“…with whom I am well pleased”
In the Gospel reading, the word “son” and the word “pleased” are important. God wants to be pleased by us and wants to be pleased with us. We should want to please Him.
Why would we want to please God? Some might please God so they do not get in trouble, so they don’t get on God’s bad side. Some might please God so they can get something, a reward from the One that has everything. Some might want to please God for the sole reason of pleasing the one they love.
Why do we please others? Many times we please others to get something, or so the person does not get mad at us. If we really think about it, it is rare that we would do something for someone just to please them, and to expect nothing in return. To please solely for loves sake is difficult, because we seem to always ask the question, “What is in it for me?”
It is amazing that God desires to be pleased by us. God has everything, yet what truly brings Him pleasure is when we think of Him, speak to Him and desire to give Him pleasure. Our vocation, our calling, to bring pleasure to God is seen at the beginning and end of our life. When we are baptized, our heavenly Father says to us, the same words He said to Jesus, “this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased”. If we are faithful children, God will say to us at the end of our lives, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.” [1] The parable of the talents in Matthew’s Gospel compares the faithful to servants and God to a master. Like Mary we are a slave, a handmaid of the Lord. “The slave, one can say, did not have a will of his own, nor could he have any desire independent of his master’s. Our Lady agrees with the greatest joy and with all her heart to have no other wish than that of her Master and Lord. She gives herself to him unreservedly, without condition.” [2] We can be both slave and son. We have the dignity of a son, yet the humility of a slave. “So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then and heir.” [3]
Why can it be helpful to view ourselves as a slaves or servants sometimes? As a son or daughter? We can look to the parable of the prodigal son. The prodigal son becomes complacent and takes for granted his son ship while in his father’s house. He goes so far as to ask for his inheritance and separates himself from his father. He cares nothing about the relationship he has with his father but instead wants only what the father can give him materially. It is only when he loses all, when he humbles himself and longs for his father’s presence that he finally comes to the realization that, “I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants.” [4] When the son returns home remorseful and fully ready to be a servant, it is the father that refuses to let him be a servant but instead treats him as a son. Jesus emptied himself as a slave, a servant on the Cross and it was the Roman centurion that recognized not a slave hanging on the Cross but instead recognized a Son as he professed, “Truly this was the Son of God!” [5] Mary, is the humble handmaid of the Lord, but is “blessed among all woman” and exalted by the Father as the Queen of Heaven. We must imitate Jesus and Our Lady by humbling our self and although we are seen always in the eyes of God as a precious son and daughter, we remember that we are not worthy of this honor. We remember Jesus’s words, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” [6] We remember Our Lady’s words, “Behold, I am the handmade of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” [7]
We are sons and daughters of God and therefore we are God’s children. A child is motivated to obey or please a parent primarily for two reasons. The child fears a punishment of not obeying and or desires a reward for obeying. The child fears disappointing the parent and or desires to please the parent. Our relationship with Our Heavenly Father is the same. “O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin.” [8] We say in the Act of Contrition that we detest our sins.
Why do we detest sin? Yes we hate sin because it brings us punishment and suffering, but ultimately it is the goal of each Christian to have a relationship with God. This relationship should be such that, we don’t want to offend the one we are in relationship with and we know that the one we love deserves all our love. If we do not detest sin we must ask the Holy Spirit to convince us of sin, for we cannot detest sin if we do not believe in sin or know what is wrong and what is right. “I will send him [Holy Spirit] to you. And when he comes, he will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment; of sin, because they do not believe in me.” [9] If we do not detest or hate our sin, we will continue to sin.
Give examples of when you have done the right thing only because you feared punishment. Give examples of when you have done the right thing out of love for another. We are motivated to do good out of fear or out of love and sometimes a mixture of the two. Our primary motivation should be out of love. We are told by Saint John, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts our fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because he first loved us.” [10] It is the love of God that leads us to love and away from fear.
What will the love of God lead us to do? The love of God will lead us to think how good God is; often to speak to Him in our hearts; and always to seek to please Him. [11] When people are “in love” they tend to think, speak and want to please the one they love. God is in love with us and He thinks and speaks to us constantly and it is His desire to please us. Why is it sometimes easy for us to concentrate on thinking, speaking and pleasing others, but not God?
How can we think of God? Speak to God? Please God? One of the main ways is through prayer throughout the day, which is thinking and speaking to God. The fruit of prayer, which is the inspiration of the Holy Spirit motivates and encourages us to actions that are pleasing to God. Anytime we avoid evil and pursue good, we are pleasing God. We must challenge ourselves to live what the Church prays in the Liturgy of the Hours, “Day and night I cry to you, my God.” [12] This week let’s make a conscious effort to please God. The effort should be just as conscious as our efforts to please someone we wish to impress or we truly love. It is God that deserves all our love, all our thoughts and who longs to hear our voice. The greatest commandment is “to love God with all your heart, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” [13] “Nothing gives such pleasure to God as the conversion and salvation of men.” [14] The greatest way we can please God is to as Saint Paul says, “work out our salvation” [15] and continue our conversion of our mind, heart and actions away from sin and toward good each day.
What can happen if we spend our whole life trying to please others and self, rather than God? “Now I find it hard to live my own life, pleasing everyone, while I'm just dead inside” [16] God is capable of being pleased because He is by nature constant. In other words when God tells us what pleases Him, that doesn’t change. What pleases Him, will always please Him. What offends Him, will always offend Him. People are hard to please because they are not constant; their expectations vary from one day to the next. If we try to just please people we will become very frustrated.
Why might it become frustrating trying to please everyone else? We are not called to please everyone, we are called to please God. When our goal is to please God and we indeed do please God, we will find it easy to live our own life, pleasing God, while we are alive inside. One of the biggest lies of Satan is that God cannot be pleased. How many people have a view of God, in which God is an angry, mad and never pleased? If we believe that God cannot be pleased and we begin to see that we cannot please others there are two options left. We begin to live life only to please our self, which is also impossible or we give up altogether and begin to believe that pleasure itself is not possible.
[1] Matthew 25:21
[2] Fr. Francis Fernandez; In Conversation with God; Vol. 1; 25.3
[3] Galatians 4:4-7
[4] Luke 15:19
[5] Matthew 27:54
[6] John 12:14
[7] Luke 1:38
[8] Act of Contrition
[9] John 16:7-9
[10] 1 John 4:18-19
[11] The Penny Catechism; A Catechism of Christian Doctrine; Section 338
[12] The Liturgy of the Hours; Antiphon, Friday, Night Prayer
[13] Matthew 22:37
[14] Spiritual Reading in this Link to Liturgy packet
[15] Philippians 2:12
[16] People Pleaser; Korn III: Remember Who You Are