For the Greater Glory of God (ENGLISH): JOURNEY WITH MARY - [Episode - 4]

Sunday, November 1, 2020

JOURNEY WITH MARY - [Episode - 4] - GROWING UP IN GRACE

JOURNEY WITH MARY

[Episode - 4] - GROWING UP IN GRACE

Click the link to listen to the episode in the company of Fr. C. George Mary Claret

https://anchor.fm/greatergloryofgod/episodes/JOURNEY-WITH-MARY-Ep--4---GROWING-UP-IN-GRACE-elsjjd

Growing up in Grace is the call to be Saints – following the example of Mary

- Grace is the divine life – obtained through the Christ Event by Christ.

Grace in the CCC

- 1996 Our justification comes from the grace of God. 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.⁴⁶

- 1997 Grace is a PARTICIPATION IN THE LIFE OF GOD. It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life: by Baptism the Christian participates in the grace of Christ, the Head of his Body. As an "adopted son" he can henceforth call God "Father," in union with the only Son. He receives the life of the Spirit who breathes charity into him and who forms the Church.

God gives us His grace through various means and especially through the Sacraments.

- Baptism (Romans 6:1-14 - Dying and rising with Christ

“What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For whoever has died is freed from sin. 8 But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. 13 No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”

Romans 11:17 – grafting

“If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been GRAFTED in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root.”

John 15 – I am the vine and you are the branches.

Church is the Body of Christ and we are its members through the Sacrament of Baptism

- Cooperation with God and using / living according to the special sanctifying graces given through the Sacraments and other graces is essential

- This is what means – Not Faith alone (Sola Scriptura) – Human cooperation is essential – Faith in Action

Faith in Action:

James 2: 18-26

“18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. 20 Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is barren? 21 Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works. 23 Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.”

- Not automatic or magical

CCC ON USING THE GRACES AND HUMAN COOPERATION

- 2004 Among the special graces ought to be mentioned the graces of state that accompany the exercise of the responsibilities of the Christian life and of the ministries within the Church:

- Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, in liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.⁵⁵1 Corinthians 12

- 2005 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.⁵⁶ However, according to the Lord's words "Thus you will know them by their fruits"⁵⁷ - reflection on God's blessings in our life and in the lives of the saints offers us a guarantee that grace is at work in us and spurs us on to an ever greater faith and an attitude of trustful poverty.

Illustration:

- Climbing to the top of a tall building using a rope

- Salt doll & Ocean

- Container – Pond & water from borewell and pond

- Life-long

- Total self-emptying is essential

The fruits of the sacraments?

Being aware of them and owning them – cooperating with them

Baptism – dying and rising with Christ

- becoming an adopted child

- becoming a member of the Mystical Body of Christ

Questions to Reflect:

Am I entering into the Divine Life God has offered me?
What are the challenges I have been facing to cooperate with the Sanctifying graces?
What should I do to overcome them?
What do Mother Mary and the Saints teach me about it?

Biblical Passages for Reflection: