I understand why you think the world is full of grace as are the sacraments, and there is some truth in those sentiments, at least as I understand. If you will indulge me, I’d like to offer a few insights that have helped me gain what I consider to be a deeper, more specific understanding of what we mean by grace, and its role in our world and the sacraments. So, what do we mean by grace? The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines it as, “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.” (CCC 1987).
God created the cosmos for us, and all that it contains, including humanity. By seeing all that God created, we can certainly understand that this was an act of His grace, and display of His grandeur, but let’s not confuse this with how you are using the term grace to describe our normative state. God created the world, but due to our fall, grace, while abundantly available to us, remains unaccepted by many.
We are biological beings and part of the natural world in that regard, but we are much more, “man is that creature whose norm is nature, but who goes beyond nature.” (p. 14). That we are both of the natural world and divine should sound familiar, Hint: The Incarnation. We have been gifted our rational souls by God and we are made in God’s image. We live in the world He created, but we are not in communion with Him. If we were, we would be full of grace.
Just as we see evidence of God in the world, and cosmos, we also, on some level, recognize that its different, and lesser than being with God. More succinctly, we see God’s works, but we are unable to unite with God. The emptiness we feel and try to fill with our own pursuits will always fall short because they are misguided, attempts at self divinizing (several references throughout “Nature and Grace”), and fruitless efforts to fill a void that is beyond our ability. We need God’s help. Henri de Lubac, a theologian referred to this as, “between our human nature and our destiny there lies an ‘infinite disproportion. One cannot move from man to God by walking forward on the same level…the abyss can be bridged only ‘by the divine invention of charity.’” (p. 32). What is another name for God’s charity? Grace. How do we cross that abyss? By allowing God to transform us. Through this transformation, we experience, “the divine transcendence, the gratuity of the gift God makes of Himself, the ‘grace’, and also the deep realism of the quality of ‘children of God’ which is won for man in principle by the Incarnation of the Word.” (p. 50). Yes, Jesus is the ultimate grace of God for each one us, individually, and for all humanity.
This grace is the call of God, a call to lift us, to transform us, to recreate us. De Lubac offers several insights that are helpful to our understanding. de Lubac noted that, “grace…is a quality infused into the soul” (p. 46); it is, “’hidden in and penetrating the substance of the soul and rendering it, as a soul, capable of living God’s own life, his divine life.” (p. 46). It is a call to, “set your hopes on the grace on the grace conferred on you when Jesus Christ appears.” (p. 10). Jesus is our second chance at redemption and salvation, He is God’s grace. It is then up to each of us to decide if we will accept this grace.
Let’s now talk a little about the role of sacraments and grace. Jesus’s Incarnation, death and Resurrection leads us directly to the grace that is available through the sacraments. Each sacrament is an act of God’s love for us, and an act of our seeking unity with Him. You can argue that they are filled with grace because they deliver God’s grace, and in the sacraments, we freely accept His grace. The sacraments indispensably, but not exclusively, lead us to God. The sacraments are part of our redemption and revealed to us through Jesus. Redemption is necessary because we are stained by original sin, and the sins of our own making. As Charles Pegut, a French poet, said, “sin is not only a relative imperfection, but a rupture; not just a mistake, but a breaking away from God.” (p. 131). The sacraments, especially Baptism, Reconciliation, and Communion are offered through Christ, and consecrated by the Holy Spirit, as part of our reuniting with God.
But for a sacrament to help us towards salvation, we must first recognize the sinner that is us. Again, I’ll rely on de Lubac who said, “full realization of what sin is does not exist in the sinful Christian…but only in the repentant Christian” (p. 131). I’ve struggled with this understanding. It wasn’t until I went to Confession as part of my Confirmation at the age 54 that I felt the power of redemption through God’s mercy. It was then that I started to understand that I am, and we all are, sinners in need of God’s grace. John Henry Newman once said, “without the sense of sin…there is no genuine religion.” (p. 150). Well, the sacraments are ways we live our faith, they are efficacious, and filled with God’s love and grace. They are where we join with Christ. In Romans, we read, “all alike have sinned; all alike are unworthy of God’s praise. But God proved how well He loved us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” (134). Again, here is an example of Christ’s sacrificial love, and His grace to free us from sin. The sacraments are of His making, and examples of God’s grace. The sacraments are gifts of God’s love, and mercy, and His desire to be with us. They are ways we experience His grace.
The sacraments are also about joy, the joy of participating in the life of Christ. There is God’s grace in the sacraments, and for members of the, “Christian faith opens a ‘way out’, leading to a divine transcendence and a personalized union with God in Christ.” (p. 163). This is all part of the Good News that God hasn’t abandoned us, and through His grace is helping us find our way back to Him. I hope that this provides a better understanding of grace and helps you on your journey to salvation through God’s grace.