[Given at St. Mary of the Pines Retreat Center in Chatawa, MS at the parish church of St. Therese]
How can it be that all things work together for good for those who love God? Are there not instances of disasters that have come upon people who love God? I think of a story told by Elie Wiesel about some faithful Jews in a Nazi concentration camp during Word War II. They decided to put God on trial for having turned His back on the covenant of His promises to His chosen people by His silence during the Jews' greatest time of need. They found God guilty; and then they went and prayed their evening prayers together! Despite the guilty verdict, they gave God praise anyway.
That is the quality of those who love God: they trust Him anyway, despite all evidence to the contrary, they trust Him - even unto death. Is this not the witness of Jesus on the Cross?
How does one acquire this quality? How does one develop such a trust in God that, deep down in the marrow of one's being, there is a conviction that I am loved by God and all will be well?
How do we get there? The path is shown by today's selection from Romans, Chapter 8. The path involves being predestined, being called, being justified, and being glorified. Let me explain.
Predestination is a dicey word and most uses of this word run the risk of becoming heretical. Here's what it does mean. From all time, even before time, indeed before the creation of the world God knew you by name and knew everything about you - including your being born and raised in an environment conducive to your being baptized and, bit by bit, becoming conformed to the image of Jesus.
But God's knowing all about you ahead of time does not rob you of your freedom. Everyone who is baptized is free to accept or reject the call to be conformed to the image of Christ.
Some people attempt to think they are being conformed to Christ, or living up to their baptismal call, but by their own terms! Such a person thinks: I'll buy these elements of the Gospel, but not those. Think of "cafeteria Catholics" who pick and choose what they'll agree to. This is self-justification, not the kind of justification that comes from God.
It's the Lord who justifies us. We do not, and cannot, justify ourselves. Being justified means being in a right relationship with God; and this happens only when we use our free will to conform our lives to the life of Christ - not picking and choosing, but wanting to do God's will in all things, no matter how difficult, and no matter how often we fail.
The one who is justified by God in Christ is not someone who justifies behaviors that are against the Gospel, but rather when faced with falling short of the Gospel, this person says, "O God, be merciful to me a sinner." This is the right stance before God, not "I'm fine the way I am." In this justified stance, I know I am a sinner in need of the Lord's merciful love.; and this stance is what makes me be in a right relationship with God. I am, therefore, justifiedby knowing that I need God.
Then comes the glory! What is glory? Glory is getting our way - like a football team winning the Super Bowl. That's glory!
But for the Christian, glory is having lived our lives so close to Christ that, no matter what life deals us, year by year, we are conformed more and more into the image of Christ. This is how God gets the glory! God gets His way with me.
And we will know that we are well on the path to glory when we can say, and mean it when we say it, that all things do indeed work together for the good of those who love God.
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