Damnation

If you were in Hiroshima right before the first atom bomb, and someone told you what was about to happen, and offered a safe bunker... whose fault IS it if you get blown to smithereens?  The guy who told you what was about to happen, and offered a way to safety?  Or your own, for not believing him, and choosing not to take him up on his offer? 

"Salvation" is literal.  We hear the word too much to really understand what we're being saved FROM, in my opinion. 

The Big Picture: Salvation, as I understand it

 

God is love.  Pure, intense, all-consuming love.  As a result of Adam and Eve's fall, I am lost, wandering in the darkness.  Yet there is this....  He loves me, He wants me - just as he wants all of His creation.  He yearns to draw me towards Himself, to transform my nature so that I may partake in Heaven with Him forever.  This is His invitation, this is His call. 

In my mortal state, I have the infancy of a divine nature -  because I am made in His image, and am loved by Him.  I am more than an animal - I have a spirit, which is immortal and divine.   I am Pinnochio, the wooden puppet brought into a state of animation, but not yet a "real boy".  The fullness of myself will not be realized until I am in Heaven with my Father in my glorified body.   To get from my mortal state to my glorified body, from a "puppet" to a "real boy", I need God's intrinsic grace and power to change me.  I must become infused by grace to transform me to this complete, full version of myself - body, mind and soul.

I envision this love of God as a great tractor beam of light, pulling me ever closer to Him.  Out in the darkness, I am wandering, separated from Him.  I may see the light, but I am not inside the light.  Through His great love, and Christ's sacrifice, and through the gift of baptism, I am allowed entrance into God's transforming light.  It is Jesus who brings me there, who grabs me by the hand, pulls me from the darkness into the light, and says "here is the Way, the Truth, and the Light.  Stand in the light.  Come to the Father through me.  I have reconciled you."  I am not lost.  Jesus has found me, and I am now bathed in the love and grace of God, standing in the light. 

But my nature is not ready for the intensity of God's pure love.  After all, wooden puppets thrown into a fire will burn.  Jesus's sacrifice on the cross took that part of us that was so unworthy it couldn't even begin, and did away with it - overcame it.  He made a bridge to that "way of light".  He led us there, and invited us in.

So I'm here, bathed in this diffuse light of God's love, being pulled and called onward toward the Father.  But what do I do?  Often, the light is too bright.  Often, I get distracted, and turn my back, or shut my eyes.  Often, I resist the pull, fight it in an effort to "be in control".  This is sin.  My actions work to separate me from God.  The devil and his minnions do their best to lure me out of the light and back into the darkness.  My will responds, yes... or no.  Far away from God, the light is diffuse, the pull weaker.  I'm still struggling with my own will, and I make mistakes, often make mistakes.  I get lost, but never so lost that I leave the light.  These are venial sins.  I am not cooperating with the "pull", which is God's will.  My journey to Him is impeded by myself, because I am resisting.  But He has not lost His grip on me.  I am still His, and I am working my way towards Him, however imperfectly. 

When I am wise, when I finally realize how I am resisting... I stop, turn towards the light, and ask for forgiveness.  This is confession, and repetance.  I turn myself back towards Him, and relinquish my petty resistance, my own will that is not in accordance with His, and begin my journey again.  As I'm now turned towards Him, the pull continues, the stuff behind me no longer matters.  I am back on the "Way".  I have been forgiven.   This is a state of grace. 

If I die while my back was still turned, my eyes still closed - I am still in the beam of light, I am still His, but my nature is not yet ready for the intensity of His love.  I have not completed my journey towards Him.  I have not been fully transformed into my "full self", and my nature is not yet pure.    And so God purifies me, prepares me "as through a fire", until I am ready to stand in His presence.  He completes the work of transfiguring my nature to be in His presence for eternity - the work that was not completed during my time here on earth.  This is purgatory.  

If, during my time on earth, I pull away from that tractor beam of light so forcibly as to rip myself out of it's pull completely, I have committed a mortal sin.  I have chosen to resist His call, and while He desperately wants me, He will not force me to Himself.  I have chosen darkness, and rejected Him.  He allows me my choice, and I remain a wooden puppet, lost in the darkness.  At the fullness of time, when the New Heaven and the New Earth arrive, my nature has not been transformed.  I am still made of wood.  I cannot tolerate the intensity of God's love, the intensity of His light, and I burn.  This is Hell.  I put myself there.

If, however, granted entrance into "the Way of light", brought there by Christ Himself, I joyfully keep my entire person turned towards the Father at all times, and float along on His will,  He will pull me  towards Himself.  This is faith. This takes an enormous amount of trust, as the process is painful.  I am often blind and can't see where I am going.  I am weak, and am incapable of withstanding such a process on my own.   So He helps me.  This is grace.  He presents opportunities on the outside to nudge me back into the light - this is external grace , and I can cooperate with it or not, using my will.   He transforms me from inside - internal grace , which is soley His doing.   He grants me earthly means of receiving His grace, gifts to help me on my journey. He grants me HIMSELF, in the form of the Eucharist , so that He may come to reside truly and physically, body soul and divinity, inside me, and transform me from the inside out. The Holy Spirit comes upon me at Confirmation , to guide and lead me, grant me strength to stay on the "Way". The Anointing of the sick heals my soul when wounded, a salve to cleanse and heal.  He graces me with Marriage , so that I may understand the nature of His love for me and His bride, the Church.  My family is a microcosm of His relationship with humanity.  All these sacraments are truly GIFTS of grace, because God wants me for Himself, wants to transform my nature.  Who am I to reject His gifts? Who am I to reject God's freely-give grace and love?

