Jesus and His Father’s Will

January 29, 2015 by Dan Burke

Jesus and His Father’s Will

Presence of God– O Jesus, teach me to follow You in Your life of total, perfect adherence to the Father’s will.

MEDITATION

“Wherefore when He cometh into the world, He saith [to the Father]: ‘sacrifice and oblation Thou wouldst not; but a body Thou hast fitted to me…. Behold, I come … that I should do Thy will, O God’” (Hebrews 10:5-7). These words reveal the constant interior disposition of Jesus with regard to His Father’s will. When the Apostles begged Him to take a little food, the divine Master replied, “I have meat to eat, which you know not…. My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me” (John 4:32, 34). The only desire of Jesus and the source of His strength is the fulfillment of His Father’s will. The human will of Jesus is so perfectly transformed and so completely lost in the will of God, that He acts only under the influence of this will. “I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me” (John 6:38). “I seek not My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me” (John 5:30). In these words Jesus reveals the dispositions of His soul, the profound reason for all His acts and the rule which guided His whole life on earth, even to His sorrowful Passion, when He repeated, in spite of all the repugnance of His human nature, “Father … not My will, but Thine be done” (Luke 22:42).

COLLOQUY

O Jesus, would that I could understand, however slightly, Your perfect union with Your Father’s will! It is a union, not only profound, but unchangeable, for I know that You, as God, can have no will but Your Father’s, and as Man, Your will does not depend on a human ego, but belongs directly to Your divine Person. Such union can exist only in You, the Incarnate Word; yet the more I contemplate it, the more I desire to reproduce in myself at least a few of its characteristics. O Jesus, it is You who fill me with this desire, for You became our Brother and Model, that we might become like You. Did You not teach us to say to the Father: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven?” Just as the divine will is realized perfectly in the heaven of Your holy soul, so may it also be accomplished in the little heaven of mine!

“O good Master, You know that nothing is of more profit to me than to consecrate my will to the Father’s. You teach me to do this, knowing that it will win Your Father’s heart, and You also teach me how to serve Him. You have made Yourself my intermediary and have even said in my name: ‘Thy will be done.’

“O Divine Father, after Your Son has consecrated to You my will, together with the wills of all, it would be unreasonable for me to refuse to give what He has offered.

“O Lord, what power there is in this gift of my will! If made with due determination, it cannot fail to draw You, Almighty God, to become one with our lowliness, to transform us into Yourself, and to unite the creature with the Creator…. O my God, the more You see by our actions that the words we use when speaking to You are not words of mere politeness, the more You draw us to Yourself and raise us above all petty earthly things. Not content with having made our soul one with Yourself, You begin to cherish it and to reveal Your secrets to it….

“At this very moment, O Lord, I consecrate my will to You, freely and unreservedly!” (cf. Teresa of Jesus, Way of Perfection, 32).

Catholic Culture

Daily Readings for:January 29, 2015
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: Almighty ever-living God, direct our actions according to your good pleasure, that in the name of your beloved Son we may abound in good works. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

RECIPES

o Glowing Menorah Cake

ACTIVITIES

o Attitudes on Confession

o Examination of Conscience

PRAYERS

o Act of Contrition

o Prayer Before Confession

o Prayer Before Confession - 2

o Novena for Purification

· Ordinary Time: January 29th

· Thursday of the Third Week of Ordinary Time

Old Calendar: St. Francis De Sales, bishop, confessor and doctor; St. Gildas the Wise, abbot (Hist)

According to the 1962 Missal of St. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. Francis de Sales. In the Ordinary Rite his feast is celebrated on January 24.

Historically today is the feast of St. Gildas the Wise, Scottish bishop and author and sometimes listed as Badonicus. He was born in the Clyde River area of Scotland. After becoming a disciple of St. Finnian, Gildas was a hermit for a time in Wales. He was also trained by St. Illtyd. He was famous for writing De Excidiio Britanniae, a Latin work describing moral decline in Britain.

St. Gildas the Wise
He was probably born about 517, in the North of England or Wales. His father's name was Cau (or Nau) and that he came from noble lineage.

He lived in a time when the glory of Rome was faded from Britain. The permanent legions had been withdrawn by Maximus, who used them to sack Rome itself and make himself Emperor.

Gildas noted for his piety was well educated, and was not afraid of publicly rebuking contemporary monarchs, at a time when libel was answered by a sword, rather than a Court order.

He lived for many years as an ascetic hermit on Flatholm Island in the Bristol Channel. Here he established his reputation for that peculiar Celtic sort of holiness that consists of extreme self-denial and isolation. At around this time, according to the Welsh, he also preached to Nemata, the mother of St David, while she was pregnant with the Saint.

In about 547 he wrote De Excidio Britanniae (The Ruin of Britain). In this he writes a brief tale of the island from pre-Roman times and criticizes the rulers of the island for their lax morals and blames their sins (and those that follow them) for the destruction of civilization in Britain. The book was avowedly written as a moral tale.

He also wrote a longer work, the Epistle. This is a series of sermons on the moral laxity of rulers and of the clergy. In these Gildas shows that he has a wide reading of the Bible and of some other classical works.

Gildas was an influential preacher, visiting Ireland and doing missionary work. He was responsible for the conversion of much of the island and may be the one who introduced anchorite customs to the monks of that land.

He retired from Llancarfan to Rhuys, in Brittany, where he founded a monastery. Of his work on the running of a monastery (one of the earliest known in the Christian Church), only the so-called Penitential, a guide for Abbots in setting punishment, survives.

He died around 571, at Rhuys. The monastery that he had founded became the center of his cult.

St. Gildas is regarded as being one of the most influential figures of the early English Church. The influence of his writing was felt until well into the Middle Ages, particularly in the Celtic Church.

Things to Do:

Read St. Gildas's work The Ruin of Britain here.