A- N Wt- , Date the Will of God Versus the Will of Man in the Conversion Experiences

UNIVERSITY OF SCRANTON THE GRADUATE SCHOOL The thesis of Fr. Jerome J. Purta entitled The Will of God Versus the Will of Man in the Conversion Experiences of St. Augustine and Father Walter Ciszek. S.J. submitted to the Department of Theology/Religious Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Theology in the Graduate School of the University of Scranton has been read and approved by the committee. ^^A- TS^V <_. 4tPa^ H^-A- n wt- , Date The Will of God Versus the Will of Man in the Conversion Experiences of St Augustine and Father Walter Ciszek, S.J. by Fr. Jerome J. Purta In partial fulfillment for the Master's Degree in Theology at the University of Scranton September 1997 Contents page Opening Statement and Introduction i Part I Various Aspects ofthe Will of God and the Will of Man. 1 Part II Saint Augustine and the Conversion of Wills. 11 Part m The Will of God versus the Will ofMan in the Conversion Experience ofFr. Walter Ciszek. S.J. 29 Fr. Ciszek on Divine and Human Will 30 On His Conversion Experience. Prayer, and Grace. 41 The Conversion at Lubianka 51 Conclusion 62 Bibliography. 66 A Biographical Sketch of Father Walter J. Ciszek, S.J 68 The Will of God Versus the Will of Man in the Conversion Experiences of St Augustine and Father Walter Ciszek, S. J. by Fr. Jerome J. Purta The human will, having freedom of choice, tends by nature to question and even oppose the divine will, as the history ofman has shown. The divine will can also question and take its position against the human will according to the same history. In an effort to verify and reconcile the differences between the two, the human being has demonstrated at least one resolution in what is called a conversion experience. One classical example ofthis is the famous conversion of St. Augustine. Another but lesser known example is that of one of our contemporaries, Fr. Walter Ciszek, S.J. His account accents the opposition of God's will to one's own in a way that reveals God's initiative in the conversion experience more sharply than Augustine's gradual discovery ofthe same. Augustine's experience is a reflective one, accumulated over many years of personal struggle, thought and prayer. Fr. Ciszek's is more sudden, coming as it did in a moment ofpotential disaster, but similar to Augustine's in other ways. The study ofthese two conversions will strengthen the notion that the sovereign will ofGod necessarily conflicts with the free will ofman until the conversion experience is brought about with that same free will. Introduction The contention ofthis paper is that the Will of God seems to stand in fundamental opposition to the will ofman in the actual experience oflife. Only as the experience unfolds, however, does a person begin to see it that way. That is, upon the enlightenment of conversion, a person can be brought to see with hindsight what had been his own human will or desire and what actually was the will of God running parallel to it and against it by contrast before the conversion or enlightenment. Henceforth, the converted person can account for this interaction of wills as experienced in various, freely willed acts which precede, accompany, and follow that conversion. Even while conversion occurs and develops in Ihe convert's future, the will of God can still be felt as sovereign, or opposed, not in a way that is against human welfare and the free will ofman, but, as befits divine sovereignty, in a way that is simply opposed to the human will's independent determination ofits own welfare. In other words, it is the fierce independence ofman's will to which the will of God is necessarily opposed. God wills, so it appears, that the will ofman freely accord "opposed" with the will of God, and in that sense stands to the will ofman who would freely shun God's will. In this relationship, the discord betrays a certain mutuality, a standoff of wills. God, being God by his own will, displays that faithful stubbornness which is well known to man by lovingly refusing to let him alone. "It is not good that the alone," man be as the account goes in Genesis, and the related concept ofanother partner" to help "as must forever remind the human being of a will other than his own, not to mention the wholly different will, that is, the opposing will of God. God."* This is not the same as saying "wholly other will of In any case, it surely seems that if God made human beings for himselfand for each other, he did not "man," make any one selfjust for that self. Rather, human society, or simply by the preemptive will of God, is meant to image God's own togetherness. By actual human decision, however, an opposing stubbornness occurs in the attempt humans make to divide one will against another, be it against themselves or against God. Max Picard wains against proclaiming God as "wholly other, as one who is other than all God]." possibilities [in the world offlie flight from (The Flightfrom God by Max Picard 1951; 1989 printing; Regnery Gateway, Washington, D.C.; pp. 21, 138-142.) That first move on the part of God to effect a union ofwills implies a kind ofmatching decision on his part, a decision against the division at least between man," man." himself and "the against such "sovereignty of For that reason, man, being aw-sovereign, except by the very deceit of self-will or quasi-sovereignty cannot blame God for being so opposed to him. Man, by himself, in yielding to the God," temptation of independently choosing to be "like finds God in this case to be an unwanted nemesis who then exercises an undisputed, rightful vengeance against and loving opposition to this usurpation of divine prerogatives. The difference lies between two kinds offreedom for man, one true and one false. In the first place, God proposes to make man like God, but dependent on God, and freely dependent at that. While this may be looked upon as a dependency, it is nevertheless a true freedom in the sense that it resides in the human will as designed by God, not as re designed in some sort of quasi-creation afterward by itself. By this it is meant that it is within the capacity ofman's human will to attempt his own design, to want to be or make himself like God also, but quite independently ofGod. This is a false and abusive freedom in the sense that it declares independence from its very source, contrary to any original, divine purpose. One likely reason for such false freedom in this sense may be to make the true one possible in the first place. Otherwise, neither the true nor the false kind offreedom could be called freedom at all in either sense. in In this light, the conversion experience becomes a resolution a resignation, ifyou will ofman's freely inviting and then allowing God alone to do the Hkeness-ing, knowing full well that it may demand foregoing one's own will The opposite would be an attempt to do the same by one's human will alone, or in the particular manner the human will would have it so, regardless ofhow well-intended that may purport to be. This happens especially when confronting what appears to be the opposing will of God as experienced in divinely provided circumstances which take place before conversion. after'' The sequence of "before, during, and applies to the experiential account of Saint Augustine's conversion, providing for similarities and differences in the conversion experience ofFather Walter Ciszek, S.J.. rv Parti Various Aspects of The Will of God and the Will ofMan With no intention oftrying to capture the whole phenomenon ofhuman will or delve into the deep mystery of God's will^er se as it appears in phrase after phrase of Holy Scripture ifnot also in literature at large, suffice it to say that at least some things must be mentioned about both, regardless, if one is to be on the same wave-length as that ofthe two main personalities in this study Saint Augustine and Father Walter Ciszek. Limited as the following information may be, then, it will nevertheless lay a foundation for a closer look at the separate conversion experiences ofthese two personalities. Their respective experiences are vital to the idea that the divine will opposes the human will. The study can proceed by first reviewing various aspects ofboth divine will and human will. In turn, this review, taken largely from Augustine himself, should help to avoid purely theological entanglement as well as afford the necessary clarification concerning both kinds of will. Finally, the two selected life experiences ofconversion will be compared for the similarity and difference they display regarding the contention that God's will opposes man's will. To begin, it is in Book XTJL the last one, in Augustine's Confessions that some helpful notions especially about God's will can be found. References to it will be made throughout this part ofthe presentation. It is also in this final book that Scripture passages to no surprise abound more than in the preceding Books, as though his final appeal or confession rested on God's word and will rather than his own. The very first paragraph of section one contains a firm connection with God's will and Augustine's relationship to it.

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