Homily for the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, July 26, 2026. Romans 8:28-30. Theme: All Will Be Well
In praying with the Scriptures to prepare for my homily today, I asked the Holy Spirit to draw me to what he might want me to see and share. And as a result, my attention kept being drawn to the second reading. Even though it’s very short, it’s quite full of theological language that can make its message of hope and encouragement easy to miss. So let’s look at it once again, bit by bit, and delve into what God might be saying to us.
St. Paul begins by saying, “We know that all things work for the good of those who love God.” So, who are “those who love God”? Well, Jesus told us at the Last Supper, that those who love God are the ones who cherish and obey his word. And what does St. Paul mean when he states that “all things work out for the good”? Well, he means that everything - no matter what it is, even if it’s something terrible- can and will be used by God for our ultimate well-being even if we can’t see it or understand how it will all work out, because God has a plan and a purpose for our lives and nothing is going to derail it. It can be kind of like being on a roadtrip with a GPS to guide us that has Heaven set our destination. As we make our way there we can turn a deaf ear to the voice guiding us and end up taking wrong turns or encountering unexpected obstacles. But just like a GPS, God can reroute us and put us back on the right path. So, even if we have a few zigzags on the way and need to make a u-turn or two, we will surely reach our destination as long as we do our best to listen to God’s word and obey it.
In the next part of the second reading, St. Paul goes on to say, “For those God foreknew he also predestined…And those he predestined he also called…“ Now, I find these words to be utterly amazing because they say that God has had plans for each one of us from way before we were even conceived and born! From all eternity, eons before any of us existed, God foresaw each one of us clearly and perfectly and completely. He beheld both the good and the bad, both the beautiful and the ugly about us. But here’s the best part: he totally fell in love with what he foresaw! Right then and there, God predestined you and me, each one of us, to one day live on planet Earth. And not only that. but he furthermore called each one of us into existence at a particular time in history and a particular place on the globe that would be most conducive for each one of us to achieve salvation. We aren’t just randomly put here! Isn’t that awesome?
And what this means is also amazing and awesome! It means that none of us are a mistake! None of us are an accident no matter what the particular circumstances of our conception and birth might have been. None of us are just one face lost in a sea of a billion faces to God, because he knows and loves each one of us, individually and personally and passionately. Now with this kind of love in mind, how can we doubt that God will not make all things work out for our ultimate good? With this kind of love in mind, how can any one of us ever question if we are lovable or worthwhile?
God brought us into existence precisely so that we could live both a reasonably happy life in this world and then a-forever-happy-one in the next!
You see, it’s not enough to God that we simply exist on planet Earth. He wants to do even more good for us. And so, he justifies us, which means that by grace through faith we are put into a right and intimate relationship with him. And then he goes even further and promises to one day glorify us, which means bestowing upon us the gift of eternal life in Heaven. And this is what St Paul meant when he said that, “those God called he also justified and those he justified he also glorified.” Now if God has gone to all the trouble, so to speak, of doing these things for us, why should we ever doubt the plans of his wisdom, the depth of his goodness and the sureness of his love?
Of course, St. Paul isn’t saying that only good things will happen to those who love God. If he was, our lived experience would prove him dead wrong! Right now, there are probably some of us living through some very difficult situations that make no sense. A loved one may be struggling with addiction. A relationship may be under stress and in danger of breaking apart. Someone may have lost a job, or received a frightening diagnosis, or be grieving because of a death. And in those kinds of moments, this message of Romans 8:28 about all things working for the good can sound impossible to believe. I’m sure St. Paul experienced this temptation as well for he wasn't writing these words from the comfort of an easy life. In his years of missionary work for Christ, he had been beaten, imprisoned, stoned, shipwrecked, and rejected by both family and synagogue. He knew terrible suffering firsthand and so he wasn't offering us cheap optimism or talking about the power of positive thinking. He is writing about a strong living faith in a God of wisdom, a God of goodness and a God of love, who had carried him - and will carry each one of us - through every hardship.
So, when things get difficult and we wonder why we are undergoing a personal struggle, the best thing for us to do is to just let go and surrender ourselves with confidence into the hands and heart of God. We need to trust in the Creator who called us into existence simply because he foresaw us and loved what he saw. We need to trust in the Lord who justified us in the waters of Baptism which put us on the trajectory to be glorified in Heaven. And we need to trust that the Savior, who transforms our simple gifts of bread and wine into His very own Sacred Body and Life-giving Blood at Mass, can and will ultimately transform our sorrowful crosses into resurrection joy. For when all is said and done, the promise of Romans 8:28 is not that everything we experience will be good, but that everything we experience will work out in the end for our good and that “all will be well.”
