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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