Thursday, September 7, 2017
Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 338 – Part II.
(Youcat answer - repeated) By grace we
mean God’s free, loving gift to us, his helping goodness, the vitality that
comes from him. Through the Cross and Resurrection, God devotes himself
entirely to us and communicates himself to us in grace. Grace is everything God
grants us, without our deserving it in the least.
A
deepening through CCC
(CCC 2005 a) Since it belongs to the
supernatural order, grace escapes our
experience and cannot be known except by faith. We cannot therefore rely on
our feelings or our works to conclude that we are justified and saved (Cf.
Council of Trent (1547): DS 1533-1534). However, according to the Lord's words -
"Thus you will know them by their fruits" (Mt 7:20) - reflection on
God's blessings in our life and in the lives of the saints offers us a
guarantee that grace is at work in us and spurs us on to an ever greater faith
and an attitude of trustful poverty.
Reflecting
and meditating
(Youcat comment) “Grace”, says
Pope Benedict XVI, “is being looked upon by God, our being touched by his
love”. Grace is not a thing, but rather God’s communication of himself to men.
God never gives less than himself. In grace we are in God.
(CCC
Comment)
(CCC 2005 b) A pleasing illustration of
this attitude is found in the reply of St. Joan of Arc to a question posed as a
trap by her ecclesiastical judges: "Asked if she knew that she was in
God's grace, she replied: 'If I am not, may it please God to put me in it; if I
am, may it please God to keep me there'" (Acts of the trial of St. Joan of
Arc). (CCC 2021) Grace is the help God gives us to respond to our vocation of
becoming his adopted sons. It introduces us into the intimacy of the
Trinitarian life.
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