THE ABUNDANCE OF GRACE


TUESDAY, TWENTY EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Rom 1:16-25; Ps 19:2-5; Lk 11:37-41

Our Evasion of Grace

The divine purpose for creating us demands that he make his grace abundant for us, that we may attain the end for which He made us. God never failed in this duty of provision of abundant grace for man to know, love, and serve God. Our nature and the intention of God to make us like himself demand that we pay attention to the abundant grace of God and make a personal choice to attend to God, know him, and serve him. Consider the abundance of prevenient grace contained in the instruction: “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat it you shall die.” Lack of attention to the word of God prevented them from eating of the many good trees in the garden, thereby hindering their advancement in the knowledge of God and His will. The word of God provides many latitudes or degrees of freedom for us to express ourselves in fullness of joy and happiness, while advancing in the knowledge and love of God. The enemies of our souls deceive us into thinking that the precepts of the Lord are restrictive and inimical to our freedom and happiness. They lead us to believe that creatures will bring us the fullness of satisfaction.

The falsehood in attaining happiness through the pursuit of the amusement offered by creatures should be evident to all who have ventured that path. To have attempted the path is to have known the enslavement of the forces of evil through attachment to creatures. Only the word of God breaks us free from the consequences of forsaking the prevenient graces of God. Saint Paul writes of these consequences. “The anger of God is being revealed from heaven against all the impiety and depravity of men who keep truth imprisoned in their wickedness. For what can be known about God is perfectly plain to them since God himself has made it plain.” He went ahead to affirm the abundance of prevenient graces for any soul interested in approaching God. “Ever since God created the world his everlasting power and deity—however invisible—have been there for the mind to see in the things he has made. That is why such people are without excuse; they knew God and yet refused to honour him as God or to thank him; instead, they made nonsense out of logic and their empty minds were darkened.” Hence, it is not the case that God’s prevenient grace is lacking to anyone. We have no one to blame for remaining ignorant of God and his holy will for us. If we do not hear, see, or feel the presence of God, then we have failed to be attentive. The Lack of attention keeps our minds imprisoned in the darkness of false opinions and misunderstanding of our conditions, situations, and environments. The demons roam freely in dark minds and lives.

The lack of a faith-imbued attention on the Lord was the cause of the misjudgment of our Lord’s action by the Pharisee who invited him to dine at his house. “He went in and sat down at the table. The Pharisee saw this and was surprised that he had not first washed before the meal. But the Lord said to him, ‘Oh, you Pharisees! You clean the outside of cup and plate, while inside yourselves you are filled with extortion and wickedness.” Thus, we must not only follow the prevenient grace, but also embrace the actual grace of God, which enables us to perform a good action. A good action is one that God prompts and which we execute with his grace to fulfil the divine will, and for his praise alone. Faith must illuminate our minds with the light of God’s word and inflame our hearts with love to possess the actual grace for any action prompted by God. The Pharisee failed to learn of God because he lacked faith in Jesus Christ. Many of us fail to learn from our experiences and conditions because we lack faith in Jesus Christ and in God. We fail to see His presence and operations in our lives and situations. We see more of the presence and activities of demons and evil people in our situations, failing to understand that everything God created is a prevenient grace to our knowledge of his will for our salvation. “The heavens proclaim the glory of God, and the firmament show forth the work of his hands. Day unto day takes up the story and night unto night makes known the message.”

Let us pray: May your grace, O Lord, we pray, at all times go before us and follow after and make us always determined to carry out good works. 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

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

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

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