What should we talk about today? How about GRACE? Do we understand what
Grace is? Let’s start with this:
“the unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their holiness”. Wait, what?!?
All we have been given, by God, is our
human nature, and if you want to see how well that works for us, read
Genesis 3 to see how much help it gave to Adam and Eve! Instead, the only way we can grow and improve in virtue and holiness, is to rely solely on God’s supplying us with the
Grace we need.
Grace is FREE (remember, unmerited!). We can’t earn it, we don’t deserve it, but we can be given it from our generous God.
Grace can only be received by God. We can’t take “it” or have “it”, we can only
receive it, and only then do we paradoxically “have it”, always on the fly and in the amount we need.
How? The Sacraments of course! From a
4 th century homily:
“Those who have been found worthy to become children of God and also to be born again through the Holy Spirit”, which is another way to say Baptized and Confirmed. That’s code for two of the three Sacraments of Initiation, the sacraments that all Catholics receive. The third is Eucharist (Communion), where we receive the very Body and Blood of Jesus Himself, and He comes to live in us. Think about that!
The homily then continues:
“those who carry Christ within them, shining within them and renewing them – these people are guided by the Spirit in various ways and led forward by grace working invisibly in the inner peace of their hearts." You may want to pause again and reread this to help it sink in. ONLY by God’s grace is any of this possible! How beautiful and humbling!
“May we be found worthy to attain the perfection and fullness of Christ.”
May God make this true for all of us — Amen! Have a great weekend everybody!
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