When the migratory birds flutter excitedly against the blue depths of a spring sky, their return inspiring in us thoughts of other, distant skies, or suddenly depart, prompted by the fading light of the autumn sun and the first assaults of the winter chills, those birds – beautiful as they are – are simply following their instincts.
Dear friends and benefactors,
When the migratory birds flutter excitedly against the blue depths of a spring sky, their return inspiring in us thoughts of other, distant skies, or suddenly depart, prompted by the fading light of the autumn sun and the first assaults of the winter chills, those birds – beautiful as they are – are simply following their instincts.
Man, on his part, acts following the dictates of his intelligence. Animals are guided by their instincts as by an infallible compass, but man cannot imitate them without the risk of falling into grave errors. Instinct plays only a secondary part in man’s life, for his choices are, by nature, free. But man has freedom only insofar as he uses his intelligence to know his end and adopts the adequate means to attain it. Thus, his intelligence, intimately united to his will, makes it possible for man to reflect, to choose and to act.
The beauty of those birds that grace our skies with their seasonal coming and going must not induce us into error – they do not know their own beauty and remain slaves of their instinct. The order that governs their graceful movements exceeds them infinitely; they cannot submit to it with joy and recognition, as they are fundamentally incapable of acknowledging it, and their charming singing cannot express it knowingly and voluntarily!
It is very different for man, endowed with a spiritual soul and invited to submit to that order by using his two highest faculties, intelligence and will – a unique privilege that constitutes man’s nobility.
“But – you may object – aren’t freedom and submission diametrically opposed?”It is customary, indeed, to consider submission as an intolerable slavery imposed upon us by those in power in this world or by the obscure forces that rule the universe, although some people might consider such submission as the result of an uncontrolled terror or of an unsatisfied thirst for power.
It is nothing of the sort. Submission is the prudent acknowledgment – and thus, intelligent and voluntary! – of our human condition. We are, indeed, only weak creatures that, far from having in themselves the reason of their being and life, are in total dependence of Him Who has created them and keeps them in existence. Submission is nothing other than our hearts’ acknowledgment that the wisdom of God’s Providence has established all things with order, measure and prudence. To recognize this, to adhere and to subject ourselves to it with complete freedom, is the perfection of man, who is endowed with intelligence and will.
Making use of his freedom, of this capacity to choose that places him above the beasts and allows him to be master and not the blind slave of a higher power whose existence, wisdom and kindness he knows not, man subjects himself with intelligence and harmony to the order that God establishes in the universe and takes the rudder of this world by following the designs of God.
The submission of man to this higher order constitutes his freedom, even if this appears paradoxical to our minds infected by the revolutionary poison.
The migratory birds fly away towards a determined, precise and immutable goal, but this goal is unknown to them. Thus, the harmony that they reveal is only external. Internal harmony is foreign to them, because by nature they lack what constitutes such harmony. They blindly obey to an instinctive law, and they cannot draw merit and glory from this obedience.
Following the example of these migratory birds, man also moves towards a determined, precise and immutable goal. However, unlike the birds, this goal is known to him, and the harmony that God expects of him is primarily internal. It is called “holiness”.
And it is not simply a term, but a requirement.
Created by God for God, isn’t our life also a splendid migration and this earth a land of exile where we live as immigrants, far from our fatherland? What are we waiting for to take off and let ourselves be seized by the Spirit of God, who must lead us to the final meeting that God has fixed for each one of us?
This heavenly migration requires our wholehearted collaboration. The Love who has created us and calls each one of us by name is waiting for our answer of love. “God, who had created you without you, will not save you without you,” says St. Augustine. What are we waiting for to abandon ourselves to the guidance of the Holy Ghost, so that it raises us above ourselves and makes us enter into the divine intimacy?
When men let themselves be seized by grace, they move gracefully throughout their lives and traverse impressive distances unerringly. They also invite their brethren to join them and to sing with joy and recognition, in a harmonious body, the Mercy of God. “Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo!”
In Christo sacerdote et Maria,