Our Lack of Goodness as God's Will for Us
In Scripture it says “My just man falls seven times."(Pr 24:16) But if you examine your conscience you realize you can't fall seven times, because you're not faithful in little things.(Mt 25:21; Lk 19:17) If you're not faithful in little things, you wouldn't even be trying to keep the law enough to see how you fall. You could experience your sinfulness because God in His mercy would let you see it, but it would have to be in a big way, because you wouldn't have the sensitivity of conscience to see how you're falling in little things.
It’s like a straight line; that's the measure. But for us the reality is approaching the line more and more, as we move from defect to what is right. If you're not aware of that vibration, it's because you're dead. The reality of the embryo is that it is alive; it is the reality of development, the reality of becoming. We would tend always to want to be "in a state". As soon as the embryo is "in a state" there is a miscarriage; it stops developing. That is why we read, "He who eats of Me will yet hunger."(Sir 24:29) You always desire more and more.
It is your very falls which enable you to see how little faith you have. When Jesus cried out to the father, "Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Mt 27:47; Mk 15:34) it is pretty obvious He was not forsaken and He knew it, because you don't speak to someone who isn't there. When you feel that you're without hope, which is to be forsaken, you call on the person in whom you hope. And that’s what it means to live by faith. When you live by faith, you're living "over your head". It is irrational; it is "the foolishness of the cross."(1 Cor 1: 17)
"When I had come a little past the keepers of the city, I found him whom my soul seeketh."(Cant 3:4) The keepers of the city are our understanding and our senses. The reality of Jesus is beyond our understanding. When you know something, the object is assimilated to you; the conception is in your mind. But when you love, you go out of yourself into the object. So the object of love is the reality itself. The object of understanding is the image in yourself. Unless you go out of yourself to Jesus, you're not living by faith.
If you're faithful in little things, you’ll be faithful in big things.(Mt 25:21; Lk 19:17) To be faithful in little things is to be vigilant. When this vigilance is operating, you realize when something is sinful. A serious sinner, on the other hand, never realizes that he is sinning.
"Seek first the kingdom of heaven and its justice and everything else will be given you."(Mt 6:33: Lk 12:31) If you want everything from God, you’ll get everything from God. You take delight in something when it conforms to your appetite. Either you make the measure God as you conform to Him in faith, or you make the measure what conforms to you, and you become blind to what God gives you.
When someone you love dies, it would be natural to feel sad, but if you get depressed, which is different from being sad, it would be a sign that you were taking delight in that person, not in God Who gave that person to you.
There is a right contentedness which is a sign of holiness. When you want only what God gives, you’re always contented, even when you're not contented sensibly. That includes contentedness with your own defects, your inclination to evil; you have to be contented, notwith that, but in that state. Obedience is nothing more than an instrument that God uses to insure our intimacy with Him. We sometimes see religious superiors making the mistake of using obedience as though they had an immediate relation to God and you didn't, as though what they're saying was the bridge to you and God. A good superior is a person whom God uses to show you what He wants for you, and through obedience you recognize this because of your immediate relation to God. It is very much like an embryo. The mother has a soul as does the embryo, but the development comes through the mother. Therefore the superior is ordained by God to show you what God wants you to do. But if this conflicts with your relation to God, you're not bound by obedience. In fact, the superior is bound to listen to you. If your superior lived by faith, he or she would understand that. Yet the fact that they don't live by faith doesn't mean they are not the instrument of God. They have their position because of what God gave them, not because of their intimacy to God. Just as sons should honor their fathers because they are their fathers, not because they are right.
But Scripture also says, "Fathers, provoke not thy sons to wrath."(Eph 6:4) If fathers would realize their relation to the Father in heaven, their children would honor them. Fathers think their responsibility is the generative act and making money. They not only think like this, but they use their children to rationalize their own "perfection". When they feel they're not right with God, they try to have their children show off in various ways, to justify their existence. When you're peaceful with God, you have that reverence for your child; you want to cooperate with God to make that child what God made him to be.
