Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent.
Elizabeth greets Mary and praises her: “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” Caussade says, “The more absolute this surrender becomes, the greater their holiness.” Thus surrender is bound up with little things, for little things have tremendous potential to connect us with God. Doing something small out of love has the power to transform us. For, the little thing is the thing done now and here. "The present moment is like an ambassador who declares the will of God. The heart must ever answer, 'Let it be so.'" Through the attitude of “let it be” or surrender, we stop fighting the moment, and therefore God's will. This means putting aside things we may want to do so we can remain faithful to our commitments, non-resistant to the content of the now, and open to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
To celebrate the sacrament of the present moment is to fully accept the moment and everything in it. As such, acceptance is integral. Though, it may not be fully positive. A begrudging acceptance is always possible. However, as we practice, our acceptance becomes more wholehearted. It becomes consent, which is a welcoming and positive yes to the moment. Consent has no self-forcing but rather wholehearted welcome. Consent means welcoming the moment. Consent, in turn, deepens into self-surrender.
Surrender means the giving away of one's entire life. Surrender takes one beyond self. In this way, surrender involves the one intentional act of faith, hope and love. "The state of full surrender is a certain combination of faith, hope, and love in one single action that unites the soul to God and his will." Surrender does not happen without an empty interior, for surrender is pure selflessness. Transcending ego and self, we can be in God at all times. "Thus at every moment we practice a surrender that has no limits." This is truly the secret of ceaseless prayer and Gospel freedom: always to desire and be with God in the moment. God is always and everywhere, so we never escape the divine presence.
We are talking about enjoying the divine. Caussade is justified in calling joyful self-surrender a "state." It is not about surrendering as time permits. God asks for full surrender. It means complete and joyful abandonment of self into God. Surrender equals the disappearance of self into God, a “general forgetfulness…which one arrives through the habit of letting drop our useless thoughts.” We go “without thinking” but remain in God by faith. Self-abandonment is interior silence. It is means that we need to “detach ourselves from all that we feel or do if we are to walk in this way with God, living only in God and the duty of the present moment. We must disregard anything beyond this as being superfluous.” Such practice means giving up what we want and what we think is best.
Caussade summarizes, “we are to be active in all that the present duty requires, but submissive and unresistant to all the rest, without self-will, patiently waiting for the moving of God’s will.” We fulfill our commitments, accept any crosses, and follow any inspirations with the attitude of “let it be.” Caussade practice is accepting God in all things. It is a faithfulness to God we can all practice in both active and passive faithfulness.
God calls us, this very moment, to carry through with some commitment, to bear some burden with interior and spiritual joy, or to follow some inspiration. Our spiritual training, then, is to abandon ourselves to the will of God manifest here and now in whatever way it presents itself. We sink into God by inner silence and faith, right now in this present moment. We let go of what we want to do and obey God’s will in the here and now.