Friday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 464

Realize that it is those who have faith who are children of Abraham. Scripture, which saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, foretold the good news to Abraham, saying, Through you shall all the nations be blessed.

Saint Paul struggled mightily with the unexpected mystery of gentiles insistently listening to Christian preachers and asking for baptism. They were clearly not Jews and he saw that they had received the Spirit of wisdom, courage,
patience under hardship, and joy which marks disciples of Jesus. 

He had experienced the futility of living like the Pharisees who strictly observed every stricture of the Law of Moses, and often created new, more restrictive rules to prove their worthiness in God's sight. "Give it up, People!" he might have said. "Trust our Good God, believe in Jesus, and let all that stuff go!" 

Saint Paul's breakthrough came when he realized we are saved by faith. We belong to the Lord; that is, we are God's people by faith in Jesus and not by birth, or by our decision to belong to him. As Saint John wrote,

But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God. (John 1:12-13)

He chooses us through baptism and we gratefully accept his election, entirely aware that we have neither earned it nor deserved it. Paul himself would insist that he was the last of the apostles, the least of all and servant of all. "But," he insisted, "by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective." (I Corinthians 15:10)

Americans -- Catholics, Protestants, and nones alike -- express great discomfort with this doctrine. Some piously insist that no one is special, implying that God should not prefer some over others. Others, perhaps more honestly, don't want the responsibility that goes with being among the elect. Neither group is willing to do penance for their sins, though they might admit they screwed up, or have "character defects," but they insist their "intentions were never wicked." 

When we finally surrender to the Lord's particular mercy shown to each of us, we take up our cross of guilt, remorse, regret, and shame; practice penance; and follow in his footsteps. And then we know the Spirit of wisdom, courage, patience under hardship, and joy which marks disciples of Jesus.