A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. Jesus was addressing the crowds when his mother and his brothers appeared outside to speak with him. Someone said to Jesus, your mother and your brothers are standing out there, and they want to speak with you. Jesus said to the one who had said this, who is my mother? Who are my brothers?
And then extending his hands to his disciples, Jesus said to them, there are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of my heavenly father, his brother and sister and mother to me. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. There's a phrase here which I think is very striking.
Our lord says, whoever does the will of my heavenly father is my brother and my sister and my mother. In other words, he's saying, whoever does the will of my father, he is my relative. That's what counts. That's the essential factor. Not blood relationship, not other some kind of other relationship, but doing the will of my heavenly father.
Now the first item of business that I want to italicize is this. In my ignominious career of now publicized over fifty years, I've had a number of people come with problems. Now these were these were all god fearing people. These weren't a bunch of atheists. In most instances, they were practicing Catholics, and the problems they came with were serious.
You know, they were at the bottom of the barrel when they when they knocked on my door. Anyway, not once in my illustrious career had people come and said, look. We have a problem. What is god's will? Not once.
And yet, when everything else is considered, I don't care. And I know there are a lot of other considerations, I know that. You know, mean, really I wasn't born yesterday. But the point is that when everything has been said and done, it all all boils down to this question, what is god's will, and will I do it as I see it? Now the second point is that in most instances, the will of god is very clear.
Maybe that's the reason this isn't brought up. If I have assumed responsibilities in a very formal, even legal way, well, where's the will of god? In doing my duty. How often do you hear that word duty? Take for example, this enormous spread of advertising for the armed services.
They are extremely sophisticated, and they appeal to men and women. And it's for the army, the navy, the marine corps, the coast guard, it's for all the services. I know the coast guard is not an armed service. It just helps us sailors, you know. That's what it exists for.
But what do you get out of those out of this propaganda for young men and young women to enlist? What you will get out of it? You'll get an education. You'll come out with a trade. You'll come out with a profession.
You'll come out with a college degree. Not once is it emphasized that you may die for your country. And that when you enlist, you're voluntarily accepting that chance. Not once, not at least as far as I've seen them, and I read all these things in my doctor's office. He keeps you well supplied to know the current literature.
And that's the temper of the times. As I said, Sunday, I don't go to mass. I don't get anything out of it. Do you pray? Do you say some daily prayers?
Oh, no, father. I don't pray. I've given up. Why have you given up praying? I don't get anything out of it.
Now, first of all, who said they were going to get something out of it? Now the point is this, I'm not saying they don't get something out of it, but who told them to expect what they're expecting to get out of it? That's what I would like to know. We come back to doing god's will. And remember, doing god's will is not fun and games.
It is not being comfortable with it. Yet these are the I'm merely quoting what I hear. I'm not manufacturing this terminology. This is the vocabulary of the current age. You know what's morally right for you when you're comfortable with your decision.
Well, let me tell you, any psychologist or psychiatrist even knows that most people are comfortable with their decisions. I remember talking with several psychiatrists about suicide, but we had a situation where a patient in the hospital had committed suicide. Now the thing that struck me in my ignorance was that the day before this good man did it, he was the calmest person, he seemed to be so happy. And these men who were far more experienced, notice I said experienced, than I was said, Look, that's that's normal. Once he made his decision to kill himself, he was happy with it.
So you see you see how much moral value this statement is. Are you comfortable with your decision? Are you happy with it? These are the standards when Christ says, take up your cross. Just think of our lord in the Garden Of Gethsemane.
I know I come back to this, but I cannot come back to it too often because we if we forget it or we don't want to remember that Christ himself, the son of god, god himself begged to be freed of doing god's will. Baked, begged, begged to be freed of. So that's what doing god's will mean. It doesn't mean fun and games. It doesn't mean you're going to be comfortable.
It doesn't mean you're going to feel fulfilled. It doesn't mean any of those things. It may mean just the opposite, and that's the rub. But once again, we go back to Christ. I don't pray because I don't feel in the presence of god.
I feel like god has forgotten me. And these people, these are good people, and I wish I could help them because it's such a pity. They're losing precious time because they think this is something peculiar to them. Why don't they remember Christ on the cross when Christ himself and remember, this is god. My god.
My god. Why have you abandoned me? Put that in your little old pipe and smoke it. First of all, look at Christ's reluctance to do god's will, and then when he does god's will, he feels abandoned by god. How do you like it?
It's not a question of how you like it. It's a question of how you, in your individual lives, face up to this mystery. Because, believe me, you will suffer it. And it all depends on how you handle it. Because this is what it means to be a Christian.
It means to follow Christ. And isn't it a bit arrogant if we think we're superior to the son of God? Aren't we supreme in our pride if we think this shouldn't happen to me. In the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. Amen.