A Sunday Thought About Grace During This Glorious Easter Season
With our glorious Easter week completed, we remain still in the Easter season with our sights set now on Pentecost. Between now and then, we continue to revel in our redemption. Remembering the price of that redemption, we will naturally take the time to thank Our Lord, over and over, for His sacrifice. And we will seek the graces unleashed by His Passion, Death and Resurrection.
At Holy Mass on Sunday - and any other days we might get to Mass during the week - we will remind ourselves that each and every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass re-enacts the events of Calvary in an unbloody manner, as we were taught growing up. Our Lord not only remains with us, as He promised, until the end of time; he also offers Himself to His Heavenly Father as a fitting sacrifice in every Mass throughout the world to assure that we can spend eternity in Heaven. All we need to do is cooperate with the graces that pour out of His Sacred Heart.
His grace touches us especially in the sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion throughout our lives. And so we approach these sacraments often, with the humility that should accompany those who know they are unworthy of Our Lord's Divine Mercy. (Note: In the Novus Ordo, today is "Divine Mercy Sunday."). And despite our continually coming up short, our frequent falling into error and sin, we persevere. We do so by returning to the confessional so that we can worthily receive His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in Holy Communion. We understand that our perseverance shows Him we know that His Infinite Love will raise us up on the Last Day, if only we remain in a state of grace.
Putting grace front and center in your life takes some work. Surrounded by the sights and sounds of secular society, the importance of grace may be hard to recall, never mind comprehend. We may not always remember that God's grace enlivens a soul, especially one burdened with the cares of this world. But the Easter Season will lift us up and point us in grace's direction, away from what typically drags us down: the world, the flesh, and the devil.
This need to remember and comprehend the central importance of grace in our lives compels us to study our Holy Faith, to learn - or re-learn - the truths taught by the Catholic Church. These truths manifest the Presence of Truth in our daily lives as we strive to not only understand, but to imitate Truth in the Person of Jesus Christ. We desire to bask in His Presence so that we may receive His grace. Enlivened and strengthened by His grace, our thoughts, words, and actions adhere to His 10 Commandments, inspired by the teachings of His Holy Gospel.
OK, so most of us do struggle to live up to this ideal. We struggle every day as we engage in a battle with our fallen human nature. Temptations impinge on the life of grace, causing us at times to stumble and fall. That's why it's so important to be open to and cooperate with the graces Our Lord provides; why it's so important to ask for Our Lady's intercession in our efforts to desire the life of grace; why it's important, finally, to remember that our salvation begins with the simple and sincere desire for grace. And persevering in this desire, despite our imperfections and our occasional falling away into sin (followed by our sincere confession of those sins), we can be assured that Our Risen Lord stands ready to welcome us into His Kingdom when finally He calls us Home.
Inspired by His grace, sustained by His grace, ultimately saved by His grace, we now bathe in the glorious light of this Easter Season. In this spirit let's now celebrate in song with this magnificent version of the great hymn, Jesus Christ is Risen Today, sung by the incomparable King's College choir.
At Holy Mass on Sunday - and any other days we might get to Mass during the week - we will remind ourselves that each and every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass re-enacts the events of Calvary in an unbloody manner, as we were taught growing up. Our Lord not only remains with us, as He promised, until the end of time; he also offers Himself to His Heavenly Father as a fitting sacrifice in every Mass throughout the world to assure that we can spend eternity in Heaven. All we need to do is cooperate with the graces that pour out of His Sacred Heart.
His grace touches us especially in the sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion throughout our lives. And so we approach these sacraments often, with the humility that should accompany those who know they are unworthy of Our Lord's Divine Mercy. (Note: In the Novus Ordo, today is "Divine Mercy Sunday."). And despite our continually coming up short, our frequent falling into error and sin, we persevere. We do so by returning to the confessional so that we can worthily receive His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in Holy Communion. We understand that our perseverance shows Him we know that His Infinite Love will raise us up on the Last Day, if only we remain in a state of grace.
Putting grace front and center in your life takes some work. Surrounded by the sights and sounds of secular society, the importance of grace may be hard to recall, never mind comprehend. We may not always remember that God's grace enlivens a soul, especially one burdened with the cares of this world. But the Easter Season will lift us up and point us in grace's direction, away from what typically drags us down: the world, the flesh, and the devil.
This need to remember and comprehend the central importance of grace in our lives compels us to study our Holy Faith, to learn - or re-learn - the truths taught by the Catholic Church. These truths manifest the Presence of Truth in our daily lives as we strive to not only understand, but to imitate Truth in the Person of Jesus Christ. We desire to bask in His Presence so that we may receive His grace. Enlivened and strengthened by His grace, our thoughts, words, and actions adhere to His 10 Commandments, inspired by the teachings of His Holy Gospel.
OK, so most of us do struggle to live up to this ideal. We struggle every day as we engage in a battle with our fallen human nature. Temptations impinge on the life of grace, causing us at times to stumble and fall. That's why it's so important to be open to and cooperate with the graces Our Lord provides; why it's so important to ask for Our Lady's intercession in our efforts to desire the life of grace; why it's important, finally, to remember that our salvation begins with the simple and sincere desire for grace. And persevering in this desire, despite our imperfections and our occasional falling away into sin (followed by our sincere confession of those sins), we can be assured that Our Risen Lord stands ready to welcome us into His Kingdom when finally He calls us Home.
Inspired by His grace, sustained by His grace, ultimately saved by His grace, we now bathe in the glorious light of this Easter Season. In this spirit let's now celebrate in song with this magnificent version of the great hymn, Jesus Christ is Risen Today, sung by the incomparable King's College choir.
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