Weekly Message 2-12-12

ABANDONMENT
Father Ron Longero

Father John Tauler (d.1386) wrote, “But if a man will not trust God nor abandon himself to him, if he insists on striving and straining and worrying, God often permits him to fall into deep misery and want.  This is to show him how far he can go under self-guidance.  But if a man sincerely turns all care over to God, then does God better manage his affairs than could all creatures together.”

For those of you who have been following sermons over the last several months have heard me at different times talk about trusting and abandoning ourselves to God.  This quote from Fr. Tauler is so excellent because he lays out for us a truth, that God will allow us to our own devices in our relationship with him.  God wants us to know that we can’t possibly get far by our own resources.  Principally, our relationship with God is by grace, by God’s initiative. 

As humans tied to the sin of Adam, we all want to travel our own road.  We want to lay out our own path and expect God to accommodate our wishes.  When God doesn’t condescend to our manipulations we grow frustrated because He doesn’t act in the way we want.  Then we say things like, ‘if God were real and true he would do it my way.’ 

What you and I must always keep in mind is that we didn’t design creation, we didn’t make it.  God did.  God has placed within us, written upon our hearts, a law which points us to the true source of love and happiness.  Because of the obstacles we place in the way we lose our bearings, our sense of direction.  Jesus Christ shows us the way back. 

Sometimes I think we grow weary and suspicious when we hear of talk of abandonment to God.  Why can’t we just live our life?  Doesn’t abandonment to God mean that our lives will be boring, less fun?  Sometimes I wonder if people don’t feel put upon when they hear the Church speaking of such things as if we are imposing something upon them. 

The point of such words as Fr. Tauler’s is, like the Epistles in the New Testament, meant to lead us in the right direction and encourage us in the faith.  God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and His Church want what is good and right and true for us.  God knows that if we turn to Him, abandon ourselves to Him, that He will give us Himself.  He will guide us as needed.  In so following God we will then know what really happiness, real contentment, real joy, real love is.

Our Christian life is meant for us to have a change of mind about what we are doing and to turn to the Lord our God, to abandon ourselves in trust and love to our Savior.  No one is trying to impose, only to love enough that you and I may know God more and more deeply.  May the Holy Spirit quicken us that we might grow in our love and trust in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.