1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
One of the things that marks the Catholic faith off from the more elaborate and esoteric religious systems of the world is that its revelation is plain, public, and common. In many religious systems, if you want to find out what the will of the Deity is, you must pass through labyrinthine levels of initiation and master complex formulae, whether intellectual or mystical. In contrast, Catholic faith, for all its complexity, is at heart achingly simple. The prophet Micah let the cat out of the bag a long time ago, when he told the devotees of elaborate complexity and rigorism of the simplicity at the heart of God: “‘With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’ He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:6-8). In the same way, Paul reminds us that the will of God in Christ Jesus is not some colossal riddle discoverable only to initiates who have fasted for twenty years and engaged in superhuman feats of spirituality. Rather, the will of God in Christ Jesus is human, simple, and beautiful: rejoice, pray, and say thank you. Make that simple act of obedience to God today.
