Grace Grace is a free gift from a loving God. It sanctifies us thus preparing us for heaven and eternal life. But we must accept this gift freely through faith. Faith is also an entirely free gift that God makes to man. (CCC #162) Faith is our response to Grace. Faith is a personal act the free response of the human person to the initiative of God (CCC #166) Sin occurs when we use our God given freedom to reject God and his will for us; when we disobey and believe that we know best and can be our own god. Simplistically I look at our soul as a cup. The more grace we have the less room there is for sin and vice versa. Mary had a fullness of Grace from the moment of her conception. There was no room for sin. Our salvation depends on the state of our soul at the time of our death. Will God find a soul filled with Grace or Sin? If you are full of grace you have a straight ticket to Heaven. If like most of us there is a mixture of grace and sin, but grace is present, you will take a side trip to Purgatory on your way to Heaven. There is nothing man can do to merit grace because it is a gift, a free gift from God to man. But what is Grace? My favorite definition was given to an RCIA group several years ago by Father Michael Roverse. Grace is The Living and Loving Presence of God within us. Our Catechism offers several definitions: Grace is a 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. (CCC 1996) Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of the Holy Trinity: 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. (CCC 1997)
There are many discussions of Grace in scripture: Wisdom 3:9: Those who trust in him will understand truth, and the faithful will abide with him in love, because grace and mercy are upon his elect, and he watches over his holy ones. Sirach 37:21: for grace was not given him by the Lord, since he is lacking in all wisdom. John 1:17: For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Acts 15:11: But we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus " Romans 3:24: They are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus Romans 5:20-21: Law came in, to increase the trespass; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (NOTE - If you are leading a very sinful life, from the above verse, know without a doubt that God your loving Father is sending you even more grace to overcome your sinful lifestyle. All you have to do is to accept it through humility and prayer). Romans 6:14: For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. 1 Corinthians 15:10: But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me. Ephesians 2:8: For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God Ephesians 4:7: But grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. What does the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) have to say about Grace? 1996 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. Justification: We need sanctifying grace in our souls if we are to enter heaven. Another way of saying this is that we need to be justified.
Through justification we are freed from our sins and are made righteous. We are justified though Faith in Jesus the Christ, his death and resurrection. According to Scripture, sanctification and justification aren t just one-time events, but are ongoing processes in the life of the believer. Sanctification is also a present, ongoing process, as the author of Hebrews notes: "For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified" (Hebrews 10:14). 1997-1998 Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life: By Baptism, the person participates in the life of the three Divine Persons because Christ (the Head of his Body) makes us adopted children of God. We receive the Spirit and henceforth call God "Father." This call to eternal life is supernatural, coming totally from God's decision and surpassing all power of human intellect and will. 1999 The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in Baptism. It is in us the source of the work of sanctification: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17). 2000 Sanctifying grace is a habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by his love. Habitual/sanctifying grace, the permanent disposition to live and act in keeping with God's call, is distinguished from actual graces, which refer to God's interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the course of the work of sanctification. Sanctifying Grace Sanctifying grace stays in the soul. It is permanent. It s what makes the soul holy; it gives the soul supernatural life. More properly, it is supernatural life. Sanctifying grace implies a real transformation of the soul. We believe souls really are cleansed by an infusion of Grace. Paul speaks of us as "a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17), "created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:24). Of course, we re still subject to temptations to sin (what theologians call "concupiscence"); We may still have a tendency to sin, but God has removed the sins we have, much like a mother might wash the dirt off of a child who has a tendency to get dirty again.
Actual Grace Actual grace, by contrast, is a supernatural push or encouragement. It s transient. It doesn t live in the soul, but acts on the soul from the outside, so to speak. It s a supernatural kick in the pants. It gets the will and intellect moving so we can seek out and keep sanctifying grace. He sends you an actual grace, say, in the form of a nagging voice that whispers, "You need to repent! Go to confession!" You do, your sins are forgiven, you re reconciled to God, and you receive supernatural life/sanctifying grace. Grace is God s means of making us Holy so that we can live with Him in Heaven. If sanctifying grace dwells in your soul when you die you will enter heaven (though you may need to be purified first in purgatory). If it doesn t dwell in your soul when you die, in other words, if your soul is spiritually dead by being in the state of mortal sin, you cannot live in heaven. Spiritual death: the utter separation of your spirit from God (Ephesians 2:1, 2:5, 4:18). When you lose sanctifying grace, there s nothing you can do on your own to regain it. To regain Grace, you have to receive actual graces from God. Think of these as helping graces. Actual graces enable the soul to perform some supernatural act, such as an act of faith or repentance. If the soul responds to actual grace and makes the appropriate supernatural act, it again receives Sanctifying Grace. 2001-2002 Only grace can prepare man to collaborate by faith in God's justifying and sanctifying actions. God (who always uses our cooperation) begins "by working so that we might will it" (St. Augustine). "We are only collaborating with God, for his mercy has gone before us. It goes before so we may be called. It follows so we may be glorified. Without him we can do nothing" (St. Augustine). God's free action requires man to respond freely. Only in freedom can a soul enter into God's communion. God has placed within every person a longing for truth and goodness which eternal life fulfills beyond all imagination. 2003 Grace includes both the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us and the gifts that the Spirit grants us to associate us with his work, to enable us to collaborate in the salvation of others and in the growth of the Body of Christ, the Church. There are sacramental graces, gifts proper to the different sacraments. There are furthermore special graces, also called charisms after the Greek term used by St. Paul and meaning "favor," "gratuitous gift," "benefit." Whatever their character, sometimes it is
extraordinary, such as the gift of miracles or of tongues, charisms are oriented toward sanctifying grace and are intended for the common good of the Church. 2005 Because grace is not an object of experience but is known by faith, we cannot rely on our feelings or our works to conclude that we are justified and saved (Council of Trent). However, God's blessing in our lives shows that grace is at work. When grace elevates nature, our intellects are given the new power of faith, something they don t have at the merely natural level. Our wills are given the new powers of hope and charity, things also absent at the merely natural level. Our God is a God of love. He created us to be holy but through sin we lost that holiness. God s gift of Grace helps us to restore our holiness so that we can be perfected in Christ and share with Him eternal life.