Reflection - Thy Will be Done

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/061616.cfm

Sirach 48:1-14
Matthew 6:7-15

     "Thy will be done."

There's a statement to give one pause. 

     "Thy will be done."

Not my will; but the Father's will.

Not just by someone, somewhere at some time; but by me, here and now.

     "Thy will be done."

. . . . Hmmm! I'll have to think about that.

The music most often played on the radio these days is not exactly my style. I'm from a different musical era; you might say that I'm more attuned to the 'golden oldies.' I mention this so you will understand when I tell you I was listening to the radio on the way to Wal-Mart when a song from the early sixties was played --- the song was even pre-Beatles. The title of the song is taken from the opening words. It goes like this: "Love me with all your heart, as I love you. Don't give me your love, for a moment, or an hour. Love me always, as you loved me, from the start. . . .With every beat of your heart!" 

I know the words of the song well as I've been familiar with it since its initial release.

The plea,of course, is that of a man to the woman with whom he is in love, or vice versa. "Love me with all your heart, as I love you." The request is not unique; it is the request of anyone who's ever been in love. The man says to the woman: "Love me with all your heart." And she asks the same of him. At the same time, however, that identical petition is spoken by God to each of them: "Love me with all your heart." In fact, Jesus tells us that it's not only the first, but the greatest of the commandments. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30) My thoughts began to play havoc with my reason; and I found myself quickly asking: "Is there a potential conflict here?"

Our human experience tells us that the needs and desires of those we love --- spouse or children, and even family or friends --- can sometimes stand in opposition to one another. It seems like loving each one, can, on occasion, be problematic to the point of being impossible. An extreme example of the situation was starkly presented a few years back in a book, subsequently made into a movie; it was called Sophie's Choice. The book tells the aftermath when a mother arrives at a Nazi concentration camp with her two young children. Upon arrival, a guard makes her decide which of the two will immediately go to the gas chamber and which will, at least for a time, survive. 

The example is harsh; and I know that God will never present me with such an evil choice. But there still remains a hesitancy in my response to the divine plea. "Love me always, with every beat of your heart!" God's request seems fluid while requiring an answer which is permanent, yet it appears ambiguously open to conflict and possibly even danger. The tension was succinctly captured a century ago by the poet Francis Thompson in The Hound of Heaven. The poem relates Thompson's personal experience in being persistently pursued by God and his own tenacious reticence to respond. At one point he voices his concern clearly: "Though I knew His love Who followed, yet was I sore adread lest having Him, I must have naught beside." The verse captures the essence of what has been, and still is, though to a lesser degree, my own discomfort.

The author of the book of Sirach, which supplied our Old Testament reading for today, was generous with his accolades for the prophet Eli'jah: "How awesome are you, Eli'jah, in your wondrous deeds! Whose glory is equal to yours?" Nevertheless, the details of Eli'jah's life, as presented in the Scriptures, tells that his life experience was similar in many respects to that of Paul. "Five times', Paul says, "I have received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been adrift at sea; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure." (2 Corinthians 11:24-25, 27) Historically, neither Eli'jah's nor Paul's experience has been unknown to other holy people except in the specific details.

I grew up reading about the lives of many who have been declared saints. I studied the Sacred Scripture as a young adult and discovered the manner in which many of those faithful to God experienced the world they lived in. While their lives were exemplary in many ways and their dedication admirable, the power which propelled them to live as they did remained elusive. Some say that they acted out of love for God and their fellow man, but that sort of begs the question. What power could give birth to such love?Moreover, a cursory glance at their life circumstances, hardships and difficulties hardly presents a welcome invitation to follow. What, I ponder, does God ask of those who will love Him with "every beat of their heart!"?

What moved Eli'jah and Jeremiah and all the other Old Testament prophets to challenge Kings and hate-filled mobs? What inspired fishermen and tax collectors to preach the gospel of one who had been crucified? Why did so many of the early Christians walk into the Roman arena singing? Where did Father Isaac Jogues find the strength to stand firm in the face of torture by pagan Indians? What sustained Mother Teresa as she walked through the slums of Calcutta? The variables in my questions cannot hide their commonality. Each, in its own way, is asking the same thing: How did each of these people get to the place where they could hear God's plea "Love me always, with every beat of your heart!" and then firmly reply "Thy will be done."?

When I think about it seriously, I know the answer and each one of us who has ever known love possesses the answer as well, though not everyone may have recognized it. The problem's resolution comes in two parts. The first is best presented by way of example.

I originally met my wife when she came to my office with her mother, a teacher in the parish religious education program. She was in college at the time and had reluctantly accompanied her mother in running  errands. Her mother introduced her; but she said very little, clearly anxious to get the miscellaneous tasks completed and return home. Her hair style and manner of dress could have been copied from the cover of Carol King's Tapestry album. Her smile was as engaging as it still is today. Her energy was as infectious as that of the multitude of fans in Bronco stadium. 

I don't really believe in 'love at first sight,' but I do believe in that kind of connection which spontaneously affirms that this person is someone I would like to get to know. The specific circumstances of our initial encounter may be particular to my wife and I; but the pattern is, I believe, quite common. It is through the "getting to know" that the sense of "being in love" is awakened. You can never really love someone until you know them. I believe that statement to be fundamental in our relationship with God.

The second essential dynamic is knowing you are loved. The poet writes

          Love lifts us up where we belong 

          Where the eagles cry

          On a mountain high

When the poet pours forth a declaration like this, his own love is a secondary consideration. The love that "lifts us up", the love that takes us "where eagles cry", the love that raises me up "so I can stand on mountains," the love that raises me "up to walk on stormy seas", the love that raises me up "to more than I can be" --- this is not my love for another. It is the love I know another has for me. That's the love that is filled with power. That song from the sixties did not just make a request: "Love me with all your heart." There was another part: "Love me with all your heart, as I love you." St John speaks to us of this very thing. "In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins." (John 4:10) When Francis Thompson wrote early in his poem "Though I knew His love Who followed, yet was I sore adread lest having Him, I must have naught beside."

he was speaking of an early time in his life when he did not yet understand. The poem's conclusion addresses the awareness he has finally reached. 

     "Is my gloom, after all, Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?"

     "Love me with all your heart, as I love you." says my God.

      "Love me always, with every beat of your heart!" says my Lord.

And I hesitate. Is my worry, after all, the shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?

To my Heavenly Father I address my plea.

     Grant that I may continually grow in knowing you.

     Grant that I may steadily increase in awareness of the depth of your love.

     Grant that I may always hear your words

           "Love me always, with every beat of your heart!"

     And that I may respond with joyous enthusiasm

           "Thy will be done."