How Realistic is Abandonment to Divine Providence When It Come to Our Work?
We're continuing our special series of posts to help us work through this
Holy Season of Lent. Each will incorporate the advice provided by Father de
Caussade in Abandonment to Divine Providence, specifically
referencing passages from the "Letters on the Practice of Abandonment to
Divine Providence" that are typically included in editions of his
spiritual writing.
We continue now with Letter I of the Second Book of Letters where Father enunciates Some General Principles of the practice of Abandonment to Divine Providence. It's a longish letter that's well worth reading and studying. But for today, we'll focus on the 3rd Principle. As I think you'll see, it injects a little "shock therapy" into the typical way we approach our work and our spiritual life:
"We must confine our whole attention to fulfilling as perfectly as possible the holy will of God to its full extent, abandoning everything else to Him, such as the care of all our temporal and also our spiritual interests, as our advancement in virtue."
Of course, we all want to fulfill God's holy will. There's nothing shocking there. But what about when we're told to abandon everything to Him, both our temporal as well as our spiritual interests?
I think most of us can at least grasp, if not fully practice, total abandonment to God of our spiritual interests. Even here, though, we can easily slip into a mode of imposing our will on God. Think of your Lenten discipline, for example. How did you decide what acts of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving you would pursue? Take fasting, for instance. Some of us have "given up" certain food or drink. Ideally, we've approached our decision with a sincere desire to please God, not ourselves. For example, I once gave up alcohol for all of Lent. Sounds pretty solid, doesn't it? But in the end, it was more something that proved to me that I could exercise self-restraint. Whether God was pleased or not didn't really concern me as much. Was that doing God's will - or more my own?
What about temporal interests? It's one thing to say or pray "Thy will be done." But do we really mean it?
Here are a couple of work-related examples that might illustrate the contrast between saying and meaning what we say:
We desire a raise or promotion. We work hard. By any standard, we've met and exceeded our quotas and/or excelled in our evaluations. We get along with our boss and our colleagues. Then we're passed over for that promotion; or that merit raise we earned and expected comes in as a cost of living increase, or - and this has happened to me - we're simply laid off, no fault of our own.
What about all the folks who've just been dumped into the ranks of the unemployed because of COVID-19. I suspect many were doing a fine job, maybe some were up for a raise or promotion. Then, out of the blue, this Coronavirus shows up and it's game over - just like that.
How quickly and sincerely do we say "Thy will be done" here?
Happily, Father recognizes fallen human creatures like me (and perhaps you) here. He understands how often the circumstances of our life require us to take action that, of necessity, serves our loved ones as well as the pressing needs of the duties of our particular state of life. So he offers us specific advice on how to approach what we must do while still keeping this spirit of abandonment:
"The practice of this double abandonment is, first, - every time we feel a desire, or a fear, or have ideas and form projects regarding our own interests or those of our parents and friends, to say to God, 'Lord, I sacrifice all this; I give up all my miserable interests to You. May all that You please, all that You wish happen. However, as there may be occasions when it is reasonably necessary to think and to act, I beg You to give me the thought at the right time, and thus I shall do nothing but follow what You deign to inspire, and to accept in advance either good or adverse results."
Father tries to encourage us here to simply let go and trust in God, even as we take action in whatever fashion we think we need to in order to fulfill our duties. Frankly, I understand Father's words here. But I also find it hard, when it's time to act, to simply say "I beg You to give me the thought at the right time, and thus I shall do nothing but follow what You deign to inspire, and to accept either good or adverse results."
Is it because I think I'm smarter than God and know best what to do? Or maybe I'm not very confident that I will know when He's giving me the right thought at the right time, such that I can follow His design. Perhaps it's some combination of these or other factors. I'll work on it.
One thing we can all do, however, is accept the results that come to us, good or bad. If we believe - and we should - that it's all in His Hands, that shouldn't be so hard to do.
We continue now with Letter I of the Second Book of Letters where Father enunciates Some General Principles of the practice of Abandonment to Divine Providence. It's a longish letter that's well worth reading and studying. But for today, we'll focus on the 3rd Principle. As I think you'll see, it injects a little "shock therapy" into the typical way we approach our work and our spiritual life:
"We must confine our whole attention to fulfilling as perfectly as possible the holy will of God to its full extent, abandoning everything else to Him, such as the care of all our temporal and also our spiritual interests, as our advancement in virtue."
Of course, we all want to fulfill God's holy will. There's nothing shocking there. But what about when we're told to abandon everything to Him, both our temporal as well as our spiritual interests?
I think most of us can at least grasp, if not fully practice, total abandonment to God of our spiritual interests. Even here, though, we can easily slip into a mode of imposing our will on God. Think of your Lenten discipline, for example. How did you decide what acts of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving you would pursue? Take fasting, for instance. Some of us have "given up" certain food or drink. Ideally, we've approached our decision with a sincere desire to please God, not ourselves. For example, I once gave up alcohol for all of Lent. Sounds pretty solid, doesn't it? But in the end, it was more something that proved to me that I could exercise self-restraint. Whether God was pleased or not didn't really concern me as much. Was that doing God's will - or more my own?
What about temporal interests? It's one thing to say or pray "Thy will be done." But do we really mean it?
Here are a couple of work-related examples that might illustrate the contrast between saying and meaning what we say:
We desire a raise or promotion. We work hard. By any standard, we've met and exceeded our quotas and/or excelled in our evaluations. We get along with our boss and our colleagues. Then we're passed over for that promotion; or that merit raise we earned and expected comes in as a cost of living increase, or - and this has happened to me - we're simply laid off, no fault of our own.
What about all the folks who've just been dumped into the ranks of the unemployed because of COVID-19. I suspect many were doing a fine job, maybe some were up for a raise or promotion. Then, out of the blue, this Coronavirus shows up and it's game over - just like that.
How quickly and sincerely do we say "Thy will be done" here?
Happily, Father recognizes fallen human creatures like me (and perhaps you) here. He understands how often the circumstances of our life require us to take action that, of necessity, serves our loved ones as well as the pressing needs of the duties of our particular state of life. So he offers us specific advice on how to approach what we must do while still keeping this spirit of abandonment:
"The practice of this double abandonment is, first, - every time we feel a desire, or a fear, or have ideas and form projects regarding our own interests or those of our parents and friends, to say to God, 'Lord, I sacrifice all this; I give up all my miserable interests to You. May all that You please, all that You wish happen. However, as there may be occasions when it is reasonably necessary to think and to act, I beg You to give me the thought at the right time, and thus I shall do nothing but follow what You deign to inspire, and to accept in advance either good or adverse results."
Father tries to encourage us here to simply let go and trust in God, even as we take action in whatever fashion we think we need to in order to fulfill our duties. Frankly, I understand Father's words here. But I also find it hard, when it's time to act, to simply say "I beg You to give me the thought at the right time, and thus I shall do nothing but follow what You deign to inspire, and to accept either good or adverse results."
Is it because I think I'm smarter than God and know best what to do? Or maybe I'm not very confident that I will know when He's giving me the right thought at the right time, such that I can follow His design. Perhaps it's some combination of these or other factors. I'll work on it.
One thing we can all do, however, is accept the results that come to us, good or bad. If we believe - and we should - that it's all in His Hands, that shouldn't be so hard to do.
We adore Thee O Christ, and we bless Thee,
Because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.
Comments