Today, in the letter to the Romans, St Paul addresses how we become right before God. Yes, according to St Paul, salvation comes through our faith in Christ. But, when he is writing this letter, some of the Jewish Christians in the Christian communities saw the foundation of their faith and their life in God still to be rooted in Mosaic law. For example, they were urging all Christians, including those Gentiles who converted to Christianity, to be circumcised as was required for all Jews by Mosaic law before the new covenant with Christ.
Paul goes on to say that we are justified freely by God’s grace through our redemption in Christ Jesus. God’s grace is an interesting topic in our faith. We can come up with a theological definition of God’s grace, but it is something we need to experience and to recognize to really begin to understand it. God’s grace is a freely given gift to us. It is not something that we earn or merit on our own. Paul sees God’s grace as a work of God’s spontaneous love for humanity. The Catechism states this about God’s grace: "Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons (and daughters), partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life. Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of the life of Trinity.” We experience God’s grace through our participation in the sacraments in our Catholic faith. We experience God’s grace in the messiness, struggles, and difficulties in life. We experience God’s grace in the ordinary moments in our lives as well. One way to experience God’s grace is to pray for his will in our lives, and when we discern his will in our hearts, to follow. We thank God for the gift of our faith today, the gift to celebrate Mass today as a community around the table of the Lord. We thank him for the gift of his grace.
No comments:
Post a Comment