A couple weeks ago, I reflected on how the Lord’s Prayer hinges on forgiveness. This week, in honor of the Feast of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori (August 1st), I’d like to pause to think about the line, “Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven” (Matt. 6:10).
St. Alphonsus de Liguori
St. Alphonsus de Liguori was an incredible man. He was a gifted mind that gave up his life as a lawyer to serve the Church. He vowed to never waste time and succeeded. Thus, he is the patron of the work of lay people.
To not waste time seems impossible with all of the distractions at our finger tips today, so St. Alphonsus is a more relevant patron than ever.
This dedication to productivity allowed him to write over a hundred books!
Uniformity With God’s Will
One of those books, Uniformity With God’s Will, is a short but extremely powerful reflection on what it means to tell God “Thy will be done”.
Uniformity with God’s will is to want whatever God wants.
This sounds simple, but St. Alphonsus points out that it takes letting go of our own desires which is not easy. Imagine each time we complain each day – about the weather, how busy we are, etc.?
The Right Thing at the Right Time
Not only does saying “Thy will be done” mean we accept all things, but it also means we do the right things at the right time.
It is so easy to want to control our lives and our actions.
Even good things, done at the wrong time could be against God’s will for us. This is something that hit home for me. It can be easy to fall into the trap of procrastinating the one thing I need to be doing by doing other “good” things.
Uniformity Is Not Conformity
We may have to force ourselves to accept what God wants at first saying, “Okay, God. I don’t like it, but I accept it.”
This is conformity.
What we should strive for is uniformity where what we want is so closely alligned with what God wants that we don’t even have to pause to accept it.
Could you imagine if the weather was always exactly how you want it? What if that car that cut you off was exactly what you wanted?
As the world happens around us, we understand that it is as it should be in the present moment because God has allowed it.
This requires us to zoom out, see with an eternal persepctive. We don’t have to understand why things happen, but only understand that God has a plan.
Mary and Joseph were pretty holy, and even they didn’t understand everything God did (Luke 2:50), yet they accepted it and Mary pondered these things in her heart.
God Wills Our Good
Luckily, God is Good.
The sound of letting go of everything I want honestly sounds aweful.
That is until I remember that God wants to share in his own blessed life with me (CCC 1).
Like a good father, he wants whatever is best for me.
Therefore, if I can accept what he wants in my life, I should be happiest if I follow Him.
Always Saying “Thy Will Be Done”
In health or sickness, good or bad, life and death, we can strive to be like the Saints and angels in heaven by saying “Thy will be done”, or like Mary, “Let it be done unto me”.
This should give us an immense peace. If we can only trust and believe that God is in control and we are simply participating.
“If some particularly crashing misfortune comes upon us, for example, the death of a relative, loss of goods, let us say: “Yea, Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy sight.” Yes, my God and my Father, so be it, for such is thy good pleasure. Above all, let us cherish that prayer of our Lord, which he himself taught us: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Our Lord bade St. Catherine of Genoa to make a notable pause at these words whenever she said the Our Father, praying that God’s holy will be fulfilled on earth with the same perfection with which the saints do it in heaven. Let this be our practice also, and we shall certainly become saints.”
Uniformity with God’s Will– St. Alphonsus Liguori
Read Uniformity with God’s Will – It is free here or many places on PDF.
You can also listen to it on Youtube – I like this version.
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