 His grace alters me as He draws me to Himself, my nature  slowly being converted to His, in preparation for all eternity in His presence.  The intensity of His love no longer burns, but rather glorifies me.  I light up, just as Jesus did during the Transfiguration, but I am not consumed.  The closer I get towards God, the stronger the pull, the more my will succumbs to His.  This is holiness.    And when I die, I will live forever bathed in His eternal love, greater than the intensity of a million suns.  This is the beatific vision.  This is Heaven.  

This is my desire.  Through His invitation, His pull, His transformation, and my cooperation. Lord, may I always succumb my will to Yours, keep my face turned to the LIGHT, so that I may be in YOUR presence at the fullness of time. 

Thought Of The Day

Shroud of Turin

I have an admitted fascination with the Shroud of Turin.  I am convinced of it's authenticity - on a gut-level, as well as an intellectual level.  I look at this face, and see my Lord.  I recognize Him.  My heart says "oh yes.  That's Him.  There He is."  When I saw Passion of the Christ - I recognized Him.

When I saw Akiane's picture of Jesus, I recognized him.

  And when I saw "the real face of Jesus" from the History Channel's reconstructing the image on the Shroud of Turin... it was Him again.  

This is not the wan, frail-looking man from so many paintings.   This is the face I recognize from my most vivid dreams. Strong, robust. The face I KNOW. 

That's all highly subjective, though, and far from scientific proof.  My gut, although I trust it, could very well be wrong.  The scientific evidence supporting the Shroud, though, is actually substantive and extremely convincing. 

The most recent finding is this study by Marzio Boi, a university researcher at the University of the Balearic Islands who specializes in palynology, proving that the pollen on the shroud is the same as found on burial sheets in Asia Minor 2000 years.

Other recent findings show how the image was apparently created by a flash of intense radiation, of a quanity that is not currently able to be produced by known methods.  The infamous carbon dating is found to have been accurate - but taken from a sample of cloth that was repaired in the middle ages.  The blood type (AB) is the SAME blood type as found on the Sudarium of Oveido - believed to be the burial face cloth of Christ.  The wounds of the image, which is only microns thick, correspond directly to the wounds of Christ described in the Bible.  The cloth itself is made of a linen found in the burial cloths of wealthy people in an area just east of Israel, at the time of Christ.  I think at this point no one even contradicts the fact that this cloth covered an actual corpse of a crucified man - and is in no way, shape, or form a painting.

A summary of the scientific research can be found here, and at www.shroud.com.  Los Alamos Laboratories and the STURP committee have done extensive research as well. 

It seems to me that the evidence leads to a conclusion that many just don't want to make.  Skeptics say that the Shroud cannot be authentic because the idea that Jesus rose from the dead and left behind an image is IMPOSSIBLE - not because that is not the way the evidence points.  In essence ruling out a hypothesis because in their minds, it "can't" happen.  And generally, they'd be right.  Except this one, isolated time in all of history, when something absolutely FANTASTIC and UNBELIEVEABLE did happen.  And it changed everything.

Thought For The Day... Apostolic Succession

Also known as "WHY I'm Catholic".  I've had responses of surprise, shock, bigotry when people find out I'm Catholic.  I've had comments of "Isn't that really STRICT?", "You know you're going to Hell", "Well, in the Catholic church, if you have enough money, they think they can buy salvation", "The Pope is the antichrist" , "What about the crusades and the inquisition? Pedophile priests? The catholic church is the biggest most corrupt murderer of innocent people in history", and "Catholics think they can earn their way to heaven."   None of that is accurate, and furthermore, none of it matters.  THIS FACT ALONE, stated eloquently by a holy man a mere generation after the death of Christ, impells me to be Catholic.  Because it is God's good pleasure to guide His church.

From St. Iraneous, Bishop of Lyons, in 189 AD:

"It is possible, then, for everyone in every church, who may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the apostles which has been made known to us throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the apostles and their successors down to our own times, men who neither knew nor taught anything like what these heretics rave about" (Against Heresies 3:3:1 [A.D. 189]).

"But since it would be too long to enumerate in such a volume as this the successions of all the churches, we shall confound all those who, in whatever manner, whether through self-satisfaction or vainglory, or through blindness and wicked opinion, assemble other than where it is proper, by pointing out here the successions of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient church known to all, founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul—that church which has the tradition and the faith with which comes down to us after having been announced to men by the apostles. For with this Church, because of its superior origin, all churches must agree, that is, all the faithful in the whole world. And it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the apostolic tradition" (ibid., 3:3:2).

"Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the church in Smyrna, whom I also saw in my early youth, for he tarried [on earth] a very long time, and, when a very old man, gloriously and most nobly suffering martyrdom, departed this life, having always taught the things which he had learned from the apostles, and which the Church has handed down, and which alone are true. To these things all the Asiatic churches testify, as do also those men who have succeeded Polycarp down to the present time" (ibid., 3:3:4).

"Since therefore we have such proofs, it is not necessary to seek the truth among others which it is easy to obtain from the Church; since the apostles, like a rich man [depositing his money] in a bank, lodged in her hands most copiously all things pertaining to the truth, so that every man, whosoever will, can draw from her the water of life. . . . For how stands the case? Suppose there arise a dispute relative to some important question among us, should we not have recourse to the most ancient churches with which the apostles held constant conversation, and learn from them what is certain and clear in regard to the present question?" (ibid., 3:4:1).

