Two Paths: Surrender or Resignation

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Composed by: Sr. Caterina de Siena

My Lay Dominican community, Joy of the Just, recently went on retreat and we were blessed to have as our retreat director, Fr. Carleton Jones, O.P., the Prior of St. Dominic’s Priory in Washington, DC.

One never knows what God will reveal to the soul on retreat and how He desires to dwell in the depths of the heart.  Such was the case with me when Fr. Carleton wisely said that we often do not see or know the “Divine Perspective” of our lives.  For me, this insight is worthy of deep contemplation.

Consider your life as it is right now.  There is your perspective on what is happening and then there is God’s perspective.  I found Fr. Carleton’s words of wisdom on the “Divine Perspective” very freeing.  I was filled with joy and peace knowing that God sees events in my life that I have not the vision to see, nor the wisdom to understand.  The “Divine Perspective” is far superior to my insights and I trust that the events that unfold in my life are in the Holy Hands of the One who created me.

Fr. Carleton recommend that I read Contemplative Provocations – Brief, concentrated observations on aspects of life with God by Fr. Donald Haggerty.  I obediently ordered the book and as soon as it arrived I began in earnest to read the Foreward written by Timothy Cardinal Dolan of New York.  I did not venture far into the text when I came across the phrase, “there is asked of all the baptized a profound surrender and not just resignation.” (p. 13).

I continue to ruminate on the literal and spiritual meaning of these two words.  The literal definitions of these two words from the Merriam-Webster dictionary are these:

Surrender - to give oneself over completely or agree to forgo especially in favor
                      of another
 
Resignation – resistance or acceptance of something undesirable but inevitable

When applied to the spiritual life, surrender is freely and lovingly giving control of our will to God while resignation accepts what is happening in our lives, but wishing it was otherwise – according to our will.
The Rt. Rev. Dom Vitalis Lehodey, O.C.R. in his book, Holy Abandonment, says,


Holy abandonment surrenders one's own will to that of the Will of God:  surrender is more than resignation or submission, for it is done out of total love for and trust in God, after first having accomplished in oneself indifference to the Will of God, that is, having no preference whatsoever, but that one always wills what He wills, because He wills it.
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In resignation, one can still maintain one's preference while accepting the Will of God.  This is submission, not surrender because one has not completely given up one's own will.

​Surrender or holy abandonment to God’s Will paves the way for joy to enter the soul that loves and trusts God implicitly.  We need look no further than to our holy Mother, Mary, to see that she is the role model for how one surrenders to God.  Her beautiful Fiat is the perfect example of surrender to God’s Will and I find myself praying it often:  Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum - “let it be done to me according to your word”.  (Luke 1:38)

Surrender is the gentle and loving giving over of our will and ourselves to God’s perfect plan.  This gentle self-offering is accepted by God and He dwells in the soul in profound ways when we pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church encourages this surrender to God:

2825  ….We ask our Father to unite our will to his Son's, in order to fulfill his will, his plan of salvation for the life of the world. We are radically incapable of this, but united with Jesus and with the power of his Holy Spirit, we can surrender our will to him and decide to choose what his Son has always chosen:   to do what is pleasing to the Father.

2826  By prayer we can discern "what is the will of God" and obtain the endurance to do it.  Jesus teaches us that one enters the kingdom of heaven not by speaking words, but by doing "the will of my Father in heaven."

2827  "If anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him."  Such is the power of the Church's prayer in the name of her Lord, above all in the Eucharist. Her prayer is also a communion of intercession with the all-holy Mother of God and all the saints who have been pleasing to the Lord because they willed His will alone.

We can confidently surrender to God’s Will knowing that we are in good company with Our Lady and all the saints in heaven who know the difference between resignation and surrender.  Resignation clings to self-will and accepts God’s actions and stirrings as if God’s Will is somewhat undesirable and inevitable.   Surrender brings joy, peace and freedom in doing God’s Will because He loves us perfectly and can be trusted to “will our good.”   

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.  Jeremiah 29:11

If you choose the path of surrender, I offer you the surrender prayer from St. Ignatius of Loyola:

Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory,
my understanding and my whole will.
All that I am and all that I possess, You have given me:   
I surrender it all to You to be disposed of according to Your Will.
Give me only Your love and Your grace;
with these I will be rich enough and will desire nothing more.  Amen.
 
Jesus, I Love You and I Trust in You! 

N.B.   Fiat Chaplet prayers may be found at: 
          http://www.lovecrucified.com/prayers/fiat_chaplet.html
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Image Source: 
https://silentwindsofchange.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/two-paths-choose-well/
​http://www.lovecrucified.com/prayers/fiat_chaplet.html