HELIOTROPIUM
Conformity of the Human
Will
to the Divine
By FATHER
JEREMIAS
DREXELIUS
"The
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away
. . . blessed be the name of the Lord."
Job 1: 21
Book Four:
Who Refused to Submit His Own Will to the Divine
THE
Prophet Jonas was a striking example of a man who with great reluctance
delayed to yield himself to the control of the Will of God, and was on
that account afflicted for so long and in such various ways, until he
submitted his entire will to the Divine.
1. Let us hear what
command the Divine Will gave to Jonas.
"Arise, and go to Ninive." (Jonas I. 2) This was the first part of the
command. The second was-----"And preach in it." (Ver.
2.) Jonas arose indeed, and left the place where he was, but he went
not to Ninive. He "rose up to flee into Tharsis from the Face of the
Lord." (Ver. 3) And here was a twofold act of disobedience-----not
merely not to preach in the city in which he was bidden, but not so
much as to go to it. Quickly, however, did God follow him as an
Avenger, and fought with wind and sea, and every inclemency of the sky,
against the rebellious will of Jonas. "The Lord sent a great wind into
the sea: and a great tempest was raised in the sea, and the ship was in
danger to be broken." (Ver. 4) But not even yet did the fugitive
perceive that the tempest was closing around him, for "Jonas went down
into the inner part of the ship, and fell into a deep sleep." (Ver. 5)
Nothing however is worse, nothing is more perilous than false security;
and so the angry sea grew rougher and rougher, and the clouds which
gathered on all sides obscured the light of day. The sailors hurried
trembling to their duties; they furled the sails before the tempest,
and threw out into the sea whatever seemed to burden the ship. But when
the storm still continued, they determined to have recourse to lots,-----"And
the lot fell upon Jonas." (Ver. 7) When, therefore, they questioned
him, he replied,-----"I
am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord the God of heaven, who made both the
sea and the dry land." (Ver 9) But is it so, Jonas? Do you really fear
God? Then why do you not obey the Will of God? Many people speak in
this way. "We fear God," they say, but all the while they neglect the
Will of God. But this, my good friends, is not to fear God-----to
cry out against His Will. Nor would the sea be quieted by these words
of Jonas, but raging more and more, it increased in fury, and caused
huge mountains of waves to roll against the ship. And so Jonas is at
last thrown out into the sea; but he first confessed his sin, saying,-----"I
know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you." (Ver. 12) How
honestly and truthfully have you spoken, Jonas! Your own will stirred
up all this rage of the sky, this battle of the winds, this wondrous
disturbance cf the stormy sea; it is the sole cause of all this! You
were commanded to go to Ninive, not to Tharsis. But a master is waiting
for you in the sea who will teach you to will, and to will not, the
same as God. "And they took Jonas, and cast him into the sea, and the
sea ceased from raging. (Ver. 15) Now the Lord prepared a great fish to
swallow up Jonas." (Chap. II, 1) Such are the fruits of following one's
own will! In this way must we be taught to receive the easy yoke of the
Divine Will. And thus Jonas, who was now shut up in the living body of
a whale, and who went down almost to the lowest depths, while balancing
uncertainly between the living and the dead, exclaimed,-----"When
my soul was in distress within me, I remembered the Lord." (Chap. II.
8) Yes, at length we come to ourselves, and begin TO WILL that which
for a long time we resolutely willed not. And now, Jonas, are you
willing to go to Ninive? I am willing to go. Are you willing to preach
to the Ninivites? I will preach to them. Are you willing to perform the
vows which you made in the belly of this monster? I will perform them.
"And the Lord spoke to the fish: and it vomited out Jonas upon the dry
land." (Chap. II. 11) The former commands of the Divine Will are then
repeated:-----"Arise, go to Ninive, the great city: and
preach in it the preaching that I bid thee. And Jonas arose, and went
to Ninive, according to the word of the Lord." (Chap. II I, 2, 3) Jonas
has now cast out his own will; he now altogether wills that which God
wills; he now hastens with all his might to the place whither he was at
first commanded to go; he now lifts up his voice, and exhorts the
people to repentance; he now submits himself to, and obeys, the Divine
commands. Would that he may continue to do this to the end, and not
return to his own will.
2. Alas! for the
fickleness and inconstancy of the human will!
That which a moment ago was God's, now begins to be his own again! "And
Jonas was exceedingly troubled, and was angry." (Chap. IV. 1) And here
are the worst signs of man's own will again contending with the Divine.
He who brings his own will into harmony with the Divine is never so far
disturbed by troubles as to break forth into rage and vent his
indignation against God. And what is it, I pray you, Jonas, which again
drives your will, so lately in perfect harmony with the Divine Will,
into such a state of disagreement with it? Hear the fresh cause of
variance:-----"Is not this what I said," he exclaimed,
"when I was yet in my own country? therefore I went before to flee into
Tharsis: for I know that Thou art a gracious and a merciful God,
patient, and of much compassion, and easy to forgive evil." (Chap. IV.
