Discernment: Scripture Examples of Following the Will of God

DISCERNMENT

Discernment of God’s will is modeled for us by Jesus, Mary, Joseph and others in the Scriptures.  We learn God’s ways in the Bible and in life itself!

I n Luke 1: 38, Mary says to the angel Gabriel: “You see before you the Lord’s servant, let it happen to me as you have said.” Do you consider yourself “the Lord’s servant”?

Suddenly, St. Matthew tells us, “the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get us, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt”   (Mt. 2: 13).  Are you ready to relocate, if God asks you to do so?

Carefully watching over the Holy Family in Egypt, an angel appears to them after Herod’s death and says to Joseph: “Get up, take the child and his mother with you and go back to the land of Israel,…” (Mt. 2: 19).  Are you ready to change course, if the Lord asks you to make changes in your life?

Ever wonder whether God is asking you, as He did John the Baptist, to be a “voice of one that cries in the desert,”—no one else seems to hear you. It’s like being in a desert with no nourishment to carry out what you believe God is asking of you.  And the walk through “the desert” can be threatening, uninviting, scary. Yet, John the Baptist follows God’s plan. What about you?

Render to God the things that are Gods and to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar: answering God’s call is rendering “to God the things that are God’s”  (Mark 12: 17).

Now “Jesus appeared: he came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.” John objects and Jesus says to him: “Leave it like this…;it is fitting that we should, in this way [John baptizing the Incarnate Word], do all that uprightness demands” (Mt. 3: 15).  Are you willing, in your choice of vocation, willing to all that uprightness [honesty] demands of you, even though others do not understand?

Moved  or led by the Spirit, Jesus went out “into the desert to be put to the test by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights.” Whatever looks like desert to you, if it is God’s will that you go there, do you realize that it is the Spirit that will lead you, be there with you and that angels will minister to you? (See Mt. 4:1, 11)

Eye has not seen and ear has not heard  what God has prepared for us, I would say, when we are in sync with God’s will for us (cf.1 Cor 2:9). Mary was so strengthen in her resolve  and filled with joy and peace that she sang Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55).  Is your soul at peace? Is your soul filled with joy at the choices you are making?

Now “the hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. In all truth I tell you, unless a wheat grain falls into the earth and dies, it remains a single grain; but if it dies it yields a rich harvest” (John 12: 23). To what is God asking you to die in order to experience a rich harvest?

Then, overcome with sorrow to the point of death, Jesus says to His Father: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine.”  Are you willing to say to God what Jesus said?

Discernment: What Jesus Teaches us

Discernment: What Jesus Teaches us

In today's Gospel, John 8: 51-59, when the people  heard Jesus say “before Abraham came to be, I AM “, they  picked up stones to throw at Him. How can Jesus claim to be I AM, to have existed before Abraham came into being, as He was not even 50 years of age. They were also sure that Jesus was possessed when he said: “[W]hoever keeps my word will never see death.”  How can Jesus say that people who keep His word will never see death, when Abraham is deceased, as were Isaac, Jacob and David and so many other ancestors of their faith? 

The fact that Jesus was misunderstood, that people rallied against Him and wanted His voice silenced did not stop Him from clinging to every word that came from His Father and doing whatever the Father asked of Him.   Many times women in their 40s and 50s say that they first felt called in their teens and, at the time, parents opposed their entering religious life, that their friends didn’t believe that they were called to give up marriage and having children.  For some, grandparents vehemently opposed their entrance.

What is holding you back? Are you hearing a quiet, persistent voice calling you to consider religious life?

Discerning: Divine Origin? Human Origin

Discernment: How do I know I am on the right path?  In today's first reading, Acts 5: 34-42,  Gamaliel asks the Sanhedrin to step back and think through what they are about to do to the Apostles for preaching in Jesus' name. He reminds the Sanhedrin  of two other persons who rose up and attracted a large following. One was killed  and all of his followers disbanded. The other simply perished and all of his followers scattered.  If what we are doing or thinking of doing persists, that is, opposition or encountering difficulties does not lead us to abandon the work or the idea that we are contemplating making a reality, is it possible that we are more likely, than not, to be on a path mapped out for us by God?  We know that the apostles, even though being flogged and imprisoned for their apostolic activities, did not abandon what they were doing. They knew that their mission was of divine origin, not of human origin. Nothing deterred them from talking about Jesus and making Him known. 

In the Gospel of today’s liturgy, Jesus also teaches us an important aspect of discernment, namely, separating ourselves, from time to time, to go apart to converse with God.  He knew, after the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes that the people wanted to “carry him off and make him king” (John 6: 1-5).  So, he escapes into the mountains!  When others are overwhelmingly applauding us, or making too much of us,  or when we find ourselves seeking to be "forever" applauded, or, perhaps, wanting to be elevated to high places,  it is time to go apart to refocus in light of God’s ways, as Jesus did. There is no other way to clarify our motivations or to discern what is driving us in a certain direction. Is it my desire to please the Lord or am I seeking self-aggrandizement?