DECISIVENESS

DECISIVENESS – 2^nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A

            It’s a grace to be a decisive person, who can observe, evaluate and act correctly, rightfully and truthfully. Life presents many challenges, opportunities, events and responsibilities which need to be responded to. Without the grace of being decisive, challenges go unmet, opportunities are lost, events overcome, and responsibilities are not met. The grace to be decisive includes knowing what to overlook and not respond to, as well as seeing and acting on the right matters at the right time. It doesn’t do too much good to be decisive in the wrong ways or to respond to the wrong or lesser opportunities and miss greater ones, or neglect weightier responsibilities. We have to pray for the grace of discernment as well as the grace of decisiveness. Lord, give me the grace to see what you want me to see as your will and give me the grace to carry it out.

            Being around decisive people with good discernment and willingness to act correctly, rightly and truthfully can be a grace and help to us in becoming a decisive person. Ideally, our parents were or are decisive towards us, so we grew or grow up knowing secure ground on which to live and move in our life. When we realize and hear the decisiveness of the Lord with us, we are moved to be that way too. Notice how decisive the Lord is. “The Lord said to me: You are my servant, Israel, through whom I show my glory.” The Lord didn’t lay down a lot of conditions or maybes. Isaiah had a confidence in the Lord. “Now the Lord has spoken…” If the Lord wasn’t decisive, Isaiah would have to say “I think, feel, wonder, wish, hope the Lord has spoken, but I am not sure, so I don’t know how to act.” He speaks again decisively. “I will make you a light to the nations…” This would be carried out if God’s people acted decisively in return. Psalm 40 gives the response of one who sees, responds, and acts decisively before the Lord. “Here am I, Lord; I come to do Your will.”

            Paul the Apostle was a very decisive person and had a great ability to cut through and see what is truly important in the Christian life. He had no doubts about being called by God and no incertitude about what Christ was doing for His people. In talking about himself, he said: “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God…” He was not vague about the Church addressing the Corinthians as “…you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy…”

            No way could John the Baptist be called an indecisive person. Once he discerned the truth, he acted on it. “John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”’ He had good spiritual discernment and could describe clearly what he saw in faith. “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon Him…Now I have seen and testified that He is the son of God.” He didn’t say He might be.

            When it comes to God’s Word, our faith, our life as a member of the consecrated people, and our call from the Lord, we need to be very discerning and decisive. We need to know how to cut through issues that can detour us from God’s truth. Saying no clearly to sin and sinful attitudes or even to ways, which while good in themselves, can detract from the “narrow road” which leads to life and decisive yes to our faith and the life and works we are called to do. That calls for constant prayer and vigilance.

            The lamb and the dove are decisive animals who act decisively. They, too, can teach us to be decisive in doing God’s will. Jesus, as the Lamb of God, was certainly decisive in revealing the love of God and acting to save the human race. The Spirit rested on Him like a dove. The dove moves and acts decisively. The Lord depends on people like Isaiah, Paul and John, and people today who have the same grace such as Pope John Paul II and other people we know. It’s a grace the Lord grants. The more decisive our response to the Lord’s will, the more the Lord graces us, and others through us.

            May the Lord hear us praying: “Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.”

Reflection from Divine Mercy #1400

“I want to make the best possible use of the present moment, faithfully accomplishing everything that it gives me.”