Grace
You’ve heard the phrase (maybe even said it), “There but for
the grace of God go I.” So true. But what is grace? The Catechism
of the Catholic Church says this: “Grace is favor,
the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call
to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine
nature and of eternal life. Grace is a participation in the life of God.”
(CCC 1996, 1997)
So grace is a gift. From the Catechism: “The grace of Christ is the
gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the
Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it.” (CCC
1999) The Church teaches that there are two types of grace: sanctifying
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grace and actual grace.
“Sanctifying grace is an habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition
that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to
act by his love. Habitual grace, the permanent disposition to live and
act in keeping with God’s call, is distinguished from actual graces,
which refer to God’s interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion
or in the course of the work of sanctification.” (CCC 2000)
Since grace is a gift, it can be accepted or rejected. “God’s free initiative
demands man’s free response, for God has created man in his
image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know
him and love him. The soul only enters freely into the communion
of love.” (CCC 2002)
Finally, grace is not something you can hold in your hand. The Catechism
says, “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.” (CCC 2005) As St. Paul said, “For by grace
you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the
gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8)
For further study:
CCC 153-155, 1021, 1996-2005, 2010, 2022-2024