QUESTION SESSION WITH OUR SPIRITUAL ADVISOR, FATHER MICHAEL
One of the nice advantages that we have is the ability to ask questions of our spiritual advisor, Father Michael.
PAPA is sharing such a question and answer session with you. It follows the FACEZBS (face to face zoom bible study) session the day before when we discussed, reviewed and learned about the Beatitudes.
Question from Maria
Hello Father Michael!
God bless you 😊
Thank you again for a great Face ZBS yesterday!
I have a further question about the Beatitudes.
St. Alphonsus tells us that we can either reject God’s will. Accept it. Or conform our will to His.
Is the joy that emanates from confirming our will to His be part of the blessing of the beatitudes?
Thank you so much!
Answer by Father Michael:
Salve Maria:
God bless you for asking a good question.
Here is the gist of St. Alphonsus' spirituality:
(1) The only way to go to heaven is to be holy.
(2) That means nothing unholy can enter the Kingdom of God.
(3) That means we need to purge ourselves of all sins and the taints of sins.
(4) The way to be holy or to purge ourselves is to DO THE WILL OF GOD.
(5) In order to DO the Will of God we must discern His Will and His Spirit.
Note: for those who did not attend the PAPA Retreat-Seminar on Discerning the Will of God, please update yourself. This is important.
(6) The location and occasion to discern the Will of God in order to carry it out is to STUDY THE SACRED SCRIPTURE.
Note: many PAPA members have NEVER attended even once the PAPA FACE ZBS.
That means: many would not understand how to think Catholic and Critically. As well, you would not comprehend the way Catholics interpret the Sacred Scriptures. Once again, update yourself.
Continuing... with the Will of God and the Sacred Scripture.
(7) To reiterate Maria Carmen's question, "Is the joy that emanates from confirming our will to His be part of the blessing of the Beatitudes?"
- Response:
7.1) The word is "conforming" not "confirming."
7.2) St. Alphonsus wrote a book entitled "Conformity to the Will of God." It is a very short treatise on how to be holy. Simply by, as the title speaks for itself, conforming to the Will of God.
7.3) Maria's question will not be understood and appreciated if many of our PAPA members had not attended the FACE ZBS. Why? In it we discussed about the meaning of "Joy, happiness and pleasure."
Those who truly love the Lord and our Catholic Church would immediately employ the Art of Critical Thinking and divide Maria's question into three sequential parts:
- 7.3.1) Will joy be a part of the Blessing of the Beatitude? A close-ended question which is a rhetorical one. That means "a self-answered question." And the answer is obviously, affirmative.
- 7.3.2) Does joy emanate from conforming our will to that of God? The obvious answer is "yes."
But then we have to ask: "How true is that?" In reality many a time in our lives we carry out the will of God and conform ours to that of His, but we see only troubles and persecution. Externally speaking, everyone could see that we are miserable, not joyful. Take poverty as as an example. No one could in their proper mind say that poverty is a good thing! If it were, everyone would give up everything and be like Saint Francis and become a penniless beggar. The point is we all use money, including priests and religious; we like money, unless you are not honest to yourself; we want to have money and without it many of us are miserable, not joyous. The Romans said: "Pecunia nervus belli - Money is the sinews (lit. "nerves" or fig. "soul") of wars." The point: many of us are unwilling to take the poor life of Christ to the level of reality. That poverty of the Kingdom is not a reality to many; but rather a misery.
That said, we can see how when we conform our will to that of Christ, we will not have joy as long as we attach ourselves to the materialistic and carnal attitude of living.
- 7.3.3) To respond to the assumption that joy will emanate from conforming our will to that of God, each and everyone of us need to examine our conscience, with utmost honesty and sincerity. The question is this: "Do you want worldly joy or Godly joy? Do you want natural joy or supernatural joy?"
Only you can give your own answer to that question.
