WORD 2day: Tuesday, Third week in Ordinary time
Doing God's will, for us is at one and the same time, a duty and a guarantee of righteousness. Duty because we are children of God and guarantee of righteousness because as human persons we are surrounded by conflicting opinions and standards.
However, there can be varied motivations for doing God's will in life:
It could be because, we are afraid that if we do not do God's will we might get into trouble. It is like carrying out our duties out of fear of undesirable consequences. Fear!
Secondly, it could be because we are expected to do it; that is, doing the duty for the sake of duty. One feels he or she has been brought up and always been taught that way and it should carry on for whole life that way. Habit or Customs. Though there is an appreciable discipline involved here, it seems very robotic and therefore slavish.
Today, David in the first reading and Jesus in the Gospel, give us a beautiful outlook on doing God's will - doing what God wants, because we love God! That's being Children of God. We have experienced the love of God to such an extent, that we cannot but do what pleases God; we cannot count the cost; we are ready to give up anything for the sake of doing the will of God. "My food is to do the will of the one who sent me!" declared Jesus with no hesitations (Jn 4:34).
It is only when we feel that way, as children who love to obey, we become like Jesus, we become his brothers and sisters... that is, we become loving children of God, our father and mother.