Day 264: Man’s Merit (2006-2011)

• It’s Day 264!!

• MERIT

• What is merit?

• We say that grace is the UNMERITED gift of God

• Salvation is UNMERITED

• AND YET…

• There is such a thing as merit

• So what is that?

• Let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, thank you. In the name of your son, Jesus, we ask you to please receive our thanks. You have given us the gift of new life. You have given us the gift of mercy. You have given us the gift of having a relationship with you. To be able to be your sons and daughters. You have adopted us. And by the Power of your Holy Spirit, you abide in us, and in you we live and move and have our being. We thank you this day and every day. Please, receive our thanks. Without you, we can do nothing. Without you, we are nothing. May you be glorified now and forever. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• St. Thérèse of Lisieux says in Paragraph 2011, “After earth’s exile, I hope to go and enjoy you in the fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for your love alone…In the evening of this life, I shall appear before you with empty hands, for I do not ask you, Lord to count my works. All our justice is blemished in your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in your own justice and to receive from your love the eternal possession of yourself.”

• Everything we have, even the merit, is a gift from God

• Because God works in us

• Because of God’s grace

• Because He gives us even the opportunity and ability to say YES to Him

• Because He gives us the opportunity and ability to bear fruit

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike’s reminiscing about the story about the guitar from a few days ago…

• It’s not just the gift of grace external to you

• It is also the movement in you

• God can actually help you want to pray

• God can move in you and give you the power to say YES

• Paragraph 2007 says, “With regard to God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man. Between God and us there is an immeasurable inequality, for we have received everything from him, our Creator.”

• Let’s listen to this story from Fr. Mike about the kid who wants to get his dad a gift…

• Paragraph 2006 says, “For you are praised in the company of your Saints and, in crowning their merits, you crown your own gifts.”

• Whenever we are pointing to the great works of the Saints, we are pointing to what God did in them

• Paragraph 2008 says, “The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace. The fatherly action of God is first on his own initiative, and then follows man’s free acting through his collaboration, so that the merit of good works is to be attributed in the first place to the grace of God, then to the faithful. Man’s merit, moreover, itself is due to God, for his good actions proceed in Christ, from the predispositions and assistance given by the Holy Spirit.”

• Even though there is such a thing as merit, there is so little in life that we can point to and say that we did that

• We cooperate with God’s grace all the time

• That is a real thing because it is our free response

• When there is merit, good work, good fruit, you are cooperating with God

• It’s because God is giving us the ability to do it

• The only thing we can point to in life and say MINE is my sins

• God humbles Himself so much that He claims us as His

• BUT…

• He also allows us to claim Him as OURS

• Maybe we can also look at the Lord and say, YOU ARE MINE

• Every good work we have ever done is because we have been collaborators with divine goodness

• Paragraph 2009 says, “Filial adoption, in making us partakers by grace in the divine nature, can bestow true merit on us as a result of God’s gratuitous justice. This is our right by grace, the full right of love, making us ‘co-heirs’ with Christ and worthy of obtaining ‘the promised inheritance of eternal life.’ The merits of our good works are gifts of the divine goodness. ‘Grace has gone before us; now we are given what is due…Our merits are God’s gifts.’”

• Paragraph 2010 says, “Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life. Even temporal goods like health and friendship can be merited in accordance with God’s wisdom. These graces and goods are the object of Christian prayer. Prayer attends to the grace we need for meritorious actions.”

• Grace or free will?

• BOTH!!

• Grace or merit?

• YES!!

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike talk about St. Thérèse of Lisieux who apparently fell asleep a lot during prayer…

• St. Thérèse realized she needed God’s grace

• We need God’s grace of being patient with ourselves

• We need God’s grace to love the people next to us, especially those who are hardest to love

• St. Thérèse of Lisieux says in Paragraph 2011, “After earth’s exile, I hope to go and enjoy you in the fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for your love alone…In the evening of this life, I shall appear before you with empty hands, for I do not ask you, Lord to count my works. All our justice is blemished in your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in your own justice and to receive from your love the eternal possession of yourself.”

• Why did St. Thérèse want to have empty hands?

• So that she could receive HIM

• Do YOU want to have empty hands?

• Those empty hands can be filled

• That is the heart of the Christian life

• Everything is a gift, even our merit

• We praise God for everything this day and every day

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

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

• Adios!!