Saints' Discussion Forums

What is the difference that you see?

It reminds me of a saint talking about love and forgiveness.. I wish I had the quote at hand but cannot find it.. so I will try to tell the sense of it imperfectly..

That if someone does you harm, destroys your house, slaps your cheek, does all sorts of evil.. and you simply do not pay him back evil for evil, if you simply do not mind at all.. this is still not perfect. This is still not enough for God.

What is perfect is to repay evil with good.. to give and love. To give your cloak to the man who has slapped your face, to help that person with love.

When I think of resignation I think of it as having an unwilling part that is going along anyway.. when I think of acceptance I think of embracing..

But this is putting distinctions on the two terms that often do not exist when people use them. It's just how I am thinking of them in contrast to each other now. :) Normally I would not think of these terms that way.

'If we could see all He sees we would unhesitatingly wish all He wishes. We would beg Him on bended knees for those afflictions we now ask Him to spare us. To all of us He addresses the words spoken to the Sons of Zebeedee: You know not what you ask -- O blind of heart, your ignorance saddens me. Let me manage your affairs and look after your interests. I know what you need better than you do yourselves. If I paid heed to what you think you need you would have been hopelessly ruined long ago.'

St. Claude de la Colombiere


Reading this quote (found on Saintsquotes) helps me to accept His Will in my life however difficult. I cannot see the larger picture right now. But I will after death when all the pieces will fall into place, of why that happened and when it happened and how it happened.
Certain events happen which are beyond our control and which we see as directly coming from the hand of God. But I'm confused about how God's Will plays in decisions we ourselves made maybe in a state of sin or during a period when we were faithless? Does God's Will still work during those rash decisions and how does God's Will work when we do something we shouldn't have done?

We know that He makes bad come to good for our souls. I would think that with acceptance (not just resignation) to His Will that we would see that sooner.

So no, I think that since God gave us free will, that His Will doesn't come into play right at the time of our sin. However, His Will does come into play after the fact, to turn bad to good.

I think there are many things He asks of us which we feel are impossible, but that become possible with confession and prayer. These can be small things that nevertheless lead to far bigger things. Confession because it is of course often sin which prevents us from doing something, even though we do not think it is a sin, because we feel we are incapable of doing it. Be if we confess it, we become capable, and we realize what the true barrier was - something from long ago, that built itself up into a barrier.

So, when I think of resignation to His will, I've often in the past think of bearing with one's own weaknesses, but as time goes by, I'm beginning to also think of it as confessing one's weaknesses and holding oneself to His standard rather than one's own.

I truly love that quote!

But the barrier may be penance (so called Purgatory on earth) that came from a sin a few generations back or even from our own confessed sin. How do we accept that without resignation?

 Let me manage your affairs and look after your interests. I know what you need better than you do yourselves. If I paid heed to what you think you need you would have been hopelessly ruined long ago.'

That makes so much sense. No wonder God doesn't answer all my prayers   :)
Remember that song by Garth Brooks where he says, "Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers."

The other day I realized that acceptance (not resignation) needs confidence in His Mercy and in His Care for one. It needs heartfelt knowledge of the goodness of His Plan (not just intellectual knowledge).