek an effectual remedy for the enormous mass of misery entailed on us by the corruption of nature? Will he not sigh for the happiness which attends a conformity with the holy will of God, which is, and ought to be the rule of a Christian life. This it is that we implore, when we address these words to God: " Thy will be done." Having fallen into this state of misery by disobeying and despising the divine will, God vouchsafes to propose to us, as the sole corrective of all our evils, a conformity to his holy will, which by sinning we despised: he commands us to regulate all our thoughts and actions by this standard; and for the accomplishment of this important end, we humbly address this prayer to God. "Thy will be done."
The same should also be the fervent prayer of those, in whose souls God already reigns; who have been already illumined with the divine light, which enables them to obey the will of God. Although thus gifted and thus disposed, they have still to struggle against the solicitations of passion, the offspring of innate degeneracy and corruption; and were we of their number, we should still be exposed to great danger from our own frailty, and should always apprehend, lest, drawn aside and allured by our concupiscences, " which war in our members," we should again stray from the path of salvation. Of this danger our Lord admonishes us in these words: " Watch ye and pray that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is prompt but the flesh weak." [7] It is not in the power of man, not even of him who is justified by the grace of God, to reduce the irregular desires of the flesh to such a state of utter subjection, as that they may never afterwards rebel. By justifying grace, God, no doubt, heals the wounds of the soul; but it is not true that he also removes the infirmity of the flesh, as we may infer from the words of the Apostle: " I know that there dwelleth not in me, that is to say, in my flesh, that which is good." [8]
The moment the first man forfeited original justice, which enabled him to bridle the passions, reason was no longer able to restrain them within the bounds of duty, or to repress those inordinate desires, which are repugnant even to reason. Hence the Apostle says, that sin, that is the incentive to sin, dwells in the flesh; giving us to understand that it does not, like a stranger, make a temporary stay with us, but, as an inhabitant of " our earthly house of this habitation," [9] takes up its perpetual abode in our members. Continually beset, then, as we are, by domestic enemies, we see at once the necessity of taking refuge under the divine protection, and of praying that the will of God may be done in us.
In the next place, the pastor will explain to the faithful the force of this petition, and omitting many questions of scholastic disputation, which the erudition of some Doctors of the Church has discussed not less usefully than copiously, we shall content ourselves with saying, that, in the Lord's Prayer, the word "will" is that which is commonly called "the will of sign," (" voluntas signi,") and signifies what God commands or admonishes us to do or to avoid. Here, therefore, the word " will" comprehends all things which are proposed to us as the means of attaining heaven, whether they regard faith or morals; all things, in a word, which Christ our Lord has commanded or prohibited either in person or through his Church; and in the same sense are to be understood these words of the Apostle: " Become not unwise, but understanding what is the will of God." [10]
When, therefore we say, " Thy will be done," we first beseech our Heavenly Father to enable us to obey his divine commands, and to serve him all the days of our lives in holiness and justice; to do all things in accordance with his will and pleasure; to perform all those duties of which we are admonished in the pages of inspiration; guided and assisted by him, to conduct ourselves in every thing as becomes those " who are born, not of the will of flesh but of God;" following the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was made obedient unto death, even unto the death of the cross. Finally, we beseech him to enable us to be prepared to suffer all things rather than depart even in the least from his holy will. None desire or love more ardently the objects of this petition than they, to whom it is given to contemplate the surpassing dignity of him who obeys God. They, it is, who comprehend this truth, that to serve and obey God is to reign: " Whoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven; he is my brother and sister and mother;" [11] in other words: " To him am I most closely united by all the bonds of the tenderest love."
The saints, with scarcely a single exception, failed not to make the principal gift contemplated by this petition the object of their fervent prayers. All, indeed, have in substance made use of this admirable prayer; but not unfrequently in different words. David, whose inspired strains breathe such sweetness, pours out the same prayer in various aspirations: " O! that my ways may be directed to keep thy justifications:" [12] "Lead me into the path of thy commandments." [13] " Direct my steps according to thy word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me." [14] In the same spirit he says: " Give me understanding, and I will learn thy commandments:" [15] "Teach me thy judgments:" [16] " Give me understanding that I may know thy testimonies." [17] He often expresses the same sentiment in other words; and these passages the pastor will carefully notice, and explain to the faithful; that all may know and comprehend the plenitude and profusion of salutary gifts which are comprehended in the first part of this petition.
