Day Ten: God is Spirit and Love, Part Three

     For the last part of this lesson, I explain to the students how Grace is given to us and how Grace can help us to develop a relationship with God.

Sin separates. Sin is a fixation on material Truth that prevents us from seeing past the superficial reality of ourselves, others, creation, and God. Sin isolates us so profoundly that we often do not even recognize the division in our lives. We are so separated from our Authentic Self, others, and God that it is impossible for us to begin to Love the way we are supposed to. We need God’s help. We are at the bottom of the Pit, staring at the mud and yuck. The Holy Spirit gives us Grace. Sanctifying Grace is an invitation to grab hold of Actual Grace.

Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church, Atlanta, GA. This is where I started to receive my Sacraments. (P. Smith

What is Sanctifying Grace? What is Actual Grace? Sanctifying Grace is the phone call from God inviting us to go to dinner with Him; Actual Grace is the limo He sends to us and the food we eat after we say yes to His invitation. This simple analogy reminds us that it is God who first calls us and asks us to Love Him and to be Loved. We do not ask for Grace; He simply gives it. Actual Grace, as I refer to it in class, is more like the personal and intimate ropes that God throws to us. These are Graces that we encounter at the exact right time in our life. They can be Sacramental or Liturgical in context, but they can also be those everyday “Godwinks”, as my Kairos girls refer to them. They are the personal notes that God sends to us to remind us that He Loves us, personally.

Father Richard Lopez

When I was in high school, Father Lopez gave us the Hamster at the Bar Analogy. A hamster went to a bar… already we are laughing. The hamster goes to order a drink, but he can’t speak. Even though he desires a drink from the bar, he lacks the capability to tell the bartender what he wants. All of a sudden, a giant hypodermic needle comes out of nowhere and injects the hamster with some mysterious tonic and the hamster can speak! The tonic is Grace, freely given to the hamster to help him do what he cannot do on his own. God’s Grace for us works similarly. We naturally desire the Love and Beatitude that God offers us; we naturally desire to be our Authentic Self. But in our fallen state, in our fixation on material Truth, we cannot achieve this on our own. We need the assistance of a Transcendent being. God gives us, in our very Creation, Graces such as Free Will and Reason which, if we use them properly, can lead us to other Graces. In fact, as I teach my students later, if we develop our Free Will and Reason  well enough, we can start to see everything in Creation as a Grace from God. Those who see the world this way, I argue, are the happiest as they see everything (good and bad) as opportunities to grow in relationship with God.