Who Will Follow God's Will? The True Royal Philosopher

“Let us, therefore,  compose our minds, and yield ourselves to the Providence of God, even though we see the wicked in power, the good oppressed, religion overthrown, and justice extinguished; for none of these things would take place if God did not specially permit it, and He would not permit it unless He had the most just grounds for it, and if it were not better thus to permit than to hinder.  Nor is it of any consequence that the secret Government of God is not now made manifest”   The Heliotropium (Turning to Him)—AD 1627 p 331

 
Over thousands of years, successful governance has only periodically emerged and only when advanced by mature sageness that recognized power greater than the ruler(s).  Most often, (wo)men have torturously grappled over the purpose and role of government based on idealistic temporal objectives, but then failed miserably to ultimately stabilize—let alone permanently improve—the spiritual or corporeal wellbeing of people.  Moreover, in the contemporary sphere, neither the conservative nor the collectivist quite attains the right balance between governors and the people; between means and ends; between action and outcome; between life and after-death.

 
However, conservatives were faring much better than the progressives in recognizing and acceding to Divine Will.  Great strides were made between 2016 and 2020 despite the almost demonic assault by the new socialists in the morally bankrupt Democrat Party.  The Trump Administration won many pro-life battles; returned states rights; protected inalienable individual rights; honored natural laws and Divine Authority; remained strong nationally but supportive internationally; and uplifted the working and middle classes across racial lines.   When, relentless and false charges failed to fell Trump, oddly the CCP virus swept the nation and ushered in questionable lockdowns and explosive, destructive rebellion during a critical election year.  An equally questionable election ensured, and literally overnight wrecked many accomplishments.

 
Left in upheaval, at least eighty million Americans were plunged into near despair, but surrender was not an option.  Though baffled, many immediately combatted the outcome.    Almost in a frenzy, “action” many groups mushroomed.  In near panic, a poorly reactive microcosm of dissent gave comfort to the enemy within the Capitol.  That brief respite was followed by the Biden Administration which toppled many of the previous successes.  Today, despite Trump’s return in 2024, evil mushrooms again…or perhaps, it truly never was eradicated.

 
The attempt on Trump’s life, Charlie Kirk’s assassination, and deadly assaults against churches  strained the faithful’s spirit with repeated refrains of “end times.”  

 
Yet, the same answer lays in the same Divine Will that so many have honored for many millennium.  Much has been written about God’s Will, sadly to the point that it has become an echo chamber mantra, as well as twisted to conform to human will which is why the classic  The Heliotropium (Turning to HIM) by Father Jeremias Drexelius could be one central spark to re embracing  authentically wise governance from self to whole populations within the context of that Divine Will.  Pivotally first published in Latin, this tome was later translated into English in 1862, and republished in 1918.  In recent years it has been “rebooked” (Tan Publishers among other sources).  Based on the sunflower, the Heliotropium, that always turns towards the sun, the author addressed Divine Will in all its aspects, and unfolded the simple yet profound path to peace of soul and mind and the roadmap for obtaining the good, the true, and the beautiful.

 
As difficult as it may be to read these words, therein lies wisdom:  “Of all the doctrine which Christ delivered in so many and such divine discourses this was the sum—that man should absolutely and entirely conform himself to Divine Will, in particulars as well as in generals.” (Page 1, paragraph 1) 

 
That Divine Will needs to be understood, trusted unreservedly,  and used to guide current and future action.  Those who love God must recede to some prudent reflection and resignation to God’s Permitting Will.  They must acknowledge that God, while loathing sin,  always has the greatest good in His Being and what he allows or not.  By His Ordaining Will, we suffer to cooperate with God in fulfilling perfect justice. 

The alternative is to remain in the wrong place with a limited and finite destination in mind.nThat political Achilles Heel lays in the ego, and while it may be an ever present threat, that is no excuse not to identify the source of leadership failure or address it.  It is the reason we are going in overlapping circles at the present time.  

 
Yet, Divine Will is not as man would imagine it to be, or want it to be, as the Will of God is paradoxically the inclusion of all evils, consequential of free will from which there is sin, and via suffering for just punishment or correction.  Still, how does one determine that Divine Will?  Is there ever occasion for action and what would that entail?  Parenthetically, it would be naive to think that the atheists among us will embrace this proposal, so we have that obstacle, as well.  Regardless, all of those challenges should not prevent Divine Will’s emergence into civic circles or incorporation into leadership principles by the Faithful. 

