AMAZING (YEAR OF) GRACE:
A PERSONAL REFLECTION
Introduction
From Pentecost 2012 to
Pentecost 2013, the Bishops of Australia have invited all Catholics throughout
the country to join with them in a ‘Year of Grace’. This Year is an invitation
for the entire Church community in Australia – bishops, priests, religious and
lay faithful – to ‘start afresh from Christ’. But if we are to embrace well
this special time, it might be helpful to take a little time to reflect about
the experience of grace and how it operates in our lives.[1]
What’s in a
word?
In 2010, ‘Grace’ was the
14th most popular name for a baby girl in Australia.[2] As a
result, we currently have 1,271 Graces entering their ‘terrible twos’, and no
doubt causing their parents no end of headaches! ‘Grace’ is certainly a
well-loved way of being identified. However, the word itself is not just a
pretty name. We tend to know how to use the word ‘grace’, with its many
variations, in all sorts of ordinary ways. Yet many, if not most of us, would
struggle to define ‘grace’ with any clarity. So, what exactly is this thing
called grace? What is so amazing about it (as the famous 18th
century hymn suggests)?[3] To
find out, perhaps the best place to start is with the word itself.
“Grace to you…!” exclaims
St Paul at the beginning and the end of every single one of his letters. These
were his permanent words of greeting and farewell. Grace formed the bookends,
so to speak, of all that Paul thought and wrote about. Grace was the invisible
thread that bound together his proclamation of Jesus Christ.
Whenever Paul wrote about
‘grace’ he used an ancient Greek root-word: cháris.
The most basic meaning of cháris is
this: ‘that which delights’. Grace is a delight for the person who receives it;
it is not a difficulty sent to be endured. This suggests, therefore, that the
word ‘grace’ is closely related in meaning to the word ‘joy’, which itself may
be defined as something good that brings delight. And this is exactly the case:
‘joy’ in ancient Greek – chará – is
one of the words which shares its roots with cháris. Whenever Paul was writing to his beloved Christian
communities, he was writing with grace in his heart, the cause and the companion
of his joy in them, and the gift he most wanted for them.
Every time we say the
‘Hail Mary’ we begin: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.” These
words refer to the greeting by the angel Gabriel to Mary at the Annunciation
(Lk 1.28). The actual quotation is: “Greetings, O favoured one, the Lord is
with you.” Mary is ‘full of grace’ in the prayer because she is the one who was
‘highly favoured’ by God. What this tells us is that grace is something to
rejoice in – as Mary certainly did – because it is something favourable
bestowed on the recipient. Grace is something real received (the favour
itself), and not just a feeling experienced (the joy engendered).
A favour, of course, is
something that is meant to be of benefit to the receiver; it is something good
to be received, not a burden imposed. Therefore, what was bestowed as a favour
by God was received as a gift by Mary. And this, too, is backed up in the
Greek: charitóō means ‘favour’, and chárisma means ‘gift’. Therefore, to
speak of grace as ‘a favour bestowed’ is also to speak of grace as ‘a gift
received’.
Yet, not every gift is a
grace. The gift of an iPad might bring delight to the receiver, but we would
hardly call it a grace bestowed by the giver! So, what kind of favour is grace?
It is not without reason we call the little prayers we say before meals
‘Grace’. It reminds us that grace is the kind of favour that bestows a blessing.
Our Lord often used ‘grace’ in this way. This is nowhere more evident than at
the Last Supper when Jesus blessed the bread and wine, which he then freely gave
to his disciples as the blessing of his own Body and Blood (Mt 26.26-29).
The Greek word used to
translate what Jesus said at the Last Supper (and on many other occasions) is eucharistéō, which means both ‘to show
favour’, and ‘to give thanks’. This tells us that the blessing of grace is
intimately linked to gratitude and thanksgiving. Grace is a blessing that
brings forth gratitude and thanksgiving in the one who receives it. It is from
this blessing aspect of grace that we arrive at the word ‘Eucharist’, the
privileged name the Church gives to the truly great Sacrament of Thanksgiving, given
to all of humanity on our journey through life and history.
To sum up, we can now see
that there is a lovely gathering of words around the word ‘grace’. There is
joy, favour and gift happening here. There is also blessing, thanksgiving and
gratitude. All of these are exemplified beautifully in the life of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, our ‘most highly favoured Lady’.[4] Moreover,
this happy confluence of words also suggests to us a simple definition for
grace.
