In this last Sunday of Ordinary Time, Week Nine, Jesus exhorts us to do the will of God. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord. Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father.” Those listening said, “Did we not prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, done mighty deeds in your name? Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’” No mincing of words here, Jesus is direct, blunt, and to the point. The point again being, do the will of his heavenly Father.
What is that will? It is answered by those who responded to Jesus, and yet he knew them not. I think he knew them not because their works were done for the wrong reasons, two in particular. The first is that they were being self serving, the second is that they were justifying themselves. Allow me to explain.
St. Paul says in his letter to the Romans, “Now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, though testified to by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe . . . For we consider that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.” The law (commandments) is a guide, a teacher to show us when we are living in vice\sin. One must embrace the law in one’s heart and live it out love and not for gain or to place some type of “God you owe me” mentality for the good I have done.
We must be humble before God, knowing we cannot save ourselves; the initial gift of grace is free. God owes us nothing. We prophesy, drive out demons, and perform mighty deeds for the sole benefit of others. We do all that we do out of love. Interesting little side here is that these prideful folks who stood before Jesus were still able to drive out demons, prophesy, and do mighty deeds. The reason for that is that God does not want His people to be sold short, even though the disciple is corrupt, living a double life, or is self-righteous. God still works through them for the good of His people.
No one is perfect, all of us are hypocrites from time to time, and I am referring to serious sin and denial on the part of the disciple. But more to our point, we must do the will of God and we must believe that with God’s grace we can do mighty deeds. Sometimes people sell themselves short and they lie to themselves that mighty deeds are only for canonized saints. If you believe that then you will remain small and perform little deeds. God has put us all here for great things, believe it, but always remain humble, knowing we could not do it without God’s grace.
Fr. John Picinic
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