Doing the will of the Father, as Jesus Asks of Us

In today's Gospel, Matthew 7: 21-29, Jesus says to us: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.  Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do might deeds in  your name?' Then I will declare to them solemnly, 'I never knew you. Depart from, me,  you evil doers.'"

"Only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven" will enter the Kingdom of heaven, Jesus tells us clearly, not those who boast of prophesying in God's name, or driving out demons in God's name or doing "mighty" deeds in God's name!  Hear the boasting! Hear the attention seeking, the "look-at-me attitude! 

Am I doing things to draw God's attention and the attention of others? Beware of such pride and self-centeredness! At the gates of heaven, we could hear God say to us: "I do not know you!"  Only those who do the will of the Father will enter the Kingdom of heaven.  What immediately comes to my mind are the young people who intervened to get food that otherwise would have rotted in farmer's fields and finding a way to get that food to the poor all over the country. I think of the doctors and nurses and medical personnel fighting on the front lines of our "war" against the coronavirus. I think of mothers and father's up several times a night to feed a newborn infant or to tend to a sick child. I think of a spouse taking on the responsibilities of a parents too sick to do his/her share to keep the household running smoothly and to provide meals for a growing family.  I think of "essentials workers" doing all they can to protect themselves and their families from the deadly disease that ravages the U.S.  "Those who do the will of my Father in heaven will enter the Kingdom of heaven, says the Lord!"  And God's will, I believe, is that we do whatever it takes to keep each other safe and whatever is needed to meet the needs of our family members, to share responsibilities that enhances life around us, to reach out,  as Christ would reach out,  to the poorest of the poor in our  midst and sometimes those very persons live in our household!

Knowledge and Understanding of God's Will

In today's first reading, Colossians 1: 9-14, St. Paul tells the people that he has been praying for them from the day that he first heard about them.  The same is true of Jesus' first meeting of us as His baptized son/daughter. Every day, Jesus intercedes for us asking, as St. Paul did for the Colossians, that you, insert your name), "may be filled with the knowledge of  God's will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, so as to be fully pleasing, in every good work bearing fruit and growing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with every power, in accord with his glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy giving thanks to the Father,. who  has made you fit to share in the inheritance of the holy ones in light."

The only way that we know God's will is through God's gift of "spiritual wisdom and understanding."  With Jesus as our intercessor, nothing will deprive us of the wisdom and understanding of what God is asking of us at any given time in our lives!  So why is it that we do not always do what God asks of us. Our failure is not that God is not doing His part!  God is always there with the wisdom and the understanding we  need to walk in a manner worthy of Him and in a way that we fully please Him in every good work bearing fruit.  The problem may be that we are too busy trying to please others and meet their approval, not God's!

St. Paul prays, as does Jesus, that we be strengthened  "with every power, in accord with [God's]
 glorious might."  However, we might be blind and deaf to the voice of the Holy Spirit because we are obsessively and compulsively seeking the power and glorious might the world promises us through this world's billionaires or popular pseudo gods. No way, then, would we  be interested in  sharing the  "inheritance of the holy ones in light," an inheritance in which we begin to share even here on earth when our choices are in harmony with God's will for us here and now: knowledge of God, spiritual wisdom and understanding, God's glorious might working through us, and a joy and a peace which the world cannot give.

"The Lord is My Shepherd; there is nothing I shall want"

In today's first reading, Hebrews 13: 15-17, 20-2, Paul prays for us as follows: May the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep by the Blood of the eternal covenant, furnish  you with all that is good, that  you may do his will, May he carry out in you what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."

Let that prayer  be ours for each of our family members, our relatives, those serving us in our government--our president, members of congress, our governors and mayors--those in the military, in teaching and medical professions, in financial institutions, our priests and ministers, our bankers and all service entities. "Furnished with all that is good" empowers us to be doers of good deeds, as was Jesus, our Good Shepherd!  May each of us be given the graces we need to be loyal disciples of Jesus and who, like Jesus, carry out the will of His Father and ours!

In today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 23, we pray as follows:  "The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want."  Nothing! Absolutely nothing!  If I truly believed that, would I fret about the coming day or an event that weighs heavily upon me?  Would young parents, no matter how the child was  conceived, ever, ever think of killing that child in the mother's womb, if each or one of them believed: "The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want"? Would a desperate breadwinner resort to committing theft, if he/she prayed: "The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want." Would anyone resort to deception, corruption, or any kind of criminal activity if he/she believed this prayer?