In the second place, when we say, " Thy will be done," we express our detestation of the works of the flesh, of which the Apostle says: " The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, &c." [18] " If you live according to the flesh you shall die." [19] In this prayer we also beg of God not to suffer us to yield to the suggestions of sensual appetite, of our lusts, or our infirmities, but to govern our will by the will of God. The sensualist, whose every thought is fixed on, whose every care is absorbed in, the transient enjoyments of this world, is far removed from the fulfilment of the will of God; borne along by the tide of passion, he indulges in the gratification of his licentious appetites: in this gratification he places all his happiness, and pronounces him blessed, who succeeds in its attainment. We, on the contrary, beseech God, in the language of the Apostle, that " we make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscence; [20] but that his will be done."
It is not without a struggle with corrupt nature, that we can bring ourselves to beg of God not to satisfy our inordinate appetites; this disposition of soul is difficult of attainment; and by offering such a prayer we seem in some sort to hate ourselves. To those who are slaves to the flesh such conduct appears folly; but be it ours cheerfully to incur the imputation of folly for the sake of him, who has said: " If any man will come after me, let him hate himself." [21] Better to desire what is right and just, than to obtain what is opposed to reason and religion, and to the laws of God. Unquestionably the condition of the man, who attains the gratification of his rash and inordinate desires, is less enviable than that of him, who obtains not the object of his pious prayers.
Our prayers, however, have not solely for object, that God should deny us what accords with our inordinate desires, vitiated as they are in their source: but, also, that he would not grant us those things for which, under the persuasion and impulse of the devil, who transforms himself into an angel of light, we sometimes pray, believing them to be good. The desire of the prince of the Apostles, to dissuade our Lord from his determination to meet death, appeared not less reasonable than religious: yet our Lord severely rebuked him, because it originated, not in supernatural motives, but in natural feeling. What stronger proof of love towards the Redeemer than that evinced by the request of St. James and St. John, who, filled with indignation against the Samaritans for refusing to entertain their Divine Master, besought him to command fire to descend from heaven and consume those insensible and in human men? Yet they were reproved by our Lord in these words, " You know not of what spirit you are; the Son of man came not to destroy but to save." [22]
We should beseech God that his will be done, not only when our desires are inordinate or appear to be inordinate, but, also, when they are not inordinate; when, for instance, the will obeys the instinctive impulse which prompts it to desire what is necessary for our preservation, and to reject the contrary. When about to pray for such things, we should say from our hearts, " thy will be done;" in imitation of the example of him, from whom we receive salvation and the discipline of salvation; who, when agitated by a natural dread of torments, and of a cruel and ignominious death, bowed in that agonizing hour with meek submission to the will of his Heavenly Father: " Not my will but thine be done. " [23]
But, such is the degeneracy of our nature, that, even when we have contravened our inordinate desires, and subjected them to the will of God, we cannot avoid sin without his assistance, by which we are protected from evil, and directed in the pursuit of good. To this petition, therefore, we must have recourse, beseeching God to perfect in us those things which his grace has begun; to repress the turbulent emotions of desire; to subject our sensual appetites to the voice of reason; in a word, to render us entirely conformable to his holy will. We pray that the whole world may receive the knowledge of his will; that the mystery of God, hidden from all ages and generations, may be made known to all. We, also, pray for the form and model of this obedience, that our conformity to the will of God be regulated according to the rule observed by the blessed angels and the choirs of other celestial spirits; that, as they spontaneously and with ecstatic pleasure, obey God, we too may yield a cheerful obedience to his will in the manner most acceptable to him.
