Everything we see and hear and feel is in some way the will of God. Ah yes, “in some way.” For “unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it" (Psalm 127:1). Indeed, to say that God creates the world is to say that God wills the world and so-- it is so. All that we ever know of God is the will of God (including how much we know that we don't know).
All religious traditions attempt to answer the question, “What does God expect of me and us?” Conversely, to assert that there is no God, is to assert a belief that we are free from being subject to the will of God.
Christians believe that Jesus is the Word, the revelation of God. They believe that God discloses his will for us in the life, death and teaching
of this poor man from Nazareth. The revelation of God in Jesus Christ is a living revelation embedded in sacred scripture which conveys to believers what they need to know, at the time they need it in order to do what needs to be done to bring about the kingdom of God.
The story of Jesus meeting the woman caught in adultery (John 7:53-8:11), is principally about conflicting ways of discerning the will of God. The scribes and Pharisees who brought the woman to Jesus' attention believed that the books of Moses disclosed the will of God, instructing them to stone her. They had witnessed Jesus' compassion for prostitutes and tax collectors and felt that they could show that he disregarded the sacred texts. But Jesus knowing what was in their hearts and in sacred scripture considered the texts as a coherent whole and discerned that everyone requires the mercy of God. Both Jesus and his interlocutors agreed on the two great commandments found in the sacred texts (Mark 12:28-33). He said to them "let the one who is without sin cast the first stone." They realized that if they condemned her, they would be breaking the second great commandment to love one's neighbor as one's self. Jesus raised their awareness of the law. He didn't set it aside, so they left.
In the encyclical Veritas Splendor John Paul the Great describes how the Church, as the mystical body of Christ, discerns the will of God by accepting sacred scripture, the tradition of which it is a part and the Magisterium of the Church as a coherent whole to be the work of the Holy Spirit. This has always placed the Church at odds with the rationalizations of the elite and popular cultures of every age and place from it's very beginning. By this means Paul VI was able to discern the unacceptability of certain means of contraception, and John Paul II was able to see why neither he nor any future pope was free to ordain women to the sacrament of Holy Orders. Popular culture may succumb to utilitarian, or emotivist arguments, but the Church will prayerfully use the means at her disposal to discern and espouse the will of God.
What does all this have to do with the Eucharist and the coming of the kingdom which is actually the subject that we are currently studying? When Jesus declared that he was "the bread that comes down from heaven (John 6:51)" it seemed highly unreasonable to ask rational people to believe such a thing. But Jesus seeing they were balking at what he said, did not back down. Rather clarified what he said, "I am telling you the truth: if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you. Whoever eats my flesh an drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is the real food; my blood real drink." Many, even those who had witnessed his miracles, threw up their hands and said "This is too hard. Who can listen to it?"
The theologan, Joseph Ratzinger, in his thin book The Lord is Near Us puts it all together when he says, "For man, the will of God is not a foreign force of exterior origin, but the actual orientation of his own being. Thus the revelation of God's will is the revelation of what our own being truly wishes-it is a gift. So we should learn anew to be grateful that in the word of God the will of God and the meaning of our own existence have been communicated to us. God's presence in the word and his presence in the Eucharist belong together, inseparably. The eucharistic Lord is himself the living Word." The dynamic coming of the kingdom can be seen in the incarnation of the Word in sacrament and scripture.
"Now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known (1 Cor 13:12)."
of this poor man from Nazareth. The revelation of God in Jesus Christ is a living revelation embedded in sacred scripture which conveys to believers what they need to know, at the time they need it in order to do what needs to be done to bring about the kingdom of God.
The story of Jesus meeting the woman caught in adultery (John 7:53-8:11), is principally about conflicting ways of discerning the will of God. The scribes and Pharisees who brought the woman to Jesus' attention believed that the books of Moses disclosed the will of God, instructing them to stone her. They had witnessed Jesus' compassion for prostitutes and tax collectors and felt that they could show that he disregarded the sacred texts. But Jesus knowing what was in their hearts and in sacred scripture considered the texts as a coherent whole and discerned that everyone requires the mercy of God. Both Jesus and his interlocutors agreed on the two great commandments found in the sacred texts (Mark 12:28-33). He said to them "let the one who is without sin cast the first stone." They realized that if they condemned her, they would be breaking the second great commandment to love one's neighbor as one's self. Jesus raised their awareness of the law. He didn't set it aside, so they left.
In the encyclical Veritas Splendor John Paul the Great describes how the Church, as the mystical body of Christ, discerns the will of God by accepting sacred scripture, the tradition of which it is a part and the Magisterium of the Church as a coherent whole to be the work of the Holy Spirit. This has always placed the Church at odds with the rationalizations of the elite and popular cultures of every age and place from it's very beginning. By this means Paul VI was able to discern the unacceptability of certain means of contraception, and John Paul II was able to see why neither he nor any future pope was free to ordain women to the sacrament of Holy Orders. Popular culture may succumb to utilitarian, or emotivist arguments, but the Church will prayerfully use the means at her disposal to discern and espouse the will of God.
What does all this have to do with the Eucharist and the coming of the kingdom which is actually the subject that we are currently studying? When Jesus declared that he was "the bread that comes down from heaven (John 6:51)" it seemed highly unreasonable to ask rational people to believe such a thing. But Jesus seeing they were balking at what he said, did not back down. Rather clarified what he said, "I am telling you the truth: if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you. Whoever eats my flesh an drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is the real food; my blood real drink." Many, even those who had witnessed his miracles, threw up their hands and said "This is too hard. Who can listen to it?"
The theologan, Joseph Ratzinger, in his thin book The Lord is Near Us puts it all together when he says, "For man, the will of God is not a foreign force of exterior origin, but the actual orientation of his own being. Thus the revelation of God's will is the revelation of what our own being truly wishes-it is a gift. So we should learn anew to be grateful that in the word of God the will of God and the meaning of our own existence have been communicated to us. God's presence in the word and his presence in the Eucharist belong together, inseparably. The eucharistic Lord is himself the living Word." The dynamic coming of the kingdom can be seen in the incarnation of the Word in sacrament and scripture.
"Now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known (1 Cor 13:12)."
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