The Second Sunday of Advent’s Second Reading makes an observation all too often lost (since homilists rarely preach on the Second Reading) about the Divine-human dynamic in the good men do. In the text, St. Paul expresses confidence “that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:6). St. Paul is talking about the conversion of the Philippians to Christianity. God has begun “a good work” in this community and, from “the first day” until “the day of Christ Jesus,” that work in this concrete community is and remains in God’s hands, tended to and nurtured by Him. In other words, the task of evangelization has been begun by God, who “will continue to complete it.”

But that message is not just true as regards the emergence of faith in first-century Philippi. It remains true, both of our individual moral acts and the broader sweep of salvation history.

First let’s look at our individual moral acts. Whatever good we do is begun in God. It is God whose grace inspires us, prompts us, moves us to consider doing something good. It is always God’s initiative. If it were otherwise, we would not need a Savior; we could save ourselves and, so, all this stuff we do every December would be a waste of time. God gives us the grace to do good. But grace is not compulsive. If it were, there would be no freedom. God’s grace urges us (and holds us to account for what we did or did not do with that impetus) but does not force us. We must also contribute our “widow’s mite,” the decision of our own freedom. The Russian Orthodox theologian Teophan the Recluse explained it well: God is like an alarm clock. He rings. But what we do with that ring is our choice. We need to decide: do we get out of bed or do we ignore the alarm clock, silence it, and go back to sleep? God prompts us and we decide what to do. That’s why every act of good we decline is already at least implicitly a decline of grace, a “hardening of heart” to His voice. God’s action is not just a prompt. God remains engaged with us, supporting us. That is why good moral action is always a divine-human partnership.

That brings us back to the broader sweep of salvation history. God is as much involved in our history as in our individual lives. As Catholics we believe that God does not just create but sustains creation. He remains engaged in our world and in our history. History is a plan, a Divine project which, like from “the first day” until “the day of Christ Jesus” on the last day, is intended to make sense of history — where “God is all in all” (1 Cor 15:28).

Our tendency to focus on human autonomy, whether that be the “ethic of choice,” a Frank Sinatra-like “I did it my way” or some spiritualized Horatio Alger story, is all false. God is engaged with us in our lives and in our history. It is God who inspires us, leads us, and brings — as the Rite of Ordination puts so well — “to completion the good work He has begun in us.”

We pray to be found “pure and blameless for the day of Christ” (Phil 1:10). And since the only way that happens is in and through Christ, we make it our prayer that He bring to “completion the good work He has begun in us.”

Last Sunday (Gaudete Sunday), the crowds gathered around John the Baptist ask him, each according to his station and circumstances in life, “what should we do?” This is the question we each face every day, a decision borne of moral duty, prudence about how to achieve the good here and now, our desires ordinate and inordinate, and cooperation with God’s grace. As we discern God’s will in each particular circumstance of our lives, let our answer to the crowd’s question to John be Our Lady’s counsel at Cana: “Do whatever He tells you” (John 2:5).