Discernment of God's Will

Discernment:  Discernment involves knowing when we are in sync or out of sync  with God’s will.   In  Ezra 6: 7-8, 12, 14-20, we read about how the Jews, having returned to Jerusalem following their exile in Babylon, rebuilt the Temple at God’s command and through the cooperation of the pagan king Cyrus and Darius, the encouragement of the prophets and financial help of the Persian empire.   All worked together to bring about the will of God for the good of the Chosen People, the People of God.  The Jews needed to recognize that God used even their pagan neighbors and those who imposed exile upon them , those whom they perceived as their enemies, to communicate His will and bring about His plans for their salvation.   In our day, we, too, need to be open to everyone and everything as an instrument in God’s hand to reveal what He is asking of us. This was drove home to me this morning. Five minutes into my hour of prayer, the fire alarm blared through the building. All were escorted to one “safe” place.  Ten minutes later, thinking all was clear, I returned to chapel, only to be called back to the “safe” place for another 30 minutes.  My hour of prayer was, to say the least, disrupted and basically close to its conclusion. I am boiling inside when, all of a sudden, the Lord says to me in the quiet of my heart:  “My will for you this morning is to be respectful of procedures put in place to keep the residents of this facility safe and to let go of idolatrizing your scheduled routine.” 

Be attentive today to how God communicates His will to you, through whom and through what circumstances of your life.  We may be clinging to our will and not seeking God’s will.  A clue might be how strongly you react to something or someone. Behind that reaction, if you probe deeply enough, you might find that which you, too, need to let go of in submission to God’s holy will!

Discernment: Is my life conformed to God's will for me?

 Discernment:  One of the most potent sources of knowing whether or not I am living a life that is in sync with God’s will is presented by St. Paul in Colossians 3: 1-11.  St. Paul clearly spells out what it means to live as a Christian, that is, as a person who has died and rose with Christ, as a person living life according to the will of God.  What criteria, so to speak, does Paul give us?  Put in a question form, Paul  is asking whether I am living a morally impeccable life.  Am I living a life of purity, honesty, serenity and peace; or, on the contrary, are my choices impure, immoral, dishonest and driven by feelings of annoyance, frustration, anger, or outrageous fury?  Am I building others up or tearing them down? Am I lying to myself and thus to others? Does obscene language dominate my thoughts and spill out into my speech?  Honestly answering those questions will give me the answer to the question: Am I in the process of bringing my life into sync with God’s will for me?

Discernment: Four Essential Practices

In his video made for World Youth Day, Fr. James Martin, S.J. breaks down four essential practices to discover your vocation, and I quote:

1.      Don’t wait for a flashing neon sign. While slogging through the daily routine of discovering one’s vocation, there may exist the misconception of waiting for a call. While some of our great saints have received direction in the form of visions and voices, waiting for a supernatural calling is neither the typical nor expected way to discern.

2.     You already have a vocation! We are made to be holy, happy, and to serve God. This may or may not mean a vocation to religious life, but we all have a vocation to become the best, holiest version of ourselves. This means we can banish the fear or trepidation that “I may have a vocation!” and instead realize that only by discovering our vocation will we be at peace.

3.     Don’t be hasty to disregard desire. Often, desire is confused with our selfish and shallow wants, but it’s much more than that – it is the key to who we are and what we are meant to become. In Fr. Martin’s own life, it was attraction towards service and the sacraments, which helped him understand his religious vocation. Through the deep desires of the heart, God calls us to a life which glorifies Him. To follow the desires of our heart, one must first set aside the shallow wants which lay on the surface to distract.

4.     Interpretation is needed — so pray for understanding. The path to Christ’s fulfillment is rarely clear-cut. St. Ignatius of Loyola said, “pray to understand your desires.” God speaks through peace and joy, but it can take time for emotions and distractions to settle, so to speak. Ask yourself what really gives you joy. Do not be discouraged if it takes time to recognize what holy desires God has placed on your heart. Learn from St. Augustine who said, “Our hearts are restless O Lord, until they rest in you.”

 

Discernment: What is God's will for Me?