To nurture and deepen our faith in the Good Shepherd, to be unshaken in our belief that God will "furnish us with all that is good that [we] may do his will," and that, given that Jesus is Shepherd who looks after us, "there is nothing [we] shall lack" nor or in the future, underscore the importance of stepping aside from our busyness each day to commune with the Lord!  In today's Gospel, Mark 6: 30-34, Jesus says to His disciples, after a busy day: "Come away by yourselves to  deserted place and rest a while."  In another scripture, Matthew 11: 28-30, Jesus says to us:  "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."  Let us do that if only for 5-10 minutes each day, opening the Bible, for instance, to one's favorite psalm, letting God know that you need His help to stay focused on Him and not obsess about your problems!   Problems come and go; God stands firm forever at our right and left side, holding us by the hand, waiting for us to notice Him!

What delights our God!

In the second reading of today's liturgy, Hebrews 10: 5-10, St. Paul reminds us of when Jesus came into the world, God wanted obedience to His will, not sacrifices of thousands and thousands of animals to appease for sin.  As explained by St. Paul to the Hebrews and to us about Jesus becoming human and what God wanted of him: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; in holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight. [Jesus' response:] Then I said, 'As is written of me in the scroll, behold, I come to do your will, O God.'....[Sacrifices and offerings, holocausts and sin offerings] are offered according to the law [and the law cannot save anyone]. Then he [Jesus] says, 'Behold, I come to do your will.'"

We cannot save ourselves. Only Jesus can! By His obedience to God's will we are saved and sanctified. The gift of salvation is freely given to us!  As with Jesus, God does not want sacrifices from us. He wants our obedience to the Spirit's promptings to do good and avoid evil, to forgive those who hurt us and not hang on to resentments,  to ask for pardon, to love and not hate, to act in justice and mercy and not out of revenge exacting demands, such as an eye for an eye.

In  today's responsorial psalm, we pray: "Lord, make us turn to  you; let us see your face and we shall be saved" from Satan's lies and the ways he lures us to turn away from You.

Serving Christ Sincerely

In today’s first reading, Ephesians 6: 1-9, St. Paul exhorts us to stop provoking our children to anger. Rather “bring them up with the training and the instruction of the Lord.”  Paul challenges us  to give service   to others “in sincerity of heart, as to Christ.”  We are asked to do “the will of God from the heart, willingly serving the Lord and not [humans], knowing that each will be requited from the Lord for whatever good he [or she] does…”  “Masters,” Paul emphatically states, “…stop bullying, knowing that both [those who serve you in your businesses—ecclesial or civil, corporate or governmental, familial or social-- or as heads of families] they and you have a Master in heaven and that with …[God] there is no partiality.”

How frightening it is to see how low we have fallen. We have listened to bullying for the past year as persons campaigned to become the next president of the U.S.A. We read reports of members of Congress having bullied the president for the past eight years and then complain that he has done nothing good.  Every evening, the nightly news also contains reports of bullying. We see bullying from sexual predators, home invaders,  corrupt politicians, corrupt CEOs of pharmaceutical companies and in the banking industry, on Wall Street and so many other corporations. We hear of drug lords, persons engaged in criminal activity or planning to harm others, to riot and revolutionize the country and on and on! The people doing good in the world—and there are millions--go unnoticed,  for the most part!

 The question is: am I contributing to this world’s darkness or am I among those striving to bring the light of Christ into  the darkness around me? What am I doing to make the world a place where “training and instruction of the Lord” prevails, where persons are taught to give service to others “in sincerity of heart, as to Christ”? Am I “willingly serving the Lord and not [humans]”?

Lord, have mercy on us and help look at ways to make the world a better place, to collaborate with others for the sake of the common good and to resolve problems that need to be addressed. May we sincerely do Your will from hearts turned to You and relying upon You!

Facing the Truth and Sharing It

In today’s first reading, Numbers 243: 2-7, 15-17a, Balaam utters a blessing upon the Israelites, prophesying, in fact, that a “star shall advance from Jacob, and a staff shall rise from Israel.” He utters this blessing after being asked by the messengers of the king to curse Israel.  He is unable to do so.  In no way is he able to act against the Lord’s will. 

