Abandonment and the Nativity
one
One of the most difficult things is to abandon oneself to the Providence of God, because, in order to be safe, we want control over everything in life and we trust ourselves, but not God.
But, if there is one thing we should have learned in 2021, it is that we can control some things and there is much, much more we cannot control.
Maybe the most important lesson to learn in life is Abandonment to God. But what does it mean exactly?
God the Father has a purpose for your life. And Nothing can prevent God from accomplishing His purpose, but you…
· If you rebel against him
· If you try to control everything and do everything yourself – leaving no room for God to act
· Or if you quit and despair
We should surrender or abandon ourselves to God - which does not mean giving up or giving in and it does not dispense us from doing our part, being responsible and doing all we can to do what is right.
To surrender or abandon oneself to God means that we let Him do what He wants through the people and events we can’t control and then to cooperate with God by saying “Yes” to His will in four ways:
1. The duties to perform or inspirations to follow,
2. The pleasures to delight in,
3. The suffering to endure,
4. Sometimes we are called not to act, or rather wait patiently and let God act while He takes care of everything.
two
We should meditate upon each characters in the Christmas story this Advent to learn how they lived out Abandonment to Divine Providence
Let’s begin with Joseph
I’m not sure what Joseph’s original plans were…but I am sure they did not include…
· A virgin who conceives by the power of the Holy Spirit
· And gives birth to the Son of God
o That was probably not on his radar.
However, Joseph says “yes” to the purpose of God by fulfilling the duties at hand
· Take Mary as your wife
· Get up and flee with the child and his mother to Egypt
· Joseph stayed focused on fulfilling his duties one day at a time as a husband, a father and a worker.
· And he did not try to control things that went beyond his scope of authority and responsibility
The abandonment of Joseph was one of
· Doing the will of God by the duty at hand
· And the willingness to let go of his plans
· And go wherever God would send him.
Joseph abandoned himself to the Providence of God
· in his willingness and flexibility to change his plans
· and get on board with God’s plan
· to do whatever God was asking of him next.
three
The Magi – a pleasure to enjoy
God designed us to seek what is good, and delight in it.
· Delight or pleasure is the fruit of possessing some good thing.
· Aquinas is very clear on this, We were made for supreme pleasure supreme delight.
Every basic human desire
· Has something that corresponds to that longing.
o We have hunger, that corresponds to food
o We have fatigue, that corresponds to sleep and rest.
Every human desire is meant to be satisfied by some good thing.
The greatest desire is the universal human desire for perfect and permanent happiness. Either, this universal desire, like every other, has a good which corresponds to it, or human existence is radically absurd.
· Some philosophers stop there and say, “Yes, it is absurd.”
The Magi wouldn’t settle for a life of absurdity.
· If we have this desire for perfect and permanent happiness
· then it must correspond to something to fulfill it
· In this life
So the Magi set out on a journey of desire to find fulfillment in Jesus and delight in him
Matthew 2:10 The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.
The Magi are the philosophers who said
No – life is not absurd
We desire perfect and permanent happiness
· so there must be something to match that desire in this life.
They kept seeking until the found the object of all their desire
· in Jesus
· and delighted in him.
Do we cultivate a longing for God that leads us to seek Him in prayer and delight in Him in the Eucharist?
four
The Son of God
The Son of God said “Yes” to the purpose and plan of the Father (Hebrews 10:7) to make a great exchange between God and man
· that the Son would empty himself of his divinity
· and take on human nature
· with its limitations, weakness, vulnerability, hunger, thirst,
· even our mortality.
This Yes of the Son of God gets Him thrown into a world
· in which men conspire to do great evil to him
– Herod the Great,
– the Jewish leaders,
– Judas…
Philippians 2:6 His state was divine, yet he did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as men are; and being as all men are, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross.
Jesus endured suffering
· when he emptied himself to become one of us
· and die on the Cross
Jesus abandoned himself to the providence of the Father,
· that is, he let Him accomplish his goal for him and for us
· by saying “Yes” to suffering,
· “Yes” to emptying
The Son gave up being all-powerful, all knowing, and the Father took care of him…
Philippians 2: 9 But God raised him high and gave him the name which is above all other names so that all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesus and that every tongue should acclaim Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Is there some cross or suffering that God will not take away that He is asking you to endure?
five
Mary and the Annunciation
Sometimes we are called not to act, not to speak, not to do anything. But to wait and to let God act while He takes care of everything.
Psalm 37:7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him…
Mary conceives by the power of the Holy Spirit…
· All Mary had to do was say Yes.
She didn’t need to convince Joseph of how she became pregnant
· God sent an Angel to do that for her.
She didn’t need to convince Joseph that they had to go to Bethlehem because the Messiah had to come from there…
· Caesar Augustus took care of that.
She didn’t need to convince Joseph to go to Egypt to fulfill the prophecies
· Herod and another Angel take care of that.
Yes, Mary went to Elizabeth and John the Baptist
· But maybe that was to show Mary - with even greater clarity
o she didn’t need to solve the problem of Joseph misunderstanding her pregnancy
o she didn’t have to explain it to all the folks in Nazareth.
· God would take care of it.
Sometimes abandoning ourselves to God means we are called not to act, not to speak, not to do anything; solve anything. Rather just let God act while he takes care of everything.
Post-Script
When we are faced with things beyond our control we have a few options:
1. Try harder to control everything – which leads to anger, pain and anxiety
2. Despair of controlling anything
3. Abandon oneself to the Providence of God
God is the Father Almighty.
He is the Pontocrator – the Ruler of Heaven and Earth.
Nothing can happen unless God wills it directly or allows it.
God’s Providence is guiding all things to good
God has a purpose for the world and your life
That purpose or goal cannot be thwarted by anyone but you.
That purpose is to show forth and communicate His love and goodness and glory in Jesus Christ (CCC 293) and to make us his adopted sons and daughters by sharing in His divine life, that is, for us to become saints.
Everything that happens has been foreseen by God from all eternity
· and has been willed
· or at least permitted by Him.
All things contribute to the goal He for which He created the world and for which He created you.
Even when bad things happen,
· whether by natural disaster
· or disease or when we
· or others make bad choices and do evil
o God can turn everything to good.
§ Rom. 8:28 In everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.
If we turn to God and abandon ourselves to Him – that is – let him do what he wants and cooperate with Him
Surrender or Abandonment to God does not dispense us
· from doing our part,
· from being responsible
· and doing all we can to do what is right.
If we have the sincere desire to do His will,
· We can and must abandon ourselves for the rest to God,
o Because God can guide all that is beyond
§ our control
§ or our scope of responsibility to good.
We hinder that process in ourselves by useless worry, anxiety, anger, and despair.
Since God respects our freedom
· He will not act where He is not welcome.
Do what you ought, abandon the rest to the providence of God
That means - let Him do what He wants to do
Through all the people and events you can’t control
Cooperate with God by saying “Yes” to Him in
1. The duties to perform or inspirations to follow,
2. The pleasures to delight in,
3. The suffering to endure,
4. Sometimes we are called not to act, rather to let God act while He takes care of everything.