September 3, 2023 - Pastor Message
04/30/2024THE YEAR OF MISSION
THE SACRAMENTS (cont.)
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ (by grace you have been saved), raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast. For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them” (Ephesians 2:4-10).
Continuing our reflection on the sacraments as part of our Year of MIssion and the national Eucharistic Revival, we looked last week at the sacraments as effective signs, that is, signs that make what they represent real and present in our lives. But what do they represent? Grace. So what is grace? The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines grace as “the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God” (1996); “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” (1999).
Grace is the divine life God freely gives to human beings out of his infinite love for us, without which we are merely dust, as we read in the second story of creation: “Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). Grace is what makes us human, endowed by God with an eternal soul and destiny to live with him in peace and glory forever.
Unfortunately, we rejected God’s plan for us and denied his gift of grace, choosing sin instead, the natural consequence of which is death. But in his love for us, God did not abandon us to our deserved fate of returning to the dust from which we came. He came after us, taking flesh in Christ Jesus and breathing new life into us through his gift of the Holy Spirit. It is this new life that we celebrate and receive in the sacraments, each in its own way.
The divine life we receive in the sacraments is not something we can earn, nor do we ever deserve it. It is always a free gift of God, who is the true minister of every sacrament. However, to receive that gift, we need to be properly disposed, or prepared and oriented, like a catcher at the plate in a baseball game prepared to receive the pitch. That is the purpose of the extensive sacramental preparation we undergo to receive the sacraments, especially for the first time, and why it is so important. We must never take the sacraments, or the eternal life they give us, for granted or consider them a right. They are always an absolutely free gift from God who so lovingly shares his own life with us. May we approach our celebration of the sacraments in a spirit of humble faith and gratitude for such a precious gift.
Fr. Marc Stockton
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