Do the Will of God December 30

The Sixth Day in the Octave of Christmas

Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him…Yet the world and its enticement are passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains forever. 1 John 2:15, 17

The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him. Luke 2:40

Piety

Let us pray: God, please connect us to the things that matter in this world…your love and our way to express our love of you through piety, study and action. Help us to live the prayer: “Here I am Lord. I come to do your will.” Amen.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/123006.shtml

Time is a limited gift. We only have so much but none of us know exactly how much. So what do we do with our time? Two choices: Love God. Don’t Love God.

If we don’t love God, then we will love other things. The world. Our toys. Our cars. Our houses. These are all made of the world. John warns us. They are passing away. It’s called planned obsolescence. Your car will break down. At night. In the middle of the highway. The tow truck will cost you $163 and the repair will run another $2,000. So much for that clutch. Once it’s done, its done. You fix it or trade it in on another model.

It’s a good thing God doesn’t treat us like that. Jesus would never trade us in on a newer model that doesn’t sin as much! The relationship we have with Jesus, His brotherhood with creation, goes beyond time and physical dimensions. If we walked the Earth 2006 years ago, we might have known Jesus as a friend if we lucky enough to be born around Nazareth. Maybe even we could have been his cousin or sibling. But we don’t have a physical relationship with Jesus. We can’t reach out and touch him like we can the keyboard in front of you. We have a meta-physical relationship with him. It goes beyond the physical world.

It’s hard enough to maintain friendships with old college chums for a few years after everyone graduates, starts careers and goes their separate way. Even with letters, e-mail, pictures and videotape, we grow apart in distance and in love.

Jesus doesn’t want us to grow apart. That’s why every day, he makes his friendship with us move from metaphysical to physical through the sacraments, especially the Eucharist.

As we reflected earlier this week, if we love God, we will obey his laws and commandments through our piety, study and action. The payoff: You’ll remain with God and God with you forever.

Action

Click here for the story of cardiologist Jeffrey Warner, a man who has the gift of knowing that his time left on Earth is very limited. So he wants to make the most of it.

Jeffrey Warner’s “To Do” list (copied below) may not be the same things you would put on a similar list of you were in his situation. But it certainly gets you thinking. What would be on your list?

Jeffrey Warner’s To Do List

Done

Capture the wind of Hawaii with a gourd
Rent Villa in Tuscany
See Dan Dickau make a three-point basket

To do
Be with family
Spend time with friends
Take a few trips
Do a good deed