Grace is:
(i)
a real gift or favour
(from God),
(ii)
that is a blessing,
(iii)
freely given as a
benefit,
(iv)
and received as a joy,
(v)
prompting gratitude and
thanksgiving.[5]
That’s quite a lot in one
word!
It’s all in the relationship.
One thing that quickly
becomes obvious about this little definition is that grace can only exist and
operate within a loving relationship. This is because the blessing that is the
gift of grace always directs us back to the one who gives, and forward to the
one who receives. At the giving end, the presence of grace can only begin to be
revealed when a person looks with love upon someone else. It is with a gaze of
love that the lover will recognise what favour will truly befit and bring joy
to the beloved. On the receiving end, the presence of grace can only be fully
revealed when someone returns the look of love. It is with the returning gaze
of the beloved that the lover will know that the favour bestowed has been
accepted as a fitting gift to receive.
Therefore, grace is the
call and response – the invitation and acceptance – of love. Love needs a
giver, a receiver, and the gift itself. But where are we to find such grace in full
operation? St John comes to our aid in answering this question. He realised
that if Jesus is the true and complete manifestation of God’s love (Jn 3.16),
and if this love involved the pledge of his life to the very end (Jn 15.13),
then that will tells us who God is. And so indeed John declared: “God is love”
(1Jn 4.8). God is grace in operation: the Giver, and the Receiver, and the Gift
of love.
It is only as three Persons
that the one true God can be the God of love. God the Father gives his love
freely to his Son; God the Son freely returns that gift of love; God the Holy
Spirit is the personification of that gift. Grace, therefore, reveals to us the
mystery of the Blessed Trinity as the mystery of love. If we want God to be the
One who truly and completely loves unconditionally, then only the Triune God
will do.[6]
Therefore, grace always shelters under the umbrella
of love, which is the umbrella of God. It is the name we give to the outpouring
of love; it is the tell-tale sign of the presence of the God-who-loves. This is
why ‘grace’ is such a significant word for Christians, and why it is crucial to
appreciate that grace is relational by nature. At the heart of our Christian
faith is the relationship of love built on God’s delight in us and our response
in gratitude. Grace is God’s gracious invitation to, and our thankful
acceptance of, his many and varied gifts of love.[7]
Ubi
caritas, Deus est!: Where there is love, there is God! There is
nothing that anyone can do to switch off God’s loving of us. Grace is what is received from the God who loves. That’s why
grace is always unmerited: no one deserves
or earns the entirely free gift of God’s
love. You don't need to do anything to
receive grace, it is already there to be received. As St Paul said: “For I am sure that neither death nor life,
nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rm 8.37-39)
This reality is captured beautifully in a bronze panel depicting the
crucifixion on the Holy Door at St Peter’s Basilica. There is Jesus on the
cross along with the two criminals executed with him. (Lk 23.32-43) Unusually,
the artist has positioned the crosses of the two men directly under the
outstretched arms of Jesus. Consequently, while Jesus gazes intently at the
so-called ‘good thief’, nonetheless the saving blood dripping from his hands falls
onto the heads of both men. The message is clear: all of us come under the
outstretched arms of Jesus; all of us – good and bad alike – come under his
love. There is nothing we can do to switch
off God's offer to dwell within us.
This means that everyone – Christian
or otherwise – has been created to share in the gift of grace, and we do so by
our participation in the gift of love. God is dwelling in us no matter what. Grace is recognizable wherever
love is present. Grace is lost whenever love is obscured. It is us, therefore,
and not God, who determine whether or not to live within this realm of love (in
a state of grace). It is us, not God, who draw near to grace through love or move
further away from grace through sin. To turn our back on grace is to turn away from God. Conversely, to
(re)turn our faces to love is to (re)turn our lives to the operation of grace
within them.
The more we love, the more we grow in grace. Jesus experienced precisely this aspect of grace as he grew from boyhood
to manhood: “And Jesus increased in
wisdom and in stature and in favour [Gk: chariti] with God and man.”
(Lk 2.52) Yet, we can’t give something that is not already ours to give. Not even
Jesus could do that. So, when we think of grace as the horizon of love, then we
need to think of love as already dwelling within us. So, even our growth in
grace – our living more and more in a state of giving and receiving love – is
itself dependent on our having already received the grace needed. God is love,
and in him will we find our home.
In the end, grace simply acknowledges that all is
from God, all is in God, all is under God. As St Ignatius of Loyola prayed:
Take, Lord, and receive
all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.
You have given all to
me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do
with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.[8]
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.[8]
How’s the communication going?
