It’s God’s work, folks

I MEAN it’s God’s work, first of all, before it is ours.

This business of our creation and redemption is begun by God and he

also will be the one to complete and perfect it. (cfr. Phil 1,6) On

our own, we cannot. Neither did we begin it nor will we be able by

ourselves to complete it. Only God began and will finish our creation

and redemption.

            Obviously our creation and redemption can be likened to a

joint effort between God and man. That is because we have been created

to be like him, able to know and love. As such we are meant to

cooperate with God in our own creation and redemption.

            Thus, while God will do everything to carry out our

creation and redemption to completion, we also are expected to do

everything to cooperate. It’s like a 100%-100% proposition, even if

our all-out cooperation can never compare to God’s effort to create

and redeem us.

            This is, of course, a proposition that goes beyond

mathematical laws, since we are not dealing here with merely

quantifiable elements as much as with spiritual realities, ruled

mainly by faith, hope and charity. In this latter system, the law that

is followed is the all-or-nothing rule.

            This means that the 100% we are supposed to give is not a

100% exclusive of God’s 100%. Rather, it is a 100% that reflects and

channels God’s 100%. It’s a 100% that is homogeneous, not

heterogeneous, to the 100% of God.

            In short, this 100%-!00% proposition we are talking about

expresses the ideal proper to us in that we should try our best to

achieve a total identification with God through Christ in the Holy

Spirit. We should do everything with God, beginning things with him as

well as ending them with him.

            Said from another angle, we can say that every time we try

to do all we can to resolve our temporal affairs, we should try to

approximate our total identification with Christ who also went all the

way to redeem us by offering his life on the cross. Yes, we have to be

ready for the cross which, whether we like it or not, cannot be

avoided in our life.

            Christ did not simply preach and perform miracles, he did

not simply amaze the crowd with his gracious words and marvelous

cures. He went all the way to offer his life, showing us that his love

for us is to the extreme, since he said, “No one has greater love than

he who offers his life for his friends.” (Jn 15,13) He was willing to

assume all our sins even if he himself did not commit any sin.

            Every time therefore that we do our all we can, making use

of whatever astuteness and cleverness we have to handle our earthly

affairs, we should be keeping Christ more alive in us.

            Far from separating us from Christ, our active involvement

in the things of the world, if done properly, would keep us close to

Christ. The world is no obstacle in our relation with God, if we keep

this !00%-100% proposition in mind.

            And even if our 100% cannot be compared to God’s 100%, we

should just be reassured by what Christ told us: that the little we

do, if done with love for God, can acquire tremendous power and

produce abundant fruit.

            Yes, with a little help from us the full wonder of God’s

grace would be revealed to us. This was articulated by Christ himself

when he compared the Kingdom of God to how a seed grows. (cfr. Mk

4,26-34)

            “It is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and

would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow,

he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the

blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the

grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has

come.”