The Gift of Grace
Anybody who has read the New Testament is aware that Grace from God is important for us as Christians, and in particular that it has a role to play in our salvation. It is mentioned often by St. Paul and addressed frequently by Jesus. And the fact that grace does exist in our lives and is given to us by God is something that is ecumenical in spirit: all Christians understand that this grace, this free gift from God that saves us from ourselves, is essential of the life we are called to live as His children.
The Baltimore Catechism (Debuted in1885): “Grace is a supernatural gift of God bestowed on us through the merits of Jesus Christ for our salvation.”
Religious education has taught generations of Catholics that grace is a free gift of God’s favor. It is received through the sacraments and makes our salvation possible. Unfortunately, this popular conception of grace is sometimes misconstrued, presenting grace as a commodity rather than a reality experienced in our lives. From this view, “receiving grace” through the sacraments may be interpreted as getting more grace, as if sacraments were transactions imparting a quantifiable spiritual good .
The truth is that while grace is a free gift from God, He has nothing other to give nor wants anything other to give than the gift of Himself. This gift is most profoundly realized in Christ’s incarnation and is repeated and made new in every sacramental moment.
For example, Baptism gives us grace, a share in the divine life of God. If we are in the state of grace, then God is present in us. “Do you know that that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within in, which you have from God?” (1Cor 6:19). In the grace received at Baptism, we have the seed of sanctity; it is our responsibility to make that sanctity grow by developing an intimacy with God through our search for holiness and our service to God and neighbor.
Grace: CCC 1996–97: “Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life (Jn 1:12-18; 17:3; Rom 8:14-17; 2 Pet 1:3-4). Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life: by Baptism, the Christian participates in the grace of Christ, the Head of his Body. As an "adopted son" he can henceforth call God "Father," in union with the only Son. He receives the life of the Spirit who breathes charity into him and who forms the Church.”
Because God is love, grace is a gift of love that invites us into relationship with God, the source of our existence. When we speak of loving more or less, we do not refer to quantities but to the quality and strength of our relationships. Sacraments, then, are not transactions of a spiritual commodity but relational encounters in which the God who created us out of love, for love, and in order to love us offers us the divine gift of self-giving love: Grace. It is what is given to us by God so that we might attain eternal life; it is impossible for us to attain eternal life apart from God’s grace, and it is solely due to God’s grace that we can be saved and enter into Heaven.
Christ himself is our model of holiness. By cooperating with the grace Christ has given us, we will be more open to accomplish his plan through us. The more our words and actions demonstrate to others that we identify with Christ’s words and actions, the greater will be our success at leading others to seek holiness.
In short, Sanctifying Grace saves us through faith and works. God requires us to have faith in Him to be saved, and He also requires us to live a moral life in accordance with His will. (See Ten Commandments) If we ever choose to stop believing in God and remain in that unbelief or if we ever choose to live a life of serious sin and immorality (and remain unrepentant until we die) then we will not attain eternal life; God requires us to have both in order for us to achieve salvation.
—Deacon Gerry Flamm
“Dear children! I thank you for all the prayers. Thank you for all the sacrifices. I wish to tell you, dear children, to renew the messages which I am giving you. Especially live the fast, because by fasting you will achieve and cause me the joy of the whole plan, which God is planning here in Medjugorje, being fulfilled.
Thank you for having responded to my call.”
