Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, God bless you. What I'd like to do
Speaker 1: is point out a most incredible word that is found
Speaker 1: in the story of the Samaritan woman Saint Fultini in
Speaker 1: John chapter four.
Speaker 2: It's an incredible text for so many reasons.
Speaker 1: It is, in my opinion, one of the richest theologically
Speaker 1: rich gospel accounts in all the Holy Scriptures.
Speaker 2: Our Lord.
Speaker 1: Bequeaths to a ruined woman who is a heretic, some
Speaker 1: of his richest self revelations, some of his richest theology,
Speaker 1: without a single word of reproach to her. Think about that,
Speaker 1: you know, throughout our Lord's public ministry, from the temptations
Speaker 1: in the desert when he fought Satan, to the agonia
Speaker 1: of his struggle in Gethsemine and the embrace of the
Speaker 1: Precious Cross, our Lord constantly modeled for us and explicitly
Speaker 1: taught us the supreme importance of doing God his Father's will.
Speaker 1: This is what he modeled, This is what he taught
Speaker 1: in the most difficult of circumstances and at all times.
Speaker 1: In John's gospel, the beloved Disciple in writing this gospel,
Speaker 1: highlights this emphasis on doing the Father's will numerous times.
Speaker 1: Let me share a few of those references for background,
Speaker 1: Jesus so submitted his will to God's will that he
Speaker 1: never even spoke a single word that was not willed
Speaker 1: by his father. My teaching is not mine, but his
Speaker 1: who sent me. He who speaks from himself seeks his
Speaker 1: own glory. That's an incredible word, Our Lord, the greatest rabbi,
Speaker 1: the greatest preacher, teacher who has ever lived, never spoke
Speaker 1: a single word of his own. His teaching was what
Speaker 1: his father had given him. The words that he spoke
Speaker 1: were the words that his father gave him. And again
Speaker 1: this is John chapter eight, verse twenty eight. Who sent
Speaker 1: me is true? And the things which I heard from him,
Speaker 1: these I speak to the world. I do nothing on
Speaker 1: my own initiative, but I speak these things as the
Speaker 1: Father taught me. So you see here the pattern. The
Speaker 1: father teaches the son. The son speaks only what the
Speaker 1: father gives. The son gives his teaching to the apostles,
Speaker 1: and the apostles to the church. And this sacred traditioning,
Speaker 1: this passing on of what has been given to us,
Speaker 1: is how we live. This is how the faith is
Speaker 1: passed on. It is cherished, embraced, and lived. It's not improved.
Speaker 1: It's not added to changed, it's not developing every century.
Speaker 1: What develops is the application of the revealed truth to context.
Speaker 2: That's what develops.
Speaker 1: Now, let me ask you, Can you imagine how wonderful
Speaker 1: it would be in your own life if you love
Speaker 1: God's will so much that you never spoke a single
Speaker 1: word that God did not will you to speak. Can
Speaker 1: you imagine how incredible that would be? How much pain
Speaker 1: we would save ourselves and others by only speaking what
Speaker 1: the Lord God gave us to say. Our Lord Jesus
Speaker 1: modeled this complete submission to his father's will. He also
Speaker 1: explicitly taught it in the Sermon on the Mound. Of course,
Speaker 1: his most incredible teaching, he says in the Lord's Prayer,
Speaker 1: the very heart of how we should pray. He taught
Speaker 1: us to say, Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done
Speaker 1: on earth as it is in heaven.
Speaker 2: Learning to love God and his will.
Speaker 1: This is at the very core of the Christian process
Speaker 1: of discipleship.
Speaker 2: This is what we do.
Speaker 1: It's what it means to take up our cross and
Speaker 1: to deny ourself. We put aside our own selfish wills,
Speaker 1: fully convinced that we don't know what's best for us.
Speaker 1: We leave the providential arrangement of the details of our
Speaker 1: life to our heavenly father.
Speaker 2: We embrace his will, we crucify our own.
Speaker 1: Desires whenever our will is in contradiction or threatens the
Speaker 1: doing of God's will. In the gospel text of this
Speaker 1: American Woman, this comes out. It's just a magnificent window
Speaker 1: into how Jesus related to his father's will. This insight
Speaker 1: is revealed when the disciples bring this food to Jesus
Speaker 1: and they urge him to eat, and then he says
Speaker 1: something totally amazing, totally shocking that takes our understanding of
Speaker 1: doing God's will to a new level. This is what
Speaker 1: Jesus says, I have food to eat that you know
Speaker 1: nothing about. I have food to eat that you know
Speaker 1: nothing about. So the disciples are saying to each other,
Speaker 1: did someone bring him food to eat? Why don't we
Speaker 1: get food?
Speaker 2: Had he had it? Anyway?
Speaker 1: No, they were thinking on the earthly level, and then
Speaker 1: Jesus says, this amazing word. My food is to do
Speaker 1: the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish
Speaker 1: his work. Don't miss this amazing word. The great contemporary
Speaker 1: saint Saint Nikolai ve La Mirovitchi reposed in The Lord
Speaker 1: here in America in nineteen fifty six, and his homily
Speaker 1: on the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman. He comments this,
Speaker 1: He says, quote, see what a delight the Father's will
Speaker 1: is to Christ. He does not see the doing of
Speaker 1: it as his duty, but as his food. Oh, what
Speaker 1: divine example, and what a gentle reprimand to all of
Speaker 1: us who speak every day of our duty as though
Speaker 1: it's a burden. Indeed, looking at the Lord and his
Speaker 1: willing performance of his cripplingly heavy duty among men, it
Speaker 1: must be said with good reason that no one in
Speaker 1: the world can do his duty to God if it
Speaker 1: has not become to him as pleasant as his daily food. Wow,
Speaker 1: I'm completely undone. You know, many of us are hoping
Speaker 1: simply to remember God's will in our crushing zeal to
Speaker 1: do always what we want, to obey our own desires.
Speaker 1: For us, The first step is just to remember God
Speaker 1: and remember his will. Then we try to con force
Speaker 1: ourselves to do it, even though it may provoke opposition
Speaker 1: from our pride, or our lusts, or our greed. But
Speaker 1: to go past that and to actually love it to
Speaker 1: love it so much that doing the Father's will is
Speaker 1: like the most satisfying meal. This is our Savior, This
Speaker 1: is what we should shoot for. Some of us have
Speaker 1: learned to seek God's will and to be deeply suspicious
Speaker 1: of our own will and desires. And this is an
Speaker 1: exceedingly important transition to make for a Christian. Die to
Speaker 1: your will, seek God's will. But notice here that we
Speaker 1: see Jesus as far beyond even that he was not
Speaker 1: doing his father's will as a duty, but as his
Speaker 1: very nourishment, as the very sustenance of his life and ministry,
Speaker 1: his true joy. Glory to our Savior for being so
Speaker 1: obedient and such a perfect human being. This is how
Speaker 1: we manifest likeness to Jesus, that we're really his. This
Speaker 1: is how we can answer the question are we really his?
Speaker 1: Are we authentic disciples? Is he really our Lord? Do
Speaker 1: we love to do his will? Because he himself says this,
Speaker 1: whoever does the will of my Father in heaven, he
Speaker 1: is my mother, He is my brother, he is my sister.
Speaker 1: If we want to be bound to Christ and his family,
Speaker 1: let's do the will of his father.
Speaker 2: Make God help us. God be with you.
Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, I hope you've downloaded the Patristic Nectar app
Speaker 1: on your phone. It is a treasure trove of soul
Speaker 1: nourishing content, and I hope you'll consider becoming a regular
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