God's Grace Comes First

Homily for Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

In today's reading from Galatians, St. Paul sounds almost exasperated. The Galatians had experienced God's grace firsthand. They had received the Holy Spirit, witnessed God's power at work among them, and begun their journey in faith. Yet they were in danger of forgetting that everything had begun with God's gift rather than their own efforts.

Paul's question is one we may need to hear ourselves: Did we receive God's Spirit because of what we accomplished, or because we believed the Good News? The answer is obvious. Grace always comes first. God acts before we do.

That theme continues in the Gospel. Jesus encourages persistence in prayer, portraying a friend who keeps knocking and a child who asks a loving father for help. The point is not that God is reluctant and must be persuaded. Rather, Jesus teaches us that we can approach God with confidence, trusting in the Father's goodness.

The canticle from Luke reminds us why we can pray with such trust. God has remembered his covenant and come to save his people. The God who has been faithful throughout salvation history remains faithful today.

Perhaps the common thread through all three readings is trust. We do not earn God's love. We do not force God's hand by multiplying prayers. We simply place ourselves before a Father who delights in giving us the greatest gift of all: the Holy Spirit.

As we continue this day, we might ask for the grace to trust a little more deeply in God's goodness, relying less on our own strength and more on the grace that is already at work within us.