The Human will, fount of evil or good

It seems easy to me to speak about all the evils the human will has brought about but in stopping to actually understand and define what is the human will is another matter.  In fact although Jesus speaks about how all sin has come about due to the human will he also states that in the beginning he made all things beautiful and this includes the human will.

I was thinking of how much evil the human will has done to the poor creatures, and therefore I abhor it, I do not want to know it ever again, and not even look at it, because it is too nauseating. But while I was thinking of this, my beloved Jesus moved in my interior and told me:

 

“My daughter, the human will on its own is nauseating, but united with Mine is the most beautiful thing I created. More so, since the Divinity could never issue anything created by Us which would be nauseating. United with Ours, the human will would have the continuous motion of good, of light, of sanctity, of beauty; and through Our continuous motion, which never ceases, it would have been the greatest prodigy of Creation. Our motion would purify it from any shadow of stain.

Vol. 23, Jan. 31, 1928



Jesus states that the human will has the capacity to bring about all goods or all evils.

It is the human will that is the life or the death of the creature, her happiness or her tyranny and misfortune into which she hurls herself; her good angel that leads her to Heaven, or the one who, transforming into a demon, hurls her into hell. All evil is in the will, as well as all good, because the will is like the fount of life placed in the creature, which can spring joys, happiness, sanctity, peace, virtue, or spurts from itself little fountains of troubles, of miseries, of sins, of wars, which destroy all goods.
Vol. 23, March 11, 1928

But the human will is more than simply the ability to choose or the desire which leads that choice.  It is the life which directs all acts of the creature, the thoughts, glances, steps...  But more so it is also the depository of all these acts, holding all and losing nothing of them or the intent with which they were sealed.  It is this will which makes man most similar to his Creator.

 

See, in the creature also, her will has supremacy; so, if there is will, she has life, and if there is no will, she seems like a tree which, while having a trunk, branches and leaves, has no fruit. In the creature, the will is not thought, but gives life to the attitude of the mind; it is not eye, but gives life to the gaze, because if it has will, the eye wants to see - wants to know things; otherwise, it is as if the eye had no life. The will is not word, but gives life to each word; it is not hand, but gives life to the action; it is not step, but gives life to the step; it is not love, desire, affection, but gives life to love, to desire, to affection. But this is not all. Though the will is life of all the human acts, once the creature has performed them, she remains stripped of her very acts, like a tree loaded with fruits is stripped by the hands of the one who picks them. On the other hand, the gazes she has given, the thoughts she has formed, the words she has spoken, the actions she has performed, remain as though sealed within her will. So, her hand has operated, but her action does not remain in her hands – it moves beyond, and who knows where it goes; while in the will, it remains there. Therefore, everything is written, formed, sealed in the human will. And if it so in the human will, only because I cast into it the seed, the likeness to Mine, think, yourself, of what my Will must be within Myself, and what it must be if the creature lets herself be possessed by my Will.”

Vol. 16, July 24, 1923

“The will of man is that which makes him more like His Creator.  In the human will I placed part of my immensity and of my power, and giving it the place of honor, I constituted it queen of the whole of man and depository of all of his works.  Just as creatures have chests in which they keep their things to maintain them secured, the soul has her will in which to keep and secure all that she thinks, says and does.  Not even one thought will be lost.  What she cannot do with her eyes, with her mouth, with her works, she can do with her will - in one instant she can will a thousand goods and a thousand evils.  The will makes her thought fly up to Heaven, to the farthest places and deep into the abysses.  She might be prevented from operating, from seeing, from speaking, but she can do all this in her will.  Whatever she does and wants, forms an act which remains deposited in her own will.  Oh! how the will can be expanded.  How many goods and how many evils can it not contain?  This is why, among all things, I want the will of man:  because if I have this, I have everything - the fortress is conquered.”

Vol. 13, Oct. 9, 1921



Jesus also states that the will is not only the deposit of all of one's acts but even of those which it wants to do.