In 1 Thes 4: 1, St. Paul says to us:  "This is the will of God, your holiness." So, if you and I are growing in holiness, we are then in sync with God's will.  But what is holiness?  Where do we look for it? Where do we find it?  Holiness is not like an object on the store shelf that we can simply buy and put on like a new suit, a costly perfume, a sparkling diamond.  No, it is within us, in our God-self, in our innermost self, that calls us us to be transparent and honest with others, that gently invites us to make choices that protect our integrity, that is, our identity as God's beloved daughters/sons, as persons who are loving, caring, forgiving, as persons filled with gratitude and awe, wisdom and prudence, joy and peace--gifts that flow freely from God's Spirit, gifts that dwell within us since our baptism.  We know that we are in sync with God's will when we refrain from immoral acts, do not give expression to evil, malicious, deceitful and impure thoughts but let them pass as clouds pass by.  We know that we are in sync with God's will when we are striving to please God above all, seeking His forgiveness from those we offend and saying "I'm sorry" when we have acted contrary to the way of love that Jesus teaches us in the Scriptures.

Discernment: "Teacher, what good must I do..." (Mt. 19:16)

In today’s Gospel, Mt 19: 16-22, the rich young man, who faithfully obeyed all of the commandments, approaches Jesus, wanting to know what more he has to do to gain eternal life. He is engaged in a form of discernment. The first part of discernment is knowing that something is missing. He doesn’t know how to get rid of that nagging feeling that leaves him with a sense of emptiness, of not doing enough. So he goes to Jesus and says: “Teacher, what good must I do...?” Jesus responds with His own question: “Why do you ask me about the good?” There is only One who is good….” What a statement to a rich young man who perceives himself as a very good man, as one who has kept all of the commandments, has made a good life for himself, has rightfully gained a lot of wealth. He is doing well, very well. He can be truly proud of himself so why this restlessness and why does Jesus say “only One…is good”? The rich young man is in a very good place spiritually in that he recognizes that something is missing and has made the right move by approaching the Lord. He’s gone to the right person. Jesus recognizes that there is something here that is laudable and upon which another kind of wealth can be realized, that of selling everything, detaching oneself from what is one’s own, and following Jesus unreservedly. No matter to which vocation in life God calls you—religious life, priesthood, marriage, the single life—you, too are called to follow Jesus unreservedly. To what might you be attached that blocks that giving of your all to the Lord and following His way as a religious, a married person, a single person, a priest?

Discernment: How God Directed the Israelites

In Exodus 40: 16-21, 34-38, we are given information of how the Israelites knew God’s will for them. A “cloud covered the meeting tent and the glory of the Lord filled the Dwelling….Whenever the cloud rose from the Dwelling, the children of Israel would set out on their journey. But if the cloud did not lift, they would not go forward; only when it lifted did they go forward.” A cloud was seen during the day and “fire was seen in the cloud at night…by the whole house of Israel in all stages of their journey.” This was the presence of God in their midst. God also gave them the Ten Commandments and wrote the Law in their memories: “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts” (Jer. 31:33).

The Israelites did not go forward unless the cloud lifted. Imagine you and I heeding the clouds in our lives as a message from God not to make major decisions at that time, not to go forward when our minds are foggy, when we feel confused, when we really don’t know what to do or what to think. That is the time to recall Isaiah’s advice: “By waiting and by calm, you shall be saved; in quiet and in trust your strength lies” (Is. 30: 15). Also, then, imagine us following the directives of the Lord when “the cloud is lifted,” knowing that it is time to move forward , to implement a decision about which we are clear.

Like the Israelites, God dwells in our midst, in fact, God dwells in the very core of our beings. We are Temples of the Holy Spirit. God’s law is also written on our hearts and inscribed in our minds. The Holy Spirit lives within us “to infuse our knowledge with divine grace and guide us with divine creativity and wisdom” so that we, too, are able to stay on the right track on our journey to the Promised Land of Eternal Life with God (See The Word Among Us, July/August 2013, p. 51).

Discernment via Disillusionments

One of the tools that God uses to lead us to "the pearl of great price," a treasure for which we are willing to sell all is the disappointments or disillusionment of our life.  It is true, I believe, in looking for the right person to marry--that person with whom one is called to form a lifetime commitment/partnership. Before finding that "treasure," that finest of pearls, an individual may date more than one person, suffer the heartbreak of broken relationships or even broken engagements.  The same process may occur in searching for the right major or minor in college, in finding the career or job that is a good fit. No less arduous, time-consuming and sometimes difficult, is finding the right religious community to which one belongs.  The Foundress of my religious community entered an active, apostolic community at age 21. Sixteen years later, at age 37,  she enter a cloistered community and eight months later God called to her to leave that community to establish one that combined action and contemplation. The road was difficult, filled with disappointments and disillusionments. Those disappointments and disillusionments were not unilateral but mutual. All of them led to seeking the will of God (discernment) and committing oneself to the Lord alone: our ultimate call.