Overall, two major realities regarding political affairs in this temporal world become evident.  One, given free will, sin is an inherent characteristic and expression of human behavior until the end of time.  Two, like the Tower of Babel, man’s attempt at building an earthly utopia to theoretically overcome all human injustice and suffering will always lead to disaster and failure, at tremendous cost, temporally and eternally. 

 
To the first, conservatives often act as though they cannot accept that God would tolerate sin; they rise like God’s avenging angels on evil, as though by strict adherence to natural law and rule of law, society can duly realign the sinner, control these offenses, and live happily on Earth .   Yet, did not God permit Saul’s many sins against early believers of Jesus.  A keen intellect wrapped in Jewish law, beyond which he could not see.  At just the perfect time and occasion, God slowed him by imposed blindness, but then opened his eyes and made him dependent on perceived enemies. In any case, it is not the prerogative of the state to legislate and punish all sin in a fallen world in the vain expectation of eradicating it.  Though baffling to our limited reason and spiritual awareness, even God does not smite the sinner, “left and right.”   Furthermore, what man may declare “sinful” may not be so, and conversely, what he or she deems “good” might actually be evil, such as the rationale for envy that has led to the mantra of “equal outcomes.”  The recent spate of violence across America attests to this!

 
However, Father Jeremias Drexelius interjects that persons certainly can and should pursue remedies and resolutions to evil.  The fault is not in these endeavors but in resisting the Divine Will when they may fail.  Certainly civil laws and punishment are necessary to ensure the rights of all individuals and safeguard an orderly society.  Also, realistic limitation cannot preclude supporting a strong family foundation and prudent education of children.  In fact, the propagation of mother-father primacy and spiritual formation are essential.  At the very least there can be no barrier to this!  Yet, tyrannical imposition of moral codes with dire punitive consequences for offenders can be a slippery slope to playing god and attempting to perfect that which, by its nature, cannot be so. 

So also is impulsive reactivity a betrayal of trust in God.  In other words, the conservative must believe and act as God “has” this and stay the course, starting and continuing, of course, in submissive prayer and building individual virtue.  Without sincere humility and obedience,  derailment becomes certainty.

 
Moreover, given by God, the foundation of the Ten Commandments and Spiritual and Corporeal Works of Mercy continue to be guideposts for healthy self and public governance to curtail undisciplined individualism or relativism. Conservatives need to remain confident in that knowledge and position. 

To the second, absent God, let alone acceptance of the limitations of human authority and abilities, some persons will ever seek to “right the wrong” of temporal living.

Quite distinctly expounded upon in The Heliotropium is God’s perfect justice in suffering that occurs:  adversity, disease, poverty, oppression, abuse, discrimination, theft, murder,  and so forth.  No one can possibly envision all the good from that, but it is not for those in power to attempt a perfect world by legislating fairness, evening the playing field by confiscating property, destroying someone’s goods in retribution for a perceived injury, or punishing or slandering the successful.  There is no utopia on Earth, and no one could design a just one; that defies the Divine Will!  Compassion is “suffering with,” and the Philosopher King, Jesus Christ led in that example perfectly, in His Passion and Death.

 
Collectivists behave as though God should not permit suffering—if He is truly God, or if there is God—according to their human sense of justice.  They certainly cannot accept a God that would ordain suffering for any reason, so they deify themselves, a few rising to the rank of tyrant.  They march and riot incessantly and pass sweeping legislation,  as though by physical threats or mere words they can equalize and perfect everyone’s lives.   Oxymoronically, they self label as “progressives,”yet regress to tried and failed regimes of the past. Though possibly falling on deaf ears, the socialists would better spend their energy reminding emotive responders that Peter,  instead of praying, as Jesus Christ entreated, fell asleep in the Garden and when “woke” took up the sword and latter denied Christ.

 
Still, regardless of ideology, wise leadership acknowledges and promotes authentic charity in individuals to whole enterprises; promotes and fosters healthy and just labor relations and compensation; demonstrates stewardship of creation; welcomes the conscientious immigrant; encourages sacrificial vocations that help others; and, overall, builds genuine community.  

In sum, all good governance begins with the self, as infused by society from birth forward, in orderly disposition towards His Divine Will, in ALL matters.  One most simple but most  profound illustration of how this looks is from The Heliotropium in the following excerpt:  

(Note:  The reference “break” indicates a skipped part to illuminate the key discourse though the entire dialogue is excellent reading.)

There was once upon a time an eminent Divine (theologian) who for eight years besought God with unwearied prayers to show him a man by whom he might be taught the most direct way to heaven.  (break)

Accordingly, he went (break) and found a beggar whose legs were covered with ulcers running with corruption and whose clothes were scarcely worth threepence.

