Are We Doing God’s Will? Yeah, right!
theophilus January 27th, 2009
Let’s look at the state of the national and global economy, culture, political systems, families, communities and workplaces.
Do we really believe that we are even close to doing God’s will? Do we really accept our divine filiation as his children?
Yeah, there are many in this world who truly offer themselves over to God and allow themselves to be used in accordance with his will? But can the rest of us, as a whole, say the same things?
Today’s readings have got me thinking. Hebrews 10 discusses Jesus’ declaration that he had come to do his Father’s will. The refrain for the Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 40) proclaims “Here I am Lord, I come to do your will.” Today’s Gospel (Mark 3) gives us the reassurance from Jesus that “whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
There it is in neon lights. We are here to do God’s will!
I don’t know why God’s will is so hard for us. His will is what leads us to eternal life. His will is what leads us to peace and joy. His will is what leads us to the happiness of the saints and to doing great works here on earth.
Yet, we rebel, reject, ignore and often ridicule his will. We replace it with our own will and do so under the painfully, mistaken assumption that we know better than he does what is best for us.
And the problem for us is that he gives us the freedom to turn away from him. He never turns his back on us; but he allows us to turn our backs on him. And he leaves us to deal with the resulting consequences.
That is until we turn back to him. He always gives us an out from the disaster of our choices. He always is ready to shine the light on the path back to his son. No matter how far off that path we may find ourselves and no matter the severity of our sins, he always welcomes us back into his fold through his mercy, salvation, redemption and forgiveness.
The good news for us is that our kind have been doing this sort of thing in every age way back to Adam & Eve. The better news is that societies and cultures always seem to find their way back in some form or another. It may be painful, but we always seem to find the path once again.
But we have to take the first step by following God’s will and unifying our will with his.
He is inviting us back to his feast; will we accept the invitation?
