Expositio super orationem Dominicam

Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.

The will of God is spoken of in two ways: either that by which he wills, which in God is God himself, and which is the principal and first cause of things, and is called the essential will; or that which he wills, which is called the material will, which is thus divided: the material will disposing, another approving, another effecting, another commanding. Of the first it is said: whatever he willed, he has done¹. Of the second it is said: God wills his elect to work well. Of the third, however, it is said: God willed the world to be saved². Of the fourth it is said, thy will be done.

Likewise the human will is spoken of in two ways: namely the will of affection and the will of effecting. The will of affection is that by which someone desires something but does not bring it about, as far as is in himself, that he should have it. The will of effecting is when someone brings it about that he obtains what he desires.

Note that the divine will was in Christ insofar as Christ was God. Likewise the human will was in him insofar as he himself was man. I speak of the human will not as vice and fault makes it, but as the nature of man requires. This will is considered in a threefold way: according to reason, according to compassion, according to the flesh.

In Christ, then, there was the will of divinity, the will of reason, the will of compassion, the will of the flesh. Of the powerful will of divinity it was said to the leper: I will, be thou clean³. Of the will of reason: the spirit is willing⁴. Of the will of the flesh: but the flesh is weak⁵. The Lord showed the will of compassion when he wept over the city, whose destruction he did not will, that is, by the will of compassion⁶. Each will, then, worked in Christ what was its own and what pertained to it. The will of divinity followed justice, the will of reason followed obedience, the will of compassion followed mercy, the will of the flesh followed nature.

The will of divinity willed justice, the will of reason approved obedience, the will of compassion sighed over another's evil, the will of the flesh refused suffering and punishment. Let it be said, then: thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Which is to say: just as thy will, the commanding will, is fulfilled in heaven, that is, in the angels, so let it be fulfilled on earth, that is, in men.

Or: as it is done in heaven, that is, in the soul, so let it be done on earth, that is, in the flesh. Or as it is done in heaven, that is, in the just, so let it be done on earth, that is, in sinners. Or as it is done in heaven, that is, in Christ, so let it be done on earth, that is, in the Church. As if he should say: just as the heavenly Church can will nothing except what it knows you to will, so let the present Church be wholly given over to your will.