For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. Matthew 16:25
“Submission a free gift to God. Every soul is called to enjoy the infinite benefits contained in this state.
Therefore do I preach abandonment, and not any particular state. Every state in which souls are placed by Your grace is the same to me. I teach a general method by which all can attain the state which You have marked out for them. I do not exact more than the will to abandon themselves to Your guidance. You will make them arrive infallibly at the state which is best for them.
It is faith that I preach; abandonment, confidence, and faith; the will to be subject to, and to be the tool of the divine action, and to believe that at every moment this action is working in every circumstance, provided that the soul has more or less good-will. This is the faith that I preach. It is not a special kind of faith, nor of charity, but a general state by which all souls can find God under the different conditions which He assumes; and can take that form which divine grace has marked out for them.
I have spoken to souls in trouble, and now I am speaking to all kinds of souls. It is the genuine instinct of my heart to care for all, to announce the saving secret far and wide, and to make myself all to all. In this happy disposition I make it a duty which I fulfill without difficulty, to weep with those who weep, to rejoice with those who rejoice, to speak foolishly with the foolish, and with the learned to make use of more learned and more scholastic terms. I wish to make all understand that although they cannot aspire to the same distinct favors, they can attain to the same love, the same abnegation, the same God and His work, and thence it follows naturally, to the highest sanctity.
Those graces which are called extraordinary and are given as privileges to certain souls, are only so called because there are so few sufficiently faithful to become worthy of receiving them. This will be made manifest at the day of judgment. Alas! it will then be seen that instead of these divine favors having been withheld by God, it has been entirely by their own fault that these souls have been deprived of them. What untold blessings they would have received through the complete submission of a steadfast goodwill.
It is the same with regard to Jesus as with the divine action. If those who have no confidence in Him, nor respect for Him, do not receive any of the favors He offers to all, they have only their own bad disposition to thank for it. It is true that all cannot aspire to the same sublime states, to the same gifts, to the same degree of perfection; yet, if faithful to grace, they corresponded to it, each according to his degree, they would all be satisfied because they would all attain that degree of grace and of perfection which would fully satisfy their desires. They would be happy according to nature, and according to grace, because nature and grace share equally in the ardent desire for this priceless advantage.”
Jean-Pierre de Caussade in Abandonment to Divine Providence (Grand Rapids: CCEL, 1751) 55.
As I rest this weekend, I find refreshment in abandonment.
We get weary when we strive thinking it is our job to sort life’s challenges. Or at least I do! Alternatively, Jean-Pierre points the way to infinite benefits and priceless advantage.
It’s the pathway Jesus marked out for us: lose your life for His sake and find it.
I appreciate the connection Jean-Pierre makes between “abandonment, confidence, and faith” for the Christian. When we choose abandonment, we experience His benefits in exchange for what our own efforts can muster.
We gain confidence and grow in faith, and we receive favors as gifts of mercy and grace in the process.
So, what’s the lesson for those who want to grow in generosity? Realize that letting go is the way to life. Submit to abandonment. Experience infinite benefits, not for selfish gain but for empowered service.
Allow God to shape you on the way of perfection and grasp untold grace on the way.