As we prepared for Christmas this Advent, many of our family prayers began to sound like letters to Santa. 

 

The youngest children included sincere petitions for stuffed animals, art supplies, and a blue remote-controlled dinosaur. I am sure these prayers are as delightful to God as they are to my wife and me. However, I am not sure my prayers are all that more sophisticated. I ask for different things but, similarly, my prayers focus on how God can aid me in my life and with my plans. The readings this Sunday challenge this worldview. 

 

When God called Samuel, he responded “Speak, for your servant is listening” (1 Sam 3:10). The disciples of John the Baptist gave up their lives with John to follow Jesus.  And when Jesus called Simon, He changed Simon’s name to Peter, indicating the start of a radically new life. In all these cases, the encounter with God brings the person into harmony with God’s plan, not God into harmony with their plans. 

 

The second reading keeps the pressure on. St. Paul tells the Corinthians that their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and that they must avoid immorality. This presents a genuine struggle for most people. Our desire for intimacy is so easily swayed from love to lust. Once again, we are called to conform to God, not the other way around. 

 

This is a countercultural message. Our culture prioritizes self and self-determination as our greatest good. It encourages us to readily question God when life does not go according to our plans and insists morality should bend to accommodate our situation. 

 

This is rooted in two things. First is a lack of trust in God and His loving plan for us. Second is the desire to be our own God. 

 

These are interconnected realities, and neither is new. The devil tempted Adam and Eve with the promise that the fruit would make them “like gods” (Gen 3:5). They did not trust God’s plan for them and, asserting their will above God’s, they plunged humanity into sin and darkness. Since the Fall, mankind has continually struggled with trust and with a glorification of the self that verges on idolatry.

God, who has repeatedly proven His faithfulness in Scriptures, says, “I have… plans for your welfare and not for woe, so as to give you a future of hope.” (Jer 29:11). Surrendering to the will of God should not be seen as a risk, but rather falling into the arms of a God that loved you into existence. It is reckless and arrogant to believe that we can plan a better path than the one God has set before us. 

 

This does not mean that God’s plan is easy or free from hardship. Even the Blessed Mother faced great hardships and suffering after her “yes” to God (Lk 1:38,2:35). But unlike the suffering caused from our rebellion against God, it bore the greatest good of all, our Savior. 

 

God knows our brokenness and how difficult it is for us to surrender our will. In His great love, He gives us the grace to overcome that brokenness. Tracing Peter’s faith journey through the Gospels, we see Jesus cares for, teaches, and forgives him. 

 

The same is true for us. In the Alleluia we sing, “We have found the Messiah: Jesus Christ, who brings us truth and grace.” Like Peter, I am unable to surrender or conform my life to God on my own. God graciously provides me with the grace needed. At Mass, I am strengthened and formed by the Word of God and the Eucharist, and in confession, I am forgiven and transformed.

 

We can still pray for the remote-controlled dinosaur, but we must also pray for the grace to trust the Lord and seek His will above our own. How different would our lives be if we prayed the responsorial psalm daily or whenever we faced hardship? “Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.”