Fr. Seraphim Gisetti

When we talk about God, one of the things we find mentioned is that God WILLED creation. He desired it to be. Christ often spoke of doing His Father's Will. If we read the Fathers, we often find references to God's Will as the foundation of life and the universe. We mention, usually in passing and without any real attention to, ourselves doing God's Will. But what does God's Will really mean?

In short, it means that God has the ability to choose anything. He, literally, can make anything happen. He can cause a flower to bloom out of season, He can make us do anything He wants, He can turn the rules of the universe upside down, make gravity go up instead of down, ANYTHING.

But He created the world. And He created it with rules, rules which He, Himself, decided to follow. (Yes, walking on water is within the rules God created for this world – we all have the capacity to do it, just not the holiness.) And then He created mankind and He created them in this world, subject to the same rules but with the same capability – to choose, to will – that He, Himself, has. He created us “as His icon and in His likeness” meaning that He gave us a Will, like His, to choose. Our choices are more limited than God's because we are a creation not a divinity, and our knowledge is inconsequential in comparison to His, but we have the same ability to CHOOSE. Then He left it up to us whether to align our actions, our will, with His or to use our will for our own purposes.

But here comes the Devil. The one person who opposed God's Will to give us the freedom to choose.  In the history of creation, I firmly believe that the Devil opposed God because He allowed us this choice, this ability to CHOOSE. Like many people, the Devil's answer to all the evil in this world was very simple – take away our right to choose, take away our free will. If we have no free will, if we must follow the dictates of whoever is in charge, then good and evil has no meaning – it is all one because we only have one path to follow – that which is chosen for us.

The real history of Lucifer's opposition to God is, of course, much more convoluted and involved than this presentation can cover but the essence, I believe, is that simple: the Devil wants to control. He wants to make us do his will instead of God's Will. In the Devil's battle with God, it is always the one who wants to control who is doing the Devil's work. It is the one who gives each person around them the free will to act as they wish that reflects the image of God. Note I don't say God's battle with the Devil because God is not the one battling. God even gives the Devil the right to his free will.

Throughout the history of Christianity there has been a temptation to control, to limit choices to  “good ones” - either by law or by custom. Yes, there are those who cannot be allowed to exercise their free will – children and the ill. But the only reason they cannot be allowed to freely exercise the image of God is because they are too weak - spiritually, morally, mentally, or physically – to counteract the effects of the fallenness of this world. The limits placed on them by their caregivers, whether they be children, parents or strangers, are to help them make wise decisions in the exercise of their will. Especially for children, the role of parents is to make sure, not that they never make a mistake, but rather, that they never make a mistake that they cannot recover from or repent for. When caregivers exceed their responsibility and take over the will of those placed in their care, only evil follows. It is spiritually destructive for the caregivers (and those who are taken care of) to replace the will of others with their will because it removes the image of God from those in their care and from themselves. It is instructive that Christ rarely healed anyone without being asked!

Which brings us to modern times. There are many movements all over the world to protect people from doing evil acts. But, sadly, those attempts are not in the image of God, because they are attempts to control. We follow God not because there is a law but because that is what we wish to do. Sometimes we fail. Then we repent and try again. When something becomes a law, it attempts to control our actions – giving the impetus not to love, but to fear. And while we do speak of the fear of God, that fear is the fear of losing His love, not of His punishment (“Turn not away Your face from Your child for I am afflicted. Hear me speedily, draw near unto my soul and deliver it.” as the Psalmist said. (Ps. 27:9) Whether the matter is abortion, murder, killing, theft or any other evil act, we, as Christians, don't do it because we love God and follow His will, not because there is a law; just as we love God because we are Christians and not because we grew up that way or because there is a “law” that says we must.

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are beneficial. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be controlled by (or dependent on) anything.

                                                                        St. Paul, 1^st Letter to the Corinthians (6:12)

What St. Paul means in this passage is that, in Christ, we no longer have a Law, given under the Ancient Covenant, that we must follow. With Christ, all things have become “lawful” for us. We have returned to that freedom that Adam had in the beginning. But, having that freedom means that we also have gained responsibility, because this world is not the perfect one of Paradise, but rather is the fallen one which we have inherited.

We are in charge, again. We have the freedom to sin, to turn away from God, to behave badly, just as we have the freedom to look to God for inspiration, to follow Him, and to do good to ourselves and those around us. This freedom is absolute. God does not prevent us from harming others or ourselves if we so desire as long as we live in this world.

But this freedom comes with a responsibility – to act as divinely as possible, to be the face and presence of God in this world. This does not mean that He is not present except through us; He is and always will be present everywhere because this is His creation. It exists because He wills it to exist and supports every particle and every piece of energy in the entire universe. Neither does it mean that He has ceased to be involved in this creation after He was finished. The resting that He did on the Seventh Day was resting from creation, not resting from involvement.

As an aside, the 6 days of Creation are not in opposition to our scientific knowledge about our universe. They are simple descriptions of the stages of creation and, properly, are God's days rather than human days which last, each one, as long as He wishes. God is outside of time and not bound by it in any way. The Fathers stated it in the following way: God created the world in 6 days, He rested on the 7^th, and on the 8^th, He came and saved us. There is no way that they thought of creation as being accomplished in (6x24=144) hours.

What are our responsibilities in acting according to God's Will?

The first and foremost is never to forget God. Whether this is by attending church and worshiping regularly, or by praying without ceasing, or by doing both, is up to us. Note that worshiping God is not a matter of sitting in a church and being either entertained or bored. Worshiping is a matter of bringing to God not only praise but our dedication. There is no worship without involvement. If we are passive attenders, then we are not worshipers. If we are an audience, then we are not worshipers. True worship requires us to participate as much as we can – to sing (if we can, wherever we are in church), to respond, to be present at every moment of the service. Only when everyone in church is a participant is true worship achieved. It doesn't have to be loud (especially if we are not particularly musical) but it does need to be enthusiastic. It also needs to be cohesive. Worship is not a matter of “doing our own thing”, we can do that in our personal prayers. Worship is a matter of gathering with other Christians to offer up to God a communal prayer and thanksgiving (which is eucharistia in Greek). Worship is something which not only must be done but must be done together with others. “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I will be also” our Lord said, (Mt. 18:20). We cannot enter into His presence alone, we must be part of His Church, or, as Fr. Florovsky repeated: “One Christian, no Christian!”

The second responsibility is to never forget our fellow human beings. When our Lord was speaking of the requirements for entry into His Kingdom, He spoke of feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, visiting the ill and the incarcerated, and, in general, ministering to those around us. This is also God's Will. This is something that God does – help us in our trials. Too often we think that the help we need is to squash those who are against us. But that is not the actions of a servant – and a servant is the example that Jesus Christ sets before us. He came not as a King, but as one who answers the needs of those around Him. I repeat, it is no accident that in almost every case, the Gospels record Christ acting only after He was asked. The incidents where He healed or resurrected on His own initiative, without being asked, can be counted on one hand.

As our Lord said, “Love one another, as I have loved you.” This is emphasized by being stated in two places, Jn 13:34 and Jn 15:12. No matter what else we do, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”  (I Cor. 13:1-3) But to love another, we must do it as the icon and likeness of God, extending to all the same freedom that God has given us and offering only what we can do in love.