Romans 1:1
"What heart so cold as not to be inflamed with love by the kindness and good will exercised toward us by so great a Lord, who, though holding us in His power and dominion as slaves ransomed by His blood, yet embraces us with such ardent love as to call us not servants, but friends and brethren?"
Catechism of the Council of Trent
"We must belong to Jesus and serve him not just as hired servants but as willing slaves who, moved by generous love, commit themselves to His service after the manner of slaves for the honor of belonging to Him."
Total Devotion to Mary, St. Louis Marie de Montfort
Slavery. That's a touchy word. Ever since the conclusion of the Civil Rights era, Americans have been extremely sensitive towards the topic of bondage. The morally reprehensible enslavement of Africans in America between the eighteenth and nineteenth century has left scars on the American consciousness. Slavery became a byword for racism.
That is why it is with no small measure of apprehension that we learn that we must be slaves of Christ. We don't like to think about our relationship with God in those terms. Our arrogant human understanding makes us want to think that our relationship with God is some sort of mutually beneficial business partnership. We like to believe that we can work to deserve God's grace. The flawed mind says that Christ's outpouring of grace is the wages of good works and faith. We like to think that we are simply the servants of Christ, for servants are paid for their work as they deserve. But what can we do to deserve God's grace? Our lives cannot justify His mercy. His grace is a gift, not compensation. Therefore, we are slaves to God, a generous master.
There are three kinds of slavery as outlined under St. Louis Marie de Montfort's Total Devotion to Mary: natural slavery, enforced slavery, and voluntary slavery. Natural slavery is the state of the creatures of the Earth. The plants and animals of Creation are slaves to God by their very nature. There is nothing that they can do to change that, because slavery to God is within their very nature. Enforced slavery is reserved for the demons and the damned. Ironically, their servitude is enforced because they chose for it to be so. By rejecting God's love, they condemned themselves for eternity. By choosing their wills over God's, they are forced to accept the will of God in their condition.
God does not want natural or enforced slavery for His chosen people. The highest and most beautiful form of slavery is reserved for the faithful. Voluntary slavery is the perfected condition of both man and angel. The most perfect union with God is the complete abandonment of our will which is replaced by the will of God.
We like to talk about making sacrifices for God. How often are those sacrifices merely physical or emotional? It is good to offer up our suffering to God. It is good to love our neighbor, even when they happen to be our enemies. It is good to sacrifice our reputation with the world in order to witness the love of God. But those are shallow sacrifices. God wants all of that and more. But what He wants more than anything is the sacrifice of our will, our desires.
God gave us freewill out of love. He did not want to create cold automaton, but rather souls that could hate and love and act of their own accord. But the true measure of holiness is giving that gift back to God.
By giving our wills to God, we do not become those same automaton. We do not condemn ourselves to a menial eternity. We are not robots. God is not a taskmaster. We know the nature of our master. He wants that which is absolutely best for us. And more often than not, we would not reach that greater good by our own volition. We become slaves to God out of faith, the simple and wholehearted trust of a child.
This is a hard pill to swallow. But let the sweetness of God's love allow us to accept this bitter medicine which holds the key to our salvation.
Deus Vult!
That is why it is with no small measure of apprehension that we learn that we must be slaves of Christ. We don't like to think about our relationship with God in those terms. Our arrogant human understanding makes us want to think that our relationship with God is some sort of mutually beneficial business partnership. We like to believe that we can work to deserve God's grace. The flawed mind says that Christ's outpouring of grace is the wages of good works and faith. We like to think that we are simply the servants of Christ, for servants are paid for their work as they deserve. But what can we do to deserve God's grace? Our lives cannot justify His mercy. His grace is a gift, not compensation. Therefore, we are slaves to God, a generous master.
There are three kinds of slavery as outlined under St. Louis Marie de Montfort's Total Devotion to Mary: natural slavery, enforced slavery, and voluntary slavery. Natural slavery is the state of the creatures of the Earth. The plants and animals of Creation are slaves to God by their very nature. There is nothing that they can do to change that, because slavery to God is within their very nature. Enforced slavery is reserved for the demons and the damned. Ironically, their servitude is enforced because they chose for it to be so. By rejecting God's love, they condemned themselves for eternity. By choosing their wills over God's, they are forced to accept the will of God in their condition.
God does not want natural or enforced slavery for His chosen people. The highest and most beautiful form of slavery is reserved for the faithful. Voluntary slavery is the perfected condition of both man and angel. The most perfect union with God is the complete abandonment of our will which is replaced by the will of God.
We like to talk about making sacrifices for God. How often are those sacrifices merely physical or emotional? It is good to offer up our suffering to God. It is good to love our neighbor, even when they happen to be our enemies. It is good to sacrifice our reputation with the world in order to witness the love of God. But those are shallow sacrifices. God wants all of that and more. But what He wants more than anything is the sacrifice of our will, our desires.
God gave us freewill out of love. He did not want to create cold automaton, but rather souls that could hate and love and act of their own accord. But the true measure of holiness is giving that gift back to God.
By giving our wills to God, we do not become those same automaton. We do not condemn ourselves to a menial eternity. We are not robots. God is not a taskmaster. We know the nature of our master. He wants that which is absolutely best for us. And more often than not, we would not reach that greater good by our own volition. We become slaves to God out of faith, the simple and wholehearted trust of a child.
This is a hard pill to swallow. But let the sweetness of God's love allow us to accept this bitter medicine which holds the key to our salvation.
Deus Vult!
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