As I’ve mentioned before, the Christian life is about learning to form our desires. The season of Advent emphasizes this even more, teaching us how to desire rightly. Yes, we need to learn to yearn. We need to learn to desire.
As we approach Christmas, the figures of John the Baptist and others fade into the background, and the figure of Mary comes forward. The readings are especially chosen to prepare us for the ultimate object of our desire: Christ incarnate. Mary, in her obedience to the will of God, ushers us into this great mystery.
In our times, obedience is often misunderstood or dismissed. I think this is because we’ve been spoon-fed a lie for the past 50 years. It’s a lie we hear in the media, in commercials, and especially in commencement speeches at graduations. The lie is this: Your life is all about you.
Think about the last commencement speech you heard. It probably said something like, “Your life is about finding your passion, your career, the right partner, the perfect family, and building wealth.” If part of us resonates with this idea, it’s because we are products of our culture. But make no mistake: in the Christian life, your life is not about you. It’s about something far greater and more beautiful than we can imagine—what we call the will of God, the Word of God taking flesh in our lives.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve often found my own will insufficient. I think I know what I want, but when I finally acquire or accomplish it, it doesn’t satisfy. Our will can be deceptive, leading us down paths shaped by the ego. True peace does not come from following our own will, but from aligning our will to something greater: God’s will, which is holier, more beautiful, and transcendent.
Dante’s Divine Comedy beautifully illustrates this truth. As he journeys through hell, purgatory, and heaven, he explores the nature of desire and its ultimate fulfillment. In the third canto of paradise, Dante enters the Heaven of the Moon, where he meets a soul named Picarda Donati. She was a nun forced to leave her convent and marry against her will. Despite this, Picarda inhabits the lowest circle of heaven, a place of perfect peace. Dante asks her if she longs for a higher place in heaven, given her virtue. Picarda responds with a profound truth: “In His will is our peace.”
She explains that all souls in paradise are perfectly content, regardless of their position in the celestial hierarchy, because their wills are fully united with God’s will. This is the example that Mary gives us. She aligns her will so perfectly with God’s that she conceives His Word in her womb.
But how do we hear God’s will when the noise of our ego and the world around us is so loud? The lie that life is all about us makes us believe that if we are unhappy, we are to blame. It burdens us with unbearable pressure to achieve, to succeed, to “hack” life. Yet the Christian life teaches us that peace is not found in our own plans but in aligning with the will of our Father in heaven.
You might say, “Father, I don’t have the capacity to hear God’s will. I’m not holy enough or educated enough. I haven’t read Scripture cover to cover.” But that’s not how it works. Jesus says in the Gospel, “My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me.” He doesn’t say, “My educated sheep” or “My perfect sheep.” At your baptism, you were given the capacity to hear the voice of your Heavenly Father. You became His child and received the ability to call Him “Abba.”
Of course, we need to cultivate this ability, just as Mary did. We need to let go of the noise and distractions of life. We need to create silence, the “womb” in which God’s Word can be conceived within us. The word “obedience” comes from the Latin ob-audiens, meaning “to listen.” Obeying God’s will is not about checking boxes or merely complying with rules. It’s about listening deeply to a will that is holier and more beautiful than ours.
So I ask you: What is one step you can take to align your will to God’s this Advent? What is one thing you can do to create silence, to quiet the noise of anxiety, suffering, or even overwhelming joy? What can be your fiat—your “May it be done to me according to Your word”—in these final days before Christmas?
Let us pray for the wisdom Mary conceived in her heart. Let us pray for the silence to listen to a will that is holier than ours. And let us find our peace in God’s will.
In His will is our peace.
