HUMAN NATURE AND GRACE


FRIDAY, TWENTY NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Rom 7:18-25; Ps 119:66,68,76-77,93-94; Lk 12:54-59

Differentiating Nature and Grace

The purpose of our struggles with keeping the commandments and receiving the answers to our prayers is to bring us to the regime of grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. They are part of our spiritual birth pangs, signifying that Christ is being born in us. Human understanding and feeling cannot easily comprehend the difference between what is accomplished by our human nature and what is accomplished by grace. To a casual observer, the two would pass as the same. But the one who experiences the working of grace knows better the difference between the two. Grace accomplishes what is impossible for nature. In other words, grace achieves what is supernatural to nature and also elevates what is natural to our nature to a supernatural level. By this, we mean that those things we ordinarily accomplish by our natural strength or skill are elevated to the divine or supernatural order when we work with the grace of God. The reason is that grace is God’s presence with us to accomplish his holy will. Thus, cooperating with God, we achieve a supernatural feat and natural things with supernatural merits.

God would not want us to be ignorant of his grace working with us, so that we may not arrogate to ourselves what belongs to Him. Hence, He allows us to experience the impossibility of our nature achieving what is supernatural before granting his grace to us. We see this illustrated in Saint Paul’s attempt to keep the Law of God by his human strength. “I know of nothing good living in me—living, that is, in my unspiritual self—for though the will to do what is good is in me, the performance is not, with the result that instead of doing the good things I want to do, I carry out the sinful things I do not want.” The experience is not unique to Paul, but common to us in our attempt to live a spiritual life. It is God’s way of revealing the importance of Jesus Christ and the grace he has won for us through his sacrificial death on the cross. Furthermore, it is also God’s way of revealing our nothingness to us, that we may be conditioned to trust in his grace and not in ourselves, especially with regard to overcoming our sinful condition. So, Paul continues: “When I act against my will, then, it is not my true self doing it, but sin which lives in me.” We are truly prisoners of sin and evil without the grace of God revealed to us in Jesus Christ. We cannot save ourselves. We must reach out to Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body doomed to death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” The realisation of the unique role and importance of Jesus Christ for our salvation is the foundation of the Christian life.

Subsequently, it is not enough to know the Commandments of God, but we must humbly and consistently seek the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to accomplish the will of the Father. Hence, Jesus Christ is our new Law; to know him is to know the statutes of the Lord. Our Lord, therefore, expressed disappointment in the inability of the Jewish crowds to discern or read the sign of the time of the Son of Man, which is the most important time in the salvific history. “When you see a cloud looming up in the west you say at once that rain is coming, and so it does. And when the wind is from the south you say it will be hot, and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the face of the earth and the sky. How is it you do not know how to interpret these times?” Our Christian life is replete with indicators or signs pointing us to God’s will for us. Such as when the answers to our prayers are delayed; when we consistently fall into the same sin after confessing it, and doing everything in our power to overcome it; when we are afflicted in a particular area of our life in spite of our prayers for deliverance, etc. These are signs leading us to a deeper understanding of God’s love and providence in our lives. A central activity of the Christian spiritual life and journey is prayerful contemplation of God’s word to understand His will revealed in the events and circumstances of our lives. “Teach me discernment and knowledge for I trust in your commands. You are good and your deeds are good; teach me your statutes.”

Let us pray: Almighty ever-living God, grant that we may always conform our will to yours and serve your majesty in sincerity of heart. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.                

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BECOMING A DEPENDABLE FRIEND

Image
FRIDAY, SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eccl 6:5-17; Ps 119:12,16,18,27,34-35; Mk 10:1-12 Making and being a Good Friend The usefulness of a faithful friend is the subject discussed in the passage of Sirach we are considering. From the qualities that make a good friend, we understand that faithfulness depends on the perfection we attain in the formative school of wisdom. The first lesson we learn in nature is faithfulness. The quality of faithfulness is so closely aligned with nature that we consider nature and faithfulness synonyms. The faithfulness of nature, and subsequently of wisdom, is hinted at when we read that wisdom stands at her post/gate daily to beckon the passers-by to turn in and partake of her table. Everything that God made participates in this faithfulness of wisdom in the sense that each remains faithful to his will without failing or leading our minds astray. First, Sirach admonishes us on friendliness to people in general: “A kindly turn of speech multiplies a ...
Read more

WE CANNOT ENTER INTO HEAVEN WITHOUT FAITH

Image
OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP  Isa 7:1-9; Ps 48:2-8; Mt 11:20-24 If you do not stand by Me, you will not stand at all The Lord Jesus Christ takes up the issue of rejecting or ignoring the Gospel message when it comes to us in the gospel reading today. The word of God contains all the blessings of heaven which God had given us in Christ before the beginning of the world. Hence, a rejection or refusal to accept or listen to the Gospel message is a rejection of all the heavenly blessings we have received in Jesus Christ. These divine blessings have import for our lives here on earth. While still dwelling here on earth, those who believe in the word of God already possess the heavenly inheritance God will fully manifest to us when we exit this mortal tent. By faith, we enter into the eternal kingdom and the promised inheritance. The importance of faith for our reception of the heavenly blessings here on earth is illustrated in the first reading...
Read more

The offsprings of the Old man and the New Man

Image
Monday, fifth week of lent/2024 Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP Offsprings of Old man and New Man To be able to live the new life within the new Covenant in Jesus Christ, the old life must come to an end. The distinctive difference between the old man and the new man is the focus of desires. The old man and all who live by him have their desires focussed on the satisfaction of self. On the other hand, the new man and those living by him desires only to fulfil God's holy will. Thus, the old man and his offspring obey the law of sin and death. Living for self alone breeds sins, and sin causes death. So, the old man and all living by him are dead and harbingers of death to others. They are adept at manipulating the Law of God to perpetuate their interest and selfish desires. An example of this skill is the treatment the two old judges of Israel in Babylon meted out to Susanna, wife of Joachim, employing the Law of Moses as given in the first reading. “Two elderly men had ...
Read more