Sanctifying Grace ♥ Preserve, Recover, Grow

Sanctifying grace not only enables us to live in close union and communication with God in this life, it also prepares the soul for another gift which God will add after death. The gift of supernatural vision, the power to see God face to face, as he really is—the Light of Glory. Sanctifying grace is the prerequisite. 

If we go into eternity deprived of sanctifying grace, then we have lost God forever.

Therefore, after receiving sanctifying in Baptism, we need to:

1:  Preserve it permanently till the end

2: Recover it immediately (through the sacrament of Penance) if lost through mortal sin 

3: Seek to grow in it—the higher the degree of sanctifying grace the greater our happiness in heaven

And God has not left us without help. On our own, these 3 tasks would indeed be impossible. So God provides momentary spurts of spiritual energy with which God touches the soul, otherwise known as actual graces—interior supernatural gifts of God bestowed on us through the merits of Jesus Christ for our own salvation. 

"(B)ut he has answered me, 'My grace is enough for you: for power is at full stretch in weakness.' It is, then, about my weaknesses that I am happiest of all to boast, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me; and that is why I am glad of weaknesses, insults, constraints, persecutions and distress for Christ's sake. For it is when I am weak that I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12: 9-10

Ref: The Faith Explained by Leo J. Trese

Sanctifying Grace ♥ Supernatural Gift

When Adam and Eve sinned, they (and their descendents a.k.a. ‘us’) became unworthy of anything beyond the ordinary natural gifts pertaining to human nature. But Jesus Christ, by his death on the cross, earned for us the grace, which Adam had so lightly tossed away. Jesus restored back to the human race the supernatural gift of sanctifying grace, which God so generously intended for humanity from the beginning. We each receive this gift sanctifying grace at Baptism.

What exactly is sanctifying grace?

It is that power that would make it possible for whoever possesses it to live in close (albeit invisible) union with God in this life. God imparted this power by the indwelling of himself in our souls. Isn’t that marvelous? This is what makes Christianity different from other religions—that God Almighty would ‘take up residence’ in our human souls.

When we are baptized, we received sanctifying grace for the first time. God (the Holy Spirit by ‘appropriation’) takes up his abode within us. By his presence he imparts to our souls that supernatural quality which makes it possible for God, in a grand and mysterious manner, to see himself in us and therefore love us. And because this supernatural gift was purchased for us by Christ, we are bound by it to Christ, we share it with Christ—and God consequently sees us as he sees his son—and we become, each of us, a child of God. 

“But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God” John 1:12

Ref: The Faith Explained by Leo J. Trese

Our Fall ♥ His Mercy

The gifts of intelligence and the freedom of will, to accompany the marvelously designed human body, these were the things to which human beings were entitled to, by their very nature. But that was not enough for God. He wanted to give more. He also bestowed on Adam and Eve the preternatural (beyond normal) gifts of freedom from suffering and death, great wisdom, and perfect self-control. But the most precious gift was the supernatural gift of sanctifying grace, the bond of intimate union with God.  

These gifts were to be passed on by Adam to his descendants...

But the one thing that was required of Adam in order to secure these gifts was that he must freely out of his own will, give his love irrevocably to God. This was the purpose of man's creation: to give glory to God by their love for him, and in that love find eternal happiness. 

But Adam and Eve rejected God. And so the preternatural and supernatural gifts were lost. All that remained were the gifts that man were entitled to by their human nature. The sin committed was not Adam's alone. Because all of us were present, potentially, in our common father Adam, all of us were affected when he sinned. 'Because our human nature fell from grace in its very origin, we say that we are born 'in the state of original sin'.'  The stain of original sin is not something 'on' or 'in' the soul. Original sin like sin is a no-thing. And so it is something that is absent from the soul. A state where we are depraved from sanctifying grace...the ability to be in union with God. 

People often ask, "Why must I suffer for something that I didn't do? It was Adam's sin, not mine. I wasn't even there!" And then they might further add, "God's not fair!"

The gifts lost to us were not the ones that we were entitled to by reason of our human nature. Those were the 'extras' that would have been ours if Adam had obeyed God. It wouldn't be right to blame God. 

If, long before, lets say a man named Bob, was born, some wealthy man had offered Bob's dad a huge huge sum of money for a small job, and Bob's dad turned it down. Bob can't blame the wealthy man because he is poor. It was his father's fault. Not the rich man's. 

But even though we lost all the preternatural gifts, God in his infinite mercy did restore to mankind the most important gift-sanctifying grace. Jesus Christ's death on the cross has restored that gift to us which we receive through baptism. And we should all be thankful for that. I know I am. 

Ref: The Faith Explained by Leo J. Trese