"[I]t is incumbent to obey the presbyters who are in the Church—those who, as I have shown, possess the succession from the apostles; those who, together with the suc,cession of the episcopate, have received the infallible charism of truth, according to the good pleasure of the Father. But [it is also incumbent] to hold in suspicion others who depart from the primitive succession, and assemble themselves together in any place whatsoever, either as heretics of perverse minds, or as schismatics puffed up and self-pleasing, or again as hypocrites, acting thus for the sake of lucre and vainglory. For all these have fallen from the truth" (ibid., 4:26:2).

"The true knowledge is the doctrine of the apostles, and the ancient organization of the Church throughout the whole world, and the manifestation of the body of Christ according to the succession of bishops, by which succession the bishops have handed down the Church which is found everywhere" (ibid., 4:33:8).

For more Fathers on Church authority and apostolic succession, go here.

A Very Cool DIscovery

On Holy Thursday of this year, 29 lost homilies of Origen were discovered.  Origen (184-253AD) was an Alexandrian theologian and scholar from the very early Christian church.  Apparently, they were discovered in an 11th century Greek manuscript in Germany.   Experts will be translating the homilies this summer,  in the hopes of having full translations available to scholars in the very near future. 
The entire codex is photographed here.

What a treasure!   Can't wait to read the translations when they become available!

Quote Of The Day

Because We Were Just Discussing This In Prayer Group Yesterday

“I think the world today is upside down. Everybody seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater development and greater riches and so on. There is much suffering because there is so very little love in homes and in family life. We have no time for our children, we have no time for each other; there is no time to enjoy each other. In the home begins the disruption of the peace of the world.”

Mother Teresa

Holy Saturday [Sabbatum Sanctum]

This is an ancient homily written for Holy Saturday in Greek, dating back to the 4th century. 

Something strange is happening - there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.


He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all”. Christ answered him: “And with your spirit”. He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light”.


I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated. For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.


See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.


I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.


Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.

 The Apostle's Creed
I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:
And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary:
Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell:
The third day he rose again from the dead:
He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty:
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead:
I believe in the Holy Ghost:
I believe in the holy catholic church: the communion of saints:
The forgiveness of sins:
The resurrection of the body:
 And the life everlasting. Amen.

Hebrews 4: 1-13

The Believer’s Rest

¹ Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. ² For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word ^[a]they heard did not profit them, because ^[b]it was not united by faith in those who heard. ³ For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH,
THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. ⁴ For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “AND GOD RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS”; ⁵ and again in this passage, “THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.” ⁶ Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, ⁷ He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying ^[c]through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.”
⁸ For if ^[d]Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. ⁹ So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. ¹⁰ For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. ¹¹ Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. ¹² For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³ And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."

Symphony

It seems to me that our God is a symphony.  He is complex, vast – made up of all of everything, singing, playing, resonating.  He is the music of life.  And although He is all of everything at once, He is not chaos.  He is not cacophony.  Because there is order, precision, rhythm, pitch, harmony.  There is structure, there is flow, there is purpose, to this Music – it is the difference between noise and song, random soundwaves and a Masterpiece.  And this vast orchestration, made up of all of everything   - loud, soft, fast, slow, gentle, powerful– it is tied all together with a simple, heart-piercing melody.  Floating above everything, the reason for the song, supported by the infinite ensemble, is this:  LOVE.  As we soak in the most exquisite of all Music, we comprehend so little, but THIS we understand, THIS draws us in, THIS pulls us ever deeper into itself… the transparent melody.  Love. 

 It’s why a child's faith is oftentimes more complete than an adult's - because they haven’t gotten lost in trying to tease out the individual parts, or focus only on one instrument playing harmony.  A child simply hums the melody along with the Composer, sings it joyfully at the top of their lungs, however imperfectly.   A child finds opportunity for song at every flower, every grasshopper, every moment.  A child revels in the music, twirling as David in front of the Ark.  A child doesn’t lose the melody in search of something deeper, because the melody is the SONG to the child.  The wisest of listeners can delve headlong into the Music, rapturously marveling at the intricacies of the harmony, or the brilliance of the rhythm, always understanding their scope in the Great Orchestration.  Too many get lost, and forget the essence of the song. 

Infinite depth, richness, beauty, order and incomprehensible complexity, stitched inexorably, seamlessly together by the ultimate simplicity.  The Melody is LOVE. 

We Hold These Truths.....

Quote Of The Day

By one of my favorites, G. K. Chesterton:

"Do not be so open-minded that your brains fall out."

More Peter Kreeft - because he says it best....

The Three Most Profound Ideas I Have Ever Had

Dr. Peter Kreeft | February 28, 2012 | 0 CommentsMore

from the Integrated Catholic Life

Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam"

