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Finding Peace in the Storm
The essence of perfection is to embrace the will of
God in all things, prosperous or adverse. In prosperity,
even sinners find it easy to unite themselves to the divine
will; but it takes saints to unite themselves to God’s will
when things go wrong and are painful to self-love. Our
conduct in such instances is the measure of our love
of God.
Here the reader might guffaw. “It takes a saint! I am no
saint! How can this be expected of me?” Of course, Alphonsus
knows that it is God’s will that we all become
saints in this life. He simply assumes that we desire it
and that God will make us saints as we seek to conform
ourselves to His will.
When Alphonsus here speaks of things that “go
wrong,” he is, of course, speaking from a human
perspective. Said another way, when circumstances
are undesirable, we come to a true test of our willingness
to accept what God is allowing or causing. To the
degree that we embrace and respond to circumstances
in a way that expresses a holy yes to God, we will be
united with Him. To the degree that we bristle, brood,
complain, or reject what is happening, as if it is outside
the purview of God’s loving hand, we are thereby
separated from Him.
St. John of Ávila used to say: “One ‘Blessed be God’
in times of adversity is worth more than a thousand acts
of gratitude in times of prosperity.”
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