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PAGE 5-September 9,1976
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All Life A Grace?
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BY STEVE LANDREGAN
“Amazing grace . . . how sweet the sound . ..
that saved a wretch like me . . Once in a
while a hymn finds its way into the realm of
popular music. The old Baptist hymn “Amazing
Grace” did so a couple of seasons ago and
Americans listened to the venerable revival song
in the simple and clear voice of Judy Collins,
and the unlikely strains of Scottish pipes.
“I once was lost .. . but now I’m found . ..
was blind but now I see ...” Its message of
God’s mysterious seeking after man’s response
seemed a strange contrast to the lyrics of many
pop songs with their messages of man’s seeking
ever-elusive happiness in the unspiritual and the
ungodly.
The paradox of the creator God seeking man
while the creature man seeks himself is the
heart of salvation history, which is, in fact, the
story of a God who will not take “no” for an
answer.
In this new series of Know Your Faith
articles entitled “Roots of Our Faith: Biblical
Insights,” there can be only one starting place;
God’s reaching out to man, God’s revelation of
himself, in search of a loving response from
man that will restore him to the intimate union
with God for which he was created.
We call this grace, because God’s reaching
out toward man seeking a loving response is an
undeserved gift.. . freely given by God. It is
not something that man has either earned or
deserves. It is from the idea of gift . .. and the
Latin “gratia” meaning a favor freely given . . .
that we get the word “grace.”
The old hymn’s title is apt because God’s
grace is amazing. In a world where men and
women frequently profess to be Christians yet
live much more frequently by the rule of “an
eye for an eye” than “turn the other cheek,”
the concept of a God who wants to give man
more than he deserves is both amazing and
confounding.
It would be better to say that God wants
man to deserve more and thus not only reaches
out to him seeking a loving response but gives
to men and women the ability to respond to
the Divine invitation.
Human consciousness is innately aware of a
tendency toward selfishness and sin that
theologians call concupiscence. It is likely that
this is what the hymn writer was referring to
when he wrote of the amazing grace “that saved
a wretch like me.”
It is only when we are aware of our natural
desires to seek the things of this world that
appear to us to be good but are actually
mirages, that we become aware of the truly
amazing aspect of God’s grace that constantly
calls us and enables us to respond not because
of anything we have done but simply because
God’s love for us is so limitless. This awareness
in itself is the fruit of God’s grace.
God’s grace, which is actually His own Spirit
dwelling within us, leads us to faith in God’s
love and mercy, hope that He will never
abandon us, and unselfish love of God and our
neighbor.
The journey that each person makes toward
God begins with God’s insistent call to share in
His life, to become an heir with His Son. Each
one’s final destination is determined by his
response to God’s call which continues until
death seals man’s final answer.
GRACE — Steve Landregan writes “It is only when we are
aware of our natural desires to seek the things of this world that
appear to us to be good but are actually mirages that we
become aware of the truly amazing aspect of God’s grace that
constantly calls us and enables us to respond not because of
anything we have done but simply because God’s love for us is
so limitless. This awareness in itself is the fruit of God’s grace.”
(NC Photo)
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Relationship Between God And Humanity
s — S
BY FATHER JOHN J. CASTELOT
In the first chapter of the letter to the
Ephesians there is a magnificent survey of the
heavenly Father’s plan of salvation. It begins:
.. . God chose us in him before the world
began, to be holy and blameless in his sight, to
be full of love; he likewise predestined us
through Christ Jesus to be his adopted sons —
such was his will and pleasure — that all might
praise the glorious favor he has bestowed on us
in his beloved (Eph 1; 3-6).
These verses enunciate a theme which is basic
to our whole understanding of the relationship
between God and Humanity, between God and
us: Salvation is a gift, a gift which the Father
planned to give us before we or anything else
existed. And all throughout what we call
salvation history it has always been He who has
taken the initiative, not humanity.
The actual working out of this plan in human
history began with the call of Abraham about
1800 B.Q. Abram, as he was named originally,
was a pagan, a worshiper of the Babylonian
moon god, a semi-nomad — in other words,
from the viewpoint of salvation history, a
nobody.
