Running from God’s will

"I’d do anything for God... but I won’t do that."

Thus the words of a rather ostentatious and degenerate 1990’s rock song might be revised to express the attitude of the prophet Jonah in today’s first reading (Jonah 1:1-2:1-2,11).

Sad to say, these words too often express our own attitudes.

Like the prophet Jonah, we too sometimes run from God’s will.

Like the prophet Jonah, that from which we sometimes run is our own vocation: our general vocation as Christians in this world as well as our particular vocations.

Sometimes we run from the vocation to which we feel God calling us. Sometimes we fear the chains of commitment, sometimes we fear the loss of worldly “goods,” sometimes we fear the disapproval of others, and sometimes we fear that we will fail.

And of course, there are also some who run from the vocation they had once answered, either by "leaving" outright or by compromising their vocation.

(God have mercy on us all, but this happens far too often: not only in the vocations of priesthood and religious life, but even in the vocation of married life.)

But we do not run from God’s will only in the Big Things of life such as vocation, we also too often run from God’s will in the little everyday decisions of life.

Indeed, whenever we sin, we run from God’s will: we run from what seems difficult or simply not "fun enough," we run along with our friends and neighbors, we run on the easy path.

The ironic thing is that we often run from God’s will because of something we fear, and yet running from God’s will leads us into things far more fearful than we could ever imagine.

Jonah is a vivid example: he runs from God’s will and finds himself in the suffocating horror of being swallowed alive by a fish.

Indeed, fear may keep us from listening to God’s call, but how much more fearful it would be to live an entire life that is a rejection of God’s personal call to us.

Discomfort may make us want to step out of the vocation from God which we have embraced, but how ultimately painful the trap into which we would thus step.

Unhappiness may tempt us to grab a particular pleasure or to give up on doing something right, but how intense and unrelenting the unhappiness of eternity without God.

Perhaps we have only been tempted to run; perhaps we have been running from God’s will for a long time.

The story of the prophet Jonah is an invitation for us to stop running from God’s will: an invitation to embrace the will of the Lord, in our vocations and in all the things of our life, and to find the beauty that is there.

The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.

The precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart.
The command of the LORD is clear,
enlightening the eye.

The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever.
The statutes of the LORD are true,
all of them just;

More desirable than gold,
than a hoard of purest gold,
Sweeter also than honey
or drippings from the comb.

By them your servant is instructed;
obeying them brings much reward.
Psalm 19:8-12