Thy Will Be Done
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Am I doing God’s will? Peace is the fruit of doing the will of God. We can be lacking peace if we are not. But we can also have a false sense of peace if we have so ignored God’s will that our conscience has gone to sleep. In the 3rd petition of the Our Father we pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Do we really mean this? Do we really want the will of God in our lives or are we secretly afraid of it and just hope He accepts our will as a compromise?
Most importantly, God’s will is that we share in His divine life and become like him. I am not quite sure what it will be like to become like God, but that is what the Bible, the whole Tradition and the Catechism tell us. God’s will for us is that we accept the gift of His divine life so that we will share in God’s being and action forever. Wow! Staggering if you think about it. But that is His will. O.K. I want that. Thy will be done God. Make me like yourself O God.
However, there is one big hitch – we must choose and choose constantly and cooperate with God. He will not choose for us. Therefore, we need some principles to guide our choices.
If union with God is our goal then we should use everything that is not God only insofar as it brings us closer to him, and to detach ourselves from it insofar as it turns us away from him:
St Nicholas of Flue
My Lord and my God, take from me everything that distances me from you.
My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer to you.
My Lord and my God, detach me from myself to give my all to you.
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God did not leave us to wonder what His will was. He revealed His will for us in general, meaning how he designed us, through the Commandments and the teachings of Jesus found in Scripture and Tradition that is summarized in the CCC, especially in part II and III. If you want to know the will of God for your life in general – read the Catechism. Funny though, most people don’t read it.
Pope Benedict says: The first and essential thing is a listening heart, so that God, not we, may reign. The Kingdom of God comes by way of a listening heart. That is the path. And that is what we must pray for again and again. Benedict, Jesus of Nazareth Part 1, p. 145-146
There is absolutely no other way to allow Jesus to live through you than by beginning with a listening heart. If you spend time asking God what to do and listening patiently in silence. One way or another He will show you. Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.
But, if you do not spend time, and I mean at least 30-60 minutes each day, asking and listening patiently in silence, then you chose to go it alone – tell me how that works for you.
We seek to know God and His will through
· Prayer, Meditation, Listening and Reflection
Time in solitude and silence each day to
· Develop an intimate friendship with God
· Talking to Him – vocal prayer
· Listening to Him – meditation
Rosary: Mary disposes us to know and do the will of God
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Knowing the will of God for us in particular is a little more tricky. The will of God for us, specifically or particularly is known by a few key things:
The duties and responsibilities of our state in life as a –
§ Husband, Wife
§ Parent
§ Work outside of the Home
§ Work inside of the Home
§ Son or Daughter of elderly parents
§ What other commitments have you made?
§ Are you sure these other commitments are God’s will?
Our state in life comes with responsibilities that are the will of God for us. How are we doing in these?
If we want to know the will of God we need to know ourselves.
What are my gifts and talents, what are my limitations?
Do I need more autonomy or direction? Am I more or less social? Do I like to follow a process or hate conforming to rules? Do I like or hate details…
What is my temperament? Am I choleric, sanguine, melancholic, or phlegmatic? We are all combination of these.
What have I learned about myself from reflecting on my experiences. We don’t learn from experience – we learn by reflecting on experiences.
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The surest way to know the will of God is through the things we cannot change – I like to call it – Obedience to Events.
Good things happen and bad things happen. God is in no way, directly or indirectly, the cause of moral evil. He permits it, however, because he respects the freedom of his creatures and, mysteriously, knows how to derive good from it: St. Augustine writes: For almighty God. . ., because he is supremely good, would never allow any evil whatsoever to exist in his works if he were not so all-powerful and good as to cause good to emerge from evil itself.
If something bad happens or could happen – do all you can to change or correct the bad that is within your control or scope of authority. But if something bad happens and you cannot change it, then God has allowed it and He will bring the greatest good out of it. When something happens we can’t change – the will of God for us is to accept it knowing God works all things for good for those who cooperate with him.
Nothing happens that has not been foreseen by God from all eternity and willed or permitted by Him.
The circumstances that I cannot change are the clearest expression of what God wills or allows. If I can’t change it and God hasn’t changed and He allows it, then it must be His will. But always bear in mind - God works all things for God for those who love him.
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Dante: Paradiso Canto III:61-96 God’s Will
‘But tell me, you who are happy here, do you wish for a higher place, to see further, or to make yourself dearer?’ She smiled with the other shadows first, a little, then replied to me so joyously she seemed to be burning with the first fire of love: ‘Brother, the power of love quiets our will, and makes us only long for what we have, and gives us no other thirst. If we desired to be higher up, our wishes would be at odds with his will, who assigns us here, and there is no room for that discord in these circles, if you think again about love’s nature, and that we of necessity have our being in Love.
No, it is the essence of this being blessed to keep ourselves to the Divine Will, through which our own wills are unified. So that our being as we are, from step to step, throughout the kingdom, is a joy to all the kingdom, as it is to the king, who draws our wills towards what he wills: and in his will is our peace, la sua volontate è nostra pace: it is the sea, to which all things flow, that it creates, and nature forms.’
It was clear to me then how every part of Heaven is Paradise, even though the grace of the Highest Good does not pour down to it in only one way.