What is "God's Will"?

Gospel: John 6: 35-40

In today's reading Jesus tells the crowd that his mission is to do the will of the one who sent him, i.e. to do God's will.  We often ask ourselves what God's will is for us in our lives, and very often this has to do with vocational choice and the like.  But if our life as Christians is to live in imitation of the Lord Jesus, then it is important for us to know what God's will meant for Jesus, for that will be ours as well.

Earlier in the Gospel Jesus told Nicodemus that he came not to condemn the world, but to offer mercy and love to the world.  That is God's will for Jesus, and so this is God's will for us.  We are to provide love and mercy to others as Jesus did.  We are to be loving and merciful for others because God first showed love and mercy to us.  It is the sole condition of salvation: in the measure you show mercy, mercy will be shown to you.  

All other considerations regarding God's will - vocational choices, where to live, and the like are all secondary and in many respects are up to us.  What is fundamental in the question of God's will is the mission to offer love and mercy to the world in whatever vocation we choose and in whatever circumstances we find ourselves.