Written in our hearts

In the past few days, I have encountered the phrases "unwritten law" and "law in our hearts" multiple times in my readings. It is a reminder of my unresolved discernment question.

Jeremiah 31: 33 - 34 (Last Saturday's reading)
^[33]...I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
^[34]And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD..."

Again, while reading William E May's Catholic Bioethics and the Gift of Human Life, Pope John Paul II wrote in Evangelium Vitae, about the doctrine that killing innocent life is always gravely immoral:

"[this is] based upon that unwritten law which man, in the light of reason, finds in his own heart"

And last week, Fr Frans quoted in his homily, that the human heart has an infinite capacity for self-deception. Thus, when we are true to ourselves we will find, upon deep searching, God's will 'written' within our hearts.

Contemplating God's will always brought to my mind the example of Our Lady, who seemingly without hesitation, gave her Fiat to the angel Gabriel, and to our God. I stood facing a statue of our Lady in front of the church after last Sunday's sunset mass; and it just dawned upon me what courage it took her to say Yes to something she does not understand. As I thought about the path that led me here—my discovery of the potential of IT and the Internet while in Singapore, meeting so many people on the 'Net and (sometimes, face-to-face, like in the World Youth Day) because of the 'Net—it is a path, no? Not just a series of quirky choices.

Perhaps in the search for God's will we are not asked to understand what it is. I'm beginning to think that our feeble minds and senses are not meant to fathom God's ways, but to recognize it when we find it before us and to follow it faithfully. This restlessness I feel may never go away, not when I keep hearing our belated Pope John Paul the Great say: (my favorite quote!)

"Do not be afraid! Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch."

With a prompting like that, who could remain uninspired? Yet dear Pope John Paul II allowed himself—lost himself, surrendered himself—to be guided by the Spirit to fulfil God's plan, not his own.

After this coming Sunday, Holy Week is upon us; Lent is ending, and time for Jesus will come. May we say our Fiat to Him this Easter :)