God also requires, that in serving him we be actuated by the greatest love, and by the most exalted charity: that, whilst we devote ourselves entirely to him, with the hope of receiving heaven as the reward of our fidelity, we look forward to that reward, because it has pleased the Divine Majesty that we should cherish that hope. Let all our hopes, therefore, be based on the love of that God, who proposes as its reward the happiness of" heaven. There are some who love to serve another, but who do so, however, solely with a view to some recompense, which is the end and aim of their love; whilst others, influenced by love alone, and by generous devotedness, look to nothing else in the services which they render, than the goodness and worth of him whom they serve; and in being able to render him these services deem themselves happy. This is the meaning of the Note. terms appended to the petition, and of the apposition between the words, "On earth as it is in Heaven"
It is, then, our duty to endeavour, as much as possible, to be obedient to God, as we have said the blessed spirits are, whose praises in the performance of this exercise of profound obedience are celebrated by David in the psalm in which occur the words " Bless the Lord, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his that do his will." Should any one, however, adopting the interpretation of St. Cyprian, understand the words, " in heaven," to mean in the good and the pious, and the words " on earth," the wicked and the impious, we do not disapprove of the interpretation; by the word " heaven" understanding " the spirit," and by the word " earth" " the flesh," that all creatures may in all things obey the will of God. [24]
This petition also includes thanksgiving. We revere the most holy will of God, and in transports of joy celebrate all his works, with the highest praise and gratulation, knowing that he has done all things well. God is, confessedly, omnipotent- and the consequence necessarily forces itself on the mind, that all things were created at his command: he is the supreme good; we must, therefore, confess that all his works are good, for to all he imparted his own goodness. If, however, the human intellect cannot fathom all the mysterious depths of the divine economy, banishing every doubt from the mind, we unhesitatingly declare, in the words of the Apostle, that " his ways are unsearchable." [25]
We, also, find a powerful incentive to revere the holy will of God in the reflection, that by him we have been deemed worthy to be illumined by his heavenly light; who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love." [26]
But, to close our exposition of this petition, we must revert to a subject at which we glanced at its commencement: it is, that the faithful, in uttering this petition, should be humble and lowly in spirit; keeping in view the violence of inordinate and innate desire, which revolts against the will of God; recollecting that in this duty of obedience, man is excelled by all other creatures, of whom it is written, " All things serve thee;" [27] and reflecting, that he who, unsupported by the divine assistance, is unable to undertake, not to say, perform, any thing acceptable to God, must be, of all other beings, the weakest.
But, as there is nothing greater, nothing more exalted, as we have already said, than to serve God, and live in obedience to his law, what more desirable to a Christian, than to walk in the ways of the Lord; to think nothing, to undertake nothing, at variance with his will? In order that the faithful may adopt this rule of life practically, and adhere to it with greater fidelity, the pastor will recur to the pages of inspiration for examples of individuals, who, by not referring their views to the will of God, have failed in all their undertakings.
Finally, the faithful are to be admonished to acquiesce implicitly in the simple and absolute will of God. Let him, who thinks that he occupies a place in society inferior to his deserts, bear his lot with patient resignation: let him not abandon the sphere in which Providence has placed him; but abide in the vocation to which he has been called. Let him subject his own judgment to the will of God, who consults better for our interests than we can do, by adopting the suggestions of our own desires. If oppressed by poverty, harassed by distress, or goaded by persecution; if visited by troubles or afflictions of any sort: let us recollect, that none of these things happen without the permission of God, who is the Supreme Arbiter of all things. We should, therefore, not suffer our minds to be too much disturbed by them, but bear up against them with fortitude; having always on our lips the words of the Apostles, "The will of the Lord be done; [28] and, also, those of holy Job, " As it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord." [29]
- ↑ Matt. vii. 21.
- ↑ Ps. lii. 4.
- ↑ Gen. viii. 21.
- ↑ Isa. v. 20.
- ↑ Prov. i. 22
- ↑ James iv 1
- ↑ Matt xxvi. 41. Vid. Hieron. lib. 2. adversus lovin. et Aug. de Iferesi, 6.
- ↑ Rom. vii. 18.
- ↑ 2 Cor. v. 1.
- ↑ Eph. xv. 17.
- ↑ Matt. xii. 50. Bernard, serm. 3. do S. Andrea.
- ↑ Ps. cxviii. 5.
- ↑ Ps . cxviii. 35.
- ↑ Ps. cxviii. 133.
- ↑ Ps. cxviii. 73.
- ↑ Ps. cxviii. 108.
- ↑ Ps. cxviii. 125.
- ↑ Gal. v. 13.
- ↑ Rom. viii. 13.
- ↑ Rom. xiii. 14.
- ↑ Matt. xvi. 24 Luke ix. 23.
- ↑ Luke ix. 54.
- ↑ Luke xxii. 42.
- ↑ Ps. cii. 21.
- ↑ Rom. xi. 33.
- ↑ Col. i. 13.
- ↑ Ps. cxviii. 91.
- ↑ Acts xxi. 14.
- ↑ Job i. 21.