Day 262: Habitual and Actual Grace (1996-2001)

• It’s Day 262!!

• GRACE

• Paragraph 1996 says, “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.”

• There is this perspective that Catholics do not pay as close attention to grace as other Christians

• That might be the case for individual Catholics

• BUT…

• It is not the case when it comes to the Church’s teaching

• We are absolutely indebted to the Lord for this free and undeserved gift that none of us cpi;d ever merit

• AND YET…

• God still gives it to us and loves us

• There are two types of grace we will talk about

• HABITUAL GRACE aka SANCTIFYING GRACE

• ACTUAL GRACE

• Also a sort of third type of grace that Paragraph 2001 talks about called PREVENIENT GRACE

• Let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we do pray in the name of your Son, Jesus. We pray that you receive our gifts, you receive our talents, that you receive our time, that you receive our attention. Lord God, how great of a gift it is that you give us this world and fill it with so much life and so much goodness. The least that we can give you right now is our attention. The least that we can give you is when we look at this world you have created, when we look at these lives that we are surrounded by, we look at our life, the life you gave us, the least we can do is be attentive to it. The least we can do is notice. Lord God, help us to notice what you have done in our lives. Help us to recognize your grace. Help us to avoid sin, avoid the distortion of your good, help us to avoid the absence of your good. Help us to avoid evil, and help us to do this by the power of your grace. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• Grace can feel so abstract

• We know it is a gift

• We know it is unmerited

• We know it is free

• We know it is undeserved

• BUT…

• What is grace?

• Paragraph 1996 says, “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.”

• God has made us to do something that is impossible

• Grace is the power of God Himself that makes this possible

• Paragraph 1997 says, “Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of the Trinitarian life: 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. He receives the life of the Spirit who breathes charity into him and who forms the Church.”

• Grace is the life of God

• Grace is an action

• Grace is a relationship

• Grace is a participation in the life of God

• Paragraph 1998 says, “This vocation to eternal life is supernatural. It depends entirely on God’s gratuitous initiative, for he alone can reveal and give himself. It surpasses the power of human intellect and will, as that of every other creature.”

• No matter what we do

• No matter how strong or wise or good we could be on the natural level

• We could never reach this supernatural level

• God alone can reveal and give Himself

• We cannot claim God if He does not let Himself be claimed

• Paragraph 1999 says, “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; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself.”

• So what is grace?

• Grace is the very life of God infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify our soul

• Through His gift in Baptism, God made us partakers of the divine nature

• Paragraph 2000 says, “Sanctifying grace is an 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 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.”

• What do we mean by habitual?

• It means a stable permanent disposition

• If you were baptized, you were given this sanctifying grace that imparts a permanent character on us

• We can lose sanctifying grace

• The sanctifying grace at Baptism is not permanent in the sense that it will never go away on its own

• How do we lose sanctifying grace?

• When we mortally sin

• When we choose to walk away from our Father’s house and live in mortal sin

• Sanctifying grace is meant to be the thing we say yes to that perfects our soul and enables us to live with God

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike’s self-described bad analogy with the sun and being in God’s presence…

• How in the world could we get close to God without being destroyed?

• God gives us this special suit and it protects us from the intensity of divinity, that goodness, that holiness

• Grace changes us into a new creature

• That change perfects the soul and enables us to live with God

• It’s not a suit anymore

• You have been changed from the inside out into a beloved son or daughter of God

• Now you are the kind of being who could live in the presence of the sun without a suit

• It’s not a covering

• You have been transformed by sanctifying grace 

• It enables you to abide in God’s presence and not be destroyed

• You get to belong there

• God wants every one of His beloved creatures that He made in His own image and likeness to say YES to that

• God wants all of us to experience sanctifying grace through Baptism

• AND YET…

• If you have been baptized, you are experiencing that habitual grace too

• This is different from actual graces

• Actual graces are God’s interventions where God steps in

• Counsel, healing, mighty works, miracles, etc. are all examples of actual graces aka God’s interventions

• Some of these actual graces make us holier

• Others are given to us so that the Church can be built up

• Paragraph 2001 says, “The preparation of man for the reception of grace is already a work of grace. This latter is needed to arouse and sustain our collaboration in justification through faith, and in sanctification through charity. God brings to completion in us what he has begun, ‘since he who completes his work by cooperating with our will began by working so that we might will it:’ Indeed we also work, but we are only collaborating with God who works, for his mercy has gone before us so that we may be healed, and follows us so that once healed, we may be given life; it goes before us so that we may be called, and follows us so that we may be glorified; it goes before us so that we may live devoutly, and follows us so that we may always live with God: for without him we can do nothing.”

• This preparation is called PREVENIENT GRACE

• Before I make any move towards the Lord, He has already moved towards me

• This grace moves us and arouses in us a desire to collaborate with God and reach out to Him

• We only RESPOND

• God always INITIATES

• When it comes to any growth in holiness, prayer, going to Mass, or Confession, or doing any good work, it is ALWAYS because God initiated it

• God was the one who moves FIRST

• Prayer is always a RESPONSE

• The life of grace is always a response

• “Lord, even the small good that I do is because you put that desire in me. You actually prepared me and you gave me the power to do that good.”

• The God who brings this to completion is also the God who initiated the whole thing

• Without God we can do nothing

• God is here

• God is starting

• God is initiating

• God is giving us the power to continue and the power to respond

• God is giving us the power to complete His good work, because He is the one who is doing it

• God completes His work by cooperating with our will which began by working so that we might will it

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• Buh Bye!!