‘What is
God’s will for me?’ This is a question I get asked all the
time.Most people who take their faith even somewhat seriously, want
to do God’s will, but how are we to know what that is? God’s will
for us is primarily to be ALIVE and to love him above all else! Many
of us will never know if we have a particular calling or not. I
believe that God called me to be a priest. How do I know that? I’ll
never know for sure, but the desire to serve God as a priest, was
stronger than any other desire, such as to get married, which is the
most normal and wonderful thing in the world. But if I had not
followed this call, it doesn’t mean that God wouldn’t have been
with me. God has given us free will and God will respect the
decisions I make, even if they are not good ones. If I had chosen a
different path, I may not have been quite as fulfilled, but that
doesn’t mean that God wouldn’t have used me in a different way.
Ask yourself
this question: What is the deepest desire of your heart? That is
probably where you will find the answer. God has created us to be
fully alive and to enjoy the wonderful world that God has given us.
We are to use our time well, love God above all and love and serve
the people around us, but also enjoy all that is good. There is a
wonderful quotation from St. Irenaeus which says, ‘The glory of God
is man fully alive.’ We give the greatest glory to God by reaching our full potential as
humans. To develop our gifts and talents and to use them for good,
gives glory to God. This is what we are called to do above all else.
So, what is God’s will for me? God’s will for us
is that we live to the fullest degree, according to his word and that
may involve a definite vocation or not. For many people, their
vocation may not be that obvious, such as the call to priesthood, or
Religious life, but that doesn’t mean that the calling is any less
real. If a man or a woman gets married, their calling is to live
their marriage to the best of their ability; to sacrifice themselves
for each other and their children. If a man or a woman are called to
Religious life, then their role is to live that vocation to the best
of their ability. There are many people who don’t find a partner,
or end up in Religious life. What is their calling? Their calling is
to live their lives to the best of their ability wherever they find
themselves.
I think that
it would be a mistake to start worrying that we may not know what
God’s will for us is. God’s will for us is primarily to live
fully each moment as we come to it. Our greatest calling is to love;
to love God and to love each other.
When Jesus
was asked to define the greatest Commandment, He answered by
referring to the first and second Commandment, because the two
are related:
“Teacher,
which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus
replied: “‘Love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind.’ This is the first
and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your
neighbor as yourself.’
All the Law and the
Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36-40).
If the
thought of being called to the priesthood or Religious life is
something that repulses you, then it is very unlikely that you are
being called to it. The same applies with any way of life. We will
never know for sure, but the most important thing is that we blossom
where we are planted. Although we may not think we make much
difference in the world unless we are called to something ‘great’,
the truth is that all of us make a difference in the world, one way
or the other. I may be the only person in my neighborhood, or
workplace, who prays for the other people there. I may be the only
one who shows encouragement to someone who crosses my path. All of us
have been given the potential to do great good, but it may be very
hidden and more down-to-earth than we would imagine. We will only
know for sure when we get to heaven. The truth is that it doesn’t
really matter whether we know what our vocation is or not. What
matters is that we live and love to the best of our ability.
I have a
close friend who was married, had children, got divorced and
annulled and later went into a monastery. What was his vocation? While he was
married, it was to live his marriage to the best of his ability. When
he became a monk, it was to live his life as a monk as well as he
could. Do we really know? Does it really matter? There are many
things we will not figure out in this world, but I think we shouldn’t
get too preoccupied with trying to figure them out either.
What if I end
up being single but I really wanted to get married? There is no
answer to this except that that is what happened. Either way, God can
do wonderful things through us if we remain open to him. Some people
will say that they feel called to the single life and see that as
their vocation. Others end up single without intending to be.
If you look
at the great characters in the Bible, most of them were very ordinary
people and indeed the kind of people that most of us would over-look.
The great king David was a shepherd. Moses murdered a man in his
youth and then God called him when he was about eighty years old.
Mary was about fourteen when she was asked to become the mother of
Jesus and play one of the most extraordinary roles in history. Many
of the canonized saints of the Church were very ordinary people in
their time, but God did extraordinary things through them. One saint
in particular that I often think of is St. Thérèse of Lisieux. St.
Thérèse was just fifteen when she got special permission to enter
the Carmelite convent in Lisieux, northern France. In her own
writings she says that she longed to be a great saint, but realized
that she wasn’t able to do many of the extraordinary things that
many others were able to do. She asked God to show her what her
particular role was. As she searched through the Scriptures, she read
about all the different callings that people have within the Church;
Apostles, preachers, teachers, miracle workers, etc. She realized
that she could not do any of these things since she was now living as
an enclosed Carmelite nun and she was also quite limited because of
poor health. Then she went on to read St. Paul’s first letter to
the Corinthians where he describes the greatest calling of all, which
is to love.
If
I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I
am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of
prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I
have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am
nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to
hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing…
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of
these is love (1 Cor 13:1-3,13).
Reading this
was a turning point for Thérèse, as she recognized that the most
important thing in the whole Church is to love and this is something
that everyone can do. She understood that her calling was to be love
in the heart of the Church. She was a young sister, hidden away in a
Carmelite convent, but she could still do great things if she did the
most ordinary things with love. Even if we are only able to do very
small tasks, so long as we do them with love, then we are fulfilling
the greatest calling of all. Thérèse recognized that all of us are
given an equal chance, because everyone is capable of doing even the
smallest tasks with love. Doing things with love is more important
than any earthly achievements, because when we love, we imitate God
more than anything else. Love is our greatest calling.
So, what is
God’s will for me? To live life to the full and to love and serve
the people around me.
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