Allocutio at May Concilium Meeting by Fr. Bede McGregor OP
The Gift of the Will of God
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Pope Francis said recently that as Catholics prepare to celebrate the extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy they should pick up Dante’s work and allow it to be a spiritual guide. Perhaps, some legionaries in many parts of our very extensive Legion world might not have access to this great Italian poet, but let me take just one famous quotation from him that will give me the theme for this Allocutio: ‘In the Will of God is our Peace.’
Of course this theme is not only central to the poetry of Dante; it is the dynamic centre of the life of Jesus and Mary. And if one reads the Handbook prayerfully one would see that the overwhelming theme is ultimately seeking and doing the Will of God. The Legion is all about God’s plan for creation, His plan of Redemption and cooperating with His loving providence for the salvation of all souls. It must be obvious that the Legion and every individual legionary want to do nothing else but the will of God. Why is that? Well, God is infinitely good and loving and He cannot will anything except what is the very best for us. Sometimes due to our very limited human powers we cannot see the will of God in circumstances and events that seem to be incomprehensible, totally negative, painful and irrational, nevertheless what God wills or permits can only be in the final analysis for our utmost benefit. This is our faith in the truth that God is nothing else but love. God doesn’t just have love; God is love.
Jesus explains that He came on earth only to do the will of the Father and in his agony in the Garden He cries out: ‘Thy will be done’ despite the dreadful suffering this will involve. It was precisely through this obedience to the will of God to the very end on the Cross that the salvation of mankind was achieved. Thus the best possible good is now offered to mankind. And when Our Lord teaches us how to pray, the heart of his prayer is, Thy will be done. There can never be more sublime prayer than those four little words. It will not always be easy to pray this ejaculatory prayer. There may be times when it may require a great deal of grace and heroism. At times when understanding ceases to be operative, when we are in total darkness and still pray this sublime prayer, then the benefits to ourselves and to the whole Church and beyond will be incalculable. Perhaps we will learn to pray this prayer at less dramatic times in our lives so that when more difficult situations arise, a profound habit of devotion to the Will of God will be a great help.
But let us now turn to Mary. As you might expect, the most resolute prayer of Mary is also, Thy will be done. Her great ‘Yes’ to God’s invitation to be the Mother of God also included a ‘Yes’ to the total plan of God for herself and for all of us too. She also teaches us the same truth at Cana: ‘Do whatever He tells you to do.’ Of course she also stands by the Cross of Jesus consenting to and cooperating with his great desire for the salvation of the world. It was not easy for her, nor was it easy for her Son to pray, Thy will be done… We turn to Mary to help us share her total commitment to the will of God in every possible circumstance.
In the month of May we think a great deal about the great legionary, the Venerable Edel Quinn. Recently I have been re-reading the Spiritual Notebook of Edel and I find she puts much more simply everything I have been trying to say in this Allocutio. She writes: ‘All that He permits is good. In all things know what God wants us to do. Do his Will.’ And again: ‘If Our Lord spent thirty years in obedience and dependence on Mary, doing his Father’s will, what better example have we? Unite ourselves to Him, and ask Mary to teach us how to love perfectly, how to fulfil daily God’s Will in all things.’ To put it mildly, it wasn’t always easy for her to pray that prayer with her perpetual ill health and the difficulties of a lay missionary in Africa at that time. In her prayer she did not seek to bend God’s Will to her will and desires but rather to bend her will to His Will and desires. It was surely her tenacious faith in the sheer goodness of the Will of God that was the secret of Edel’s well-known habitual cheerfulness and serenity. We thank God for giving us legionaries such a great example from within the ranks of the Legion itself on this crucial principle of the interior life.
Let me conclude by quoting the prayer of Blessed Charles de Foucald that might help us in our efforts to appreciate ever more deeply the Gift of the Will of God:
Abba Father, I abandon myself into your hands. Do with me what You will. Whatever You may do, I thank you. I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your Will be done in me and in all your creatures. I wish no more than this O Lord. Into your hands I commend my soul. I offer it to You with all the love of my heart, for I love You, Lord and so need to give myself, to surrender myself into your hands, without reserve and with boundless confidence, for You are my Father.
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