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just another day of Catholic pondering by Sarah Reinhard

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Whose Will?

November 19th, 2009 · 3 Comments · Quotes

I read this passage this morning, and it will stick with me all day.  It’s a timely reminder as I continue to struggle with God’s will versus my will.

“Our obligation is to do God’s will, and not our own.  We must remember this if the prayer that our Lord commanded us to say daily is to have any meaning on our lips.  How unreasonable it is to pray that God’s will be done, and then not promptly obey it when he calls us from this world!  Instead we struggle and resist like self-willed slaves and are brought into the Lord’s presence with sorrow and lamentation, not freely consenting to our departure, but constrained by necessity.  And yet we expect to be rewarded with heavenly honors by him to whom we came against our will!  Why then do we pray for the kingdom of heaven to come if this earthly bondage pleases us?”

Cyprian, Sermon on Man’s Mortality

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  • Vicki

    What a fitting reminder, especially as we enter this time of Advent, a time of reflection and giving.

  • Jennifer D.

    This is so very timely, indeed. A friend and I were discussing God’s will just last night.

  • http://literacy-chic.blogspot.com/ Literacy-chic

    Interesting, and spoken like a true ascetic. However, God gives us a will to life, also. I think that praying to St. Joseph for a happy death isn’t incompatible with clinging tenaciously to life. How would one discern God’s will in cases of life and death? The diagnosis of a terminal illness can be taken as a death sentence, but wouldn’t it be sinful to abandon oneself to death, assuming that death was God’s will? And yet, people with terminal illnesses can be such examples of strength and give hope and joy to others. We have free will in order to be free to choose God, but it is also the feature that makes us fully human.

    The context of the quote is life and death, but we struggle with the question of God’s will vs. our will in everyday life, knowing that in this life we will never know God’s will with absolute certainty. So perhaps it is the process of acknowledging God in our endeavors that is of value in itself–asking the question, and resolving to try to achieve a purpose that seems to be in line with our beliefs in God. It is an ongoing discernment process, but as Catholics, we see faith as a journey, not something that is static. So the questioning and self-development is the important part, and not perhaps doing this or that *exact* thing that we’re supposed to be doing at a particular moment.