“I trust in God, my Creator, in all things. I love Him with all my heart” (St. Joan of Arc).
True love for our Father, which grows day by day, leads us to abandon ourselves to Him in everything. It is not a lethargic attitude, nor does it resemble that mystical current known as “quietism.” The attitude of abandonment in God does not belittle human capacities, nor does it devalue our cooperation in God’s work. However, it decisively changes the focus. Our security and point of orientation are no longer built on ourselves, our faculties, or the various external circumstances, but on God’s love for us.
St. Joan bore witness to this through her life and words when she was forced to defend herself in an unjust trial before prelates and scholars who aimed to trap her in contradictory statements so they could condemn her as a heretic and witch. In her seemingly hopeless situation, when her interrogators’ traps would not let her escape, she repeated the first part of the sentence over and over again: “I trust in God, my Creator, in all things.”
In such a situation, where we see no way out, we cry out to God, knowing that only He can intervene. However, today’s phrase is applicable not only to such extreme situations. Love for our Father awakens us to the reality of life and makes us aware of our blissful dependence on Him. Only when this creaturely dependence, contemplated with the eyes of faith, leads us to joyfully fulfill our task as beloved children of our Father, will we be able to preserve the freedom proper to the children of God.