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Rodney Rodrigues wrote:

Hi, guys —

  • What does it mean to give pleasure to God?

St Alphonsus mentions about giving pleasure and displeasure to God quite a few times in his books.

  • Does it mean if we do God's Will now, it would have given Jesus pleasure during the time He was on Earth? or,
  • Does Jesus Christ receive pleasure in His Humanity when we do His Will, even now?

I have read that just as our sins gave Jesus grief during His Life on Earth, our acts of reparation for our sins would have given Him consolation during His Life on Earth in the (13th) point in the following Encyclical by Pope Pius XI:

(On Reparation to the Sacred Heart) On Reparation to the Sacred Heart
May 8, 1928

  • Also do Saints in Heaven receive joy and pleasure when we do God's Will?
  • Do the Father, Son and Holy Spirit receive pleasure when we do God's Will?

I do not think we can give pleasure to God in His Divinity.

Please correct me if I am wrong here.

Rodney

  { What does it mean to give pleasure to God; does following God's Will please Jesus and the saints? }

Bob replied:

Dear Rodney,

We can absolutely bring pleasure, or please God with our sacrifices and prayers, because they are acts of love, and God is love. Consider how the Father said, 17 This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:17) Jesus brought pleasure to the Father, even as the Incarnate God-Man (not just as the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, unaffected by any Earthly realm) which serves as an example to us who follow Him. Our lives must be modeled on Jesus, so we too can make our Father well pleased.

Consider how Our Lady implored the children of Fatima to do penance, offering sacrifices to console the grieved Heart of Her Son. She gave us the formula:

God is truly saddened by our sins; He is touched and consoled by our acts of love. God is not simply some abstraction, untouched by human affairs, but He is deeply connected to us. He has a Heart for us. That is why we have devotion to the Sacred Heart. It helps remind us in a visceral way that God is not simply some metaphysical force or invisible entity that is cut off or unfeeling.

He does feel, because He loves but this is not simply anthropomorphism. We know it through the Incarnation. While the Father may not feel, in the human sense, as we understand it, He does have a Burning Love, which is why the Holy Ghost appears as tongues of fire. His Heart is the font of love which Jesus tried so desperately to show us. Jesus was sent by the Father, because of the Father's Love.

We need to start thinking about our lives in a new way and reframe everything we do so that we can see ourselves in God.

Imagine yourself as part of the Holy Trinity. I know that sounds crazy, but just do this thought experiment. You're part of the tight community of love for all eternity.

  • How do your actions affect your counterparts?
  • Do you bring joy or sadness? Grief or exultation?

The truth is that God is inviting us into his tight knit Community of Love where each of us has an opportunity beyond our imagination. We must prepare for that life now, and find in ourselves the desire to empty ourselves for the sake of others.

That is how we become saints and how we are to live in God.

Peace,

Bob Kirby
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