Ideas are more precious than diamonds. The three most precious ideas I have ever discovered all concern the love of God.
None of them is original. But every one is revolutionary. None of them came from me. But all of them came to me with sudden force and fire: the “aha!” experience, the “eureka!” experience. They were all realizations, not just beliefs.
1. There Is Only “One Thing Necessary.” The first happened when I was about six or seven, I think. It was the first important conscious discovery I ever made, and I don’t think I have ever had a more mature or wiser thought than that one. I remember to this day exactly where I was when it hit me: riding north on Haledon Avenue between Sixth and Seventh Streets in Paterson, New Jersey after Sunday morning church with my parents. Isn’t it remarkable how we remember exactly where we were when great events happen that change our lives?
I had learned some things about God and Jesus, about heaven, and about good and evil in church and Sunday school. Like most children at that age, I was a bit confused and overwhelmed by it all, especially by what this great being called God expected of me. I felt a little insecure, I guess, about not knowing and a little guilty about not doing everything that I was supposed to be doing. Then all of a sudden the sun shone through the fog. I saw the one thing necessary that made sense and order out of everything else.
I checked out my insight with my father, my most reliable authority. He was an elder in the church and (much more important) a good and wise man. “Dad, everything they teach us in church and Sunday school, all the stuff we’re supposed to learn from the Bible — it all comes down to only one thing, doesn’t it? I mean, if we only remember the one most important thing all the time, then all the other things will be O.K., right?”
He was rightly skeptical. “What one thing? There are a lot of things that are important.”
“I mean, I should just always ask what God wants me to do and then do it. That’s all, isn’t it?”
Wise men know when they’ve lost an argument. “You know, I think you’re right, son. That’s it.”
I had perceived — via God’s grace, not my own wit, surely — that since God is love, we must therefore love God and love whatever God loves. I now knew that if we turn to the divine conductor and follow his wise and loving baton — which is his will, his Word — then the music of our life will be a symphony.
2. The Way to Happiness Is Self-forgetful Love. A second realization follows closely upon this one. That is, it follows logically. But it did not follow closely in time for me. Instead, it took half a lifetime to appreciate, through a million experiments, every one of which proved the same result: that the way to happiness is self-forgetful love and the way to unhappiness is self-regard, self-worry, and the search for personal happiness. Our happiness comes to us only when we do not seek for it. It comes to us when we seek others’ happiness instead.
It is an embarrassingly common lesson to take so long to learn, but most of us are incredibly slow learners here. We constantly try other ways, thinking that perhaps the happiness that did not come to us the last time through selfishness will do so next time. It never does. The truth is blindingly clear, but we are clearly blind.
The secret of love is not hidden, for “God is love,” and God is not hidden. God said through his prophet Isaiah: “I did not speak in secret, / in a land of darkness; / I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, / ‘Seek me in chaos.’ / I the LORD speak the truth, / I declare what is right” (Is 45:19).
Of course God’s secret plans, which we do not need to know, are hidden. And God’s infinite nature, which finite minds cannot know, is hidden. But the thing that we need to know, God does not hide from us. He offers it to us publicly and freely. Jesus invited prospective disciples to “come and see” (In 1:39). We are told by the apostle Paul to “test everything; hold fast what is good” (1 Thes 5:21).
This lesson is so well known that even a pagan like Buddha knew it profoundly, or at least its negative half. His “second noble truth” is that the source of all unhappiness and suffering (dukkha) is selfishness (tanha). All who teach the opposite—that selfishness is the way to happiness—are unhappy souls. “By their fruits you shall know them,” as Jesus tells us. Who are the happiest people on earth? People like Mother Teresa and her nuns who have nothing, give everything, and “rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4).
3. “In Everything God Works for Good with Those Who Love Him.” A third shattering realization was that Romans 8:28 was literally true: “In everything God works for good with those who love him.” This is surely the most astonishing verse in the Bible, for it certainly doesn’t look as if all things work for good. What awful things our lives contain! But if God, the all-powerful Creator and Designer and Provider of our lives, is 100 percent love, then it necessarily follows, as the night the day, that everything in his world, from birth to death, from kisses to slaps, from candy to cancer, comes to us out of God’s active or permissive love.
It is incredibly simple and perfectly reasonable. It is only our adult complexity that makes it look murky. As G.K. Chesterton says, life is always complicated for someone without principles. Here is the shining simplicity: if God is total love, then everything he wills for me must come from his love and be for my good. For that what love is, the willing of the beloved’s good. And if this God of sheer love is also omnipotent and can do anything he wills, then it follows that all things must work together for my ultimate good.
Not necessarily for my immediate good, for short-range harm may be the necessary road to long-range good. And not necessarily for my apparent good, for appearances may be deceiving. Thus suffering does not seem good. But it can always work for my real and ultimate good. Even the bad things I and others do, though they do not come from God, are allowed by God because they are included in his plan. You can’t checkmate, corner, surprise, or beat him. “He’s got the whole world in his hands,” as the old gospel chorus tells us. And he’s got my whole life in his hands, too. He could take away any evil — natural, human, or demonic — like swatting a fly. He allows it only because it works out for our greater good in the end, just as it did with Job.
In fact, every atom in the universe moves exactly as it does only because omnipotent Love designed it so. Dante was right: it is “the love that moves the sun and all the stars.” This is not poetic fancy but sober, logical fact. Therefore, the most profound thing you can say really is this simple children’s grace for meals: “God is great and God is good; let us thank him for our food. Amen!” I had always believed in God’s love and God’s omnipotence. But once I put the two ideas together, saw the unavoidable logical conclusion (Rom 8:28), and applied this truth to my life, I could never again see the world the same way. If God is great (omnipotent) and God is good (loving), then everything that happens is our spiritual food; and we can and should thank him for it. Yet how often we fail to recognize and appreciate this simple but profound truth.
These are, I think, the three most profound ideas I have ever had. However, there is one idea that I have heard that I think is even more profound. It is Karl Barth’s answer to the questioner who asked him, “Professor Barth, you have written dozens of great books, and many of us think you are the greatest theologian in the world. Of all your many ideas, what is the most profound thought you have ever had?” Without a second’s hesitation, the great theologian replied, “Jesus loves me.”

