Thy Will Be Done

One

Domination or Deference?

Have you ever been at a restaurant or a coffee shop where you can overhear the couple at a table next to you and you can tell they’re on a first date?Sometimes you can just tell the guy is totally blowing it. All he’s doing is talking about himself. He’s not complimenting the girl, or asking her about her story, or her life, or her views. And worst of all, when the waiter comes, he makes all the decisions for both of them without even asking what she wants. Of course, what she probably wants, by that point, is for this date to just be over so she never has to deal with this loser again.

Well, notice how the first half of the Our Father is exactly the opposite of that spoiled date. Jesus tells us to begin by praising Our Father, by celebrating Him, by making him the center of the conversation, not us.

And then we wind up that first half not by informing Him of what our will is, but by inviting Him to take the lead. “Thy Will Be Done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.” That’s the language of deference, instead of an attempt to dominate. That’s the language of love.

Two

God’s Will and God’s Design

God’s most fundamental will, His primordial will, what is sometimes called God’s antecedent will, is the way He has designed things to work. Just as a watchmaker’s plan for the watch is known by understanding the watch’s design, so God’s will for creation is known by understanding the design of creatures. 

Now whenever free creatures like us sin, we go against this design. Whenever we go against this design, we are going against God’s eternal will.

Now there is a part of Creation where no one ever goes against God’s design. Where everything works exactly the way God made it to work. There’s no frustration, no twistedness, no wrong turns, no brokenness. That is Heaven.

The more this world, and we in particular, follow God’s design, the closer this world, and our lives, will be to Heaven.

“Thy will be done” means “May your perfect design, Your ceautiful, intricate blueprint for the human being – may that be realized by us and by everyone – “On Earth as it is in Heaven.”

Three

God’s Consequent/Permissive Will

There’s another aspect of God’s will too, though. That’s God’s permissive or consequent will. This is the aspect of God’s will that incorporates all sinful decisions into an overarching providential plan that brings good out of evil.

In other words, God has designed us to work a certain way but when people sin and damage God’s design, God is not defeated.

God, that supreme Artist, takes both the beauty that is still intact in His universe and puts it together with the ugliness that comes from sin and He arranges it all in the most lovely and surprising of all masterpieces, the Masterpiece of Salvation. But to achieve this Masterpiece of Salvation, and to maintain the beauty of created freedom, which is an indispensable part of that masterpiece, He wills to permit, to allow, all kinds of evil that result from the sins of demons and humans.

Now, it’s our job to trust that when God allows evils to happen, He knows what He’s doing. It’s our job to trust that the good God will accomplish in the end will make His respect for human free will worth it. In other words, it’s our job to trust God’s permissive will.

So when we say, “Thy Will Be Done,” we don’t just mean, “May everybody follow your design.” We do mean that. But we also mean, “And when they don’t, we trust your permissive will. We trust you to bring good out of evil. We trust that you will unveil your supreme Masterpiece on the last day and we’ll be overcome by the magnificence you accomplished in bringing good out of evil.”

Four

Fulfilling God’s Plan as Causes or Occasions?

So God’s plan, His permissive will, His plan to bring good out of evil, to make something beautiful out of the story of Creation that can’t be thwarted. That can’t be stopped. Even if you try to stop Him, He’ll just use your disordered actions as another opportunity to manifest His goodness and ingenuity.

Like a skilled martial arts fighter, He actually uses His enemies’ momentum to win. Which means, in some sense, we will help to bring about God’s will, whether we want to or not. But there’s a big difference between being a cause of goodness and an occasion of goodness.

A cause of goodness is someone God directly works through to accomplish His Will. St. John, St. Francis, St. Mother Teresa, Christ Himself.

An occasion of goodness doesn’t actually contribute, even though God can use that person as an opportunity to do something good. God used Judas’ betrayal to bring about His plan but Judas wasn’t actually contributing anything good, because he wasn’t doing anything good.

When we say to God, “Thy will be done,” we mean we want to help. We want to be God’s co-workers, like St. Paul said. We don’t just want to be useless klutzes whose mistakes have to be exploited in spite of their incompetence or malice. We want the honor of freely and knowingly cooperating with our King and Lord. We want God’s glory to come from our love and devotion.

Thy will be done, Lord. And please let us help in any way we can.

Five

Make Prayer about God, not Ourselves

The first half of the Our Father is about God. The emphasis is on the second person pronoun, “Hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.” You, Father, are in Heaven.

The second half of the Our Father will focus more on us, on what we need, on what we hope to do.

But whenever you pray, have the same courtesy with God that you’d have with anyone else you cared about. Attend to Him first. Think about Him first. Talk about Him first. Defer to His wishes. That’s just part of what it means to be polite. And it’s certainly what it means to love.