The human will possesses with indelible characters all that which it does and that which it wants to do, and if the memory forgets, but the will loses nothing, it contains the deposit of all her acts without losing anything.  Therefore one can say that all (of) man is in the will, if this is holy, also the most indifferent things are holy for him, if then he is bad, perhaps also the good is changed for him into perverse act, hence if you truly want my Divine Will as life there is not needed much, more so that united to yours there is mine that wants it, there is a power that can do everything, and on your behalf one will see with facts, if in all things you will be involved as possessor of a Divine Will.  Therefore be attentive my daughter, and your flight be always continuous in the Supreme Fiat.”

Vol. 33, March 19, 1935




People tend to attribute the storing of all that which we do to the memory but this is not so.  Furthermore Jesus states that all these things which the will has maintained and conserved will work either to the triumph, honor and glory of the soul or to it's confusion in facing the evils it has created.  A strong reminder of how everything we do, think, want will work toward our greater good or evil in the day of our judgment.

“Beyond this, as the Divine Will is depositary of everyone and everything, thus the human will is depositary of all her thoughts, words, works and steps, et cetera, it looses nothing of all that which she does, rather they form one thing alone with her and with indelible characters every thought, word, suffering suffered, everything remains written and sealed, it can be given that the memory doesn’t keep count of everything, it has forgotten many things, but the will hides everything and loses nothing, so that it is the depositary and bearer of all her acts.  Hence the Divine Volition (is) depositary and bearer of everyone and everything, the human volition (is) depositary and bearer of itself.  What triumph will it be eternally, what honor and glory for one who has piously thought and worked?  And what confusion for one who has deposited in the human volition sins, passions, unworthy works, and rendered herself bearer of her own evils?  And if the evils are very grave she will be pasture of the infernal flames, and if less grave, she will be pasture of the purgative flames, that by way of fire and sufferings will purify that dirtied human will, but she can not restitute the good, the holy works that she has not done.  Therefore be attentive that everything becomes numbered and written, you don’t lose, neither you, nor us anything, even one thought, one word will have its perennial life, and they will be as faithful friends and inseparable of the creature.  Hence it is necessary that you form your holy and good friends, so that they can give you peace, happiness and perennial glory.”

Vol. 32,  March 19, 1933




But truly the human will does not contain the creative power in itself.  If the creative power were there man would not become tired in exercising the virtues.  True creative power comes only from the Divine Will which is stable and not subject to change and volatility.  This comes from the human will acting by itself.

“On the other hand, in the human will there is not a creative power which, if one wants to exercise the virtues, might be able to create patience, humility, obedience, etc.  This is why one feels hardship, fatigue, in order to be able to practice the virtues:  because the divine strength that sustains them, the creative power that nourishes them and gives them life, is missing.  And so inconstancy appears, and one passes easily from virtues to vices, from prayer to dissipation, from church to amusements, from patience to impatience - all this mix of good and evil produces unhappiness in the creature.  On the other hand, one who lets my Will reign within herself feels firmness in good; she feels that all things bring her happiness and joy.  More so, since all the things created by Us carry the mark - the seed of the joy and the happiness of the One who created them; and they were created by Us so that all of them might bring happiness to man. 

Vol. 19, April 9, 1926

But do you know what renders the poor creature mutable? It is her human will that renders her fickle in love, in pleasures, in the good she does. The human will is like an impetuous wind which moves the creature at every blow like an empty reed - now to the right, now to the left. This is why, in creating her, I wanted her to live of my Will – so that, arresting this impetuous wind of the human will, It might render her firm in good, stable in love, holy in operating. I wanted to let her live in the immense territory of my immutability. But the creature was not content; she wanted her own tiny little place, and rendered herself the amusement of herself, of others, and of her very passions. This is why I pray - I supplicate the creature to take this Will of Mine, to make It her own, that she may return into that immutable Will from which she came, so that she may no longer be fickle, but stable and firm. I have not changed - I wait for her, I long for her, I want her always in my Will.”

Vol. 17, Nov. 27, 1924




The human will was not created to act on its own but was made to work as a continuous reflection of the Divine Will.

