By the grace of God Saint Paul says in our first reading today that if we offer ourselves to God, sin no longer has power over us. Oh yeah? Then how come I keep falling back into sin? Why do I behave selfishly? Why do I still do the hurtful things that I really dont want to do? (You too, huh?) Its grace that empowers us to resist sin. Without it, we repeatedly fail. This is why the Sacrament of Confession is extraordinarily helpful. Since this avenue of forgiveness is a sacrament, we receive more than forgiveness: We receive Gods grace. However, if we offer ourselves to God before we sin, we put ourselves into his grace and receive his aid for resisting temptation. The Blessed Mother was able to avoid sinning because she was full of grace. Grace is Gods supernatural gift to help us rise above our sinful tendencies. The more Christ-like we become, the easier it is to resist temptation. However, holiness is a difficult journey. Desiring to be Christ-like isnt enough to keep us from sinning. We need supernatural grace. Grace empowers us. Without grace, were enslaved to sin, which leads to death – the death of our souls. With grace, we choose the path of obedience, doing what God wants us to do, because we love him and want to be like him, rather than doing what were tempted to do apart from God. By choosing to place ourselves under his benevolent authority, we accept the holy power of our Good Master, and this enables us to be righteous. Surrender (offering ourselves to God) is the catalyst that turns a temptation into a victory. Thus, if I feel hurt by an injustice done to me and vengeful anger begins to dictate my response, I can choose to pause and place myself under Gods grace. This means choosing to be merciful to those who treated me unfairly, praying for them and, if appropriate, finding a good deed to do for them, treating them better than the way they treated me. Under Gods grace, I can take this holy approach. Under Gods grace, with the anger gone, I can figure out how he wants me to bring justice to the situation. Surrender and obedience stop temptation and prevent sin. Handling others gracefully gets our focus off of their sins and helps us pay attention to how Jesus himself is giving us the love and the goodness that others have denied to us. Only under Gods grace can we successfully do the opposite of what were tempted to do. Only under Gods grace are we able to be victorious in our walk of holiness. By the grace of God, we live in righteousness and change the world around us.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 05:34:00 +0000
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