After the miracle of the water becoming wine the goal of our Lord is presented to His apostles and disciples on top of the mount. The crowds remain below and are not privy to the words of God. There must be preparation in the soul in order to come to know God and His Word. Now the mission of transmigration begins with the appearance of the leper who comes before the Son of God and states clearly: “If You will, You can heal me.”
Leprosy represents the state of each one of us. Sin eats away at our spiritual lives and only the grace of God can stop the cancer. Without hesitation Jesus responds: “I will it, be thou made clean.” According to the law a cleansed leper must show himself to the priest and offer a gift to God for the healing of the disease. Christ came to fulfill the law and the prophets and so directs the healed soul to appear before the priest with an offering.
In the healing of the leper the divine will is manifested. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to deliver us from our sin and to lead us to the eternal home. This is the will of God, our salvation. This truth is corroborated by the approach of the centurion whose son is next to death. Jesus is ready to pick up and go to the centurion’s home when He is stopped by the reasoning of the military man. He is a man possessing authority. This authority gives him the power to say to a soldier “Come” and he comes. To another, “Do this” and he does it. These soldiers are making the centurion’s words flesh.
Jesus marveled at the faith and the clear reasoning of the centurion. Again the will of God is to draw all to the destiny of the soul. As the centurion believed so it was done for him. Two words stand out in the passage: “will” and “authority”. Jesus wills and that which is willed is done. It is accomplished because Jesus possesses the “authority” which is derived from His Divine nature.
In the original Greek the word used for authority is “ex-ousia” which is literally translated as “out of one’s being”. Now there was a conflict in the early church over two words “homoi-ousias” and “homo-ousias”. Is Jesus of a “like” nature as God or is He of the “same” nature as God. The fathers argued that the whole sense of God’s Word pushes us to the conclusion that Jesus is of the same nature as God (homo-ousias). His works and words are the expression of the Will of God to bring back the straying sheep. As Jesus stated: “I have come to do the Will of my Father.”
Within the context of the prayer which Jesus taught to His disciples we pray: “Thy Will be done”. At Cana of Galilee (Zeal for transmigration) Jesus acted out the Will of His Father by the water becoming wine. Now human beings are being transformed by means of God’s will. From being riddled with sin there is now a clear movement to live in the will of God and under His Authority. Turn to the work of the great Dante in which the soul travels all the way from hell to heaven. There in heaven the soul’s constant refrain is: “In Thy Will is our peace.”
In the kingdom of God the Will of God yields an order of peace which truly frees us from sin and death forever. God’s holy will directs everything that happens in this temporary world. We find that like the centurion we must believe and rely upon this divine Authority. Mary trusted the Will of the Father in giving birth to the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. So must we yield to this providential order as we witness the rebellion of the demonic in every aspect of our lives today.
Rebel and you create your hell; trust His will and construct an eternity of love. There are no shades of grey in this presentation of divine authority over the life of men and women. We know whether we live in His will. We can increase our union with that will by following the words of Our Lady: Through prayer and penance many souls can be saved.” If we are able to save a soul then our own soul will be saved. Where there is the will there you will find the way.
In the hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Fr. Voigt
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