Undesirable Stability

STABILITY

An old Country and Western song shows how hard it is for a singer in that idiom who ‘ain’t been divorced, don’t like booze, done no time in gaol.’

Broken relationships, the heart-break of infidelity, rootless drinking, longing and regret, seem to be the themes of such songs. Such a world is not restricted to any one nation, locality or individual. Like the San Andreas fault with its immense potential for harm, it runs throughout human nature.

TRAVEL LIGHT

Against this background it may be worth considering the insight of St. Louis-Marie de Montfort who, in writing of would-be followers of his, spoke of “undesirable stability.” Such a phrase seems to be a contradiction, particularly at odds with our twenty-first century world. Stability, far from being ‘undesirable’ is what most people yearn for, and rightly so. Is Montfort then at odds with basic humanity and not just contemporary psychology?

His immediate point is that followers of his have no real interest in where they live. In whatever house is available, they “consider themselves as tenants who have rented a house, or as travelers who lodge at an inn” (Manuscript Rule, 12). They are not to settle in one place. They travel light, ready at an instant to answer the call of the Gospel. Nothing is to distract them from preaching. So they look “upon the houses where they are received simply as hostels to be left when their work is done. Thus they can be always on the move” (Manuscript Rule, 12).

St. Louis-Marie’s point is clear. The less his followers have to do with plant, environment and property, the greater is their freedom to give themselves to the Gospel.   Concentrating and channeling energies to wherever God might lead.

GENUINE ROOTS

Yet who can live like this? People accept the need of living in a hostel perhaps while they are student, or as a practical convenience. Hostel living with no real roots is acceptable in the short-term but not as a pattern for a lifetime. Such a life may lead to rootless people pooling insecurity in the name of the Gospel.

Montfort is alert to this. While those who settle in one place with all its ties and complications, may blunt their ability to go instantly the Gospel calls, he does not say that those who follow his insight will be rootless people. Because they have no roots in any one place it does not mean that they have no roots. “Instead of this undesirable stability they will become more solidly grounded in God alone, provided they always yield themselves without reserve to the care of his Providence”. (Manuscript Rule, 12).

There is a whole world of lived reality in that sentence and life taught St. Louis-Marie its truth. Everyone needs roots and for Montfort the ideal and the real is to “become more solidly grounded in God alone.” ‘God alone’ became his motto in life. To be rooted and grounded in the love and service of God is to build on rock. Nothing is to come between him and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus his Lord. In so far as he takes his identity from his Lord his life is an expression of God’s will and is then rooted in the one reality which underpins everything. Lodged in the will of God, he is anchored in a reality. A reality that is best for him and those to whom God might send him.

THE CARE . . .

But how is this to be done? For understandable reasons, insecurity, fear of the future, innate humanity, the naked will of God may be hedged about with ‘undesirable stability.’ This can cushion us from living alive to the will of God, which then may die the death of a thousand qualifications. Its radical cutting edge and challenge is so often lost in understandably trying to temper the wind to the shorn lamb. How is it possible to “be more solidly grounded in God alone” when wrapped in a frightened humanity?

St. Louis-Marie writing from experience says it can be done “provided they always yield themselves without reserve to the care of Providence”.  Whenever there is a choice between present security and the uncharted will of God, whoever “always yields themselves without reserve” to God’s will, in time, builds a character longing for God alone.

. . . OF PROVIDENCE

“Always yield themselves” is a powerful phrase implying total giving. Whatever one’s capacity for love and life – and how much is untapped in most people – it is given in faith to the creative will of God. In so far as I open myself to God now, does he fill the space I offer. The whole of God for the whole of me.  Life is a succession of moments. And taken one at a time intending to be open to God, a fabric can be built for God alone.

Yet still we need the faith and courage to give. We are afraid to venture out of our depth. St. Louis-Marie found freedom to give himself to God as he knew he was entrusting himself to “the care of his Providence”.  It is a lovely phrase. We do not yield ourselves to an impersonal mechanistic will but to the overarching yet personal presence of God in Christ – “the care of his Providence.”

Providence for Montfort was never ‘live horse ’till you get grass’ or ‘jam tomorrow,’ but a present reality at whose heart is love and trust. Fidelity is possible. Seeing this in faith he gave himself wholly to “the care of his Providence”.  Here his roots went deepest. Everyone needs roots and his were rooted in God, “Source, Guide and Goal of all that is – to him be glory for ever!”. (Roms. 11:36).

COURAGE TO GIVE

Presumably, only in so far as we live like that from the heart of the Gospel will we experience “the care of his Providence” and have the courage to yield ourselves to it. Such knowledge can never be second-hand. For most of us, such a life appears to be living at the edge; the edge of reality calling for enormous faith and courage.

Yielding oneself step by step in answer to God’s will; yielding in the present moment can lay the basis of a life “more solidly grounded in God alone”. Here fidelity will bring its own reward. Regardless of how life treats us, the individual, living within “the care of his Providence,” will have as the basis of his relationship to his Lord – “I know you know.”

So much within and around us can frighten and foster insecurity, that understandably we run to the ‘undesirable stability’ of man-made shelter. We trust in God but keep our powder dry! It all depends on what we see. Faith means insight. If we glimpsed what St. Louis-Marie saw, we might believe that all we need we have, in so far as we try to live at one with the will of God.

Travelling light, we may attempt then to share what we see.