“I give thanks ... for the
grace of God that is given you in Christ Jesus....”
Ordinary of
the Mass
Mass Text - Latin
Mass Text - English
What is this thing that we call “grace”? Catholics use the word rather
freely, so it would do us well to be able to explain what it is. Donald
Attwater’s excellent A Catholic Dictionary indicates that the word
comes from the Latin gratia, meaning “favor” and defines it as
“Strictly, a supernatural (q.v.) gift of God to an intellectual creature,
bestowed with a view to eternal life.”
The word “supernatural” indicates that it is something above or beyond our
natural attributes—in the strict sense, given by Attwater, physical
strength, great memory, or musical talent would not be considered graces
because they are attributes of our natural human nature. Attwater further
states that this “gift of God” is given “to an intellectual creature,” which
is to say, only to men, women, and angels. And, finally, he says that it
“is bestowed with a view to eternal life,” which suggests that it does not
have an effect in the here and now, unless such an effect might better
prepare us for eternity. Attwater lists fifteen different kinds of grace,
from “actual grace” to “substantial grace.”
To the
skepticism of the modern world, grace must seem to be an imaginary
concept—it is supernatural, undetectable, and directed to an afterlife about
which modern science has no data. The modern philosophy which preoccupies
even the minds of many Churchmen today, holds that nothing is real if
it cannot be detected by some experimental means. The Modernist would claim
that grace is not real because it cannot be seen or touched, nor detected
with the most sensitive microscope, nor weighed in the most delicate
balance. The Modernist is wrong because his conception of reality is
limited to physical reality—without any evidence he has simply denied the
reality of everything spiritual—indeed, he denies the reality of spiritual
things contrary to nearly universal human experience.
Nearly every human being has experienced spiritual things which cannot be
measured or touched or tested or weighed. Men and women man are much more
than just their material parts. Man—like God and the angels—has both
intellect and will; that is to say that man is capable of both thinking and
of loving. These powers of the spirit transcend the limits of material
being. Man seems to be unique in this among his fellow creatures. We do
see something that resembles intellect in the higher animals; we do see
something that resembles love—but it is difficult to distinguish these
qualities apart from animal instinct.
Man, on the other hand, plans, and designs, and builds. He makes tools
which give him far more strength and speed than the animals—tools which
today even help him to think faster. He protects himself from the
elements: the heat, the cold, the rain, and the wind. He protects himself
from predators, both the four-footed and two-footed varieties. His
intellect leads him to society with others, joining their strength and their
minds to his own so that everyone can be better off. Man is a builder of
magnificent bridges and skyscrapers, he forms symphony orchestras—and he is
capable of using all of these things for the good of humankind.
Man’s intellect allows him introspection. He knows his own existence, and
the part he plays in his society and in his world. He can look down into
his own heart, where his conscience dwells, and where he knows the Holy
Ghost to reside. He can also look above on a clear winter night, and
recognize in that order and beauty the handiwork of God. Man alone among
his fellow material creatures is endowed with these gifts of God.
Man is uniquely capable of abstraction. That is to say that his soul can
draw concepts out of the material things around him. He can contemplate
concepts like truth and justice and freedom, compassion and love. He can
contemplate these things, and he can desire them, and he can strive to make
the concepts into realities. Something far more than just his material
being is capable of going out from him to the poor and the sick and the
confused. His love for his family and friends is above and beyond his
material being.
But, still, even if we admit the concept of spirit, how do we know that God
gives us His free gift of supernatural grace? Since these graces are
“bestowed with a view to eternal life” they might be difficult to discern in
the here and now. We might say that we have received graces from the
reception of the various Sacraments—and we have—but our experience is
somewhat subjective—can I say with certainty, for example, that the
grace of Holy Communion kept me from committing some particular sin, that I
would have committed without It?
However, we do know of grace—with certainty—because God has revealed its
existence to us, and demonstrated its reality. We have a good
example in today’s Gospel.
What did Jesus say to the paralyzed man? “Be of good heart, son, thy
sins are forgiven thee.” Certainly that would qualify as a grace, given
our definition—a supernatural gift of God who alone can forgive sins, to a
man who possessed an intellect, and which would bring him closer to eternal
life. But our Lord did more than just claim to forgive the man’s sins—He
demonstrated His divine authority by working a miraculous cure of the man’s
paralysis. Only God can forgive sins—but equally, only God can heal the
sick by the word of His mouth. If His word did the latter, it must have
also done the former.
But we also have our Lord’s word that these graces would not cease when He
returned to the Father in Heaven. He promised that “He that eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the
last day.”
And then, at the Last Supper, He gave His apostles the power to give us His
body and blood in Holy Communion.
On the night of His Resurrection, He gave them the power to forgive or not
forgive our sins: “Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall
forgive, they are forgiven them: and whose sins you shall retain, they are
retained.”
He gave them the power to Baptize: “Those who believe and are baptized
shall be saved.”
In Saint Mark’s Gospel we read that He gave them the power to anoint with
oil and cast out evil spirits, what today we would call Extreme Unction or
the Anointing of the Sick.
Finally, we also observe that God’s grace comes to many, even before they
begin to receive it in the Sacraments. We speak of “prevenient grace,” the
grace which prepares a person to accept what God has revealed by faith in
what He has revealed to us, and then, because of faith in God’s revealed
word, to receive Baptism and the other Sacraments.
So today we rejoice with the paralytic man that our sins can be forgiven, by
Jesus Christ, through the action of His ordained priests. Today we ought to
resolve to make frequent use of that Sacrament so that grace may abound in
us.
Today we can rejoice with Saint Paul’s Corinthians, to whom he wrote today’s
Epistle, “for God’s grace” by which we have been “enriched in Him, in all
utterance and in all knowledge.”
“I give thanks ... for the grace of God that is given you in Christ
Jesus....”