Point Of View

I readily admit that I share things on this blog that I do not share with another living soul on earth.  It’s why I started this in the first place – I wanted a way to express what I was learning spiritually, what I was “musing” about.  These things  rarely hold  interest, or resonance, with anyone else in my narrow little world, but they are aching to be expressed SOMEHOW.  My efforts to have conversations on some of these topics “in person” have far too often failed miserably, and ended up in hurt feelings and misconceptions.  So, instead, I write.  Here, in this blog that, despite its officially public nature, gets read by virtually no one.  And that’s okay.  It’s not really the purpose anyway.  It’s for me.  And maybe, someday, when they’re old enough, for my children.  But mostly for me.  Because there’s something in me that yearns to deposit these little tidbits into a capsule, and send them out there as a probe into the vast universe, in the hope of making a connection SOMEWHERE.

What do people see of me through the lens of social media?  I often wonder.  Facebook is a crazy, crazy thing.  Truly.  Sure, it’s a way to reconnect with long-lost people, those once thought to be relegated to mere distant memory.  But even for people that we see regularly in “real life”, facebook shows glimpses into lives that we normally wouldn’t see.  Those verboten topics of politics and religion don’t seem to be quite so off-limits in the virtual realm. People feel freer to share things (sometimes too much!!!) through the internet.  Maybe for the same reasons as me – sharing that article, or that opinion piece, or that status, is a little space probe to find SOMEONE out there, who thinks as we do, believes as we do, sees the world as we do. 

The present kerfuffle over the Health and Human Services mandate has been strange for me.  As a Catholic who is growing in her faith, I am mortified by the implications of a government MANDATING that I do something that is against my religious conscious.  When I hear “98% of Catholic women use birth control”, I know that the statistic is skewed, but wholly beside the point. Government MANDATING a church do something against its own teaching is violating a principle bigger than any statistic.  It goes against the fiber of democracy.  I see that so clearly, and yet it seems the vast majority of this society – as represented by the comments and posts I see on facebook and on blogs – sees the situation completely differently.  They see a patriarchal and outdated church, led by celibate men, trying to control women and their bodies.   And sometimes, for a second, I can see that view.  What’s the big deal?  Everyone does it, everyone uses it – why can’t it be paid for by insurance?  Big WHOOP.  Why the big stink? It’s  just a pill.  I can put myself in that point of view momentarily, but then…. I know.  I am a Catholic.   However archaic and patriarchal that may seem, I have LEARNED why the Church is right on this.  I have been taught by the Best.

 My own fertility (or lack thereof) was such a source of heartache for much of my life – I rue that solitary year when we first got married when I took birth control.  I am part of that 98% statistic – the Catholic woman who at some point in her life was on birth control.    Such a farce.  Me trying to stop something from happening that WASN’T going to happen ANYWAY.  Trying to control something that was so far out of my control, it’s laughable.  I shudder now at my support of Planned Parenthood, in seeking contraception there (how naive was I??  I knew something wasn’t right when they laughed at me, told me I was lying about my sexual history.  Had they honestly NEVER met someone who waited for marriage????)  Looking back, I see what an affront that was to God – my trying to seize control of something truly only He could control.  After that first year, I was misdiagnosed with a very serious blood disorder, and had to go off the pill.  I remember receiving the call at work – my doctor urgently saying “STOP taking the pill TODAY.  It can cause clots and KILL YOU.”  That gets a gal’s attention.   A trip to the geneticist proved that the tests were in error and my blood was fine, but still… I see the hand of God in that misdiagnosis now.  God telling me to STOP.  Let my body BE.  I never went back on after that fateful phone call. 

Five years after I stopped birth control, there was still no baby, and we had still not learned our lesson.  I still was seeking CONTROL – to reach out and take from God that which was His by right.  Fertility drugs, fertility treatments, IVF.  Birth control and fertility treatments were two sides of the same coin for me.  I’M in charge of my own body.   I KNEW that God wanted me to be a mother.  He would not have put the aching longing so intensely in my heart if He didn’t want that for me.  And yet, I could not see how it would happen unless I did something about it myself.  I did not trust Him and the promise He had made to me.  I would take over His job, or pay someone that could.  And again, looking back, I can see now how God was telling me to STOP.  Let my body BE.  He created it, and HE was in control of it. 

I’m forever thankful that we have a forgiving Father.  All that heartache, all the fear… it was all a lesson.  It was my Father teaching me to trust Him.  He wants good things for us, and will bless us abundantly,  in HIS time, in HIS way – not mine.  And so it was that, after five years of me stubbornly trying to control my own fertility, God manifested HIS power and glory, and blessed us with identical twins.  Naturally.  Or, probably more accurately, supernaturally.  Without an iota of “medical” assistance, but with plenty of “out of this world” assistance.  And to drive home the point even more… the boys were born on my birthday.  A gift from my Father, in no uncertain terms. 

The doctor wanted to put me on birth control after the boys were born, and this time… I refused, much to my husband’s dismay.  It became an area of tension in our marriage, but I could not deny the miracle of my boys, deny the lesson that was so dramatically taught to me.  “You know you’ll be pregnant again within the year” the doctor had told me.  If it was God’s will, so be it, I thought.  But there were pressures.  My husband didn’t want more children, and I couldn’t make him understand that my not wanting to be on birth control had very little to do with having more children or not.  It had EVERYTHING to do with learning my lesson.  With my not saying “Thank you very much, God, but I’ll go ahead and take control back now.”  So I refused, and he resented me for it, and things weren’t good on that front. 

