Romans 8: 28-30
Brothers and sisters:
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Call to Canctity
In the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius cautions us to not talk much or carelessly about predestination. St. Paul’s three verses on predestination should give us what we are meant to know.
To God all moments of time are present in their immediacy. Every element of creation’s history can be described as “foreknown” or “predestined” because it is always known to God.
Paul recognizes God’s complete knowledge by using the past tense when describing the common elements of every saint’s life. Every saint who ever lives will be one who was foreknown, called, justified, conformed to Christ, and glorified.
This eternal perspective stresses the urgent matters at stake in the mortal timelines when humans can reject God’s plan. Paul uses the present tense to describe our time perspective where God’s ongoing creation (“God works for good”) invites our human collaboration. God only works for good “with those who love him.” That is where humans freely accept or reject God’s call to sanctity.
Throughout eternity and every day in our mortal lives, God calls us. “Do you love me?” “Lord, you know…”
—Deacon Gerald Nora is a spiritual director with Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House in Barrington, Illinois.
Prayer
For it was you who created my being
knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I thank you for the wonder of my being,
for the wonders of all your creation.
Already you knew my soul,
my body held no secret from you
when I was being fashioned in secret
and molded in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw all my actions,
they were all of them written in your book,
every one of my days was decreed
before one of them came into being.
To me, how mysterious your thoughts,
the sum of them not to be numbered!
If I counted them, they are more than the sand,
to finish, I must be eternal, like you.
O search me, God, and know my heart.
O test me and know my thoughts.
See that I follow not the wrong path
and lead me in the path of life eternal.
—Psalm 139:13-18, 23-24, as prayed in the Liturgy of Hours
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