A favour cannot be imposed on someone, it can
only be offered; a gift cannot be taken from someone, it can only be received. But
good giving and good receiving requires good communicating. The divine
communion of the Blessed Trinity shows us the way to do this: God reveals
himself in the self-communicating offer (Father) and reception (Son) of love
(Holy Spirit). This self-communicating life of God is then given to us as the
gift of grace. All that I am –
anything that is good and loving and
noble in me – comes via God’s self-communication.
If we were looking for an
analogy of how this divine communication operates, then marriage is an
excellent example. When married couples get on with their daily task of
offering and receiving those little acts of love and kind-heartedness, they are
actually modelling the inner workings of grace. This ‘ebb and flow’ of love
between a couple is usually a very ordinary thing, and only occasionally is it
obvious. Yet, it is precisely through their daily acts of love that a married
couple grow in their relationship. It should not be a surprise that the relationship
between Jesus and his Church, and more generally the relationship of God with
his people, is expressed in the language of marriage. Grace has a nuptial
meaning.
But just as a marriage
will flounder if communication fails, so too with grace. Grace only flourishes
when there is good communication between the giver and receiver. This is why
God is all grace: the communication between the three Persons of the Trinity
couldn’t be better! But this is certainly not the case with us. We can be poor
communicators of love, and as a result grace can quickly dry up. It is not
because of a lack on God’s part: his self-communication remains as crystal
clear as it has been from the beginning. No, it is we receivers of God’s love
who are often the poor communicators.
So, what can we do? Pray,
of course! Prayer is the means that God has given us to communicate in love
with him. Thankfully, we have some marvellous gifts of prayer readily at our
disposal: the Word of God in Holy Scripture; the Sacraments, especially
Reconciliation and the Eucharist; the great traditions of prayer; the Rosary. It
doesn’t matter what style of prayer we adopt, nor does it matter what words we
use (in fact, words can get in the way!), so long as it is God we are
communicating with. Grace creates the power to transform our crazy, mixed-up world
when the channels of loving communication are allowed to open wide.
All you need
is (a Year of) Grace.
“God never
gives less than himself,” St Augustine once said. When all is said and done,
that’s about as good a definition of grace that you’ll ever need. As we hear
more about the upcoming Year of Grace – commencing on Pentecost, that great Day
of the outpouring of grace – we will have many opportunities to learn more
about the operation of grace in our lives. But right now, and into the future,
all that is really needed to make any year a Year of Grace is an open heart.
The Lord will do the rest.
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful,
and enkindle in them the fire of your love.
[1] This is not meant to be a theological or catechetical aid on the nature of
grace; although I hope it will assist in understanding the place of grace in
Christian faith. This pamphlet is what the title says: a personal reflection on
grace. Nonetheless, at various points I have included references to the
recently published YouCat (English):
Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church (San Francisco: Ignatius Press,
2010), which provide simple definitions for some of the words and phrases
commonly used about grace in the Catholic Church.
[2] www.kidspot.com.au
[3] The English poet and Church of England minister John Newton wrote the words for the
hymn
Amazing Grace in 1779.
[4] This is the evocative title given to Mary in a traditional Basque carol from the
14/15th century, known to us today as ‘The Angel Gabriel from Heaven
Came’.
[5] YouCat gives a lovely definition of Grace:
“By grace we mean God’s free, loving gift
to us, his helping goodness, the vitality that comes from him… Grace is
everything God grants us, without our deserving it in the least. (§338)
[6] YouCat has this to say about the
Trinitarian reality of grace: “God’s
grace brings us into the inner life of the Holy Trinity, into the exchange of
love between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It makes us capable of living in
God’s love and of acting on the basis of this love.” (§339)
[7] While grace is simply and always God’s communication of
himself to us, over the years the Church has come to recognize that there are various
ways in which God has made the gift of his grace available to us. YouCat puts it this way: “Grace is infused in us from above and cannot
be explained in terms of natural causes [=supernatural grace]. It makes us –
especially through baptism – children of God and heirs of heaven [=sanctifying
grace; state of grace]. It bestows on us a permanent disposition to do good [=habitual
grace]. Grace helps us to know, to will, and to do everything that leads us to
what is good, to God, and to heaven [=actual graces]. Grace comes about in a
special way in the sacraments [=sacramental grace]. Grace is manifested also in
special gifts of grace that are granted to individual Christians [=charisms] or
in special powers that are promised to those in the state of marriage, the
ordained state, or the religious state [=graces of state].” (§339)
