The Battle of Wills

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (B)

Exodus 24:3-8; Psalm 116:12; Hebrews 9:11-15; Mark 14:12-16, 22-26

As a young parent, I learned the hard way that, when you want to get a 2 year-old to do something, you don’t begin any sentence with the words, “Do you want to…” It doesn’t take long to find out that when the child replies, “No,” it becomes a battle of wills, and one of the strongest forces on Earth is the will of a 2 year-old.

Of course, it isn’t just kids; people of every age can be very determined to see their will is done. We see it in Scripture. For example, the two verses of Mark’s gospel just before today’s reading tell us of Judas’s will to hand Jesus over to the chief priests. But we also see that Jesus has anticipated this, and has a very strong will of his own. That’s why he gives such detailed instructions to the two disciples about following a man to find the upper room. He doesn’t want Judas to know that location yet, because he has plans for that meal and will not tolerate being arrested there.

We see why in the second part of the gospel, for Jesus speaks the words we hear at the consecration. This also shows his will at work, for as the first reading showed, Jesus didn’t choose those words because he liked the way they sounded; he used them because they were patterned after the words spoken by Moses centuries before, when he sacrificed the bulls and sprinkled both the altar and the people with their blood.

And our Lord’s will runs as deep as his blood, as we begin to see in the second reading. While the Old Testament sacrifice of animals was effective, it was never intended by God to be perfect. Why? Because, the animal , although innocent, was also an unwilling victim. For the perfect atonement of the sins of all mankind, the victim had to be not only innocent, but also totally willing to give up his life.

This is the heart of today’s Solemnity: the triumph of Christ’s human will. Without his willingness to give up his life, there could be no crucifixion, no resurrection, no eternal redemption, and no Holy Communion. And this is the heart of his love for us, for love is an act of the will, and as he said so beautifully in John’s gospel, there is no greater love than to lay down your life for your friends.

But Christ’s sacrifice does us no good unless we’re willing to love him in return, so the question for us is, as the psalmist sang, How shall I make a return to the LORD for all the good he has done for me (Psalm 116:12)? I can think of three ways:

• Preparation. Christ made sure the upper room was prepared. How do we prepare ourselves for Mass? We can begin as we are getting ready at home and while we’re on our way; we can arrive early, take time to talk to God, to tell Him what’s in our heart and on our mind. It isn’t that God doesn’t already know, it’s that He wants us to share, to make an effort. That’s an act of our will.
  
• Worthy reception of the Holy Eucharist. The grace of every Sacrament is freely available, but we have to be ready to receive it. Are we in a state of grace? Have we been to confession and gotten ourselves as ready as possible to receive the grace Christ offers? Then, when Communion begins, focus as exclusively as possible on receiving Christ. This is the moment when he comes directly into us, the moment he wills that we become what we receive. Are we willing to become like Christ?
  
• Drawing closer to God in daily life. When we truly love someone, we don’t limit ourselves to spending an hour per week with them. Why should it be that way with God? Rather, we should be mindful of His presence with us every moment of every day, and ready to show the world that our will and God’s will are the same thing.
  

These sound great, and are easy to say, but we all know how hard it is to go from words to the deeds that back them up. It’s the battle of wills inside us; the will to do what we want on one side, and the will to do what we ought on the other. We can’t win it alone, but we don’t have to; the grace of God is always available. All we have to do is ask for it, and resolve to use it. The more we do that, the more we show our Heavenly Father that we’re serious about winning the battle, about making real in our lives the meaning of His Son’s words in his prayer and, above all, in Gethsemane: Thy will be done.

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