When God created mankind in His image and likeness, He fashioned and made us out of the generosity of His merciful love and gave us a most treasured gift: free will. He imparts to all of humanity the power and freedom to choose the good in charity. In addition, God grants us the grace to choose to do what is good, holy, loving and life giving according to His divine will. God provides all that we need for our eternal salvation, though, with and in Christ Jesus, so that we may be united to Him for all eternity in heaven. Heaven is our goal.
We can also make choices that are bad for us and opposed to God’s will. We can wander far from the path of holiness and live a mortally sinful life of disobedience, self-destruction, and spiritual death which
separates our soul from God. In such a state, if we continue to spurn God’s love, reject His mercy and do not repent, we could end up in eternal perdition. Hell is not our goal, but it is a possibility for each of us.
Whether we choose to do the will of God or not, our decisions and actions will have an effect not only in our lives but in the lives of others. We will either (a) follow the Lord, receive His grace and commune with Him more deeply by doing His holy will, which is always efficacious for our souls, and edifying for others; or (b) we will turn from the Lord, following our own selfish designs and sinful inclinations, doing detriment to our souls and wounding the souls of others.
How we influence and affect one another for good or for bad is one of the mysteries of being a part of the human family, as well as a part of the mystical Body and Bride of Christ. Each of Christ’s baptized members have a moral obligation, a tremendous accountability and a holy responsibility before God and for the benefit of the human family. It is crucial that we fulfill God’s holy will. It is a life-or-death situation that can have eternal blessings leading us towards heaven or eternal consequences leading us towards hell.
Jesus says to each of us: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you” (John 6:53). And again: “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work” (John 4:34).
Jesus invites us into a profound and personal relationship with Himself so that we can enter into an intimate union with our Heavenly Father and be fed and nourished by His holy will. It is God’s will that we receive the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion worthily. If we receive Him worthily and well, we will participate in the merciful work of His redemptive mission for the salvation of souls.
It is our Heavenly Father’s will that all of mankind be baptized and partake of the Sacraments of the Catholic Church, which possesses the fullness of the faith (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 7). As Jesus says: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Mathew 28:19).
It is therefore the sublime duty and heroic mission of all Catholics to evangelize our families, friends, workplaces, communities and the world according to our state in life. “For this is the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him [on] the last day” (John 6:40).