Divine Grace and Love

Homily for Friday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

We remember today Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr, whose life journey, a journey of conversion when the Church was still young, and his seven letters he wrote concerning God’s grace and mercy.  In these letters, he has this urgent appeal for the faithful he was writing to, but also for us alive today; as we pray over his letters to always remain steadfast in faith because the grace of God for us, God’s creation, is limitless.  How did Saint Ignatius of Antioch remain steadfast?  Because as he faced his martyrdom, the world presented hate, but he, from the core of his being, believed in God’s gracious and merciful love.  God’s grace, mercy, and forgiving, healing love is there for us ALWAYS AND FOREVER.

This enduring and loving grace from God, this grace that flows as part and parcel of God’s essence, God’s ‘righteousness’ is the main message from today’s Letter to the Romans.  For in that letter we discover that, as David himself says, God blesses the person, graces the person with God’s love (God’s righteousness) always apart from any of our works.  We are blessed, therefore, because God loves us first.  And that love is a love that can never be earned but is a divine love freely given.  And so loved, we have the courage to be, and graced by God with the courage then to love God, self, and neighbor.

Jesus, in our Gospel passage from Luke for the day, encourages his disciples, and the people of God gathered to listen (us), about this limitless, living grace of God, as well.  In the symbolism of sparrows in challenging life circumstances, or hairs on ones’ head being counted, we are called to never, ever, EVER fear, nor forget that God’s grace, displayed in God’s never-ending love, is a love that pours out to me, and to you with the Spirit of graciousness.  In that divine grace and love, we find our worth glorified.  And that, my friends, is indeed a great, awesome, and beautiful truth – and for this we give thanks!

The word “Eucharist” literally means giving thanks. As Jesus comes to us today, we give thanks for the grace of faith that justifies us in the sight of God.