The One Who Does the Will of the Father
- FATHER WILFRID STINISSEN
Jesus comes to us offered and completely surrendered to us in the Eucharist, in order to call forth the same surrender in us.
If we do not receive the Eucharist with at least a desire for complete surrender, the whole thing becomes a lie. We hinder God when we do not want to respond to his total surrender with our total surrender.
The total surrender referred to here implies that we lay the entire responsibility upon God. We give him our understanding so that he will use it to think what he will. We give him our will for his divine will to be incarnated, to that he may will through our human will. We give him our memory for him to touch it and make it remember what he considers important. We place ourselves and all of our powers at his disposal. We say to God: "You can bear the responsibility now," and he is happy, because this is what he has desired all along.
Saint Teresa of Avila describes the final union with Christ in these words: "The Lord represented himself to her, just after she had received Communion, in the form of shining splendor, beauty, and majesty, as he was after his Resurrection, and told her that now it was time that she consider as her own what belonged to him and that he would take care of what was hers." God wants to take our concerns upon himself.
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Acknowledgement
Father Wilfrid Stinissen, O.C.D. "The One Who Does the Will of the Father." from Into Your Hands, Father: Abandoning Ourselves to the God Who Loves Us (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2011).
Reprinted with permisison of Ignatius Press. This excerpt appeared in Magnificat.
The Author
Father Wilfrid Stinissen was born in Antwerp, Belgium, where he entered the Carmelite Order in 1944. He was sent to Sweden in 1967 to cofound a small contemplative community. His many books on the spiritual life have been translated into multiple languages. Among his works available in English are Into Your Hands Father: Abandoning Ourselves to the God Who Loves Us, This Is the Day the Lord Has Made: 365 Daily Meditations, Praying the Name Of Jesus, and The Gift of Spiritual Direction: On Spiritual Guidance and Care for the Soul.
