I just realized that I hadn't posted the last couple of Bible Study Reflections on the blog. These were written for our parish's Bible Study participants, but others have apparently benefited from the as well.
Here's #22, on Amazing Grace. I'll try to add #23 later today, but first I'm off to conduct a vigil service for one of our parishioners.
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Have you ever been hungry? I don’t mean the sort of everyday hunger that hits us between meals. That’s not hunger. That’s just your appetite making noises. No, I mean real hunger – the kind that comes when you haven’t eaten anything in days. Maybe a few of you have.
I experienced that kind of hunger only once, while participating in a trial version of a week-long survival training program for which my commanding officer volunteered me. It was certainly no fun, but because it had a defined end, it was endurable…barely. Later, when asked whether I thought the training would be valuable for Navy pilots, I replied, “Only if they are masochists.”
I had a friend, however, another naval aviator, who has since died. He was a POW during the Korean War, held captive by both the North Koreans and the Chinese Communists. He was often deprived of food, sometimes for a week or more, all in an effort to break him physically, mentally, psychologically. They would give him water, but only enough to keep him alive.
As he told me, we all know that we need food to live, that without it we will eventually starve. But just knowing this means little until we’ve actually experienced starvation. Once you’ve been that hungry, when you began to believe that you might never eat again, once you’ve been there, food takes on a whole new meaning.
He told me that the prayer on his lips every day was that one line from the Our Father:
Give us this day our daily bread… [Mt 6:11]
Understandably, it had taken on an entirely new meaning for him.
But there’s more than one kind of hunger, isn’t there? Like our bodies, our souls, too, need food. Indeed, there’s a lot of soul starvation in the world today: people dying spiritually without the food that comes only from God.
This food for the soul is God’s grace, the only real soul food. And that’s what I want to address in today’s reflection: God’s Grace – God’s Amazing Grace!
I’m sure you’ve heard a lot of preachers talk about it! And the Bible is filled with it! And yet, how often do we really think about it? When was the last time you thought about food? Probably right before lunch. But when was the last time you thought about grace?
You see, the problem is, we can’t see grace the way we can see scrambled eggs. We can’t smell it, or touch it, or taste it. We can’t weigh it or measure it. But as Christians we believe it’s there. We believe it’s real, and powerful, and life-giving, and life changing. We believe all these things because we can see the effects of grace in our own lives and the lives of others.
And knowing this, we can join the psalmist and sing:
"This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad!" [Ps 118:24]
That’s right, every day is a great day because God’s grace is the perfect manifestation of God’s love for us. We are loved by our God who brought each one of us into being in a unique act of creation. He didn’t create us because He hated us. He created us, He gave us the unbelievable gift of life because He loves us.
…so, yes, let us rejoice and be glad!
What does all this mean? How do we live this life that God’s given us? How do we deal with God’s gift of grace?
Scripture tells us our justification comes from the grace of God:
They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus [Rom 3:24].
In other words, we are saved by God-granted grace, the grace that lets us believe, the grace that’s the very source of our faith. And this grace of God is a favor; it’s a gift, an absolutely free gift that no one deserves. As the theologian might say, “Grace is a gratuitous gift.” That’s right; no one deserves it, not you, not me, not your Mama, not anyone you know, or anyone you don’t know.
Now God doesn’t give this gift of grace the way you and I give gifts. He doesn’t make out a list and say, “Let’s see, who will I give some grace to today?” No, that’s not the way God works. God makes His grace available to everyone. It’s up to us to take advantage of it.
You see, dear friends, God’s grace provides us with the help we need to respond to His call to become children of God, to become adopted sons and daughters of the Father. St. Paul reminds us that as children of God, we’re also His heirs.
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, "Abba, Father!" The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him [Rom 8:14-17].
As His heirs we inherit all that He has. We get to take part in His divine nature and receive the greatest gift of all: eternal life! Do you see now, just one of the reasons so many have called it, “Amazing Grace”?
Let us rejoice and be glad!
Of course, the question then becomes: How do we get God’s grace, this food for the soul?
Well, first, we have to avoid all the junk food – all the worthless promises our broken world and sick society place before us. The world’s junk food satisfies only our addictions, our greed, our lust, our self-absorption; and it’s always ephemeral, never lasting.
