“Let me do it.” Those were the words Jesus spoke to St. Margaret Mary. He said to her that his greatest trouble with his saints was that they would not let Him do it.
When we pivot to the Gospel, the theme of “letting Him do it” remains. It is a reality that is hard to embrace, which is why Thomas disbelieves. It is hard to let Jesus do it. Did He really rise from the dead? How could He have appeared to the other disciples? I saw Him dead on that tree. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe” (John 20:25). Believing is risky for Thomas. It would mean letting go of what he knows. It would mean letting the real Jesus in. It would mean letting Him do it.
Confidence
Recently, I have been reading a book called I Believe in Love that focuses on the teachings of St. Thérèse’s Little Way. It speaks of unshakeable confidence in Jesus. Total confidence is the gateway toward perfection. It is the prayer of surrender. So often, the book says, souls focus on the role of personal effort instead of remaining fixed on Him to do the doing. A number of years ago, a priest once remarked, “Where does our gaze sit? Down toward the earth or upward toward heaven?” When we look at the story, Thomas expresses belief after He looks at Jesus. Only grounded in his Friend can Thomas express such faith. Only then can Jesus work the miracle.
After her visions, St. Margaret Mary wrote, “His Sacred Heart will do everything for me if I let Him. He shall will, He shall love, He shall desire for me and make up for all my faults.” My prayer as of late has been “Totally Yours.” This prayer helps me to realize that I do not have to figure it out. I only need to look at Him in my heart and say, “Totally Yours.” Does that mean the suffering hurts any less? Of course not. Does that mean there are times that I wish I had the answers and would not come up short again and again? Every day. But I must remain confident that when I give it to Him, He will and already has transformed it. My confidence is all He needs. Has He not been thinking about me since before the world began? Has He not already planned the very moment in which I write this? Does He not already remain with me even when life seems to lose its meaning or flair?
Totally His
He wants us to be totally His. It is all He wants. He desires our sins, judgements, joys, humiliations, sicknesses, emotions, distractions, loves, desires, dislikes, etc. to be totally His. When everything becomes totally His, what does the devil have on us? What can Jesus not do when our confidence is His?
Remember that Our Lord “looks much more at what we are than at what we do; and we are, in His eyes, what we sincerely want to be for Him” (D’Elbee, I Believe in Love, 83). He looks at what we are but we often look at what we do. We want that spiritual resume because it gives us confidence. But Jesus reminds us that He must be our confidence. When we begin to suffer ourselves to live in this confidence, we will see as He sees and love as He loves. It is difficult. It is uninspiring. It is ungratifying. But it is worth every second of what we have.
“Let your desire to love Him, to be one with Him, be the response to His own desire to be yours” (Ibid, 117).
Dearest Mary, dearest Thérèse, come to our aid. Help me to look at Jesus and let Him do it.
