26 TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Year A October 1, 2017

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1 26 TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Year A October 1, Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God praying ONLY for knowledge of His Will for us and the power to carry that out. 02. These wise and profound words constitute the 11 TH Step of what is commonly known as the 12-Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. The 12-Steps are very familiar to me because in many ways they changed my life for the better and changed my life forever. 03. I am not an alcoholic myself (at least not that I m aware of) but I had a brother who was an alcoholic, and who died indirectly from the disease when he was just 18 years of age. 04. He himself had never joined Alcoholics Anonymous but as a teenager, I had joined something called Ala-Teen and then later, as an adult, Al- Anon which are both support groups FOR family members OF alcoholics. It is there that I discovered the great wisdom and power of the 12-Steps to truly change people and change their lives. 05. But as wise, and as profound, as the 11 TH Step is I found it very difficult to swallow. Up until that point, I had been praying for all sorts of things but rarely did I ever pray for the knowledge of God s Will and the power to carry it out. In fact, most of my prayer was directed at making God aware of my OWN will, and asking Him to carry THAT out. 06. Because, for me, God s Will has always been associated with bad things. Whenever I heard these words: IT S GOD S WILL it was always in association with suffering, with sickness, and with death. And so, anytime something really bad happened, something outside my control, I automatically associated it with God s Will. 07. For this reason, in my own life, I found myself struggling with questions like: was it God s Will that my biological father was abusive was it God s Will that my parents separate and that I grew up fatherless was it God s Will that my brother became an alcoholic and then died from the disease was it God s Will that two of my closest friends suffer from mental illness and then commit suicide. 08. And so, God s Will was something that I learned to fear. It s only after my conversion, and years of spiritual growth, that I started to look at God s Will very differently and that I realized that God s Will is not something to be

2 feared, but something to be sought that God s Will is infinitely loving and that many of the bad things that I often associated with the Will of God was really the result of the will of man instead. 09. Because God s Will is ALWAYS that which will bring us the greatest joy, the greatest peace, and the greatest good and God s Will is ALWAYS that which is in our best interest, and will result in our total well-being and God s Will is not necessarily that we avoid all suffering and feel good all the time but that we achieve our fullest potential, and our ultimate good which sometimes involves suffering and pain which sometimes involves NOT feeling good. 10. In today s Gospel, Jesus shows us two very different ways of responding to God s Will those who think that merely paying God lip-service and practicing superficial religious observances is enough to fulfill the Will of God. And those who know that fulfilling God s Will goes much deeper than that. 11. The parable in today s Gospel reminds me of another very famous parable from Jesus one which also had two sons one which also shows two very different ways of responding to God s Will it is the parable of the Prodigal Son. 12. Growing up, I always used to identify more with the (quote, unquote) righteous son than the prodigal son. But it s only in the last several years that I found myself identifying more with the prodigal son, and distancing myself more and more from the righteous son. 13. Because the righteous son is much like the disobedient son of today s Gospel (the one who first said yes, and then failed to do his father s will) both these sons merely paid lip-service to their fathers, while their hearts were far from their fathers and both sons were not really concerned at all with doing their father s will. 14. Both these sons represent those who are more in love with their religion, than the God of their religion those who put more trust in their OWN righteousness, and their own superficial observance of their faith, than in God Himself those who are more concerned with living by their own will, than God s Will. 15. Whereas, both the prodigal son, and the obedient son of today s Gospel, (the one who first said no, but then did his father s will) represent those who are more in love with the God of their religion than the religion itself

3 those who put more trust in God Himself, than their own righteousness, and their own religious observances those who truly live by God s Will, and not their own. 16. Both parables are brilliant warnings from Our Lord about the disease of the Pharisees a disease which always threatens ANY sincere devotion to God a disease that makes a god out of our Faith while completely ignoring the God OF OUR Faith a disease that uses and twists religion to impose one s own will rather than God s Will. 17. Because sincere devotion to God (and pure, authentic religion) is far more than paying lip-service to God, and observing external expressions of piety like going to Mass, and praying the Rosary. Attending Mass, and praying the Rosary, are both beautiful, necessary and wonderful things but doing God s Will involves FAR more than that because our Faith is about FAR more than that. 18. Our Faith is about a dynamic, personal, intimate relationship with an infinitely loving God a relationship of love, trust, and respect a relationship where we have enough trust in God, and His Love for us, that we devote our lives to His Will, and not our own. 19. For doing religious things does not necessarily mean that we are doing God s Will because, once again, true religion is far more than mere superficial expressions of piety TRUE religion is ultimately about whose will governs our life whether it s our own will or God s Will. 20. In my own life, I have seen this truth played out for both in myself, and in others, I have seen how easy it is to be (quote, unquote) religious but still be living by one s own will, and not God s. 21. I remember the time when I began my first year at the seminary it was about the same time that one of my close friends, one of the friends I referred to earlier that suffered from mental illness had committed suicide. 22. One of the things that really struck me during that difficult period is how the greatest support and compassion I received was not from people of faith, but from people who had no discernible faith people who were doing God s Will whether they were conscious of doing it or not. 23. Because whether we consider ourselves religious or not God s Will is that we have compassion for those in need, and those who are suffering that we treat each other as we would want to be treated and that we live in

4 harmony and peace with one another striving to create Heaven here on earth. 24. For these reasons, God s Will is not something to be feared, but something to be sought like a great treasure hidden in a field. For there is nothing more perfect, more loving, and more beautiful in this life than God s Will for us. 25. And along with God Himself, His Will for our lives is the greatest treasure we can receive in this life because, again, His Will for us is that which will bring us the greatest joy, the greatest peace, and the greatest good in this life and the next. 26. None of us can avoid having a god even atheists cannot avoid having a god. We all have a god whether we profess a specific belief system or not because our God is not determined by the belief system we profess but by what consumes our time and energy and by whose will ultimately governs our life. And if it s our own will that governs our life if it s our own will that we live by then we have made our self into God. 27. And it s easy to mistake our OWN will for God s Will and to distance ourselves from the Will of God. Because many, much like me, don t spend any time really seeking God s Will praying for knowledge of His Will and the power to carry it out. And many, much like me, associate God s Will with things that are unpleasant and things that are really bad. 28. However, it was not God s Will that my biological father was abusive but it was His Will that because of that I received far more empathy and understanding for those in abusive situations it was not God s Will that I grew up fatherless but it was His Will that because of that I received a far greater appreciation of the Fatherhood of God it was not God s Will that my brother suffer from alcoholism but it was His Will that because of that I experienced the power of the 12-Steps to truly change lives it was not God s Will that my friends suffer from mental illness, but it was His Will that because of that I learned to have a far greater appreciation of mental illness as a true medical affliction and have far greater compassion for those who suffer from it. 29. And so, today s Gospel invites us to reflect upon our relationship with God s Will to ask ourselves these questions: Whose will truly governs our life, God s or our own? Is God s Will something we fear like tragedy or something we seek like treasure? Is the knowledge of God s Will, and the

5 power to carry it out, the primary thing that consumes our time and energy or is it the fulfillment of our own will? 30. And, you also may be asking how do we come to know and discover the Will of God for us? The answer is very simple simple, but not easy. To know the Will of God for us we have to ask for it, we have to pray for it, and if we have to search for it and seek it as if it s the greatest gift, the greatest treasure we can possibly find in this life because truly that is what it is. 31. And so, these wise and profound words from Alcoholics Anonymous are truly the key to discovering and knowing the Will of God for our lives: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God praying ONLY for knowledge of His Will for us and the power to carry that out. Amen.