Transcript

One of the words that you've probably heard a lot already in this program is grace.

We've already explained it some, but it's such an important reality that it deserves a special focus for us.

What is grace?

Put simply, grace is a sharing in God's life.

It's a spiritual gift that God freely gives to us in the depths of our souls.

Now, grace does a lot of things for us.

Grace makes us children of God.

It makes us participate in the divine nature.

And through grace, we become better images of God and true dwelling places of the Trinity.

The power of grace is vast, and when beginning to learn about the moral teaching of the Catholic Church, our ethical standards, the standards demanded of the followers of Christ, it's easy for some people to get overwhelmed.

Some might think, How is it possible to live this way?

Well, the Lord responds as He responded to St. Paul, My grace is sufficient for you.

God's grace makes it possible to live up to God's demands.

And not only that, by God's grace, God really helps us.

We become truly happy and flourish as we grow in the life of holiness.

Of course, we will likely encounter failures, whether small or big, but God will never abandon us, and will always be ready to heal and strengthen us after we fall.

Often people think that going to heaven is something we can accomplish through our own human powers, by just being good.

Pelagianism was an early heresy that held that human beings could reach heaven through their own moral strength and willpower.

Against this, the Catholic faith strongly maintains that we need God's grace.

It's impossible for us to get to heaven by our own power, no matter how hard we try, no matter how well we behave.

The relationship between God and man was ruptured by original sin, the original sin of our first parents.

And we add to that rupture, that wound, through our own personal sins.

But through His passion, death, and resurrection, Jesus opened up a new avenue to friendship with God through the life of grace.

Grace comes to us through the saving action of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Church teaches that grace has the power to do several things.

Grace moves sinners to conversion.

And God is the one who takes the initiative in our spiritual life.

The Gospel show us this.

They show us that Christ's presence and words moved sinners to repentance.

For example, in the story of Zacchaeus and in the case of the good thief next to Jesus on the cross, both were moved not just by seeing Christ, but through the saving action of grace at work in their hearts.

When St. Peter preached on Pentecost Day to hundreds of people, they were cut to the heart by the grace of conversion.

Many people bear witness to the same reality.

They can tell you stories of their own conversion and how they felt God moving them at particular moments by His grace.

Grace also heals the wounds of sin.

Original sin separated humanity from God, but grace restores us to friendship with Him.

Grace brings justification.

That is, it establishes us in a right relationship with God and makes us pleasing to Him.

Grace can also heal the spiritual wounds and vices caused by our personal sins and bring spiritual transformation and rejuvenation to our souls.

Now, although grace heals us, it doesn't restore us to paradise.

In this life, even the just, even very holy Christians experience some of the wounds of sin.

Grace also elevates our human nature.

God's grace enables us to do things that would otherwise never be humanly possible and the saints bear witness to this effective grace.

For example, the martyrs manifested heroic virtue and the founders of religious orders accomplished extraordinary deeds.

However, by God's grace, even us regular Christians can do things beyond the power of human nature on its own.

We can believe in God's supernatural revelation, and we can love Him as a friend.

There are different types of grace.

Grace given to us to move us to action, those are called actual graces.

For example, God may inspire a convicted murderer to make an act of hope, to trust that God can and will forgive him.In the same way, God may prompt us to make a spontaneous act of charity towards someone we find unpleasant.

For the Christian, the life of grace is not limited to actual graces that God gives us here and there.

In addition to these moving graces, God gives us another type of grace, habitual grace.

And this is a stable, supernatural disposition or quality that elevates our souls.

It gives us a participation in the life of God, or as scripture says, We become partakers of the divine nature.

This type of grace is also called sanctifying grace, since it makes us holy.

The word sanctus in Latin means holy.

So sanctifying grace is that which makes us holy and pleasing to God.

Having sanctifying grace is also referred to as being in a state of grace.

That's how Catholics commonly refer to sanctifying grace.

At baptism, one receives an infusion of sanctifying grace, and sanctifying grace is lost through mortal sin, but able to be restored through the sacrament of confession.

The doctrine of sanctifying grace shows us that for the Christian, grace transforms and pervades the whole of our lives.

God's grace doesn't merely cover over our sins, and it doesn't just push us along either.

Rather, grace transforms us from within.

And God wants to be such a part of our life that He transforms us in the very depths of our being, to make us share in His divine life.

Through sanctifying grace, He gives us the power not just to do occasionally supernatural things, but in a way to do them at will.

He gives us a stable habit or disposition for supernatural actions.

Sanctifying grace always includes an elevation of our natural human powers of knowing and loving, by the virtues of faith, hope, and charity.

God wants us to be able to make acts of faith, hope, and charity spontaneously and frequently.

The Christian soul is thus called to constantly believe, to hope, and to love.

Sanctifying grace can increase throughout the course of our lives.

One of the main aims of our Christian life is to grow in grace each day.

And while grace is always God's free gift, God teaches us that by His will and promise, there are things that we can do to merit a further gift of grace and to dispose ourselves to an increase in grace.

We never deserve or merit an increase in grace in the strict sense.

We don't deserve grace.

But God has promised grace to us if we do what He asks.

Participating in the sacraments, especially confession and the Eucharist, increase grace within us.

Personal prayer and works of charity can also lead to a further gift of the Lord's grace to us.

Sanctifying grace is the beginning or the seed of eternal life in us.

A seed is the same thing, really, as the plant that it grows into.

And so too with us, with our spiritual life.

If we persevere in God's grace, our Christian life here on Earth will flower into a Heavenly life of communion with God.

The indwelling of the Trinity is closely connected to the doctrine of sanctifying grace.

The Holy Trinity dwells within us by grace.

It's very consoling to know that mysteriously, God not only gives His gifts to us, but He gives Himself to us in the depths of our souls.

He who abides in love, abides in God, and God abides in him, St. John tells us.

God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are sent invisibly into our minds and hearts to strengthen and elevate them.

We know God by sharing in His own eternal Word, the Son, and we love God through possessing the Holy Spirit, who is divine love.

And the Son and the Spirit put us in contact with the Father.

By dwelling in us and reproducing the life of the Trinity with us, within us, God makes us better images of Himself.

We manifest His goodness and glory.

Thank you so much for learning about this immense blessing of God's grace in our lives.

I pray that He showers down His graces upon you as you continue on this journey.