But to do this you need to realize that you're an object of faith as well as Jesus Christ. If you don’t see yourself with the eye of faith, you can't live by faith. Jesus said "you are gods”(Jn 10:34) because we have the life of Christ who is God.
See what love the Father has bestowed on us in letting us be called children of God! Yet that in fact is what we are. The reason the world does not recognize us is that it never recognized the Son. Dearly beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall later be has not yet come to light. We know that when it comes to light, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Everyone who has this hope based on Him keeps himself pure, as He is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)
If you don't see yourself with the eye of faith, what are you going to communicate to others? If you're a teacher, you’ll try to build up your ego by becoming a "successful" teacher, becoming a slave of the students who’ll be looking for more and better "methods."
Jesus said, "My peace I give to you."(Jn 14:27) You can't be peaceful if your peace depends on what you have. If you don't believe that you have everything God wants you to have, how can you be peaceful? You can see the way you are when you're anxious about something; but you should also see that you can't do anything about it. So turn to Jesus with that very awareness of your own impotence. Remember at Cana when Mary said, "They have no wine."(Jn 2:4) There was a lack, something that was needed there, but listen to the way she said it, with no complications: they have no wine. Then Jesus answered as if to say, what's that to Me? and she said, "Do whatever He says."(Ibid. 4f)
In a similar way, you could say, I have no peace. But as soon as you say it and go to Jesus, you have it. You're not the slave of having to overcome the anxiety in order to get peace. If you want something and it is right, God wants it more than you do. And when you turn to Jesus, He’ll love you more and give you more just as He filled the barrels with wine, He’ll fill you with holiness. But He won't do it as though you're a barrel; it will be through your free will. You don't turn to Jesus as an alternative to doing something; you turn to Him to have your soul ordered by His peace.
He made you; He knows how you work. And the first step in overcoming a bad habit is to be peaceful with it, being united with Jesus. If you're not peaceful and are trying to overcome it by yourself, you’ll never succeed.
Of course, if you’re on your way to hell anyway, that is, if you are perfectly satisfied with what you do in yourself and all you want is to be in yourself, God will give you what you want. And at the moment of death Hell give you that also, and that is hell: yourself for all eternity.
But if you do what I tell you, it is a mark of predestination; you're turning to Jesus all the time, and He’ll give you what you want: Himself.
It’s like a straight line; that's the measure. But for us the reality is approaching the line more and more, as we move from defect to what is right. If you're not aware of that vibration, it's because you're dead. The reality of the embryo is that it is alive; it is the reality of development, the reality of becoming. We would tend always to want to be "in a state". As soon as the embryo is "in a state" there is a miscarriage; it stops developing. That is why we read, "He who eats of Me will yet hunger."(Sir 24:29) You always desire more and more.
It is your very falls which enable you to see how little faith you have. When Jesus cried out to the father, "Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Mt 27:47; Mk 15:34) it is pretty obvious He was not forsaken and He knew it, because you don't speak to someone who isn't there. When you feel that you're without hope, which is to be forsaken, you call on the person in whom you hope. And that’s what it means to live by faith. When you live by faith, you're living "over your head". It is irrational; it is "the foolishness of the cross."(1 Cor 1: 17)
"When I had come a little past the keepers of the city, I found him whom my soul seeketh."(Cant 3:4) The keepers of the city are our understanding and our senses. The reality of Jesus is beyond our understanding. When you know something, the object is assimilated to you; the conception is in your mind. But when you love, you go out of yourself into the object. So the object of love is the reality itself. The object of understanding is the image in yourself. Unless you go out of yourself to Jesus, you're not living by faith.
If you're faithful in little things, you’ll be faithful in big things.(Mt 25:21; Lk 19:17) To be faithful in little things is to be vigilant. When this vigilance is operating, you realize when something is sinful. A serious sinner, on the other hand, never realizes that he is sinning.
"Seek first the kingdom of heaven and its justice and everything else will be given you."(Mt 6:33: Lk 12:31) If you want everything from God, you’ll get everything from God. You take delight in something when it conforms to your appetite. Either you make the measure God as you conform to Him in faith, or you make the measure what conforms to you, and you become blind to what God gives you.
