With The Heart of Surrender - Fr. Aaron Hess

One of the hardest things that any of us are asked to do in our Christian life is to surrender. I think it is even harder for us as Americans and certainly, as we see in this area of Ohio, of German Americans. We have been told and raised from an early age that if we work hard enough and do the right thing, then we are going to be able to do anything we want, that we will be rewarded in this life and that everything will work out fine. Certainly we see this with the whole mindset of the “American dream” and of wealth and jobs and material goods. But I think we also see this mindset when it comes to our relationships and our prayer life. So many people think that if they buckle down and pray 5 Rosaries a day or if I just do this novena or that specific prayer, then God will answer my prayer. Or, I take it upon myself to change the world, or my family, or my marriage, or my friendships.

The difficulties with these thoughts, prevalent as they are, is that they can in fact be self-centered. I look at myself as the person who can change everything, I look at myself as the cause for something to get better. Even when it comes to the prayer example, I can take on all of these prayers, which are objectively good, but the reason I am doing them is because I think MY EFFORTS are going to bring about God’s blessing upon someone else. The focus is in fact on me. And that can be dangerous.

Now, to be clear, I am not saying that we should give up on praying when we want something for our families. I’m also not saying that we should quit trying to help a friend or family member. But we have to go into it with the mindset, with the heart of surrender. It is not my work, my efforts, my prayers that are going to bring this result about. That in the end is the grace of God working in our lives and in the lives of those people that we care for. We just happen to cooperate with the plan, but the work is all the Lord. It is a very fine distinction, but it is an important one to remember when we are trying to bring about goodness and holiness in this world.

The Lenten season is one of the greatest times for us to really dive into meditating upon the Passion of Jesus, and there is no greater witness to surrender than this. At the Last Supper, Jesus surrenders to the fact that Judas was going to leave and betray Him. In the Garden, He surrenders to the will of God in prayer: “Not my will, but yours be done.” He never fights back against the soldiers, against those who mocked Him, against those who tortured Him, against the accusations. Our Lord quietly and obediently surrendered everything to the Will of the Father.

During this season of our lives, in the life of the Church, and in the life of faith, that is the prayer for myself and for all of you. May we continue to be open to surrendering our will and our desires. May we surrender our spiritual pride and allow the Lord’s work, not our own, to truly shine through. May we cooperate with the graces and influences of God instead of swooping in and trying to fix things by our own doing. May we accept the crosses and difficulties placed upon us and always keep our eyes focused upon Christ’s witness during His Passion and His victory, our hope, in the Resurrection.