Obedience to the will of God is the path of holiness. This was the main theme of Pope Francis’ homily during his daily morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta.
Today’s first reading from the Letter to the Hebrews explained that the sacrifices of old were not enough “for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats take away sins.”
According to Vatican Radio, the Holy Father said that Christ’s death on the Cross showed that the sacrifice that pleases God is not of an animal but the offering of “one’s own will to do the will of the Father.”
The Pope also reflected on today’s responsorial psalm, which stated: “Here I am Lord; I come to do your will.”
“This is the path of holiness, of the Christian,” he said. “That the plan of God may be done, that the salvation of God may be done.”
“The opposite of this began in Paradise with Adam’s disobedience. And that disobedience brought evil to the whole of humanity. Our sins are also acts of disobedience to God, of not doing his will. Instead, the Lord teaches us that this is the path, there is no other.”
The Holy Father said that while this path began in Heaven, with Jesus’ ‘yes’ in obeying the will of the Father, on earth it began with the Blessed Virgin Mary’s ‘yes’ in accepting God’s will to bring the Savior into the world.
However, the Jesuit Pope noted, accepting God’s will “isn’t easy”. He recalled Jesus temptation in the desert as well as in the Mount of Olives, where Christ accepted the torments that awaited him. Saying that “many options are presented to us on a tray”, the Holy Father said that in order to discover what the will of God is, one must ask for the grace.
Posing a question to the faithful present, the Pope asked whether one prays for the desire to do God’s will or look for a compromise.
Pope Francis concluded his homily by highlighting three essential prayers: to pray to know God’s will, to pray for the desire to do His will, and once known, to pray for the strength to do his will.
“May the Lord give us the grace, to all of us, that one day we may say that which He said to that group, that crowd that followed him, those who were sitting around him, as we heard in the Gospel: ‘This is my mother and my brothers,” he said. “Those who do the will of God are my brother, my sister and mother.’ Doing the will of God makes us a part of Jesus’ family, it makes us a mother, father, sister, brother.”