I’ve written before about how the birth of my daughter was prophesied by 10 year old autistic boy while I was at work one day.  That I would have a little girl, who looked like me, and would be born in November.  To me, it was God bringing home the lesson once more.  “Let it be and let ME”.  I could not deny the hand of God in our lives – it was glaring and obvious, and not subtle in the LEAST.  After our daughter was born, Rob wanted me to get my tubes tied.  “We’re getting older, we don’t want any more kids”.   But see, even though the infertility, the miscarriages, and the subsequent miracles were happening to us as a couple, the lesson was being taught to ME specifically.  And my husband lived in the same world as the “98%”, who saw me as somewhat INSANE, who logically thought that if you wanted to avoid something, and medical technology was there, you did something about it.  It only makes sense.  I hear it, and it makes logical sense to me, too.   So my saying “but we need to let GOD be in control!” just sounded like a lame excuse for having a truck-load of kids, which he didn’t WANT.    I’m mortified at the arguments we had about this!   I BEGGED him to not make me violate my conscious in this way.  To not make me figuratively slap my Father in the face by saying “Thank you very much, but I’m going to take control back now”.   And eventually, I just plain refused.    How crazy I know it must’ve seemed to EVERYONE else.  It’s just a PILL.  It’s just a little SURGERY.  Everyone DOES it.  Why was I making it so hard on our marriage????  So, my husband did what he thought best, and had himself sterilized.  Despite my pleadings.  “Fine, we won’t have more children.    I GET that.  But please trust God in that, and don’t do this to yourself!”  I do not own his body, though, and I could not change his mind.  It is what it is, and my marriage remains as part of the “98%” statistic.

I can’t say that my husband regrets his decision, although at times he doubts it.  Sometimes, I know he wonders, just what IF we had another child… would it be so bad?  I never have been able to adequately explain that it really has very little to do with physically having another child or not.  It has everything to do with who is in CHARGE.  Letting our bodies work as they will, within their own natural rhythms as God created them, lets HIM decide – and after all, the Author has a vantage point and a wisdom that we will never have .    He knows us better than we know ourselves, and I have learned well that my job is to trust that. 

But I’m probably just being deluded by patriarchal, celibate men who want to control me through my uterus. 

Parenting Advice from St. Don Bosco....

I needed to hear this....

"It is better to punish our own impatience and pride than to correct the boys. We must be firm but kind and patient with them. Take as a model the charity of Paul which he showed to his new converts. They often reduced him to tears and entreaties when he found them lacking docility and even opposing his loving efforts.

"See that no one finds you motivated by impetuosity or willfulness. It is difficult to keep calm when administering punishment, but we must do so if we are to keep ourselves from spilling out our anger.

"Let us regard the boys as our own sons. Let us not rule over them except for the purpose of serving them better. This was the method Jesus used with the apostles. He put up with their ignorance and roughness and even their infidelity. He treated sinners with a kindness and affection that caused some to be shocked, others to be scandalized, and still others to hope for God's mercy. And so he bade us to be 'gentle and humble of heart.'

"They are our sons, and so in correcting their mistakes we must lay aside all anger and restrain it so firmly that it is extinguished entirely.

"There must be no hostility in our minds, no contempt in our eyes, no insult on our lips. We must use mercy for the present and have hope for the future, as is fitting for true fathers who are eager for real correction and improvement."

From the Mouths of Babes, Part 230591

Yet another "out of the blue" moment in our household....

Quinn: "Mom, I understand who God is."

Me (in my head):"Sure. You're 7 years old. The greatest minds in all of history haven't understood God, the best theologians can't even begin to wrap their minds around the concept of God.  You spend 95% of your time making fart noises.  But go ahead, little kid.  YOU explain God to me."

Me (what I actually said): "Oh, really?"

Quinn: "It's simple, Mom.  God is LOVE."

{{crickets}}  Mom thoroughly put in her place. 

Quinn: "I guess the big question is, Mom... what is LOVE?"

Enter the kingdom as a child.  Apparently so, apparently so.

Cue the Gregorian Chant: Religion vs Spirituality

Untitled from John Hollowell on Vimeo.

What If?

What if....

...there was a real-life, present-day Indiana Jones.  What if some quiet-mannered biblical archeologist stumbled upon one of the greatest finds of modern times, and lo - behold!  The Ark of the Covenant.  The REAL, undisputed, undeniable Ark of the Covenant - verified by scholars, perserved in a prestigious exhibit - in the realm of the here and now, available for all the world to see. 

It would specifically look like this, commanded by Almighty God Himself (Exodus 25:10-22)

¹⁰ “Have them make an ark^[b] of acacia wood—two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.^{[c] 11} Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it. ¹² Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other. ¹³ Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. ¹⁴ Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry it. ¹⁵ The poles are to remain in the rings of this ark; they are not to be removed. ¹⁶ Then put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law, which I will give you.
¹⁷ “Make an atonement cover of pure gold—two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. ¹⁸ And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. ¹⁹ Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends. ²⁰ The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover. ²¹ Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law that I will give you. ²² There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites. "


So, not only was the best of everything to be used, but God specifically  designed this vessel, down to the tiniest detail and measurement,  using rare wood and  PURE gold, to carry the law of the Covenant.  It was here, between the cherubim's wings, that God Himself met with humanity.  The place where Heaven and earth met.  In a box.  And now.... in our little scenario.... we have it.  

Would you want to see it?  I would.  Absolutely.  Such a sacred, powerful object.  Millions of faithful and the curious would want to see it.  Some would deny it, distract from it.  Some skeptics would travel for miles to come see it, look at it, and say "oh, it's alot smaller than I thought."  Or  "it's an interesting historical relic, but nothing more."  Some would say "what's all the fuss about?".  And some, believing they were being righteous, would say "only God deserves this amount of attention" and attempt to minimize it's significance.

We know how the ancient world reacted to the Ark.  Moses knelt before it, in the central Holy Place where it was kept.  Aaron saw it but once a year, and only with special ceremonies.   King David danced before it, in joy. Enemies cringed before it.   Solomon's temple was built for the sole purpose of housing it. THAT was the reaction of the ancient world to the Ark.  Utmost respect, awe, and fear.

