I am confused as to what “God’s grace” is even in a very crude or simplistic way. In the Catholic religion one needs to be in the “state of grace” to receive the Eucharist. I used to think of that as being without grave sin but it seems to be more than that. It seems to be in a particular special relationship with God. We are told that one can grow spiritually when in the state of grace. Without being in such a state we are more likely to sin and enter into decadent/degenerate activities. So far it sounds like a state of being and a special relationship with God. However, we are also told that we “receive grace” when we receive a sacrament. Thus grace also sounds like a spiritual substance that can be obtained. If so, does it decay with time? Can it be lost…by e.g. committing a sin? Can it be accumulated? Can it be given to others? If I am kind to others or teach others about the faith, am I giving them some of my grace?
A brief search into the history of the fathers of the Church, I discovered that the theologian accredited with the best insight on grace is St. Gregory Palamas who called grace an uncreated divine energy. That sounds reasonable but quite unsatisfying.
Does anyone have any insight, suggestions?
I like the English word “grace,” but we have “religified it.” What does “grace” mean outside a religious context? A “graceful” figure skater? A “gracious” host? It doesn’t mean “God’s riches at Christ’s expense” nor “unmerited favour.”
I think it means something like “doing something impressive and effective naturally and easily.” The root of the word comes from a Greek word for “gift”; we can read that as both something received and an ability, like a natural talent.
God’s “gift of life” is exactly that–”grace”: the ability to live life to the full without strain or effort.
That’s a sort of unorthodox way of thinking about it–sort of a lateral perspective. What do you think?
…thanks for the response. Thanks for pointing out the root of the word as meaning gift. Yes, indeed, God’s grace is a gift, totally unmerited. If the gift is merely the gift of a temporary life on a rock revolving around a nuclear fire, it is not a gift of great value. The gift disappears in death. It’s like being invited to a feast and being served just the appetizer.
While I obviously agree with you in terms of the meaning of grace in a non-religious setting, I am very confident that it means much more when referring to God. I’m interested in its meaning in a spiritual dimension as that is not temporal but rather has eternal significance. Without the spiritual dimension, quoting Shakespear, life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
all the best,
Marco
I don’t mean that “grace=life.” I mean that God’s grace is the extra dimension of life that God gives, including all of reconciliation, empowerment, spiritual fortitude, peace, hope for eternity, etc. Not mere biological existence on a rock revolving around a nuclear fire.
This is true. I myself have refrained from receiving the Eucharist for several years, because there are certain sins I have not yet been able to overcome, and I have far too much reverence for what the Eucharist truly is to dare receive Him unworthily. So I offer my longing for the Eucharist to God, trusting that He will help me become more and more Christ-like as my journey on this earth continues, and that one day I will be able to receive Him worthily.
And this is far more spiritually fruitful than receiving the Eucharist unworthily, which would in fact be a sacrilege against God (especially for someone who knows exactly what we are speaking about) and a poison to one’s soul.
But I deeply love attending Eucharistic adoration
Yes. But for a sin to be mortal, it must involve grave matter and be committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.
Only God can judge whether someone is truly in mortal sin, and I suspect that such sins may be rarer than we often think, in the sense of sinning in a way that genuinely severs one’s relationship with God. Even so, it is far better to err on the side of caution than on the side of presumption.
The only sin that cannot be forgiven is sin against the Holy Spirit, and both extreme scrupulosity and extreme presumption can lead a person in that direction.
You are, in a certain sense, a vessel, and God can indeed use you to bring about repentance or to enlighten others. But when that happens, it’s never ultimately your own doing; it’s always the Holy Spirit at work through you and within you.
The grace of God is His free and undeserved gift, by which He shares His own life with us, heals us from sin, and enables us to love Him and live according to His will, and the sacraments are outward and efficacious signs instituted by Christ to give grace, sanctify the faithful, and draw them into deeper communion with God, but we should remember that God is not bound by the Sacraments.
When I was younger, We indicated Grace was the Thanks before the Meal. Now I think Grace is Patience and Behaving(Obeying) Like You belong in Our Father’s Mansion as a Child of Our Father’s Love. I don’t fall from Grace by doing accepted Bad Adult Behavior. We as parents( Who now is My Father being Born Again ) don’t want Our Children to do Behavior like Gambling, Smoking, Psychotic Drugs, Fighting with My Siblings, and whatever not to do until You are 18 or so to become an Adult.
…ooh, ok. I understand now.
Marco
I like and agree with all that you said…thank you. I’m also very impressed by your amazing reverence for the Eucharist. My question is more to gain some, even a very small amount, of scientific insight into the nature of grace. I firmly believe that science and religion are two complementary views of reality. Although we can only really discover the nature of material (created) reality, we have insight into spiritual reality from revelation, biblical descriptions and Church teaching. The nature of grace is mysterious I’m hoping to get some insight while still in this life.