Twinkies and Pepsi may taste good and temporarily satisfy our craving for sweets. But just as a steady diet of junk food will eventually destroy our bodies, the world’s spiritual junk food will do the same to our souls. The world takes garbage, wraps it up prettily, and dangles it before us. But once we unwrap it, it remains garbage. The first step, then, is to rid ourselves of that garbage; then go on a steady diet of God’s soul food.
We need only turn to God and accept the grace He offers us. You see, even though grace is a gift, God doesn’t force it on us. We must still respond to that grace, for God always gives us the choice. We can accept it, or we can reject it. It’s always up to us!
Rejecting it is like turning off a light switch. The power’s still there but we’re not using it. Instead of living in the light, we stumble through the darkness. And that’s where sin thrives…in darkness. When we sin, our souls become less receptive to God’s grace. And when we’re unrepentant in our sinfulness, we, in effect, reject the gift.
Because God loves us, He doesn’t want us to live in darkness. He wants us to live in the light, in the light of Jesus Christ. How did John put it in the prologue of his Gospel?
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it [Jn 1:4-5].
But Jesus was even more explicit:
I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life [Jn 8:12].
We need to keep that light switch on. We need to respond continually to God’s gift of grace. It must become a way of life for us.
Our loving God wants us to take advantage of and use the gift of grace He offers us. It’s through that gift that God gives us faith. It’s through the gift of faith that we can come to experience hope, hope in the eternal life He has promised us. It’s through faith and hope that we come to accept God’s call to do His will in our lives. And what is His will? Well, it’s pretty simple. He asks us to love Him and to love each other.
You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself [Mt 22:37-39].
You see, like faith, hope and love are theological virtues, for they come only from God, gifts of the Holy Spirit. Without them we simply stumble blindly through our lives. Just as our body needs exercise, so too does our soul. It’s these virtues, these gifts, that help us exercise God’s grace, for we can do nothing good outside of the grace of God!
God wants one thing for us: an eternal life of happiness with Him. It is for this alone that we were created. As hard as it may be for us to believe, God wants every single one of us to be saved, something St. Peter reminds us of:
...He is patient with you, not wishing that you should perish but that all should come to repentance [2 Pt 3:9].
We are called, then, to stay connected to our God through prayer. We must pray always for the continuous gift of God’s grace; we must respond to it and exercise it so that, through it, we can carry out God’s will for the world.
The question, of course, is How? How do you and I live the lives that God wants for us?
Scripture provides the answer. God created us in His image and likeness [Gen 1:26]. Just think about that. What does it really mean? St. John tells us that God is Love
God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him [1 Jn 4:16].
Well, if God is Love and we’re created in His image and likeness, then we’re created to do good an avoid evil. We’re created to be imitators of God, to be as generous and as giving of ourselves as God is:
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect [Mt 5:48].
…and we are called to be holy:
Sanctify yourselves, then, and be holy; for I, the Lord, your God, am holy [Lv 20:7].
…and to love God and our neighbor by recognizing the Presence of God in others:
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me [Mt 25:35-36].
He calls us to live the Beatitudes: to be poor in spirit, and humble, and merciful, and compassionate, and pure, and righteous, and meek, and peacemakers [Mt 5:3-12].
…and to obey His commandments:
If you love me, you will keep my commandments [Jn 14:15].
But that’s not all, for discipleship demands sacrifice. Just as Jesus sacrificed Himself for our salvation, we too are called to the Cross:
Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it [Mt 16:24-25].
Now that’s a lot of stuff we’re asked to do. But it's not impossible. For as Jesus teaches us, with God, and fueled by His grace, all things are possible
For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible [Mt 19:26].
Remember, too, we do all these things because of His promise that we are children of God, adopted sons and daughters. As heirs to His kingdom we get to take part in His divine nature and inherit eternal life
Isn’t that reason enough? Living a grace-filled life, then, is not impossible. Through prayer – the best exercise for the soul – and especially through the Sacraments, God’s engines of grace, we are helped on our journey to conversion and to the salvation God desires for us. Then, when our earthly journey ends, and we stand before the Just Judge, we will hear the words of our Lord
Come, you who are bless by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world [Mt 25:34].
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