Know how I would react?  Well,  I guess I don't know exactly.  But I can imagine.  I can imagine I would be nervous standing outside the door of the exhibit, taking deep breaths, trying to prepare myself for meeting something Holy.  I would probably be praying.  Upon seeing it, I'm not sure, but I can certainly imagine falling to my knees in awe.  Getting weak with the overwhelming  magnitude of what I was seeing - the Holy of Holies.  Feeling utterly unworthy. Knowing myself, I guarantee you.... I would be in tears.  Can you imagine how you might react to such a thing?

Am I worshipping the Ark?  Did the ancient Hebrews worship the Ark?  No.  Am I in awe?  Yes.  Am I  showing great reverance and respect for a mere physical object?  Absolutely.  Why?  Because it's a gold box?  Not on your life.  It's not necessarily the box itself that garners the strong reaction - after all, other gold boxes from ancient times that I might see in a museum would not bring even CLOSE to that kind of reaction.  It's what it IS.  The vessel of the Covenant.  The meeting place of Heaven and Earth.  The dwelling place of GOD ON EARTH.  The box generates that much awe and reverance only because of the work of God that was done through it.  I am worshipping GOD, am in awe of GOD, and the covenant He made with His people.

You know what's interesting about the Ark?  When carried, the Ark was always wrapped in a veil, in tachash skins and a blue cloth (why animal skins?  why veils? why blue??? hmmmmm), and was carefully concealed, even from the eyes of the Kohanim who carried it.   It was set apart from the people, and was carried AHEAD of the Israelites, leading the way into battle, into new territory.  And what was inside?  According to Hebrews 9:4, the stone tablets, a jar of manna,  and Aaron's rod that budded. 

Now shift gears with me here.  The ten commandments were the sign of the Old Covenant.  What is the new?  What is the everlasting covenant?  Christ's blood is the new and everlasting covenant.  Blood shed for you and all men, so that sins might be forgiven.  So that we may belong to the Father forever.  The signs of the old Covenant, residing in the Ark were personified in the New Covenant - in Christ Jesus.  The stone tablets (the law), a jar of manna (the eucharist), and Aaron's rod that budded (the power of new life) - all wrapped in one, God's own divine Son.  " ¹⁵ For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. :" (Hebrews 9:15)

 So, what (or who) is the Ark of the New Covenant?   We see how specific God was in creating the Ark of the Old Covenant.  How it had to be pure, precious, perfect.  Would any believe that He would be any LESS demanding of what would be the Ark of the New Covenant?  Does God have any limits on His power, that He is not CAPABLE of creating something (or someone) pure and unstained to be the meeting place of Heaven and Earth in one, singular event that changed EVERYTHING?  To house Himself, in the person of His son???  Is that an affront to the Holiness of God to believe that He created something pure to house His own Holiness? 

And if we fall down in awe and reverance to this Ark of the New Covenant - am I worshipping a human as pagans do?  Or am I venerating the work of God manifested in mere earthly things, something as lowly as a humble peasant girl, made the meeting place of Heaven and Earth.   Someone who led the way before God's people in faith, obedience.  The first of whom the promise of the New Covenant was made.  Behold - the Ark of the Covenant.

Revelation 11:19-12:2

" ¹⁹ Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm. ¹ A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. ² She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth."

Predestination and Free Will

Peter Kreeft puts succinctly and completely what I have been trying to stay in my rambling, unorganized way for years.  We are DESTINED, but not PRE-destined.  Because a sovreign God who loves us wrote our story so. 

By Dr. Peter Kreeft

If God is not love but only knowledge, then it is difficult or impossible to see how human free will and divine predestination can both be true. But if God is love, there is a way.

Freedom and predestination is one of the most frequently asked questions among my students—partly because of modern man’s great concern for freedom, but also, I think, for the largely unconscious reason that we intuitively know both these things must be true because they are the warp and woof of every good story. If a story has no plot, no destiny – if its events are haphazard and arbitrary – it is not a great story.

Every good story has a sense of destiny, of fittingness as if it were written by God. But every story also leaves its characters free. Lesser writers may jimmy and force their characters into molds, but the greater the writer the more clearly the reader sees that his characters are real people and not just mental concepts. The more nearly the characters have a life of their own and seem to leap off the page into real life, the greater a writer we have. God, of course, is the greatest writer of all. Since human life is his story, it must have both destiny and freedom.

Let’s look first at the side called destiny. Predestination is a misleading word, I think, for it concedes too much to our temporal way of thinking. God is not pre or post anything. He is present to everything. God does not look down rows of dominoes or into crystal balls. He does not have to wait for anything. Nor does he wonder what will happen. Nothing is uncertain to him, as the future is uncertain to us. There is not predestination but destination, not predestiny but destiny. This follows from divine omniscience and eternity.

But our free will follows from the divine love. To love someone is to make them free. To enslave them is always a defect of love.

Now since divine love is God’s very essence, while omniscience and omnipotence are only attributes of that essence, therefore if one of these two truths had to come first – in the sense of being more primordial and non-negotiable than the other – it would have to be freedom.

I do not think either truth needs to be compromised. I think we can do as much justice to the sovereignty of God as a Calvinist and as much justice to the free will of man as a Baptist. Yet it would not compromise the very essence of God to deny predestination. Arminianism, the theological viewpoint that denies predestination and emphasizes the role of man’s free will in receiving grace from God, may be wrong. But it is wrong at a relatively technical, theoretical level. Denying human free will, on the other hand, would cut out something immediately essential to the Christian life: personal responsibility. If I am a robot, even a divinely programmed robot, my life no longer has the drama of real choice and turns into a formula, the unrolling of a pre-written script. God loves me too much to allow that. He would sooner compromise his power than my freedom.

