Obedience to Events
One
The Real Obstacle to Holiness: Refusing What We Did Not Choose
The book of Wisdom 9:17 tells us Wisdom is the Holy Spirit. It then says, “She deploys her strength from one end of the earth to the other, ordering all things for good.” (8:1) So, Providence is the way the Holy Spirit works all things for good. And Kolbe new the Holy Spirit works through Mary.
So, how does the Spirit guide us to do what God wants? Through the Ten Commandments, the teachings of Jesus handed down and explained by His Church, the responsibilities and duties of our lives. These are all the ways the Holy Spirit guides us to which we want to be docile. But the one we probably have the greatest difficulty with is the way the Holy Spirit guides us through what God allows. Often, things we did not choose, do not like, and cannot change.
Maximilian Kolbe wanted to live and die in Nagasaki, Japan. By Providence, his superior recalled him to Poland, where he was arrested by the German Army in September of 1939. Kolbe did not panic. He knew everything was guided by the Holy Spirit through Mary. To the brothers arrested with him, he said, “We must be grateful, thanks to our captors who pay all travel expenses, we have the opportunity to spread our mission abroad.”
Providence, to demonstrate that everything was in the hands of Our Lady, set Kolbe and the brothers free on December 8th. And Providence allowed Kolbe to be arrested again by the Gestapo in 1941 and taken to Auschwitz, where Kolbe was transferred at the last moment to the barracks where a prisoner would escape, and ten men would be sentenced to death by starvation. Providence arranged everything to help Kolbe reach the goal of life, to become love, for greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.
Kolbe did not fight Providence, he learned to flow with it. How can we learn to flow with Providence, with the Holy Spirit through Mary?
Two
Obedience to Events: The Forgotten Virtue
After sin, maybe the greatest barrier to holiness is our resistance to what happens to us, our refusal to accept with trust what we did not choose, do not like, and cannot change.
What often happens is that, when we are confronted with painful occurrences, we either rebel, or endure them unwillingly, or resign ourselves to them passively. But God invites us to an act of love, which is a choice, to do as Little Therese says, “I choose it all.” This means, “I choose everything that God wants for me. I won’t content myself with merely enduring, but by a free act of my will ‘I decide to choose what I have not chosen.’ I decide to choose that which I did not choose.” Exteriorly this does not change anything in our situation, but interiorly it changes everything: This consent, inspired by love and faith, renders me free and active. This consent enables God to draw good out of everything that happens to us, good or bad.
In late January 1941, St. Maximilian Kolbe received a letter from a young monk at his monastery in Nagasaki, Japan. The brother was struggling with two things: he couldn’t travel back to Poland because of the war and he had health problems. But the real problem was that he just couldn’t accept his circumstances and as a result he was not at peace.
In response to the brother in Nagasaki who had his plans blown by the war and health problems, Kolbe writes, “Here is what you have to do: first of all avoid sadness and worries, because there is no reason to be sad. Is not the world guided by Divine Providence after all? Can something happen that God does not know or does not allow? But if He allows it, then no doubt it is for our own good. So even your sufferings, which you describe and which are really unpleasant, should not take away your peace or depress you….Serenity, therefore, much, very much serenity in total surrender to the divine Will in all things, to the Will of the Immaculata. Let us not desire to have either more or less time, either a different job than the one we have or a different place than the one in which Divine Providence placed us.” (The Writings of St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe - Volume I – Letters, 948)
Three
Providence Guides Everything
St. Maximilian Kolbe taught the young monk about a hidden form of obedience: obedience to events. This doesn’t mean passively accepting evil, we must do what we can to make things right. But once we’ve acted, God invites us to surrender and trust. He has not lost control. Nothing can happen except what God wills or allows for the greatest reason. Trusting like children, without demanding to understand, honors God more than thinking we know His plan.
Romans 8:28 doesn’t say all things are good, but that God works all things for good for those who love Him. The more peacefully we accept what we cannot change, the more room the Holy Spirit has to act in us.
Four
Two Worldviews: Chaos or Providence?
When life breaks down, when sickness, grief, or failure strike, we face a deep decision. Either we believe we’re on our own in a world of chaos… or we believe that Providence sees what we cannot see and is guiding it all with loving wisdom.
Providence means that God sees ahead and acts on our behalf. He saw this trial coming. He knows what it means. He knows how to bring good from it. You don’t need to understand the big picture. You need only to place your hand in the hand of Mary, and the Holy Spirit will guide all things for good through her. This led Kolbe to say, “I see Mary everywhere; I see difficulties nowhere!”
Five
How to Flow with Providence
Before anything else, spend time in friendship with God in prayer because He is the goal of life and because He is the power behind every good work, not your effort.
Then be responsible and do your part. Think and take appropriate action. Avoid the two-fold extremes of passivity and micromanaging everything. Live in the present moment with Jesus and Mary. Abandon all future moments to Providence, who has already taken everything into account and worked it into His plan for your greatest good.
Give thanks in all things, for this is the will of God for you.
Suggested Resolutions:
Choose one resolution for today to help you grow closer to God, or create your own. Here are some ideas to inspire you.
Think about the events that most frustrate you, the ways in which your plan has gone awry. Make the decision to see the good that will come from these things, no matter what they are, knowing that Kolbe accepted everything that was given to him, even martyrdom.
Entrust yourself to Mary at the start of the day, asking her to lead you in obedience by her example.