What
is Grace? Sometimes it helps to use the
Catechism of the Catholic Church “Grace is favor, the free and
undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become
children of God…” (Catechism of the Catholic Church §1996). I always Love the
language of the Catechism. It was never pedantic or childish. It recognized the
intelligence of the reader. Of course, I am not as nice ore respectful as the
Catechism, so I use analogies to discuss Grace, specifically how it relates to
the Holy Spirit.
 |
| Often the greatest gifts or Graces we have are the people around us; my after Jesus and my wife, my students are my greatest Graces (P. Smith) |
Grace is a rope
from God that God gives us even if we do not ask for it; Grace is invitation to
enter into relationship with God. If we are at the bottom of the Pit, and if we
cannot Love perfectly the way God does, then we need Grace in order to begin to
develop habits of Love. Our imagination to Love is limited. I go back to the Bellwork.
When we are falling in Love or when we want to express our Love, the natural
desire is to do so in as creative or imaginative manner as possible. This is
where we get these ridiculous “promposal” shenanigans. But we are called to
Love even more profoundly and imaginatively. We are called to Love on a
transcendent level. But we cannot create or conceive of that kind of Love. So,
we need someone with an infinite intellect and an infinite imagination to Love
to help us. The Holy Spirit is the person who throws Grace to us so we can
begin to Love in more powerful ways than we could on our own.
 |
| My own imagination to Love led me to wait until my wife and I were back where we met and fell in Love before I proposed. (P. Smith) |
Sanctifying Graces are the gifts the Holy Spirit gives us so we can begin
to want to Love like God. They help us to simply see the ropes around us so we
can choose the grab ahold or not. It is like we are at the bottom of the pit
and God hits us in the head with a rope to get our attention. Once He has our
attention, we look up and start to see the other Actual Graces He throws to us.
Actual Graces are the gifts the Holy Spirit gives us to help us continue the
process of growing in relationship Him. They are the ropes that help us grow
closer to God. I don’t teach the terms “Operative Grace” and “Cooperative Grace”
to my freshmen, but that is basically what is going on here. God creates us
with certain disposition to “look up” (sometimes that disposition is encouraged
with the help of the Sacraments), and when we look up, we find the ropes He has
thrown to us and, in cooperation, we grab on.
I think my students are starting to get this. There are things we simply
cannot do on our own, so God helps us… because He Loves us.
No comments:
Post a Comment