Jesus' Obedience to His Father's Will

Take Up Your Cross and Follow Me: The Challenge of Obedience to the Father’s Will-- We are fast approaching Holy Week!  Jesus was very much aware that the hour was approaching for Him to go to Calvary, where He would surrender His life to the Father on the cross for the salvation of the world. I call His obedience to the Father unto death  the third aspect of His call.is His The first aspect, as I perceive it, was his obedience to the Father when He left the glories of heaven, not clinging to equality with God but becoming fully human, entering the womb  of our Blessed Mother. The second aspect, from my point of view, was His obedience to the Spirit when he left home, was baptized by John, led into the desert to confront Satan and then into his active ministry of giving service to others  that ultimately led the third aspect of His call, being put to death by those threatened by His way of life, His Truth and His  teachings.

Obedience to the will of the Father:  Jesus learned obedience from what He suffered, first of all, not clinging to equality with the Father (cf Phil 2:6) but becoming like us in all things except sin; second of all, in His active ministry, doing only what the Father did  (“…the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees the Father doing and whatever the Father does the Son does too. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he does himself… [John 5: 20]); and third of all, surrendering to His crucifixion and death on the cross, when, in Gethsemane, Jesus says to His Father:  “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine” (Luke 22: 42-43).

Our call also has a three-fold aspect:  we  learn obedience from what we suffer, first of all,  by not clinging to our own wills, as though we are a god unto ourselves, as we strive to become our best self already as children and adolescents; second  of all, “by doing nothing” by ourselves but turning our eyes to the heavens, seeking the Father’s will in all things, especially in  regard to our chosen  ministries/careers by which  we choose  to serve others and the make the world a better place and by entering into the “deserts” we need to enter to  wrestle with Satan and confront his lies; and third of all, seeking the guidance of  the Spirit to make a right decision  in terms of our vocation in life (marriage, single life, or religious life) and saying to the Father, as Jesus said: “[L]et your will be done, not mine.”

Living out any aspect of call will entail carrying the cross of surrendering our will to the will of our Father, as Jesus did.  Will we take up our cross, as Jesus did? Will we take up our cross, as   Mary did all the way to Calvary’s hill, where, with Jesus, she, too, surrendered to the Father?  

To whom, to what, are we surrendering our lives? Let us use these last days of Lent to seriously consider these questions.