Saved by Grace

Homily-10-21-24; Monday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast.”

We are here today because we have faith in Jesus. But we are reminded by St. Paul that it is not from us, that our faith is a gift from God. We do not have faith because of our merits.

I was born to good Catholic parents. I went to Catholic grade school. And yet, when I went out into the world, I did not follow Jesus like I should. It took a conversion thirty years ago, guided by our Blessed Mother, to wake me up and motivate me to try to follow the right path. It was nothing I did or deserved.

We can all look back at our lives and realize that where we are now on our spiritual journeys has come to us as a blessing from God. We should admit as St. Paul writes: “We are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.”

We are here as faithful Catholics and I am sure that we all have friends and family members who have fallen away from the practice of the faith or who never had a connection to the faith at all. And, for me, today’s reading is a source of great hope. I was raised in the faith due to no merit of my own. I was brought back to a renewed faith not by any merit of my own, but by God’s providence at a time of His choosing. It is the Holy Spirt that guides our loved ones back to Christ at a time of His choosing.

We pray for our loved ones that they may know the love of Jesus Christ. But as we pray, we remember that the faith we want them to have is a gift from God, a gift that will be given when they are ready to receive it. Ultimately, it is not their doing, it is not our doing. It is an understanding that can give us great hope; that give us great peace.

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