Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time
by Fr. Jonah, O.P.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Let’s continue reflecting on the Our Father:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
“I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. . . . I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. . . . Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
I read that out loud a while back to a man I was having a meeting with. When I had finished, he said, “It sounds like you’re reading from my journal.” He’s not alone: personally, I feel like I say this to myself daily, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.
Those words come from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans (chapter 7, starting at verse 15), and they shed some light on the drama involved in this week’s section of the Our Father: “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We regularly experience the painful clash within us of knowing what the good thing to do is, wanting to do it, but choosing, in the end, to do something lesser (St. Paul would describe this as the flesh fighting against the spirit).
We know that in heaven God’s will is done perfectly, instantly, with no friction. The saints and angels rejoice to do his will and always do so. We feebly struggle; they in glory shine.
What can be done? Wretched ones that we are, who will deliver us? What’s needed here is not “Try Harder.” What’s needed is God’s grace. Commenting on this part of the Lord’s Prayer, St. John Chrysostom preaches: “For virtue is not of our own efforts, but of grace from above. Here again is enjoined on each one of us prayer for the whole world, inasmuch as we are not to say, Thy will be done in me, or in us; but throughout the earth, that error may cease, truth be planted, malice be banished, and virtue return, and thus the earth not differ from heaven.”
St. Paul answers his own question. Here’s how that passage wraps up: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Jesus is the one who said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work” (Jn 4:34). He is the one who said, “not my will, but yours, be done” (Lk 22:42). The more that Jesus Christ abides in us by grace (which is what baptism starts, confirmation strengthens, confession restores, the Eucharist is, and all the other sacraments channel in their own way), the more our will is tuned to the will of God. So stay close to the sacraments (and to daily prayer), looking forward in hope to the glorious day when heaven and earth, and our wills and God’s will, will be one.Know of my prayers for all of you.
In Christ,
Fr. Jonah, O.P.