The Divine wished him good day.  To whom the beggar replied, “I do not remember that I ever had a bad one.” (break)

The man of letters:  “Well, then, God send you good fortune.”

“But I never had any bad fortune,” answered the beggar. (break)

The Divine:  “Say you so?  I pray then that you may be happy”

But again, the beggar replied, “I never was unhappy.” (break)

The Divine:  “I desire that whatever you wish may happen to you.”

“And here also,” (the begger) replied, “I have nothing to complain of.  All things turn out according to my wishes, although I do not attribute my success to fortune.” (break)

… Those bugbears, Fortune and Misfortune, hurt him only who wills, or at least fears, to be hurt by them.  Never do I offer my prayers to Fortune, but to my Heavenly Father Who disposes the events of all things.  And so I say I never was unhappy, inasmuch as all things turn out according to my wishes.  If I suffer hunger, I praise my most provident Father for it.  If cold pinches me, if the rain pours down upon me, or if the sky inflicts upon me any other injury, I praise God just the same.  When I am the laughing stock to others, I no less praise God.  For sure I am that God is the Author of all these things, and that whatever pleases God does must be the best. (break)

…and this is one thing I will—what God wills.  And so all things happen as I will. (break)

This is true happiness in this life, to cleave as closely as possible to the Divine Will, the Will of God, His most excellent, His most perfect Will, which cannot be made more perfect, and cannot be evil, judges all things, but nothing concerning it. (break) (The Heliotropium, pgs. 63-68)

 
As Paul used stones to cast aside sinners, Peter would have slashed those who led Jesus Christ to His Suffering and Death.  The Beggar would have done neither.  Paul and Peter initially erred by clinging to human will, not trusting in Divine Will, but thinking they were acting righteously.  Furthermore, for Peter, it was not as though Jesus had not previously admonished him for this very failing!

How does the fruit of these truths translate into contemporary circumstances?  

Imagine if in just one contemporary, horrid calamity surrounding the death of George Floyd, which launched the ensuing avalanche of malcontent felt years later, we had the beggar’s spirit of contented surrender to God’s Will, including his Permitting Will.  There would not have been any riots but the calm pursuit of orderly investigation and justice, even if faulty by human standards. Nor would there have been undue and uncontrolled hyper reactive charged thoughts, words, and actions about Maxine Waters’ comments and the triple conviction of the aggressive police officer.  Being properly disposed children of God, those angry about one-sidedness, would be only on God’s side.  Oh, again there would have been discussion about human injustice and how to address concerns going forward.  Concrete reflection and proposals seeking consensus, appealing to reason, first based on Faith,  would be appropriate.

Still, if there be any slogans or signage walked in the streets,  it should communicate that nothing occurs outside of God’s Perfect Will and Perfect Judgment, for all time and circumstances.  Imagine a parade of thousands bearing, “Lord God, Thy Will be Perfect; Thy Will be Done!”

For those, even among the Faithful to be scornful and quick to dismiss this ideal—to assign the “beggar” to yesteryear’s catacombs—in contemporary times, we have illuminating souls like Jennifer Hubbard, frequent contributor to Magnificat, a Catholic magazine to encourage liturgical and personal prayer.  As the mother of Catherine Violet, a victim of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, Jennifer ever relates her strong Faith to her heartbreaking loss.  In an article (April 2021), she focused on the theme of The Good Shepherd and how lambs had always reminded her of her beloved daughter. She concludes:  “For it was on that day that I finally realized it:  the Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.”     

 
Of course, we are to think, speak, and act according to our life’s vocation, in a manner that demonstrates genuine love of God and neighbor.  In that, most of us are simultaneously the beggar and not the beggar as described in The Heliotropium.  We should be the beggar in recognizing we are to “know, love, and serve” Him, Our Creator, follow Him, Our Savior to the Cross, and embrace the Holy Spirit in all we say and do regardless of this imperfect world. 

Yet, unlike the beggar, there are those among us called—commissioned— by that Divine Will to boldly and courageously take initiative, be active in the world,  and maybe to lead.  We can both steer sinners by denouncing error, not the individual, and implore heroic self sacrifice without judging intent in its absence.  Politics aside, those desiring good must imitate the Good Shepherd, paradoxically bonded with humility, obedience, and charity in servitude to even giving up one’s life and avoiding the temptation of human respect…to guide as many souls to a maximum peaceful temporal life and to perfect eternity. 

Therein is the royal philosopher, fit to rule!