However, Balaam tried to avoid doing what God was asking of him.  He waited overnight—maybe tomorrow he will hear something different from the Lord so that he could do what the Moabite king wanted of him.  The donkey on which he was riding bolted and walked off the road. It even talked back to Balaam when Balaam angrily attempted to beat it into submission: “Am I not your own beast, and have you not always ridden upon me until now?”  In other words the donkey is reminding Balaam that it has always been obedient to him; why is he not willing to obey his master!

In the Gospel, the people also attempt to avoid recognizing the Truth in their midst. Jesus brings them face to face with their craziness when they want to know by whose authority Jesus teaches. He says that He will answer their question if they answer His: By what authority did John the Baptist baptize?

At some point you and I, also, must be honest with ourselves, with others and with God.  We cannot forever avoid the Truth as it reveals itself in our lives, in the lives of others and in the events of our day!

Honored to be Jesus' Brother, Sister and Mother

In the Gospel of today,  Mark 3: 31-35, Jesus tells us that all those who do the will of His Father are his brothers, sisters, and mothers.  He extends family beyond the nuclear family.  For all of us, family is a bond that is like no other. If our parents are serious about their promise to us at our baptisms, it is in our families that most of us learn to love, to forgive, to show tenderness, to be compassionate.  At our baptisms, our parents promised to pass on the faith to us, to teach us about Jesus, to model turning to the Lord in good times and in  bad times, to follow God’s will in the routine responsibilities of our lives. It was Jesus’  mother  who taught Him  that doing God’s will is what  binds us to one another as sisters and brothers and mothers to each other.  It was that belief that prompted Him, when he family appeared, to use that moment as a teaching moment, telling everyone listening to His message—God’s will for them at that moment—that they were elevated to membership in God’s family and thus  each of them was  brother, sister, and mother to Him.  May you cherish that honor!

Courage to Stand up to Opposition

In today’s Gospel, Mk 3: 1-6, the Pharisees “watched Jesus closely to see if he would cure…a man on the Sabbath so they might accuse him.”  When Jesus set the regulations aside and revealed God’s compassion and mercy, the Pharisees left his presence and “immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death.”  In similar situations, do I stand aside looking for ways to denounce another;  and when I have identified what I consider a misdemeanor, a breaking of “the law”,  a tradition, a “we-don’t- do-things-that-way”, do I quickly consult with “Herodians” to further condemn/”kill”  the person who challenges my thinking, my behavior, my attitudes of superiority, my posturing for position, my pride?

Jesus looked at them “with anger” and was “grieved at their hardness of heart.” He called the man with the withered hand to the front of the synagogue and said to him: “Stretch out your hand”  and the hand was restored! Jesus did not back down when others opposed him, when others took Him to task, were determined to berate Him--yes, bent on destroying Him. What do I do when others oppose me when I know I am called to do what I am doing, to say what needs to be said, to act in accord with God’s will no matter how others react to me?

Total surrender to the Will of God

Today's readings, Proverbs 21: 1-6, 10-13 and Luke 8:19-21, give us profound teachings about those who surrender totally to the will of God, as did His mother Mary;  those who listen, first of all, to the directions of the Holy Spirit rising from the depth of their beings, and, second of all, to directions coming from outside sources, viewing those from the perspective of Jesus' prayer: "May they all be one, just as, Father, you are in me and I am in you, so that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me" (Jn  17: 21). 

Directions coming from our Source are always about being in love with that which fosters union, promotes well-being, respects the integrity of the other and treats the other as one who is of God, created in the image of God and sent into our lives as God's messenger.  To act out of love requires flexibility of us, not rigid conformity to external commands. "We are not machines programmed to obey God's commands 'according to the letter' of the law" (Word Among Us, September 2012, p. 45).  When we force ourselves into robotic obedience, the soil of our hearts become hardened, rocky, and impervious to grace.  Our heart, then, does not remain, in the words of Proverbs 21: 1, "...a stream...in the hand of the Lord." Consequently,  the Lord, respecting our free will, is not able to direct our hearts wherever the Lord wills (cf Proverbs 21:1).  May our prayer be: Lord, make my heart like "a stream" in your hands that you are able to direct in accord with Your holy will and which You are able to use to build up the kingdom of love, mercy, justice, and peace in a world filled with violence, hatred, and selfish ambitions.