Grace

"Lord, lead me to the fullness of your grace."

In the early 16th century, St. Ignatius Loyola began writing about the emotions that took hold of him while reading scripture—feelings of gratitude and anguish, consolation and sadness. Those meditations eventually became a work known as the Spiritual Exercises, which were first published in 1548. The Spiritual Exercises are a compilation of meditations, prayers, and contemplative practices to help people deepen their relationship with God. St. Ignatius knows grace as a free and undeserved gift from God, essential for responding to God's call and growing in holiness. I find his insights a well-timed resource for our Lenten journey.

The Hebrew word for “grace” is ḥēn, pronounced like “hen.” Hen translated into Greek is charis. Both hen and charis are translated into English as grace. Grace is God’s favor, blessing, or kindness.  God’s grace is God’s acceptance and goodwill to us, regardless of whether we've earned it. In other words, grace is undeserved favor. Grace can't be earned; it is something freely given to us by God.
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In his Letter to the Ephesians, Paul wrote, “For by grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves.” St. Paul understood–and wanted us to know–that our only route to God is through God—through God’s gifts of faith and grace. In several of his letters, Paul began by extolling the power of grace. Note that all three–Romans, Ephesians and 1 Corinthians begin with the same salutation: “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."  God is seen as the instigator of grace, and it is from Him that all other grace flows.

What does grace feel like?

We can understand grace as a disposition or a quality or an inclination in the nature of God, an influence or a force or a power or an action of God. Grace is God at work, God present, God fostering change that works in us to change our capacities for work and suffering and obedience. So what does it feel like? Grace can feel like a sense of undeserved love, forgiveness, and empowerment, leading to relief, gratitude, and a humbling awareness of God's goodness.

Through this understanding and in this feeling we are drawn even further toward  God and are transformed by God’s presence!
 
How do we access God’s freely given grace now in Lent, and all other times? —ASK.

There are plenty of times in life when we have been offered that which would change everything. Companionship, aid, money, physical help, and we turned it down. Why? Maybe we were embarrassed, or afraid, or maybe it was because we didn’t ask for it and so wouldn’t receive it. Perhaps the bigger question is, why didn’t we ask for it?

Pride. Pride can be a welcome sense of accomplishment or an unrelenting and unreasonable barrier. Pride goes before the fall (Proverbs 16:18) because instead of asking for help, we grapple with air and hit the ground. Pride is the enemy of faith and the destruction of grace. In order to grow in faith and know God’s grace, pride must be overcome.

The only way we can enter into a relationship with God is by way of the faith God has planted in us and by the grace God freely gives. To ask God anything is to pray.  When we call on God, God listens. God listens to us and responds to us. Ask God for more faith and an awareness of his grace. Prayer can be a deeply personal experience, and it should be. Prayer should always point us to Jesus, and the closer we draw to Jesus the better we will know ourselves. The better we know ourselves the easier it is to let go of that which drags us down and holds us back because we can identify what that is. 

The closer we draw to Jesus the easier it becomes to let Christ do what he has promised, to take our burdens and give us peace. If we stay open to graces being offered us from Jesus, who always desires a deeper relationship with him, we will be drawn–reading by reading, story after story–into admiration and affections for Jesus, his way, and his invitation to us. Lent can become a day-by-day process of being more and more aware of the gift being offered us. Faith points us, grace fills us, and soon we realize that both of these gifts are actually the one in the same with the giver. The gifts become a person, and a more intimate relationship with him. We will be drawn to greater freedom, and deeper self-sacrificing, dying to self love –pride, and asking for help.

When we let ourselves fall in love with Jesus, and then let our hearts desire to be more like his, Lent comes alive. Then, Lent begins to blend into the other seasons as we celebrate his love for us and offer ourselves to him. Ask God for help. Ask God for grace. Ask, in the words of St. Ignatius,

"Lord, lead me to the fullness of your grace."

Through God’s grace,

Fr. Bill+