HOW  SPECIFIC 

IS  GOD’S  WILL? 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Monday in the Second Week in Ordinary time is, “How Specific Is God’s Will?”

I think this is a lifetime question.

How specific, how particular, is God’s Will for us?

TODAY’S READINGS

When we read or hear the Bible - like at the readings at Mass - it seems God’s will is very specific.

Like these readings from the First Book of Samuel - we’ve  been hearing right now - these days at weekday Masses. Samuel gets specific orders from God. Saul - now gets specific orders from God.

Like today Samuel tells Saul that God wants him to destroy and to exterminate the Amalekites.

We seemed shocked when we hear about people killing people - claiming God wants them to do it. We wonder about their scriptures. I remember when I started reading the Koran - and I started noticing how many times the book has Allah - God - saying, “Burn! Destroy! Kill!”  Then I began to notice how many times our scriptures states that same message.

It’s enough to shake our faith. I hope it’s enough to shake up our brains - till we become thinking people.

I would think that someone who is a peace officer should try to stop someone who is trying to destroy someone else. If it could be done without killing the killer, good, but….

I would think the same of someone in the military - but there better be a lot of thinking and diplomacy and study - before entering into battle.

Today’s gospel - Mark 2: 18-22 - has the question of fasting. Is it God’s will to call people to fast - like we have Lent coming up soon. It’s early this year.

Is fasting and abstaining and religious sacrifices for God or for us?

Didn’t Jesus say something like that when it comes to observing the Sabbath?

When I’m with young couples who are planning to get married, we go through a questionnaire. I ask couples if they are getting married in church because they want it, or to make their parents happy. I often say, “In my opinion, I think there’s something wrong or funny if people go to church growing up to make their parents happy and then go to church to give good example to their kids. I assume the message is to go to Church because you have the gift of faith and you see this is good for you and your spouse and your kids if you’re blessed with them. I like to add that I hope being a Christian, being a Catholic, is what you want  - and that you’re a thinking Catholic.

GOD’S WILL

God’s will, what God wants, to me is quite a thinking question.

My first question is the title of this homily: “How Specific Is God’s Will?”

To me the answer is the  question and the answer of the Rich Young Man who came to Christ and asked, “What must I do to gain eternal life?”

To me he is asking, “What’s the  secret of life? What’s the meaning of life?”

And I hear a very simple answer, “To love the Lord my God with my whole heart, mind, soul and spirit - and to love my neighbor as myself.”

Whether we should marry so and so - move to such and such a place - that to me leads me to a God like a dad or a mom who says, “Son, daughter, we just want you to be happy and have a great life - making life making sense for you and for the good of others.”

I have heard some unhappy people who do everything to please others and they end up being miserable themselves.

I like a lot of what Martin Luther King Jr. said.

For example, "The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: 'If i stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But ... the Good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If i do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'"

For example,  "Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well the living, the dead and the unborn could do it no better."

For example, “If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.”

CONCLUSION

Today’s gospel talks about the new.

Each of us is a new creation - called to do the new thing we have been created for.

What is that? That new specific is up to us to find - to discover - and to dream and to do.

Martin Luther King Jr. challenges the silent - the complacent - those who don’t climb mountains - and look down on life - and see where we can make a difference - and make things better. He died in Memphis - killed assassinated - as he was trying to make life better for those who picked up  garbage -  killed I’m sure because someone thought that was the right thing to do. I don’t know if they thought it was God’s will. I hope not.