22 March, Wednesday — Choosing whose will?

Wednesday of the 4th Week of Lent

Isa 49:8-15
Jn 5:17-30

“…my aim is to do not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.”

I recently learned that Jesus calls God as My Father; except when he is teaching the disciples how to pray.

‘Our’ is general.

‘My’ is personal.

The intimacy of ‘MY’ in the relationship Christ has with his Father and what Christ shows and tells us, time and time again, is the relationship we, too, can have.  It is a relationship where our will…my will, is to do THE WILL of God our (my) Father. In joining our will to His (as Christ did), we will be doing the will of God. We will be living our walk to being with Him forever. After all, that is God’s will.

As Christians, we know that our salvation is from God through Christ’s death and resurrection. Christ had the free will that we have. Christ chose heaven with His Father with every word and step. We too, have that free will to choose our words, our steps. Our words, our steps, bring us toward the will of God, or away from the will of God.

C.S. Lewis said, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.”

Thomas Merton said it this way, “Why should anyone be shattered by the thought of hell? It is not compulsory for anyone to go there. Those who do, do so by their own choice, and against the will of God, and they can only get into hell by defying and resisting all the work of Providence and grace. It is their own will that takes them there, not God’s. In damning them, He is only ratifying their own decision – a decision which He has left entirely to their own choice. Nor will He ever hold our weakness alone responsible for our damnation. Our weakness should not terrify us: it is the source of our strength, “Liberter gloriabo in infirmitatibus meis ut inhabitant in me virtus Christi!” Power is made perfect in infirmity, and our very helplessness is all the more potent a claim on that Divine Mercy Who calls to Himself the poor, the little ones, the heavily burdened.”

St. Catherine of Siena said, “If we were not free, we would have an excuse for sin. But we can have no excuse because there is nothing, neither the world nor the devil, nor our own flesh, that can force us to any sin at all against our will…What is this thing that is ours, given us by God, that neither the devil nor anyone else can take from us? It is our will. Certainly then, we can be secure and fearless.” 

To do the will of someone we do not know is virtually impossible. So to do the will of God, it is our responsibility to take the time to build a relationship with God. It’s a daily thing – like breathing. 

Nothing on this earth is everlasting except for our relationship – or lack thereof – with God. 

Nothing on this earth has any lasting value, except for our relationship with God. 

Nothing.

With only ten days till Holy Week, let us each take daily planned personal time to seek the will of God more intentionally, to get to know the Father so that He is not only Our Father, but in fact MY FATHER. This will be the last Holy Week for some sitting next to us in the pews – let us make this a Holy Week that transpires our soul, that redirects our life and leads us to life everlasting with God and all the angels and saints in Heaven.

May His will be done in your life and mine.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Gina Ulicny)

Prayer: Father God, how easy it is to put my time with You on hold for an hour, a day, a week, a month…till the next major event that brings me to my knees. This is not who I want to be, Lord. Please help me to quiet my mind so that Your voice is familiar and the only voice I listen to, for I know Lord, that only in hearing Your Voice will I be able to discern Your will. And Lord, despite my past actions, I do want to follow Your will, not mine.

Thanksgiving: Father God, thank You for the gift of your Son. Thank You for His example and His teaching. Thank you for not leaving me, though I have left You so many times. Thank you for all the guidance every day of my life. Thank you for the faith that You have given me and for the understanding of the joy in doing Your Will, not mine. Thank you, Lord for making a place for me in heaven.