HAPPINESS IS DOING GOD'S WILL
The Good News about God is that He loves you and wants you to experience the good life. But He has given you freedom -- freedom to say "Yes!" or "No!" You can obey or you can disobey. You can follow Jesus or you can go your own way. "He who obeys the commandments he has received from Me is the man who loves Me," Jesus said. The consequences, or the fruit, of freely choosing to say "Yes!" to God is love. Obeying God is learning how to love.
Don't talk about it. Forget your own good intentions. Stop picking and choosing and making excuses to yourself and others. Empty yourself of all that "self-help" knowledge you've acquired about "Looking Out For Number One." Get on with it! Do it! "Do God's Will as I have revealed it to you," Jesus is telling us, over-and-over again. But He doesn't leave it there. He doesn't leave it hanging. He lets us in on the secret of the joy -- the true happiness -- of holy obedience. He tells us that if we enter through the narrow gate -- the disciplined way of obedience -- we will find wholeness of life. We will become the tree that bears rich fruit. Our life's house will be built on a solid foundation that will withstand any storm.
Obedience to God's Will opens up the whole secret of life for you. Jesus is telling you that obedience to the Will of God -- actually doing what the Lord teaches you to do -- is the only way to achieve genuine joy, happiness, fulfillment, peace of soul, wholeness of life. We say these things -- week-after-week we say them -- but do we really believe them enough, trust them enough, have enough faith in them to act accordingly? Or do we keep on frantically pushing and shoving, and manipulating, and trying to have our own way -- fighting God right to the bitter end?
In a magazine cartoon, a mother and father are arguing over junior's budding musical career. "Very well," the exasperated father exclaims, "have it your way. So he'll grow up to be a tuba virtuoso. But can't he just take lessons? Does he have to practice?"
Absurd as it may seem, that is exactly what we're saying about our own lives if we're travelling down the middle of the road paved with good intentions. We talk about living a virtuoso Christian life but we don't want to practice it. We're trying to meet with Christ on our own terms. But it can't be done. We cannot simply talk our way into His company.
"He who obeys the commandments he has received from Me is the man who loves Me." The person who loves Jesus is the person who relates to others in the spirit of compassion, the spirit of concerned, caring, loving service. Do it now -- in your very next encounter with a human being. It's true: practice does make perfect.
In today's Gospel Lesson, in the person of Mary -- a "mother-To-Be" -- Luke presents to us the perfect example of trust in God's Holy Will. When informed by God's messenger that she would give birth to the Messiah, Mary immediately gave her faith response. "I am the handmaid of the Lord," she said, "let what you have said be done to me" (Lk. 1:38). And then, Luke tells us, "Mary set out...and went as quickly as she could to visit her cousin, Elizabeth (who also was pregnant), and to tell her the good news. Elizabeth joyfully greeted her, saying, "Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb...The moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leaped for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled" (Lk. 1:42,44-45).And there we have the secret of "blessedness," the secret of "happiness," the secret of a fruitful Christian living a fruitful life: to let it be done to you as God wills; to do as God wills; to love one another as He has loved us.
What is happiness? The Apostle Paul has given us the formula:
Because you are God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with heartfelt mercy, with kindness, and humility and meekness and patience. Bear with one another, forgive whatever grievances you have against one another. Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you. Over all these virtues, put on love, which binds the rest together and makes them perfect. Christ's peace must reign in your hearts (Col. 3:12-15).
I send you love, I send you light; I bless your soul with all my might.
I give you all that I can give, And pray that it will help you live A life that's full, a life that's free, At one with peace and harmony.
And in return I ask one thing: That you accept the gift I bring. And worry not about what you In return for me can do.
For my reward is in the thrill That comes from having served God's Will.
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