Marco
I don’t think grace is a concrete thing. It’s a manner of relating, like love or justice. When you talk about receiving justice, there’s no transfer of a something to you, it’s a way of expressing how you have been treated. I think the same applies to the Christian concept of grace. It’s a description of how God treats his children, but in all Christian streams of thought, we have to be relating to God as Father (i.e. not in a state of rebellion that is relationally disconnected from him) in order for God to treat us with the grace he wants to treat us with. In Greek the word “charis” (grace) means a gift, and it is related to the word for rejoicing. The idea is that God treats his children with favor they don’t deserve and the response to receiving this treatment is joyful gratitude in the relationship.
I think in Catholic teaching, to take communion is a worthy manner, you are supposed to do so knowing your relationship with God is in a good place, which in their teaching means you have been to confession and have no unconfessed sin in your heart that is affecting your relationship with God.
Well, thank you, but in the Eucharist, Christ is truly present: body, blood, soul, and divinity. When someone truly understands this, they cannot help but approach Him with reverence. That is also why I love attending Eucharistic adoration so much.
Whenever I can, and whenever it’s possible, I also love attending the ancient Roman Catholic Mass in its pre-Vatican II form, because I find it much more conducive to the sense of the sacredness of the Mass and of the Eucharist.
I also deeply love attending Orthodox liturgies from time to time. The Orthodox Church, the only other Church with a valid Eucharist, has in many ways preserved the sacrality and centrality of the Eucharist much as it was preserved in the Catholic rite before Vatican II. I still attend the ordinary form of the Mass, of course (it’s fully valid, without question) but I find that the more ancient Catholic rite (as well as the Orthodox one) is more conducive to expressing the greatness of God and the sacredness of divine worship
Yes confession is correct, but it causes a Ticket to Sin. I can Sin all I want, I’ll just go to the Confession Box and be Cleansed again. This is Why Christ said “Sin No More”, not go to the altar and Pray 10 Hail Mary Prayers. Alcoholic Anonymous says Drink No More.
I’m afraid it doesn’t quite work like that (though I wish it did, for it would be much easier 
). One may go to Confession a million times, but for the Confession to be truly valid and not sacrilegious, there must be a sincere firm purpose of amendment: a genuine resolve not to commit that particular sin again. Even if one falls again later a million times, that resolve must still be really authentic at the moment of Confession.
And if that resolve is not yet present, it is far better first to pray that God may grant it to you than to receive Him unworthily. You should receive Him only once you have sincerely resolved not to commit that sin again. And if someone prays that God may grant him the grace of repentance, he can be absolutely confident that God will not allow him to die in a state of mortal sin, and that He will grant him the resolve not to sin again.
Only someone who hasn’t understood what the Eucharist truly is can approach Him in the careless way you described.
That’s a very interesting point of view. I see some difficult with that view of grace. On a human level, we interact with another person on a continuing bases both verbally and in body language. It is clear if we are treated well by others or badly or just ignored. With God, it is different. Although we want a relationship with God through prayer, and just gratitude during the day, we don’t experience being treated well or not well from moment to moment. I don’t directly feel as I am being treated better by God when I’m in a state of grace. I think I’m more aware of the needs of others and what I should or should not do when in a state of grace but does that mean I’m being treated better by God?
You mentioned receiving justice but when we receive justice it is in the context of something we have done or failed to do and we generally know whether the judgement passed upon us was just or unjust. That does not happen with God, at least not in this life.
Considering grace to be the favorable way in which God treats us and our joyful response…I don’t know. When something good happens, say someone gets better after an illness, we thank the Lord but there is no evidence that God intervened. Indeed, the Church would not recognize that as a miracle unless the healing were somehow unexplainable scientifically. We almost always don’t know if God is intervening into the natural processes to help us, Thus, how do we know that He is treating us well?
I think you are using the phrase “state of grace” in a way I (as a non-Catholic) am not familiar with. I believe that anyone who calls Jesus Lord and is united with Christ by the Holy Spirit is reconciled to God and is always covered by God’s grace, no matter what sin they commit or whether or not they “feel” God’s grace toward them in the moment. The gift is being reconciled to God and being spiritually united with Christ through the indwelling Holy Spirit. That is an ongoing transformative experience that connects a person to God’s love and power to live righteously. I believe the Eucharist is a physical experience that makes the the spiritual reality of being forgiven and reconciled to God more tangible in the moment. I know Catholics and Protestants understand and experience the Eucharist differently though.
Matthew 19:16-26 “What must I do to have eternal life? … With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
God’s grace simply means that salvation is something God must do, for we cannot do it. It not something we can accomplish.
There is nothing of the sort in the Bible.
It sounds a great deal like a human organization taking salvation upon itself as something which it dispenses. It is not that this cannot be understood differently, but I think it makes such distortion and abuse too easy.
Indeed. It is to remind us salvation is all about grace, and thus not something we can accomplish but something God must do.
Spiritual? Yes. substance which can be obtained? No. John chapter 6 is a must read. It is all about understanding and accepting that Christianity is not about physical conditions and social reform but about our spiritual relationship with God.
This very question is opposed to faith itself. Salvation is not something you can own or accomplish. Read Romans chapter 10. You are not even to ask such a thing. And thinking you can say who goes to heaven or hell is a legalism which trades what Christ has done for you with your own works.
No and no and no.
This is not to say God cannot use you or a child’s simple words. But often it is in spite of your thinking rather than because of it.