For the last month or so, a group of men in our parish and I have been participating in something called St. Michael’s Lent. It is a voluntary time of prayer, fasting, and asceticism to help us grow in virtue (most of them are better than me at it!) that concludes on the Feast of St. Michael. As part of this program, we’ve been reading and reflecting on the book of Daniel. This past week we have been reading about a vision and Daniel, oddly, isn’t understanding. He asks the Lord to tell him how long and what must he do. The Lord, instead of answering, dismisses Daniel: “Go your way, Daniel… you shall rest, and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of days.”
God’s thoughts and ways are not our thoughts and ways, and God does not explain himself. He tells us what to do: love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength; love our neighbor, remembering that all humanity is our neighbor; to act with virtues, like meekness, humility, and patience. In the parable of the owner of the vineyard, the master goes out and continually asks one question: “Why do you stand here idle all day?”
And this is why our reflections on Daniel come to mind for me. Like Daniel, we stand idle because we want to know the plan. He doesn’t tell us, St. Augustine writes, because he wants us to live in vigilant and perpetual faithfulness. St. John Henry Newman said that the wicked demand the plan so that they can decide if the path is one they’re willing to walk.
We don’t need to know the whole plan. We don’t become holy by having the perfect life plan. We become holy by doing what we’ve been asked to do: stop being idle and get to work. Your place is not in some perfect scenario, but here, in your family room, at your office, here at Church. That is your station, your allotted place. We become holy the same way we learn to walk, we get up, put one foot in front of the other, and keep trying.
In this, we will find rest. Let God run the universe. You don’t have to fix everything. You just need to ask yourself one thing: what can I do right now to follow God? That is the road to Heaven.