Actually, he does neither. It is precisely his power that gives me my freedom. Aquinas reconciles freedom with predestination by saying that God’s love is so powerful that he not only gets what he wants but he also gets it in the way that he wants. Not only is everything done that God wills to be done, but it is also done in the way he wants it to be done. It happens without freedom in the case of natural things like falling rain and freely in the case of human choices. A power a little less than total may get what it wants without getting it in the way that it wants it. But omnipotence gets both. And the way omnipotence wants human acts done is freely.

In other words, freedom and predestination are two sides of one coin. The omnipotent author chose to write a story about free human beings, not just trees or machines. That means we are really free. We are free precisely because God is all-powerful.

If love and power were not one, we would have the classic standoff, an unending conflict between the two. Once you see the center, love, everything else falls into place like spokes in a wheel.
The oneness of love and power is also why we need not fear God’s power: it is his very love.

Therefore, it cannot be used lovelessly. And it is also why we need not fear that his love will ever fail, for it is omnipotent. It is power. The very hands that tossed the galaxies around like grains of sand loved mankind so much that they let mere men nail them to the cross, all for love. The One who loved us even unto death, the supreme weakness, is infinite strength......

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Read more here.

Meaning

“Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning...”
― C.S. Lewis

“We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito.”
― C.S. Lewis

A heathen philosopher once asked a Christian, 'Where is God'? The Christian answered, 'Let me first ask you, Where is He not?'Aaron Arrowsmith

Things MATTER.  Our words matter, our actions matter.  The oaths and promises we make matter. 

A Study on Grace

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.⁶³

St. Therese of Lisieux

Indeed we also work, but we are only collaborating with God who works, for his mercy has gone before us. It 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.⁵¹

St. Augustine

SANCTIFYING GRACE:
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” (John 15:4).

Sanctifying grace stays in the soul. It’s what makes the soul holy; it gives the soul supernatural life. More properly, it is supernatural life. It prepares our human nature to be in the presence of the Trinity. Sanctifying grace is INTERNAL, and transforming.  It is completely unmerited, an undeserved gift from God.  Sanctifying grace prepares our imperfect human nature for the perfection of Heaven.

ACTUAL GRACE:
Actual grace, by contrast, is a supernatural push or encouragement. It’s transient. It doesn’t live in the soul, but acts on the soul from the outside, so to speak. It’s a supernatural kick in the pants. It gets the will and intellect moving so we can seek out and keep sanctifying grace. It is to actual grace that our free will can respond - we can cooperate with or reject that "kick in the pants", or supernatural nudge from God.

THEREFORE

1. God gives actual grace to wake us up and prepare us for a challenge (I've elsewhere called this "knockingon the doors of our hearts").
2. In a state of heightened awareness and concern, we reach out tentatively to God, or to something beyond ourselves, in order to respond to the challenge. (Or, by our own free will, we ignore this "nudge".)
3. Now that we are receptive to his reality, God gives actual grace to make us aware of himself, his Word or his Spirit. (Notice, our job is simply receptive - being open to the grace received)
4. We call out to God as a potential answer to an existential problem.
5. God offers the gifts of faith and hope. (Those who seek find!)
6. We respond with acceptance of his reality and with trust. (Our response to His grace is free will)
7. God completes the gift with the gift of his Spirit, giving us the theological gifts of faith, hope and love.
8. We respond in love and in acts (sacrificial works) of faith, hope and love.
9. God transforms our spirit a step closer to his own nature. We acquire theological virtue as an enduring predisposition (habit). This is the gift of sanctification.

God is the first step, and the last step.  He initiates, He completes.   He knocks (actual grace), we answer (free will), He transforms (sanctifying grace). 

Peter Kreeft on fated vs free:

GRACE DEFINED 
1996 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.⁴⁶
1997 Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of 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.
1998 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.⁴⁷
1999 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:⁴⁸

Therefore if any one 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.⁴⁹

2000 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.
2001 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:"⁵⁰

Indeed we also work, but we are only collaborating with God who works, for his mercy has gone before us. It 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.⁵¹

2002 God's free initiative demands man's free response, for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know him and love him. The soul only enters freely into the communion of love. God immediately touches and directly moves the heart of man. He has placed in man a longing for truth and goodness that only he can satisfy. The promises of "eternal life" respond, beyond all hope, to this desire:

If at the end of your very good works . . ., you rested on the seventh day, it was to foretell by the voice of your book that at the end of our works, which are indeed "very good" since you have given them to us, we shall also rest in you on the sabbath of eternal life.⁵²

2003 Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us. But grace also includes the gifts that the Spirit grants us to associate us with his work, to enable us to collaborate in the salvation of others and in the growth of the Body of Christ, the Church. There are sacramental graces, gifts proper to the different sacraments. There are furthermore special graces, also called charisms after the Greek term used by St. Paul and meaning "favor," "gratuitous gift," "benefit."⁵³ Whatever their character - sometimes it is extraordinary, such as the gift of miracles or of tongues - charisms are oriented toward sanctifying grace and are intended for the common good of the Church. They are at the service of charity which builds up the Church.⁵⁴
2004 Among the special graces ought to be mentioned the graces of state that accompany the exercise of the responsibilities of the Christian life and of the ministries within the Church:

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, in liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.⁵⁵