Grace Will Show Up

I’ve been thinking a lot this week about how grace breaks in - how grace just shows up.

I know that grace is responsible for the creation of the world, and that sanctifying grace is at work in the souls of those who receive the Sacraments. But then there is that in-breaking grace, which, even if it has been called down from heaven by the prayers of those who pray for us, nevertheless enters in like an unexpected guest.

For example, if sin darkens our intellect, how are we to receive a word of correction? How will we ever understand our waywardness? In other words, if sin makes it difficult for us to know anything at all, because of the damage it inflicts on our faculty of reason, how can we know that we are in danger, or simply wrong about something?

This is where we would need grace to break in. A movement of God’s love can make possible what would otherwise be impossible for us, even enabling us to see and to understand that our unhappiness and lack of fulfillment is because of our sin.

Because what is sin, really, but misdirected longing for God. We were made for Him. We desire Him. Our hearts are restless until they rest in Him. But we grasp for Him in disordered ways to the point of frustration and addiction.

But grace can break in. When the intellect is darkened by sin and impervious to reason, grace can break in to illuminate what a darkened conscience can not. Then we can begin to be free, thinking rightly again - or perhaps for the first time.

And when grace does show up, it enables us to pour ourselves out in love for others, even as that grace of God is poured freely into us. This is how we were made to live - not led about blindly by our passions, but by full, conscious, and active participation in life.

The word oblation is heard sometimes in the celebration of the Mass. It refers to being poured out. “Lord, accept this oblation of our service…” We pour forth prayers from our hearts to God at the altar, and we remember that it is Christ who first pours Himself out for us, making it possible for us to pour ourselves out with Him, as we do at Mass.

This is also why we refer to Sunday Mass as an obligation. We are obliged (we are poured forth) by the One who pours Himself out for us on the cross. The crucifix in the sanctuary is a constant reminder of what we’re doing at Mass.

But again, it is grace that makes us strong with a strength not our own. Because of grace we can experience knowledge of, and sorrow for, our sins, as we said. But, also, by grace we can pour ourselves out in love for others.

So when we think of the demands of love, placed upon us in this life, we may shudder at the thought of the sacrifices, requiring such radical oblations. But we should always remember how we will be able to pour ourselves out. Grace will show up. +