Today’s Gospel reminds us of the need to seek and to do God’s will. Jesus calls us to both listen to and act on the word of God. At times, however, discerning the will of God can seem like a challenge. It can seem as if God’s will is a divine mystery that we must skillfully solve.
However, Jesus has already revealed God’s will to us. God’s will is love and mercy itself. Therefore, when we find ourselves discerning what to do with our lives, discerning how to carry out God’s will, we must always ask how our decisions are both loving and merciful. If we let love and mercy govern our lives, we can rest assured that we are on the path to fulfilling the will of God. Of course, being loving and merciful is often more challenging than it sounds. So today we might ask for the grace to understand how we can act with more genuine love and mercy.
—Tom Elitz, SJ, is a Jesuit scholastic from the Maryland Province currently studying philosophy at Fordham University.