The Will of the Father
- MOTHER MARY FRANCIS, P.C.C.
We tend to be static, obstinate, obdurate — all the things that separate us from Jesus, who is always on the move.
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Whereas he was always fixed on the will of his Father, our tendency is to be fixed upon ourselves. But if our eyes are fixed on the Father, we, too, will always be moving ad Patrem. We shall be always in via, always on the way. Vistas will open out before us. Every sacrifice made will enlarge our view of other sacrifices to be made. Each suffering borne for God will reveal to us more to be suffered and give us strength to suffer more. When there is self-fixation, we become static. When our eyes are fixed on ourselves, we cease to move. We are thus separated from Christ and need to pray for mobility ....
We ought never to allow ourselves to forget that Jesus acted and made his painful human decisions as a man and that he did the will of his Father in faith. It is a great mystery; and we cannot fathom it: that this divine will, this divine intellect, was always that of God, and yet Jesus functioned as a man.
When, for instance, he made that agonizing decision in the Garden of Olives, he made it as a man to whom the situation appeared unbearable. He foresaw that many would not respond to the love he was pouring out, to the Passion he would undergo. He took, humanly speaking, a great risk. He took a risk on the will of the Father, in faith. I will do your will although it does not seem that this will turn out well, that it is worthwhile. He acted in faith. We are separated from him in the measure that we live on a merely natural plane.
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Acknowledgement
Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C. "The Will of the Father." excerpt from Anima Christi: Soul of Christ (San Francisco, Ca: Ignatius Press, 2001).
Reprinted with permission from Ignatius Press.
The Author
Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C. (1921-2006) was the abbess of the Poor Clare Monastery in Roswell, New Mexico. She was an accomplished author and writer of thirteen books, seven plays, and numerous poems. Among her books are: Come, Lord Jesus: Meditations on the Art of Waiting, But I Have Called You Friends: Reflections on the Art of Christian Friendship, A Right to Be Merry, Anima Christi, and Forth and Abroad. During her life she helped found four new Poor Clare monasteries, including one in Holland, and led the restoration of two others.
