Am I Really Living In Sync With God’s Will?

Years ago, I honestly believed I was laying down my life for God, serving Him with my whole heart, mind, and soul. Then, slowly I became aware that my ideas about how to live as a dedicated Catholic were not really in sync with God’s plans for me. As Scripture explains:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways—oracle of the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, my thoughts higher than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

I am not alone. Most modern, first-world Catholics, are so caught up in doing that they forget Christ’s real mission; He died, rose again, and sent the Holy Spirit to transform us first. Then, all our actions, all our work, and service will be in union with Christ:

I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while, the world will no longer see me, but you will see me because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. (John 14:17-19)

The problem for egocentric humans is that it is not easy to learn how to live in Christ and allow Jesus to fully live in us because most human beings, Christians included, behave, think, and speak as if they are standing right in the middle of the universe with everything and everybody swirling around them. This worldview is just as ridiculous as the medieval belief that the earth was the centre of the cosmos.

The bottom line is that God is the centre of all; man exists as one of a multitude in the Mystical Body of Christ who loves the Creator and tries to love and serve those around them.

We probably agree theoretically to this theology but most of us have to hit bottom and become desperate before we admit we are not in charge. The grace of self-knowledge allows us to perceive the truth about ourselves in relation to God.

The Goal of the Spiritual Life

The goal of the spiritual life is to thoroughly prepare ourselves by cooperating with Grace, to be finally united with our Beloved. This goal—union with God—is not a fairy tale, not only for the saints of old. As Pope Francis has said, holiness is for all, for all states of life.

Yet once I humbly accepted Christ to save me from myself, I experienced an expansive sense of opening my core self to joy, to blinding light. I am finally at peace with this process of God-controlled sanctification.

Only God can help us let go of our old ways of life so we can be transformed. Part of this process of renewal is through purgation, which includes a vision of our bondage to sinfulness. Only with the help of grace can we see and destroy sin in order to move from darkness into the Light.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains our sanctification can only come through the power of the Holy Spirit and the work Christ did on the cross:

The first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit is conversion, effecting justification in accordance with Jesus’ proclamation at the beginning of the Gospel: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” [Matthew 4:17] Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from on high. “Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man.” [Council of Trent (1547)] (CCC 1989; bold font mine)

There is no need to strive because the Lord acts first. Often I am called to simply wait patiently till He whispers, and then obey the Word.

I sensed these words interiorly as God challenged my whole idea of how to live out my faith:

You thought you were building My Kingdom as you frantically served the Church, but you were actually hindering the true work of My Holy Spirit. All I want, all I need is for you to stand at the foot of my Son’s Cross and allow the Flames of His Love to pierce your heart, transforming you into His presence on earth.

I was shocked by this warning from God and humbled by the uncomfortable realization that I had completely missed the whole point of how to live in, with, and through the Holy Spirit.

I now realise my willingness to wait patiently for God to act first, with inner stillness and peacefulness, is essential. No anxiety or forced activity in prayer. He asks that we just stand in silence, unmoved, in loving adoration. We gaze at Him as His Loving gaze penetrates and touches us at the very ground of our being. Christ will purify us until we can say with Saint Paul, “No longer I that lives but Christ who lives in me.”

God slowly weans us from our egocentricity with touches of joy and His Love. It is a wonderful journey into the heart of God. When we quit trying to save ourselves and give God permission to save us, then, we have finally understood the Good News of Jesus Christ and will allow God to stand in the centre of our universe.