How do you know...

I got an email from one of my students today at the Catholic Biblical School that I loved. It is such a beautiful question: "How do we know we are doing God's will?"

Why is it so beautiful? Precisely, because it is "the song" of the heart of one who is in love! St. Thomas Aquinas noted that to love someone is "to will the Good of the other." And this is precisely at the heart of this question.

It does not seem like there is much that can be withheld when one loves then, eh? If you would will God's will, then you desire your whole life to be at his service. But how did I respond may be your next question....

Well I began with what is recently becoming one of my favorite scriptures, because it has applied for me (especially given my previous post): “Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesying, but test everything; hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil.”

The problem when it comes to God's will is that we have to remember what Isaiah taught first the Israelites and then us Gentiles who have been brought into the living family of God and the Ark of Salvation, known as the Catholic Church. Particularly, in Isaiah 55:8-9, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." In other words, we have to know that God thinks with an eternal perspective and with an eternal plan of salvation.

As I responded: "It is necessary to ask for God’s will because, at times, we have a last minute God (especially since there is NO watch big enough for him to receive on Father’s day). Our plans can be all laid out, and things may not go as we expect or hope. Jesus himself said, “Father, if you are willing, remove this chalice from me; nevertheless, not my will but yours, be done (Lk 22:42).” So Jesus, at least in his humanity, had the idea that God’s will could still be different than what he had come to understand. And why? Why would he hold out this hope? For you and I to realize that God is a God of love, but one who asks we love with childlike obedience to trust Our Father. We see things from such a limited perspective. We only have our fluctuating emotions and our desires, good and bad, and our human experience to make the decisions we make, yet God sees things wholly (or holistically – as people like to say these days), from an eternal perspective and with His perfect plan for our greatest joy – but as the Catechism says, “The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle. Spiritual progress entails ascesis [i.e. spiritual purification] and mortification [i.e. bodily training] that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes. (CCC #2015)” Why? Because we must learn to collaborate with God as his children, growing into the full stature of Christ, desiring only God’s will as our own because He has already manifestly and persistently shown his love for us."

Let us always seek his will, because for us who have received Him with Faith, as manifested in our Baptism, we now have our True Father who is in heaven. As Jesus taught us, "What is born of flesh is flesh, what is born of Spirit is Spirit (Jn 3:6)."