“Be convinced: heaven and earth will pass away before the Lord will lose sight of you if you remain obedient, or at least if you are determined to be obedient” (St. Francis de Sales).
Our Heavenly Father’s invitation to obedience is a great spiritual joy, even though our human nature sometimes rebels and resists obedience, clinging to its own ideas of happiness and fulfillment.
Once we are at least somewhat free of this attachment, obedience will shine like a bright light and we will understand that it is about achieving unity with our loving Father, who never loses sight of us and who knows how to reward even our willingness to obey.
What is obedience, then, if not a declaration of love for God? What is obedience if not the honor God gives us to cooperate in His kingdom? What is obedience if not the concrete application of love?
Time and again we encounter the unsurpassable generosity of God: according to the wisdom of St. Francis de Sales, the mere determination to do God’s will is enough to open the doors so that His grace can reach us. It is as if our Father were saying to us: “I see how difficult it is sometimes for you to understand Me and to obey Me as I want you to. But I also see that you want to. That makes Me happy, and I, for my part, will not deny you anything you need to love Me more perfectly”.
If we have such a Father, what do we have to fear? Even if our will is still weak -maybe even very weak- even if we stumble again and again, let us call upon the Lord and ask Him to strengthen our will. Then we are on the right track.
Our Father makes it easy for us, and yet we must do our part so that love can grow.