12 August 2019
Monday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
In our relationships with other human beings, compromise is an essential. We have to wait our turn, to give and take, to meet each other half way. In our relationship with, God, however, it is not so. No compromise. Consider how Moses puts it in Deuteronomy 10:12-13: “Now, therefore, Israel, what does the Lord, your God, ask of you but to fear the Lord, your God, to follow in all his ways, to love and serve the Lord, your God, with your whole heart and with your whole being, to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord that I am commanding you today for your own well-being?” Moses has a (divinely revealed) insight that it is best to follow God in all his ways, all the time, not sometimes our way, sometimes his way. We are simply to obey his commandments and statutes. No negotiation. No compromise.
If a human being asks us to do something, if it is a police officer or a doctor or a judge, if it is a friend or a family member, we might choose to comply, or we might seek to compromise, or we might simply say no. If God, on the other hand, asks us to do something, our one desire and choice must be to comply, not to compromise, not to buy time, not to refuse.
So far so good, right? I hope you are with me to this point. Now, I must ask, what is God’s will for you personally? What does sacred scripture say to you? What does sacred tradition say to you? Here is where bishops and theologians and spiritual directors become so necessary. Once you can recognize God’s will for me, personally, all that remains is to set your will in motion, to obey, to be faithful, to serve the Lord, your God, with all your heart, without hesitation and without compromise. May you have that grace.