The Simple Way of Jesus

LENTEN RETREAT
Day 26

stepping-stones-God

EVERYTHING I have said up to this point in our retreat can be summed up in this way: life in Christ consists in doing the will of the Father with the help of the Holy Spirit. It is that simple! In order to grow in holiness, to reach even the very heights of sanctity and union with God, it isn’t necessary to become a theologian. In fact, that might even be a stumbling block for some.

In reality, holiness consists of one thing only: complete loyalty to God’s will. —Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence, translated by John Beevers, p. (introduction)

Indeed, Jesus said:

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. (Matt 7:21)

There are many today crying “Lord, Lord, I have a Masters in Divinity! Lord, I have a diploma in Youth Ministry! Lord, I have founded an apostolate! Lord, Lord, I am a priest!….” But it is the one who does the will of the Father who will enter the kingdom of Heaven. And this docility to the will of God is what Jesus means when He says,

Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of Heaven. (Matt 18:3)

What does it mean to become like a little child? It is to be totally abandoned in every circumstance, whatever form it takes, accepting it as God’s will. In a word, it is to be faithful always.

Jesus is showing a Simple Way, to moment by moment bind oneself to the will of the Father in all things. But Jesus not only preached it, He lived it. Even though He was the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, Jesus would do nothing apart from His Father.

…a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing; for what he does, his son will do also… I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me. (John 5:19, 30)

Isn’t that stunning that Jesus, who is also God, would not take a step without doing it with and in the Father.

My Father is at work until now, so I am at work. (John 5:17)

If we consider the patriarchs, the prophets, all the way up to Our Blessed Mother, we see that their spirituality, their interior life consisted essentially in doing the will of God with their whole heart, mind, and body. Where were their spiritual directors, their counselors, their spiritual advisors? What blogs did they read or podcasts did they listen to? For them, life in God consisted in the simplicity of fidelity in every circumstance.

Mary was the most simple of all creatures, and the most closely united to God. Her answer to the angel when she said, “Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum” (“Let what you have said be done to me”) contained all the mystic theology of her ancestors to whom everything was reduced, as it is now, to the purest, simplest submission of the soul to the will of God, under whatever form it presents itself. —Fr. Jean-Pierre Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence, Saint Benedict Classics, p. 13-14

It is the Simple Way that Jesus Himself took.

…he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave… he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. (Phil 2:7)

And now, He has pointed the Way for you and me.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. (John 15:9-10)

Today, many want to attach themselves to this or that spirituality, this or that prophet, or this or that movement. There are many little tributaries that lead to God, but the simplest, most direct path is to follow the Great River of God’s will flowing in His commandments, the duty of the moment, and that which His permissive will presents throughout the day. This is the Narrow Pilgrim Road that leads to a depth of knowledge, wisdom, sanctity and union with God that surpasses all other ways, since it is the very road that Jesus Himself walked.

SUMMARY AND SCRIPTURE

The foundation of the interior life is to abandon yourself to God’s will in all things, seeing in whatever life presents you, the Simple Way to union with God.

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him . (John 14:21)

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