The last sentence of today's gospel contains six words that may be among the hardest six words to live.
I do not seek my own will
Here I am not talking about the major life decisions. In that arena most of us who call ourselves religious will at least ponder for a moment the question, what would God want me to do?The difficulty is in the ordinary day to day, mundane part of life.
In today's gospel Jesus presents us with a model where the Father and the Son are constantly working in tandem. Jesus is the son who "cannot do anything on his own." Nothing. Nada. Niente. Ничего. His every word, every action is in union with the Father.
We like to tell ourselves that this is something unique to Jesus, because he is God, the second person of the Trinity incarnate. But we know deep down that that is merely an excuse we use.
We are son and daughters as well. As St. Paul reminded us this past Sunday, we are Light. And because we are light, we are to walk always as children of the light.
In order to do this, it is not enough to consult God when we are uncertain. We must surrender our will completely. We must take the stance that there is never a time when it is Ok for me to seek my will, or worse yet to try to talk God into doing our will.
The great paradox of Christianity is our understanding of the road to freedom. If we want to be free, there is only one path, total surrender to the will of God.
This is not passive resignation. It is exactly the opposite. It is a constant minute by minute search for the will of God, a yearning, a hunger for the wisdom to know, and the strength to do the will of God in every circumstance.
When we think of Lent we think of the question, what am I going to give up this year? Here's a thought, give up your will.