2) This, then, is the point of variance between the Will of God and
that of Jonas. God. willed to spare the Ninivites; Jonas willed that
they should be punished; and he says that his soul had forewarned him
that it was vain for him to utter threats, since the execution of
vengeance would not follow upon them, for that God was easily
appeased. It seemed, then, that nothing was left but to pray to God,-----"And
now, O Lord, I beseech Thee take my life from me: for it is better for
me to die than to live." (Chap. IV. 3) It may be better for you, Jonas,
but perhaps not so Pleasing to God. But your own will does not take
this into account; it thinks only of what is pleasing to itself; but
whether this pleases God or not, it has little care. "Then Jonas went
out of the city, and sat toward the east side of the city: and he made
himself a booth there, and he sat under it in the shadow, till he might
see what would befall the city." (Chap. IV. 5.) And not even yet is his
will at rest. He leaves the city, that he might the more conveniently
behold its destruction. But why does Jonas leave it? Why does he not
continue to exhort the citizens to lasting penitence? What need is
there of his making for himself a new habitation with a creeping plant?
A thousand houses in the city would have received the welcome preacher
of penitence. But this did not please his will, for which not only the
largest cities, but the world itself, are sometimes too narrow. Jonas
thought that immediately after he had left the city fire would be
rained from Heaven, and the city be utterly overthrown; for thus God
had commanded the prophet to threaten,-----"Yet forty
days, and Ninive shall be destroyed." (Chap. III. 4) And for this
reason Jonas places himself in safety, and quietly waits to see whether
God will give any effect to His threatenings; or whether he will so
quickly blot out all the iniquity that had been committed, and spare
that most abandoned city. For a long time he waited to see the expected
sight from Heaven; and when the sky continued calm, and no flames
flashed from it, or stones burst forth from it; when vengeance seemed
entirely to sleep; when the pleasure also which he derived from his ivy
began to fade; when the sun struck fiercely upon his head; and when the
great heat caused him to faint, then at last, Jonas, bearing so great
patience of God with utter impatience, and growing very angry, "desired
for his soul that he might die, and said: It is better for me to die
than to live." (Chap. IV. 8) And when he was asked whether he thought
this anger right, he presumptuously replied, "I am angry with reason
even unto death." (Chap. IV. 9) Consider, I pray you, the cause of such
impotent rage. Jonas poured out so much bitterness, and well-nigh
fainted for grief, "because it had not fallen out to him as he
imagined." (1 Mach. VI. 8)
O Jonas, what implicit
faith does your will exhibit, but
chiefly in itself and its own instincts! Why are you so troubled at the
Divine pity and patience? Do you not know that it is God's property to
pity and spare? Do you wish to invest Him with the impatience of man,
so that when He is injured He should strike at once; and when provoked,
should immediately send forth His thunderbolts? This savours of man's
nature, and not of the Divine. Such is our disposition, that when
scarcely touched we assail the person who touches us with blows and
kicks; when hardly injured at all, we strike with the most passionate
blows; for nothing, in truth, are we better prepared than for
vengeance. We run, or rather we fly, when we are going to punish. But
not such is God. "The Lord is gracious and merciful, long-suffering,
and of great goodness. The Lord is sweet to all: and His tender mercies
are over all His works." (Ps. CXLIV. 9) "Neither will God have a soul
to perish, but recalleth, meaning that he that is cast off should not
altogether perish." (2 Kings XIV. 14) But why, O Jonas, do you grieve
so much that your palace of ivy is destroyed by a worm? You neither
taught the worm to gnaw, nor the ivy to grow. The Lord gave it to you,
and the Lord has taken it away from you; why then do you show your
wrath against Him? But if the destruction of that shading ivy is a
matter of such grief to you, should not the overthrow of a city, I
which is as large as a kingdom, cause you sorrow? And therefore, my
good Jonas, conform your own will entirely to the Divine Will. Has the
ivy perished? You will that it should have perished. Is Ninive
preserved? You also will that it should be preserved. Nor is there any
further reason why you should grieve, except on account of your own
will not having been brought into immediate subjection to the Divine.
3. Behold, Christians,
what is the effect of being under the
influence of one's own judgment and will, and into how great errors
this one thing draws even the saintliest men! We can effect nothing so
long as we have not entirely subdued our own will. While this rises up
and opposes the Divine Will, no gifts, or vows, or prayers, or
sacrifices are acceptable to God. Pleasing to God is fasting, pleasing
are alms, pleasing is earnestness in prayer, but only so far as each is
harmony with the Divine Will. One's own will, indeed, knows how to be
liberal in offerings of money, to set apart times for fasting, to have
recourse to prayer; but all these acts are utterly hateful to God if
they are not conformed to the Divine Will. And so God, when forbidding
fasts (wonderful indeed to re. late) and sacrifices, and other things
acceptable to Himself, says,-----"Do not fast as you
have done until this day." (Isaias LVIII. 4) And what, then, was the
fault of this fast of the Jews? It savoured too much of their own will.
"Behold in the day of your fast your own will is found, and you exact
of all your debtors." (Ver. 3) I love the fast, but I hate man's own
will, which spoils the fast. If anyone sets before a man who dislikes
onions a dish of the most costly food, but which tastes of garlic, it
will neither please him, nor stimulate the jaded stomach. It will
excite a nausea, and not a desire for food. And in the same way fasting
is like food of delicate flavour, and is commended by the Angel,-----"Prayer
is good with fasting." (Tobias XII. 8) But if the onion and garlic of
one's own will are mingled with it, then away with it, for this food
from the heavenly table is turned to loathing. S. Chrysostom says,-----"He
who sins and fasts does not fast for the glory of God, nor humble
himself, but spares his substance." Man's own will defiles and destroys
everything.
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