Enter, let us bow down in worship: let us kneel before the Lord who made us.
For he is our God, we are the people he shepherds, the sheep in his hands. (Psalm 95:6-7)
October 7, 2025
Hello Everyone –
There is a tendency among some religiously inclined folks to think that God owes them something. They imagine God as being like the typical employer. An attitude of — if we do the work, then in justice our employer owes us our wages. In other words, God owes us a reward in heaven provided we serve him faithfully on earth. And this can be an understandable approach to our relationship with the divine. But it introduces a mercenary attitude into what is essentially supposed to be a love affair between God and us. And it stands in sharp contradiction to what is reflected in the pages of sacred Scripture.
The stark truth is — we can never put God in the position where God is in debt to us — despite our attempts to do so. We love putting God in a box like so many other things in our lives. It is a good control tactic. However, Jesus says that even when we have done all we are expected to do (sidebar: and which of us would ever be so bold as to make that claim?), we still cannot make any demands on God. At the time when Jesus walked the Earth, Judaism was dominated by the notion of merit. Again and again, Jesus challenged that idea throughout his ministry.
The fundamental truth about Christianity is that it is a religion of grace — and not of merit. Salvation cannot be earned — plain and simple. We can never put God in our debt. Truth be told, it is something that we do not have to do. God is our Father. We are his very dear children in spite of ourselves oftentimes. And children do not do the will of their father for the sake of rewards. They do it because they want to try to return his love for them.
It comes as a great relief to discover that we do not need to prove ourselves to God. We do not have to earn God’s love. God loved us long before we could have done anything to deserve it. And he loves us even when we are sinners. Thank God!!! Our task is to return God’s love.
We do not keep the commandments so God will love us; we keep the commandments exactly because God love us. One way of summing up the Good News of Jesus Christ is this: a generous Lord wants his disciples to serve him out of love — not out of duty. Hence, faith is not enough; we need love too. While faith makes all things possible, love keeps all things real.
The most generous and heroic deeds in life are those which are performed, not in the line of duty or in the hope of monetary or other rewards, but out of pure love.
I have long savored the words of St. John Henry Newman (recently named a Doctor of the Church): “In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”
May we continue to grow in faith and be changed by God’s love for each and every one of us — not deserved but freely given. May our perfection be wrought by recognizing what God is doing for us at every moment through Jesus Christ.
As I do for you, please pray for me,
Most Reverend Jeffrey S. Grob
Archbishop of Milwaukee
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