GOD'S IRREVOCABLE CALL AND GIFTS


SAINT MARTIN DE PORRES, RELIGIOUS

Rom 11:29-36; Ps 69:30-31, 33-34,36-37; Lk 14:12-14

The Constancy of Gifts of God

Everything we possess comes from God, for God is the giver of every good gift we have received. Our existence and temporal life are the first of all his gifts. Saint Thomas Aquinas beautifully presents God as the supreme Good, to whom it belongs to give Himself to His creatures. God gives to all without diminution in any way. He gives us everything necessary for our lives and salvation. We live by accepting the gift of life and cooperating with him. The quality of our temporal lives here on earth depends so much on what we receive from God and what we reject from among his gifts. If we receive everything he gives and cooperate with him, each of us would live contented and fulfilled. But because sin darkens our judgment and blinds our sight, making us reject what we should accept from him and fight to have what He has not planned for us, we acquire so many things that keep us sorrowful and uncomfortable in life. We need God’s grace to live well here in our mortal existence.

The above is even truer about the gift of spiritual life we have received through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the author of all graces we need for life and holiness. In giving us his Son, Jesus Christ, God has given us everything we need to fulfil his holy will daily. God the Father gave his Son when we were still sinners, disobedient to his will. Saint Paul, therefore, explains that he does not take back any of his gifts because he gave us the greatest of them all, his Son, while we were still separated from him. “God never takes back his gifts or revokes his choice.” He made this submission in respect to the Jews God called and chose to be his own, for the manifestation of his Son. “Just as you changed from being disobedient to God, and now enjoy mercy because of their disobedience, so those who are disobedient now—and only because of the mercy shown to you—will also enjoy mercy eventually.” But, as we have stated several times, the gifts of God to us need our cooperation to bear the expected fruits of holiness and eternal happiness in our lives. Though God did not revoke his call to the Jews, he awaits their cooperation to save them. Similarly, God’s choice of us as the people he called to glory in Jesus Christ remains forever true, but needs our daily cooperation to bear the expected fruits of holiness and eternal happiness.

Grace is superabundance for each of us to work out his or her salvation in Jesus Christ. God has provided everything we need in this life and for the eternal life of happiness and joy. We enter into the divine providence when we believe in Jesus Christ and walk with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Within this background of God's providential care for us, we understand our Lord's admonition to the Pharisee who invited him for a meal. “When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not ask your friends, brothers, relations or rich neighbours, for fear they repay your courtesy by inviting you in return. No; when you have a party, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; that they cannot pay you back means that you are fortunate, because repayment will be made to you when the virtuous rise again.” Saint Martin de Porres entered deeply into this divine knowledge and developed his faith and spirituality on this teaching, for he understood the munificent mercy and providence of God. He was born in Lima in Peru, the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman and a black ex-slave. His mother gave him a Christian education, and he became a pharmacist and a nurse. He entered the Dominican Order as a lay brother against his father’s wish in 1603 and spent his life caring for the sick and the poor. His deep spiritual life and knowledge brought so many people of all ranks to seek his advice on many issues. He had great devotion to the Eucharist and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Martin worked many notable miracles during his lifetime. One of such miracles is that he could get fruits out of season to take care of his sick brothers. God’s providential care showed through his life.

Let us pray: O God, who led Saint Martin de Porres by the path of humility to heavenly glory, grant that we may so follow his radiant example in this life as to merit to be exalted with him in heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.       

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