Daily Thought For march 19, 2015

Conformity To God's Will

     The foregoing example shows us that conformity to God's will makes us not only holy, but also perfectly happy. It fills us with the sweetest peace that can be tasted in this life, and makes of earth a paradise.
     Those who love God live in peace, because they find their whole pleasure in doing the will of God, even in things contrary to nature. 
     In truth, can a man experience greater satisfaction than to see all his wishes fulfilled? Now, if we desire only what God wills, nothing can befall us :but what we desire, for everything in the world comes to pass through the will of God, sin excepted. Our complete conformity to the will of God is so agreeable to the Divine Majesty that it often exerts a visible influence even in temporal matters. This is shown by the story of a farmer of whom the early Fathers of the desert make mention. His field always yielded more than those of his neighbors. When questioned as to the reason for this, he answered: "Do not wonder at the rich harvest of my sowing. I always have just such weather as I desire to ripen my crops." Astonished, they asked for an explanation. 
     "I never wish for any other weather than that which God sends," replied the good man, "and as I will only what pleases Him, He favors me with a harvest as abundant as I can desire." 
     As God can do all things of Himself, so in the same degree can he who is conformed to the will of God in all things, have all that he wants. “When souls,” says Salvian, “who have resigned themselves wholly to God, are humbled, they desire it. If they have to suffer poverty they wish to be poor. In a word, they desire whatever happens to them. Therefore they are happy even in this life. Cold and heat, wind and rain, are alike agreeable to the man conformed to the will of God, for he says, “I desire it to be cold or warm, windy or rainy, because God wills it thus.”


from Conformity to the Will of God by St. Alphonsus Liguori pp.30-31