FAUSTO GOMEZ OP
Who is a Christian? A Christian may be correctly defined as a baptized person, who is loyal to the Blessed Trinity – to the grace and love of the Holy Spirit. Divine grace is the foundation of our being and acting as Christians, who are called to a life of grace, virtues, love, prayer and compassion: to holiness. Hereafter, I present basic teachings on divine grace (Cf. CCC 1996-2005).
For a Christian, grace is a great power towards his/her full realization as a human being, a creature and a child of God, and a brother/sister of all persons. As Christians, we are asked to do good deeds, to acquired virtues by human efforts, and/or receive the virtues (infused virtues) from God. Our fundamental goodness is given by grace, which elevates the soul to the supernatural level or the level of God as God. Divine grace is always united to love. The New law of the believer is the law of grace and of love.
Grace is the gift of gifts: a totally unmerited, gratuitous gift of God. In Baptism, the human being receives from God the created gift of grace and the uncreated gift of the Holy Spirit (the Blessed Trinity), as clearly expressed in Revelation.
Writes Saint Gregory of Nyssa: “What words, thoughts of flight of the spirit can praise the superabundance of this grace? Man surpasses his nature: mortal, he becomes immortal; perishable, he becomes imperishable; fleeting, he becomes eternal; human, he becomes divine.”
Indeed, “It is through grace that you have been saved” (Eph 2:4-6). With the gift of grace comes the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity in the depth of the soul (Jn 14:23).
Grace in the soul is gracefulness, charm, graciousness, favor, kindness, piety, gratitude. Grace is a special love of God for all humans. God loves with common love all creation, and with special love (grace and love), humanity.
Grace is a real and limited participation in the very nature of God: “So that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4). The consequences of this incredible real and limited share in divine nature are truly awesome: we become children of God, God’s heirs, sisters/brothers of and in Jesus Christ, temples of the Blessed Trinity, new creatures indeed (cf. Rom 8:15-17; I Cor 3:16, Col 3:9-11).
God is the principal cause of Grace: only He who is divine can make us divine. Christ is the meritorious cause of grace: all graces pass through Jesus who redeemed us, satisfied for our sins, and ransomed us. Christ is the only Mediator of all graces. All graces flow from Christ: in particular from his Humanity and also from the Sacraments; in a unique way from the Holy Eucharist, and also from the poor, who are “the proxies of Christ” (St. Basil). To the end of time, the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of grace – will make the grace of Christ flow into the Church and the world.
The main effect of grace is justification. Justification is the movement of the rational creature from the state of sin to the state of justice/holiness (St. Thomas Aquinas). Justification entails the following elements: forgiveness of sins, renewal and newness of life: “The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:22-45).
Merit is secondary effect of grace. It is a title to a supernatural reward. An essential point: the first grace cannot be merited. Grace belongs to a higher level – the supernatural level – to which we cannot go up by ourselves but only with God’s merciful help, with his divine grace. The saints, the mystics underline not merit or personal reward (it appears a bit self-centered) but the loving union with God in heaven, seeing God face to face. St. Francis of Sales comments: “Charity is unselfish love of friendship, loving God for its own sake,” not mainly for the reward or merit.
There are different kinds of grace. Grace “gratum faciens” is ” the grace that makes the person pleasing to God by making a person holy (habitual or sanctifying grace), or graces that prepares him or her for sanctification or preserves him or makes him grow in it (actual graces)”.
Grace is created and uncreated grace. The just receive from God in the soul the created gift of God or grace, and the uncreated gift of the Blessed Trinity – if there is love in their hearts, as clearly expressed in Revelation. The indwelling of the Blessed Trinity, appropriated to the Holy Spirit presupposes and causes –or is given simultaneously – created grace that makes the heart ready to receive God. Why? Because the coming of the Holy Spirit (the indwelling of the Holy Trinity) to man presupposes a change in the person, a real and supernatural basis (real, because the presence of the Holy Spirit is real; supernatural, because it is a supernatural presence), which is sanctifying grace (St. Thomas Aquinas, In II Sent. d. 26).
Another distinction of grace: Sanctifying grace, which is mainly ordered to personal sanctification, and freely bestowed graces (gratis datae), which are given for the salvation of others – like the different vocations and special graces. These special graces, or charisms – like the gift of miracles or of tongues – are also “oriented to sanctifying grace, and are intended for the common good of the Church”(CCC 1999-2003).
Bonhoeffer spoke of cheap and expensive grace. He explains: Cheap grace means this – God does everything, without any merit from our part; we do nothing; this appears as a sort of a manipulation of God. Expensive grace: God still does everything, without any merit from our part; but, once we have God’s grace, a dynamic movement begins, which leads us to leaving everything and following Christ in an ever deeper and closer way.
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