“See then, how many relations there are between Myself and the creature.  This is why I love her so much:  because I look at her as a birth from Me, exclusively mine.  And then, how did I ennoble the will of man?  I linked it with Mine, giving it all my prerogatives.  I made it free, just like Mine; and if to the body I had given two little lights, limited and circumscribed, which started from my Eternal Light, the human will I made all eyes.  Therefore, as many acts as the human will forms, so many eyes can it say it possesses.  It looks to the right, to the left, to the back and to the front; and if the human life is not animated by my Will, it will do nothing good.  In creating it, I said to it:  ‘You will be my sister on earth; my Will from Heaven will animate yours; we will be in continuous reflections, and whatever I will do, you will do as well - I, by nature, and you, by the grace of my continuous reflections.  I will follow you like a shadow.  I will never leave you.’

Vol. 13, Nov. 4, 1921




So close were the relations between the human will and the Divine Will to be that Jesus compares it to the relation between the sun and the rays which come from it, even to heat and light.

“Now, you must know what bonds of identification exist between the Divine Will and the human will, and therefore why I so much love and want, by right of creation, of paternity, of love and of justice, that the human will would surrender its place to Mine, and throwing itself into Its arms like a little child, would let itself be held, nourished and dominated by It.  In creating man, the Supreme Being placed my Will out into the field, although all of Our attributes concurred with It as a consequence, and naturally.  But the Supreme Volition was the primary act, by which It took to heart the life of all Creation, including man, therefore making Itself the life of all, dominating everything, making everything Its own:  since everything had come out of It, by justice everything was to be Its own.  More than sun, my Will emitted Its rays, and with the tips of these rays, animating the human nature, It formed the will in the creature.  Do you see, then, what the will is in the human generations?  Many different tips of rays, which were like sparks in creatures, to form the will in them - but without detaching these sparks from the ray unleashed by the center of the Sun of the Supreme Volition.  So, all human generations turn around this Sun, because each creature contains the tip of one ray of this eternal Sun of my Will.

“Now, what is not the affront for this Sun, to see the circumference of these rays, whose tips formed the will of each creature, converted – transmuted into darkness, into human nature, denying the light, the dominion and the life of that Sun which gave Its Will with so much love, so that Its Will and those of creatures might be one, and so It might be able to form Divine Life in them?  Can there be a stronger, more stable and inseparable bond than the one between the center of the sun and its rays?  Light is indivisible, and if it could be separated, the detached part would go wandering and would end up turning into darkness.  So, there is such union of identification between the Divine Will and the human, as to be comparable to the union that exists between the sun and the solar ray, between heat and light.

Vol. 19, Sept. 7, 1926

It is only with the union of the Divine Will and the human that the creature and all her acts are placed in safety; safe from mutability,  safe from passions, safe from all disturbances and evils.

“My daughter, it is a prerogative of my Divine Volition to place everything It possesses in safety. When It enters into the soul, as the possessor of her, It places all things in safety: It places sanctity, grace, beauty, all virtues, in safety; and so that everything may be safe, It substitutes them in the soul with Its own Divine Sanctity, Its Beauty, Its virtues – all in a divine manner; and placing on her Its seal, which is untouchable by any change, It renders the creature untouchable by any danger. So, for one who lives in my Will there is nothing to fear any more, because It has secured everything with Its divine security. On the other hand, the human will renders everything unsafe, even sanctity itself. The virtues that are not under the continuous dominion of my Fiat are subject to continuous dangers and continuous oscillations; passions have the ways open to put everything upside down and cast virtues and sanctity to the ground, formed with many sacrifices. If the continuous vivifying and nourishing virtue of my Will is not present, which closes all doors and all ways to all evils, the human will has door and ways to let the enemy, the world, self-esteem, miseries, disturbances, enter, which are the wood worm of virtues and of sanctity; and when there is the wood worm, there is not sufficient strength to remain firm and persevering in good. Therefore, everything is unsafe when my Divine Will does not reign.
Vol. 26, April 28, 1929

So on this Independence Day I think it's appropriate to take a moment to consider how we value our freedom to choose but it is only in choosing God and to live in his Divine Will where we actually find our true freedom.