Hey, everyone, God bless you. What I'd like to do is point out a most incredible word that is found in the story of the Samaritan woman Saint Fultini in John chapter four.
It's an incredible text for so many reasons.
It is, in my opinion, one of the richest theologically rich gospel accounts in all the Holy Scriptures.
Our Lord.
Bequeaths to a ruined woman who is a heretic, some of his richest self revelations, some of his richest theology, without a single word of reproach to her. Think about that, you know, throughout our Lord's public ministry, from the temptations in the desert when he fought Satan, to the agonia of his struggle in Gethsemine and the embrace of the Precious Cross, our Lord constantly modeled for us and explicitly taught us the supreme importance of doing God his Father's will.
This is what he modeled, This is what he taught in the most difficult of circumstances and at all times. In John's gospel, the beloved Disciple in writing this gospel, highlights this emphasis on doing the Father's will numerous times. Let me share a few of those references for background, Jesus so submitted his will to God's will that he never even spoke a single word that was not willed by his father. My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. He who speaks from himself seeks his
own glory. That's an incredible word, Our Lord, the greatest rabbi, the greatest preacher, teacher who has ever lived, never spoke a single word of his own. His teaching was what his father had given him. The words that he spoke were the words that his father gave him. And again this is John chapter eight, verse twenty eight. Who sent me is true? And the things which I heard from him, these I speak to the world. I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak these things as the
Father taught me. So you see here the pattern. The father teaches the son. The son speaks only what the father gives. The son gives his teaching to the apostles, and the apostles to the church. And this sacred traditioning, this passing on of what has been given to us, is how we live. This is how the faith is passed on. It is cherished, embraced, and lived. It's not improved. It's not added to changed, it's not developing every century.
What develops is the application of the revealed truth to context.
That's what develops.
Now, let me ask you, Can you imagine how wonderful it would be in your own life if you love God's will so much that you never spoke a single word that God did not will you to speak. Can you imagine how incredible that would be? How much pain we would save ourselves and others by only speaking what the Lord God gave us to say. Our Lord Jesus modeled this complete submission to his father's will. He also
explicitly taught it in the Sermon on the Mound. Of course, his most incredible teaching, he says in the Lord's Prayer, the very heart of how we should pray. He taught us to say, Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Learning to love God and his will.
This is at the very core of the Christian process of discipleship.
This is what we do.
It's what it means to take up our cross and to deny ourself. We put aside our own selfish wills, fully convinced that we don't know what's best for us. We leave the providential arrangement of the details of our life to our heavenly father.
We embrace his will, we crucify our own.
Desires whenever our will is in contradiction or threatens the doing of God's will. In the gospel text of this American Woman, this comes out. It's just a magnificent window into how Jesus related to his father's will. This insight is revealed when the disciples bring this food to Jesus and they urge him to eat, and then he says something totally amazing, totally shocking that takes our understanding of doing God's will to a new level. This is what Jesus says, I have food to eat that you know
nothing about. I have food to eat that you know nothing about. So the disciples are saying to each other, did someone bring him food to eat? Why don't we get food?
Had he had it? Anyway?
No, they were thinking on the earthly level, and then Jesus says, this amazing word. My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. Don't miss this amazing word. The great contemporary saint Saint Nikolai ve La Mirovitchi reposed in The Lord here in America in nineteen fifty six, and his homily on the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman. He comments this, He says, quote, see what a delight the Father's will is to Christ. He does not see the doing of
it as his duty, but as his food. Oh, what divine example, and what a gentle reprimand to all of us who speak every day of our duty as though it's a burden. Indeed, looking at the Lord and his willing performance of his cripplingly heavy duty among men, it must be said with good reason that no one in the world can do his duty to God if it has not become to him as pleasant as his daily food. Wow,
I'm completely undone. You know, many of us are hoping simply to remember God's will in our crushing zeal to do always what we want, to obey our own desires. For us, The first step is just to remember God and remember his will. Then we try to con force ourselves to do it, even though it may provoke opposition from our pride, or our lusts, or our greed. But to go past that and to actually love it to love it so much that doing the Father's will is
like the most satisfying meal. This is our Savior, This is what we should shoot for. Some of us have learned to seek God's will and to be deeply suspicious of our own will and desires. And this is an exceedingly important transition to make for a Christian. Die to your will, seek God's will. But notice here that we see Jesus as far beyond even that he was not doing his father's will as a duty, but as his very nourishment, as the very sustenance of his life and ministry,
his true joy. Glory to our Savior for being so obedient and such a perfect human being. This is how we manifest likeness to Jesus, that we're really his. This is how we can answer the question are we really his? Are we authentic disciples? Is he really our Lord? Do we love to do his will? Because he himself says this, whoever does the will of my Father in heaven, he is my mother, He is my brother, he is my sister. If we want to be bound to Christ and his family, let's do the will of his father.
Make God help us. God be with you.
Hey, everyone, I hope you've downloaded the Patristic Nectar app on your phone. It is a treasure trove of soul nourishing content, and I hope you'll consider becoming a regular donor to patristic Nectar today