Happiness is when we get everything we want …. as long as we want the right things. Only God knows the right things. Being powerful He can get everything He wants, “In heaven and on earth, whatever God willed He has done,” the psalm says. “Nothing happens in heaven or on earth, unless God either propitiously does it or justly permits it,” states the Council of Tuzey.
If this is so wouldn’t it be a great idea if we just unite our wills with His? Because this way, we can get everything we want, the right things at that, and that would be happiness. Well, that is also Charity when we have united our wills with God’s will.
This is a little secret that St. Therese knew. As young as five, she prayed to God that she might never do her own will but God’s will only. We should start training children this early. Because children will believe anything from authority. And if we tell them God’s will is the best for them they will believe it and this should put them well on the road to Charity even at an early age.
We grown ups, bombarded by advertisements saying ‘want me, want me,’ no longer believe in authority. We judge things by concupiscence. And wanting to do God’s will has never entered our minds. Satisfying our concupiscence is our only motivation and the cause of all our sorrows because we ourselves discover that the things that satisfy our concupiscence do not give us happiness.
Our intellect and will are attracted to truth and to the good. So they should be attracted to God who is the ultimate truth and good. But man is man and his faculties are natural and are unable to go beyond its human limits. It needs grace to leave its natural confines and soar up to the level of the divine. We have sanctifying grace to raise man to the supernatural level wherewith he becomes capable of receiving the infused virtue of Charity. It is in this level that man’s will is united with God as a drop of water is united with the ocean.
Spiritual writers often refer to this as “conformity to the will of God” and a good ascetical exercise. This is fine. Except that here we are talking of two wills, God’s will and my will. And the exercise consist in comforming my will continuously with God’s will. St. Alphonsus Liguori talks, instead, of “uniformity with God’s will.” Here there is only one will: God’s will; I do not have any will. Of course my will is there intact within me. But I act as if it does not exist. This latter is simpler and more efficient in uniting our will with God’s will, the essence of Charity.
In the spiritual life these are the two antagonists: “Thy will be done” versus “my will be done.” It is a furious battle that usually ends with man demanding that God do his will. It is worst than rebellion. It is an attempt to subdue God. Man wants God to submit His will to his. That is the way of a reprobate.