Deacon Tom Writes,
“By
Grace You Have Been Saved”
In the brief passage from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians we hear
the phrase “By grace you have been saved”
several times. According to St. Paul, grace
is the dynamic principle at work in our lives, much like an invisible
force, that leads us to faith in Christ. The Catechism of the Catholic Church
defines Grace as “the free and undeserved
gift of God given to us to respond to His call.” Grace, then, is intended
to activate or awaken within us the desire to respond to God in some manner or
fashion. It is when we cooperate with this gift from God that we come to
discover Him and desire Him above all else.
The Franciscan Friar, Richard Rohr, explains grace this way: God’s love is total, unconditional, absolute
and forever. The state of grace – God’s attitude toward us – is eternal. We are
the ones who change.
Fr. Richard goes on to explain: Sometimes
we are able to believe that God loves us unconditionally, absolutely, and
forever. That’s grace! And sometimes because we get down on ourselves, and
carry guilt and fear and burdens, we are not able to believe that God loves us.
Biblically, that’s the greatest sin: not to believe the good news, not to accept
the unconditional love of God. When we no longer believe God loves us, we can
no longer love ourselves. We have to allow God to continually fill us. Then we
find in our own lives the power to give love away.
What a powerful dynamic grace is!
Grace engenders faith; faith leads to the awareness of God working in and
through our lives. God working through us touches the lives of others while
transforming each one of us so that “I
live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). And by this divine
formula, or can we say by this Amazing
Grace, we and the world are conformed to Christ and each other.
May God’s grace be with us in our efforts to smoothen the rough edges
of the stones of our lives during the remainder of our Lenten journey.
Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom
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