Father Dominic Emmanuel

Visiting the Tihar jail occasionally, along with seminarians and nuns, who go there to teach and as social workers, is an enriching experience. There is very little we can actually do for the inmates except listen to their sad stories. Almost all the individuals I meet there come across as fine chaps. Some of them are there only because they happened to be around on the crime scene after the real culprits had escaped. Some others honestly confess that it was due to a bout of anger or a careless moment which has landed them there. They deeply regret that instant of weakness.
There seems to be often a dichotomy between what we do not like to do but actually end up doing. As St. Paul says in the Bible, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate, I do”, and the reason, “As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me” (Rom 7: 15 &17). Paul, like all the saints and people of good will, experience in their lives, as we do in our own, that while we want to do good and be good, we end up doing or being just the opposite.
Call it sin or a lack of awareness of God’s presence, our hearts are often torn between doing God’s will and doing our own will. This pulling of our inner self in two directions is often in the area of morality, though it need not always be so. For instance, blurting out words that only hurt a person by giving in to anger is not directly connected to morality. But is it in accordance to God’s will?
It is not necessary that God’s will and our will be always at odds. The big question is: Is what I am doing according to God’s purpose and plan or is for my own use and pleasure?
One of the important functions of any religion through its scriptures is to help a follower walk and work in agreement to God’s will. Though scriptures of each religion show a devotee the path to follow God/Divine, those either not quite familiar with the scriptures or less confident of discerning it on their own take recourse to a spiritual guru. They approach the guru in the hope that s/he would help them in God realisation or at least help them find a way to know God and His will for them.
The disciples of Jesus during one of their many sojourns asked Him to teach them to pray. In response Jesus said, “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’”.
While the prayer taught by Jesus is both simple and profound, two important inspirations for our purpose stand out: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” and “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”. And that seems to be the crux of the matter. If we can constantly recite and make it a practice in our lives to let His will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we might be able, to a great extent, transform this earth a wee bit on the model of heaven. And the following desire to “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from will evil” would then just follow as a consequence of our sincere prayer to the Lord to do His will.
Taking the point of God’s will further, Paul writes, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Rom. 12:2). Keeping God’s will foremost in one’s life even against one’s own will is what Jesus did too! The Gospels tell us that before his long and painful journey to Calvary, Jesus prayed to God, “Father, if it is your will, remove this cup from me, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22: 42).
It is indeed inspiring to see how Islam too insists on “Submission to God (His Will)”, which is what Islam actually means.

— Father Dominic Emmanuel, a
founder-member of Parliament of Religions, is currently the director of communication of the Delhi Catholic Church. He was awarded the National Communal Harmony Award 2008 by the Government of India.