When someone you love dies, it would be natural to feel sad, but if you get depressed, which is different from being sad, it would be a sign that you were taking delight in that person, not in God Who gave that person to you.
There is a right contentedness which is a sign of holiness. When you want only what God gives, you’re always contented, even when you're not contented sensibly. That includes contentedness with your own defects, your inclination to evil; you have to be contented, notwith that, but in that state. Obedience is nothing more than an instrument that God uses to insure our intimacy with Him. We sometimes see religious superiors making the mistake of using obedience as though they had an immediate relation to God and you didn't, as though what they're saying was the bridge to you and God. A good superior is a person whom God uses to show you what He wants for you, and through obedience you recognize this because of your immediate relation to God. It is very much like an embryo. The mother has a soul as does the embryo, but the development comes through the mother. Therefore the superior is ordained by God to show you what God wants you to do. But if this conflicts with your relation to God, you're not bound by obedience. In fact, the superior is bound to listen to you. If your superior lived by faith, he or she would understand that. Yet the fact that they don't live by faith doesn't mean they are not the instrument of God. They have their position because of what God gave them, not because of their intimacy to God. Just as sons should honor their fathers because they are their fathers, not because they are right.
But Scripture also says, "Fathers, provoke not thy sons to wrath."(Eph 6:4) If fathers would realize their relation to the Father in heaven, their children would honor them. Fathers think their responsibility is the generative act and making money. They not only think like this, but they use their children to rationalize their own "perfection". When they feel they're not right with God, they try to have their children show off in various ways, to justify their existence. When you're peaceful with God, you have that reverence for your child; you want to cooperate with God to make that child what God made him to be.
But to do this you need to realize that you're an object of faith as well as Jesus Christ. If you don’t see yourself with the eye of faith, you can't live by faith. Jesus said "you are gods”(Jn 10:34) because we have the life of Christ who is God.
See what love the Father has bestowed on us in letting us be called children of God! Yet that in fact is what we are. The reason the world does not recognize us is that it never recognized the Son. Dearly beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall later be has not yet come to light. We know that when it comes to light, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Everyone who has this hope based on Him keeps himself pure, as He is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)
If you don't see yourself with the eye of faith, what are you going to communicate to others? If you're a teacher, you’ll try to build up your ego by becoming a "successful" teacher, becoming a slave of the students who’ll be looking for more and better "methods."
Jesus said, "My peace I give to you."(Jn 14:27) You can't be peaceful if your peace depends on what you have. If you don't believe that you have everything God wants you to have, how can you be peaceful? You can see the way you are when you're anxious about something; but you should also see that you can't do anything about it. So turn to Jesus with that very awareness of your own impotence. Remember at Cana when Mary said, "They have no wine."(Jn 2:4) There was a lack, something that was needed there, but listen to the way she said it, with no complications: they have no wine. Then Jesus answered as if to say, what's that to Me? and she said, "Do whatever He says."(Ibid. 4f)
In a similar way, you could say, I have no peace. But as soon as you say it and go to Jesus, you have it. You're not the slave of having to overcome the anxiety in order to get peace. If you want something and it is right, God wants it more than you do. And when you turn to Jesus, He’ll love you more and give you more just as He filled the barrels with wine, He’ll fill you with holiness. But He won't do it as though you're a barrel; it will be through your free will. You don't turn to Jesus as an alternative to doing something; you turn to Him to have your soul ordered by His peace.
He made you; He knows how you work. And the first step in overcoming a bad habit is to be peaceful with it, being united with Jesus. If you're not peaceful and are trying to overcome it by yourself, you’ll never succeed.
Of course, if you’re on your way to hell anyway, that is, if you are perfectly satisfied with what you do in yourself and all you want is to be in yourself, God will give you what you want. And at the moment of death Hell give you that also, and that is hell: yourself for all eternity.
But if you do what I tell you, it is a mark of predestination; you're turning to Jesus all the time, and He’ll give you what you want: Himself.