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Who
Is Responsible:
God
or Us?
Fr.
George Smiga
March
4/5, 2006
Mark
1: 12 – 15
One
of my favorite religious sayings comes from St. Ignatius of
Loyola. You have heard this before, but here it is again.
Ignatius says, “We must work as if everything depends on us,
but we must pray as if everything depends on God.”
What
this quotation is trying to straddle is the difficult issue
of how God's action and our action connect. It is asking the
question: how much of our life is in our hands and how much
of our life is in God's hands? What I love about this quotation
is that does not give the most logical or common sense answer
to the question. The logical answer would say: part of my
life I must keep in my hands and part of my life I must place
in God's hands. There are some things I should do for myself
and other things which I must entrust to God. This common
sense approach divides our life into parts, and however you
do the numbers (whether they are 50/50 or 90/10) part of our
life is our responsibility and the other part is God's responsibility.
Contrary
to this logical, common sense way of approaching the question,
Ignatius says that we must take full responsibility for our
life. We must ask what must I do to be a good parent, spouse
or friend. How must I learn to listen or compromise? What
do I need to do to be effective in my work? What new systems
or approaches do I need to put in place? What steps do I need
to take to reconcile a broken relationship? What things can
I do to assist someone in need? We must always use our intellect,
draw from our experiences and make our best decisions in order
to determine how we should live and what we should do. It
is not acceptable to say “This is too much for me. I will
just put this in God's hands”. It is not appropriate for us
to say, “I think I'll just say a prayer and let things fall
out as they may.” No, Ignatius says we must work as if everything
depends on us.
But—and
this is an important but—at the very same time, we must realize
that everything depends on God. We must realize that our ultimate
success as a parent or a spouse or a friend is totally dependent
on God's will. We must understand that if our work is really
going to be successful and bear fruit it depends upon God's
guidance and strength. We must realize that God alone is the
one who can reconcile us in our broken relationships and allow
our good deeds truly to help others.
Therefore,
according to Ignatius, we cannot divide our life into parts:
this much is my responsibility and this much is God's responsibility.
Instead, we are 100% responsible for our life and the same
time God is 100% responsible. We must always use all of our
resources to determine the way we should live and
at the same time realize that our life is totally in God's
hands.
This
brings us to today's gospel on this first Sunday of Lent.
On the first Sunday of Lent every year we hear a version of
Jesus' temptation. Today the passage is from Mark. This is
the one version that never tells us the content of Jesus'
temptation. It says simply, “Jesus was tempted by Satan.”
This lack of information allows us to generalize the temptation
and realize that Jesus experienced the same temptations in
life which we experience. Certainly one of the most fundamental
temptations is the issue we have been discussing: how to find
the right connection between our actions and God's actions.
In
finding that connection, there is a temptation for us to reduce
either our responsibility or God's responsibility. Which way
we move depends on the people we are. Some of us are tempted
to reduce our own responsibility. Because it is too difficult
to deal with a particular person or problem, I will let God
take care of it. I will say a prayer and drop it into God's
hands. If that is the temptation for you, then Lent asks you
to claim full responsibility for your life, to realize you
are responsible. You must think, decide, and act.
Other
people may be tempted to reduce God's responsibility, to say
there is an area of life which I can accomplish on my own.
There is no need to ask for God's help, because in this area
I am self-sufficient. If you are tempted to see a part of
your life where prayer is unnecessary and where you can survive
on your own wits and talents, Lent reminds you that God has
100% responsibility for your life. Any success occurs only
because God is supporting you. God's rule over your life is
complete.
So
take any part of you life, take any problem, any project,
any dream. Ask yourself whether you have the connection right?
Do you realize that you are completely responsible and at
the same time God is completely responsible. If you feel the
temptation to reduce that responsibility on either side of
the connection, then this season of Lent calls you to refocus,
to adjust, to recover the basic Christian vision: We must
work as if everything depends on us, but we must pray as if
everything depends on God.
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