Cracking God’s will

IT may give us the sensation that we are chasing rainbows, boiling the ocean, tilting at windmills, going in circles, but actually figuring out what God’s will for us is at any given moment is the most objective reality that we should try our best to capture. In a sense, nothing can be more important than that.

And that is simply because God’s will is the source of everything in the universe. The whole of creation in all its existence, unity, truth, goodness and beauty starts from God’s will and is maintained by it. The entire range and scope of reality—be it material or spiritual, natural or supernatural, temporal or eternal—is “contained” there, not only theoretically but also in vivo.

We have to realize more deeply that it is in God’s will that everything is made to exist and is kept in existence according to his providence. Since we have been made with the capacity to know and to will, we have to live our life knowing and willing together with God’s knowledge and will, full of wisdom, love and mercy.

This, of course, is not easy. God‘s will is shrouded in the deepest of mysteries. But this does not mean that it cannot be known by us. Neither does it mean that God does not make himself known to us in the easiest manner possible.

He may be the farthest from us, because he is the most supernatural of all things supernatural. But he is also the closest to us, because he is at the very core of our being, he being the giver of our existence who cannot withdraw from us, lest we revert to nothing.

He can even appear to us directly, as what many saints had experienced. He gives us his grace. We are left with his doctrine. The sacraments are there. And practically everything, if seen with great faith, points us to him. The trees, the mountains and skies, the sun and moon can speak to us of God.

Yes, it is both difficult and easy, impossible and feasible. It would really depend on us as to how we approach this matter. Are we, first of all, aware that we need to know, love and follow God’s will? Are we willing to exert the corresponding effort?

To be able to know God’s will for us at every moment, we need to be recollected, always putting ourselves in God’s presence, trying to discern through our daily duties and the things that we see around what God is asking of us or telling us. We have to strive to be real contemplatives in the middle of the world, able to see God in everything.

We may have to use some human devices to remind us continually of God’s presence and will. But we should also undertake a continuing plan of prayer, sacrifices, study of the doctrine of our faith, development of virtues, recourse to the sacraments. All these help in making us attentive and docile to God’s will.

These days, there is a great need for us to know and do God’s will, otherwise, we would be building our own tower of Babel.