Homily: February 9, 2025, Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Effective Grace)

 "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective."

St. Paul, the great apostle of Christ, speaks these words with profound humility, giving all credit and glory to God for the great work he is doing. His humility also expressed his full obedience which allowed God’s grace to work effectively through him.

Yet if we look at St. Paul’s life, especially after he took up the apostolic ministry for Christ, it was full of hardships and sufferings. His life took a drastic turn from a powerful persecutor of Christians to a passionate preacher for Christ after Christ called him. He endured terrible persecutions and merciless torture thereafter.

Through this painful fire in the furnace, God molded him into His most effective instrument of mercy and love, not only during his lifetime but for generations ahead. The church today is the beneficiary of God’s grace through St. Paul’s labor.

Do you also encounter struggles and challenges in your work for God?

In the simple act of love shown to someone who is hard to love, in the earnest effort to forgive someone who has offended us greatly, in the fight for life and battle against sin, we may face hardship, persecution and suffering in various ways.

But if we allow God’s grace to lead us, guide us, and strengthen us, we too would be molded to become His most effective instruments of mercy, forgiveness, healing, and love.

Living a life following Christ obediently may seem very difficult but know that it is never lacking in God’s grace. And it will get easier as we lose ourselves more and more in the Lord. Like St. Paul, His grace in us will not be ineffective.

As I look back at my own life, when I was a little boy in elementary school, school tests and exams were the big, big challenges. When I got to high school and looked back, those challenges seemed like nothing.

Even now when I look back at the struggles I faced two years ago, it all seem so trivial to me now. We grow. We become wiser, stronger, better when we go through tough times. We must sometimes walk through the dark valleys before reaching the bright peaks.

Prophet Isaiah in today’s first reading felt unworthy and unclean for the Lord, so God purified him by touching his mouth with a burning ember. I can imagine how extremely painful that could be!

Yet, that didn’t kill or hurt his speech, in fact, it purified his tongue, we are told, “your wickedness is removed, your sin purged”.

Difficulties and struggles are part of this purification process. God allows us to go through them until we become His perfect instruments.

Venerable Fulton Sheen, in his autobiography ‘Treasure in Clay’, wrote that “God is constantly remolding the clay, giving it a second and third, and even seventy times seven chances.” That remolding process is not without breaking and rebreaking.

And he continued that “The portion of life which is tried and tested, which is subjected to many trials, is not a waste. The tears, the agonies, the frustrations, the toils are not lost.” When we suffer for the Lord, we are raised with the Lord.

Similarly, in the Gospel, Simon Peter, having gone through an exhausting and unproductive night, was then able to recognize and appreciate the miracle of the filled nets when Jesus asked him to do what seemed impossible and illogical.

Are you willing to go through the hardships for God, so that His grace can be effective in you?

Mother Angelica once said: "Unless you are willing to do the ridiculous, God will not do the miraculous."

May we trust in God's grace, knowing that He is molding us into His effective instruments, just as He did with the prophets, apostles and great saints before us. Amen.