Homily

Of course, the Mary mentioned in the Gospel today is not the Mother of God, but rather the sister of Martha and Lazarus. But this tiny section of Luke’s Gospel is chosen because it is also true of the Virgin Mary. She too has chosen the better part. And she has done so not just every now and then. She has chosen the better part every time. What is that better part? It is following the will of God. Mary’s sinless life comes from her continuously choosing the better part, choosing to follow the will of God. There is a time for cooking and cleaning and serving; and working in that way can be following the will of God. But there is also a time to sit and listen to the word of God.

We, of course, should follow Mary’s excellent example to also put our lives under the guidance of God’s will. And I think there is always a tendency to see God’s will as some very specific plan like a job Divine Job List that the Lord has prepared for us, but of course that’s not how it works. God doesn’t have a daily schedule of activities for us and it’s our job to figure it out. He is not the Divine Dictator, but rather our loving Father. The Lord surely has given us our lives to become the people who grow into holiness through grace and our own work, and He wants us to live and become the best, most authentic version of ourselves that we can be. (And I hesitate to use that description because most of the time when people use that description, they mean the most authentic self as they see it, not as God sees it.)

Some things that point to God’s will for us are plain and easy to understand, for example the Ten Commandments. Those represent God’s will for me and for all mankind. But what about in the particular, my particular life? What is God’s will for me this morning? In my case you know what it is: to serve the Divine Liturgy and not to preach too long. That’s what God would like me to do right now, and thanks be to Him I am doing it. But what about this afternoon? What should I be doing? Some people think that discovering God’s will is kind of like trying to solve a puzzle, or find the code to reveal the hidden message, or crack open the Divine Fortune Cookie, with the godly message inside. But at the very heart of God’s will for us are the two precepts: Love God and love your neighbor. Everything else follows after that.

Most of the time we do not have to be looking for very specific directions from the Lord as to what we should do. He surely can send those to us. But it’s usually the case that we need to look in broader ways to see what He would like us to do.

I heard one man answer the question of how to discover God’s will for us. He said we should tell God, “O Lord, I want what you want. Help me to see it and to do it.” This is why we give so much honor to Mary, because she wanted what God wanted. It’s not because she did wonderful and extraordinary things, like some woman of great power or amazing achievements. That’s not what we read in the Gospels. Rather it is that she lived according to the will of God, as we see when she tells the angel Gabriel, “Let it be done to me according to your word.” Then at the wedding at Cana she tells the waiters, “Do whatever he tells you.” One day when Jesus is teaching, they tell Him that His mother and brothers are outside, and they want to speak with Him. Jesus replies, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” Whoever does the will of the Father. This is said not against Mary, because obviously she was totally devoted to living according to what God wanted of her. Instead, it is a call to the rest of us to live as she did, and this is how we draw closer to Jesus: not by ties of blood but rather by ties of loving obedience.

I do not know this, but I would not be surprised to hear that it was difficult for Mary to accept what God wanted her to do. Why wouldn’t it be? Even the angel tells her, “Do not be afraid.” Yet whether she had any fear or not, she did what the Lord asked. What keeps us from doing what the Lord asks of us? I think so often it is fear. Fear that things might not go well; fear that it might be more sacrifice than I am willing to make; fear that I will end up unhappy or unsatisfied; fear that what I want is not what I will get.

I try to think back on the times when some important decisions needed to be made and I did what I thought the Lord was asking me to do, even though I was afraid it would not turn out well. And as I think about those times now, I can see how good it was for me to follow His way, even when it was very stressful and difficult to do it. Sometimes I had the faith and used the grace the Lord provided to follow through and do His will. I believe that you can also think of times in your life when you did the same, when you followed through with what was right and good, even though you feared it might all turn out badly. Did the Lord ever fail you?

Then I think of how very much harder it must have been for Mary to see the suffering and crucifixion of her Son and yet still trust in God. But this is because she had always trusted that following what God was asking of her was the best thing that she could do, that it was the only way for her to truly live. For me, in my day-to-day life, I cannot come close to her obedience. On a daily basis I often choose to go my own way all too many times as though I can create my own good life, instead of choosing to live in the good life that the Lord is offering to me.

Great deeds, great power, great wealth, great achievements – as people usually think of these descriptions, none of them apply to the Mother of God. And yet we honor her as the greatest of all the members of the human race because she lived a life that was based on her faith and her trust, “Let it be done to me according to Your word.” She has set a shining, most excellent example for all of us. As she did, let us also pray, “O Lord I want what You want. Help me to want it more and give me the grace to do it, without fear or hesitation.” And here today, let us beg the Mother of God to pray for us that we have the wisdom, courage and faith to follow the will of our heavenly Father.