Note: During the recent Miles Jesu General Assembly in Rome (November 2009) members gathered, from around the world, spent time discussing and formulating a clear statement of what “availability” means in the Miles Jesu charism. Many of the ideas that came up were especially tailored for people living a consecrated community life, yet at the same time, availability is an essential part of any authentic Christian spirituality, regardless of a person’s state of life.

Availability is a cornerstone of Miles Jesu’s charism. Paul Murphy, MJ (1939-1976), a domus member and an architect, had a sign on his desk at work which read: “God doesn’t want your ability. He wants your availability.” Well yes, really he wants both. But “availability” is key here because God already has all the abilities he will ever need! The one and only thing in creation that he does not control directly is the free will of his rational creatures. So you see, availability becomes all-important. Our availability is what makes it possible for him to use all his many other gifts to us—our “abilities”—to make us part of his great epiphany.

According to ask.com, at this moment there are 4.603 tons of gold bullion at Fort Knox, and even more in the vault at the Federal Reserve Bank in Manhattan. In economic terms, that’s a lot of “ability.” But it is useless to me because it is not available to me. The Library of Congress houses 130 million items in no fewer than 460 languages. The Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights are on display there, but in general all those riches of history and literature are not instantly available to the public. The ability of the Library of Congress to fill human minds with knowledge is completely contingent on the availability of its resources to those minds.

It’s the same with every human person. Each human being is a unique and unrepeatable collection of abilities: physical, emotional, intellectual abilities that remain only potential until the person harnesses them for some specific goal. God creates each individual with his or her own personal gifts, he offers the person his lights of grace…and then he waits. He waits for our availability.

Isn’t that incredible? Our omnipotent Lord showers us with his riches and then waits to see what we will do with it all. He wants to possess us entirely, but he will only accept what we choose to give him. He only takes what we make available to him.

Availability is all about the readiness to put God first, not just in theory but in action. It is an attitude, a state of mind, a state, even, of the heart. Its foundation is in the simple message of Mary, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord,” (Lk. 1:38) and of Jesus himself, “Not my will but yours be done.” (Lk. 22:42) The future prophet Samuel, as a young boy, responded in such a way to the voice of the Lord calling him in the night: “Speak Lord, your servant is listening,”(1 Sam. 3:10); the great prophet Isaiah answered his own calling: “Here I am Lord, send me.” (Is. 6:8) Through the millennia holy men and women have been the instruments of God’s wonders by making themselves available to him. The sick have been healed, conversions wrought, the suffering consoled, children housed and taught, even whole civilizations have been built, and rebuilt, because of people opening their personal treasure-houses of ability with the key of availability.

Availability is a state of listening and responding. Looking for the needs and taking initiative in answering them. Doing the jobs that i don’t have to do. Doing the jobs that no one really wants to do. Not doing these things grudgingly but with with a positive attitude of responsibility and charity. And if no one ever notices that i’m the one who did it, that’s fine.

Availability is what’s at work when we give no-strings-attached obedience to the will of God. When simply knowing that this is the way God wants a thing to be is the only motivation i need for my actions. It goes beyond the carrot and the stick, beyond self-gratification and self-preservation. In his first epistle, St. John reminds us that true love casts out fear: “In love there is no room for fear, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear implies punishment and no one who is afraid has come to perfection in love.” (1 Jn. 4:18) When a person is able to do God’s will because of its inherent goodness and attractiveness, rather than just because of the fear of punishment, that person is advancing in availability.

Availability is present in any unconditional act of love. Availability is what keeps a mother up all night at the bedside of a sick child. It’s in play when a father comes home from a long day at work and spends the evening helping with the laundry or the homework or the clogged up plumbing. And when the tables turn, it’s present when an adult son or daughter returns the caregiving for an elderly parent. It’s present in any human relationship where unselfish love is found. Being “available” to another—not because of some selfish agenda but because one human being is putting another human being ahead of himself—is how we imitate the love that God has for each individual soul.

It comes up all the time, in big ways and in small ways. It definitely embraces the small day-to-day blah type of things that don’t seem important. St. Therese of the Child Jesus became one of the most popular saints of modern times by dedicating her life to love-in-the-details. She taught the doctrine of saying “yes” in the little things—and teaches it still—so well that it has made her a Doctor of the Church. And although she lived just a short life, in one small corner of France, hidden behind cloister walls, she is also the Co-Patron of the Foreign Missions, along with St. Francis Xavier. Thus the Church affirms the enormous scope of availability in the little things…they lead to availability in great things.

St. Francis Xavier, in fact, is another brilliantly shining example of availability. He was a man of very great abilities. A promising scholar of the Sorbonne, he met St. Ignatius of Loyola and became one of the seven founding members of the Society of Jesus. His great intellectual ability was sent off in an entirely new direction. In a true spirit of great ability and greater availability, St. Francis left his bright prospects at the university to plant the seeds of Christianity in many missionary lands: Mozambique, India (where he converted tens of thousands of people), Oceania, and Japan. He died off the shore of China while trying to enter that country to spread the gospel there. However, a closer look at the life of St. Francis reveals a very gifted man who was constantly put into the position of leaving burgeoning success to start new work somewhere else. He faced great challenges: language difficulties, inadequate funds; he repeatedly underwent all the challenges of making a start in a new and unknown place. He experienced resistance from some of the European officials he had to deal with and, sadly, even from some of the members of his own community. Yet he persevered through it all, a man of extraordinary availability.

Sometimes making ourselves available to God—as in the example of St. Francis Xavier—means leaving success behind and embracing a new adventure from God. And sometimes it means—following the St. Therese model—perseverance in hidden difficulties and in what may seem at first glance to be a humdrum sort of life. Availability means looking at our lives from God’s point of view and living things out according to the way he prefers. God always chooses the best for us; availability means choosing the best for ourselves, because we are choosing what he chooses.

True availability means throwing ourselves into following God’s will. Not just going through the motions but using our abilities well. Persevering through the difficulties. Learning a thing thoroughly, doing a job well, dotting the “i”s and crossing the “t”s. Doing it willingly, joyfully, even, comes into it, too. Listen to the words bursting forth from Mary’s mind and heart in the first moments of her great act of availability. She says “yes” to the angel, and her next recorded words are the fruit of that “yes”: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God my Savior because he has looked upon his lowly handmaid. Yes from this day forward all generations will call me blessed, because the Almighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name.” (Lk. 1:46-49)

When we become available to God, then all the wonderful abilities we have—our life situation, our talents, our day-by-day circumstances, even our weaknesses—come along with the availability. It is then that we can do great things in Him who has done great things for us.

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