Ask a Priest: Is my will aligned with God’s plan for me?

One of our readers writes: “One thing I've contemplated is the idea of free will that God grants us versus what God's plan is for each of us. If we have free will, and make choices, perhaps influenced by temptations from Satan, how does this fit into God's plan for us? Sometimes these two ideas seem to oppose each other, so it’s hard to comprehend them both coexisting.”

Christians have pondered variations of this question for centuries. God wills our ultimate happiness, that much is clear. The gift of intellect and free will are essential qualities of the immortal human soul formed in the image of God. God leaves us free to choose the course of our lives, realizing that we may choose badly at points along the way. Our “temptation-biased” choices often lead us on detours or dead-end paths, so we need to pray regularly for divine guidance.

In the first chapters of the Book of Genesis, we see this “divine dilemma” at work. God made it clear to Adam and Eve that heeding his command “not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil” would keep them alive and well in the Garden of Eden. And yet, lured by temptation of the “ancient Serpent,” they fell prey to the wrong choice we call Original Sin (Gen. 3; Rev. 12:9). Therein lies the tug-of-war as old as humanity itself. Whose voice will we heed in the day-to-day decisions and lifelong choices we make?

Our sinful choices clearly contradict the divine will for our ultimate happiness, risking the “loss of heaven and the pains of hell,” as our traditional Act of Contrition expresses it. On the other hand, there may be several vocational paths by which we can fulfill God’s overall plan for our salvation. The crux of today’s question seems to be, how can we know whether we are making the right choice, the best choice? Again, we know the crucial importance of prayerful discernment in our daily decisions and lifetime choices.

In the example of my own life, I have often wondered, “What if I had decided not to become a priest?” Looking back on the past many years, I am confident I made the right choice of vocation. What if I had become a high school science teacher instead? Would God have been displeased with me? Would a life of teaching and parenting satisfy the divine will, even if God desired the priesthood as my best path in fulfillment of his plan?
God graces each of us with the Holy Spirit’s gifts of wisdom and counsel, to help us make the best choices for our lives. God will enlighten us to see through the clouds of self-interest and choose life-giving directions in our journey, but he leaves us free to accept or reject these graces. To be truly and fully human is to act responsibly with the freedom of will we enjoy.
This subject is treated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church on “Man’s Freedom,” CCC 1730-48, especially paragraph 1742:
 
“The grace of Christ is not in the slightest way a rival of our freedom when this freedom accords with the sense of the true and the good that God has put in the human heart. … The more docile we are to the promptings of grace, the more we grow in inner confidence and freedom during trials, such as those we face in the pressures and constraints of the outer world. By the working of grace, the Holy Spirit educates us in spiritual freedom in order to make us collaborators in his work in the Church and in the world.”
 
Heaven is open to those who do our best to cooperate with God’s will, and we need not necessarily find the “one and only thing” that would maximize the good in our lives and our world. There may well be bumps and detours in our life journey as consequence of our day-to-day decisions. Whenever I encounter one of these, I like to recall the words of Paul in Romans:
 
“We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. … If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not give us everything along with him?” (Rom. 8:28–32)
 
Trusting in God’s will for our well-being and our eternal salvation, seek God’s grace in daily prayer. Ask God to help you do his will in whatever you encounter that day and in the long road ahead. Seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and listening with openness to the inner voice of God speaking to the well-formed conscience, you can trust that God will not let you down.
 
Editor’s Note: If you have a question you would like to submit for consideration in a future column, send to [email protected] or mail to New Earth, 5201 Bishops Blvd. S, Suite. A, Fargo, ND 58104.