A First Note on this question.
In the past several days, a parishioner asked me, “How do you know what is God’s will?” In the context, she was asking, in effect, “How do I know what God’s will is for me?” And she was implying the question, “Can anyone know God’s will?” These questions are very good ones to ponder, especially because some of us may be going through various trials in our lives, and we wonder, “What is God’s will in this?” or “What would God have me do?”
At the outset, I must offer a disclaimer: The question of “knowing God’s will” is extremely vast, and leads one into theological speculation on Who is God, on whether or not God is or has a “will,” on how one can know God at all, and whether or not “God’s will” is truly knowable for a human being. Or in more simple terms, the question of God’s will raises far more questions than I can adequately handle. So this note is a mere beginning, a highly imperfect and necessarily incomplete attempt to throw light on the question, “How do I know what God’s will is for me?”
A second precaution must be recognized: Can anyone say with certainty, “I know God’s will for me?” Even if one allowed that in a few cases, a particular person may know “for certain” what God’s will is for his or her life, I think it far wiser, and far truer to say: Certain knowledge of God’s will is beyond us mortals, because God is utterly beyond our intellectual understanding. We can know God’s general will towards all creatures, but asserting that one definitely knows exactly what God wills for one of us smells of pride and self-assurance, not of childhood trust, the essence of faith. Or again, in truly loving, one can perhaps come as close as is humanly possible to knowing and doing God’s will. For the rest of us, we must be content with struggling through faith to gain some knowledge, some understanding, of what the Almighty may “have in mind” for all of creation, or for an individual human being.
Most directly, I claim no certain knowledge of God’s will for me, yet I seek to know and to do God’s will. What is required is “faith working through love,” and not certain and absolute knowledge. I believe that in Christ Jesus we see as much of God’s will for each and for all as is humanly possible, and as much as is needed to bring us to complete life in God.
Having said this, as men and women in Christ we can acknowledge a few guideposts to help us discern and to do God’s will:
First, because God is supremely good, and wills only good, and no evil, to do God’s will one must do what is truly good in any concrete situation, and renounce all desires to do harm to any creature. Consider two basic assertions from the First Letter of John: “In Him is light, and no darkness at all,” and “Anyone who says that he knows God and hates his brother or sister is a liar.” God’s will is utterly good.
Second, all of the commandments of the Law, and the teachings of the great spiritual traditions, flesh out what Stoic philosophers and Christian theologians have called “the natural law,” the basic principle of which is utterly simple: “Do no harm.” In positive words, one must always seek to do what brings and supports life, goodness, peace, justice, love, spiritual growth. Hence, it is quite easy and clear to see what is not according to “God’s will,” namely: Hatred, killing, cruelty, infidelity, rejection of the truth, deceiving another, pretending to be what one is not, wishing harm to anyone, causing division in a person or in a community. (Note that the literal meaning of the word in Greek translated “devil,” diabolos, means, “divider.” And note the assertion in the writings of John, “The devil is a liar from the beginning.”) Again, in positive terms, God’s will would support harmony, peace, good will among human beings, “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians). Truly to love God and neighbor is indeed to do God’s will, for “God is love” (I John), and “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (I Corinthians). And again, “Love does no harm to the neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law,” or God’s will (Romans).
Third, in light of Christ, we can confidently say that it is God’s will that each human being seek the salvation, the eternal well-being, of every other creature. (“God wills that all be saved, and come to a knowledge of the truth.”). In the person and work of Christ, we see God’s will for every creature, and as disciples of Christ, we must seek to imitate that will, that plan, to the best of our abilities, with God’s assistance (“grace”). Consider the words of Jesus: “Love one another, as I have loved you” (Gospel of John), and a particular form of love, “Forgive one another, as Christ has forgiven you” (Colossians). And it is evidently God’s will that we “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians).
To pull these brief remarks together, let us simply consider: As we celebrate the events of Christ’s suffering, death, and Resurrection, let us realize that we are seeing God’s will for humankind made visible, and each of us is being invited to conform to the image of divine love made plain in Christ. We must see, acknowledge, and imitate the love of God for all in Christ, most visible in His suffering, death, Resurrection. What is God’s will for us here and now? It includes this much, surely: To suffer and to die with Christ, that we may “rise with Him to newness of life,” and to help others attain to “fullness of life in Him.”
