THE COMPLETE CYCLE OF GRACE


THURSDAY, TWENTY EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Rom 3:21-30; Ps 130:1-6; Lk 11:47-54

The Grace of Thanksgiving and Sacrifice

After the actual grace which follows the prevenient grace, we reflect on the grace of thanksgiving or the sacrificial grace. The sacrificial grace completes the motion that started with God, for the accomplishment of every good work. As we stated earlier in the week, God is the cause of all good things; it means that nothing good begins without Him initiating it. Every good thing also ends in Him, and for his glory. His gift of prevenient grace progresses to actual grace and culminates in the sacrificial grace of thanksgiving. The grace of thanksgiving helps us to offer a proper thanksgiving to God, through Jesus Christ, for using or enabling us to accomplish a good work through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thanksgiving is a symbol of the gift of ourselves to God, corresponding to God’s self-communication to us in His Son, Jesus Christ. Our thanksgiving or self-sacrifice flows from a deeper awareness of our nothingness and inability to accomplish anything good without his grace, which has been abundantly offered to us in Christ. Thus, the grace which goes out from God as prevenient grace to us, becomes ours in the actual grace we cooperate with in Christ, and returns to God through Jesus Christ, in our self-sacrifice or thanksgiving. Any grace that goes from God to us, that does not return in thanksgiving to God, is considered to have been given in vain.

Those who failed to receive the graces from God are liable to judgment, for they failed to receive the gift of God and to cooperate with Him. Every gift or grace is a revelation of God’s justice and mercy, for He gives us what is our due as his creatures and expects the payment of our debts of thanksgiving to him. We owe God thanksgiving for everything good in our lives. Saint Paul, therefore, writes of the revelation of God’s justice to the Jews and to the Gentiles alike. “God’s justice that was made known through the Law and the Prophets has now been revealed outside the Law, since it is the same justice of God that comes through faith to everyone, Jew and pagan alike, who believes in Jesus Christ.” Since God’s gifts of good things are replete in creation, both Jews and Gentiles received the prevenient grace; so, they have access to the actual grace in Jesus Christ, through faith. “Both Jew and pagan sinned and forfeited God’s glory, and both are justified through the free gift of his grace by being redeemed in Christ Jesus, who was appointed by God to sacrifice his life so as to win reconciliation through faith.”

Because man was unable to follow the word of God and gain actual grace for the sacrifice of himself to God, he incurred a huge debt before God. We waste the grace of God continuously whenever we remove our attention from Jesus Christ. Sin is a debt of grace or good work we owe God. The Eternal Word became man to offset our debt and attract us to walk with him. To refuse is to join the company of those who said no to God. Our Lord states this in the Gospel. “And that is why the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles; some they will slaughter and persecute, so that this generation will have to answer for every prophet’s blood that has been shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was murdered between the alter and the sanctuary.” Likewise, those who say yes join the Son of Man to sacrifice their lives in thanksgiving to God for the gift of Himself to us, and for our salvation. The sacrifice, which our Christian life is essentially, as celebrated in the Holy Eucharist, is the entrance into union with God, which the lawyers refused to enter by sparing themselves every effort to keep the laws. Through our self-sacrifice, we return to God what He has given to us and complete the cycle of grace. May the Lord grant us the grace to live a life of thanksgiving to God.

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

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