Are You Willing to Accept God's Generosity?

Good morning.  Peace to each of you and to your families.

 

James 1:5-6, "Pray to God...because God gives generously and graciously to all."

 

Fr. Mark asks the question, "If God offered to give me anything I requested, what would I ask for?"

 

The point that Fr. Mark makes this morning is that God will provide us more and with greater imagination than we could ever, ever achieve or imagine ourselves.  What He provides will be in tune with His will for us.  It may not be what we would expect, what we could imagine to ask for, what we had in mind.  God's plan for our lives may be radically different from our own.  However, we are here to do God's will with the gifts and talents He has given to us.  So, how do we get from "my plan" to "God's plan"?

 

First, we must change our focus.  We must turn to God and subject our needs and wants and desires to God's desires for us.  This is hard to do since we have been raised in a society which teaches us to want more, more of everything.  "More" is not important in the greater scheme of things.  "More" will not get you to heaven.  "More" will not preserve your eternal soul.  "What good does it do a person to win the entire world if he loses his eternal soul?"

 

Second, we must spend more time with God so that He can communicate His will to us.  For my penance after Reconciliation, Fr. Bill in Rayne, Louisiana gave me a very useful exercise.  He told me to sit in the Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and to write my thoughts and feelings and needs on one side of a piece of paper.  Then, he said, turn the paper over and wait.  Wait for the Holy Spirit to speak.  Then write what you hear.  I have done this a few times.  It can be an awesome experience if I am willing to stop thinking, to stop talking, to stop praying my rote prayers, and to sit quietly and focus on the Eucharist to allow God to speak. But, once won't do it.  We must make prayer a regular and constant part of our day and night.

 

Third, we must be willing to do something(s) with our lives which may be totally different from those things for which we were programmed by parents, teachers, and our own expectations.  Take St. Francis of Assisi.  He was the son of a wealthy man.  He was supposed to carry on the family name and businesses and lifestyle.  Francis turned his back on all that Mom and Dad wanted, which his family and friends and even his younger self may have expected and gave his life to God.  St. Augustine, a wealthy Gen-Xer of his time, never turned away from his learning and oratory but used them to proclaim the message of Christianity to the known world.  He was raised and educated to become a successful man.  He was preparing to become a skilled philosopher.  He accomplished both but in the service of God rather than the service of himself.

 

Fourth, we must decide that God knows best and to choose His plan.  In doing so, we will find joy and fulfillment beyond our dreams and imagination.  Believe it and go for it!

 

So, I believe Fr. Mark would encourage us to think his question through very thoroughly before answering.  Do not be trite.  Do not try to answer it on your own.  Lay yourself and the question before God and ask Him to help you answer it.  Why?  "...because God gives generously and graciously...."

 

Please pray for all our normal intentions and for each other.  More than anything else, please pray that each of us will courageously surrender to God, to ask Him what He would like for us, and to let Him bless each of us as generously and graciously as He wants.

 

Let us pray,

Father, God, we adore you and we place ourselves and all we have into your hands. We can no more completely worship you than to surrender ourselves to your will.  Give us the grace to do this, Father, for it is hard.  We are taught to define our life goals before we leave high school. We are encouraged to hold those goals sacred until they are achieved.  If we set these goals without your input, we will achieve much less than you desire.  Help us, Father, to ask you and to listen to you and to embrace your will for our lives.  We ask this and lay the needs of our community before you in the name of your beloved son, Jesus.  Amen.

 

Be like Bartemaeus and Padre Pio!  Pray!  Trust!  Expect!

 

In Him and always in His love,

Lou