Centuries later the prophet Ezekiel reminded
Jerusalem and her people of their shady origins
in what is one of the most powerful, graphic
chapters in the Old Testament (Ez. 16). But
salvation history was not Abram’s project; it
was God’s, and He could use the most unlikely
instruments for the accomplishment of His
purposes. And so:
The Lord said to Abram: ‘Go forth from the
land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s
house to a land that I will show you. I will
make of you a great nation, and I will bless
you; I will make your name great, so that you
will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless
you and curse those who curse you. All the
communities of the earth shall find blessing in
you’ (Gn 12: 1-3).
This powerful act of divine initiative was the
first in a long series of similar acts from which a
definite pattern gradually emerged. St. Paul
gave expression to this pattern:
God chose those whom the world considers
absurd to shame the wise; he singled out the
weak of this world to shame the strong. He
chose the world’s lowborn and despised, those
who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing
those who were something; so that mankind
can do no boasting before God (1 Cor. 1,
27-29).
All of the great prophets who played
influential roles in the salvation drama were
called to their task by the Lord of history. Most
of them, from Moses on, were reluctant to
answer the Divine call. But in the face of God’s
insistent initiative, they felt what amounted
almost to a compulsion to respond.
The same was true of the kings who were
called to shepherd God’s people. Their situation
was not quite the same as that of the prophets,
of course. For the prophetic office was not
hereditary; the royal office was. Once the
dynasty of David had been established, son
succeeded father on the throne — a not too
happy arrangement, as it turned out.
But again, God took the initiative in
establishing the dynasty in the first place. And
again, His choice of David was unexpected,
according to human standards.
Jesse’s first six sons all looked good to
Samuel, who was to make the choice. But it
was the seventh son, the youngest, whom God
wanted: David, who happened to be out
tending the sheep at the moment (1 Sm. 16,
1-13). In the Divine plan he was to be the
founder of the royal House of David, the
dynasty on which the people came in the
course of time to pin their messianic hopes (see
2 Sm. 7, 8-17). In spite of his all too human
failings, he became the ideal king, so much so
that later generations thought of the “Messiah”
in terms of a new David.
Looking back on the culmination of this
history, Paul wrote: “ .. . when the designated
time had come, God sent forth his Son born of
a woman, born under the law (of Moses)” (Gal.
4,4). And the Gospel of Matthew begins: “A
family record of Jesus (the) Christ, son of
David, son of Abraham” (Mt. 1,1).
The salvation history climax was reached in
the coming of Jesus. Eighteen centuries had
passed since the call of Abram and the Divine
promise that in him all the nations of the earth
would be blessed. A thousand years had gone
by since the young shepherd boy David was
called to shepherd God’s people and was
promised a dynasty which would stand firm
forever. Here now is the ideal Son of Abraham,
the new Israel, the one in whose person and
work the Divine promises would be fulfilled
beyond man’s fondest dreams. Here now is the
ideal Son of David, come to inaugurate God’s
kingdom and to realize in a transcedent way the
promise made to David. For as risen Lord He
would be King of kings, and of His kingdom
there would be no end.
But even here the pattern persists; the
Christ-event itself is the result of God’s
initiative. It would be hard to find a more
explicit statement of this than the one from the
Fourth Gospel: “Yes, God so loved the world
that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes
in him may not die but may have eternal life”
(Jn. 3, 16).
And this finds a strong echo in the first letter
of John: “Love, then, consists in this: not that
we have loved God, but that he has loved us and
has sent his Son as an offering for our sins” (1
Jn. 4, 10)
KNOW
YOUR FAITH
Believing
In The Human
BY RUSSELL SHAW
Two thousand years ago a distraught father,
mildly rebuked by Jesus for hesitating to
believe that his possessed son could be freed
from the spirit who tormented him, summed up
the problem of belief as experienced by many
people then and now:
“I do believe! Help my lack of trust!” (Mk 9,
24)
As Vatican Council II suggested, there may
be something new in the systematization of
disbelief today. It is certainly “one of the most
serious problems of our time.” (“The Church
Today” 19) But there is nothing new about
disbelief itself.
Skepticism, doubt, crisis of faith — these
things have always existed. So has the sort of
halting conviction — belief without trust —
expressed by the father of the possessed youth
in Mark’s Gospel. The worm of doubt has
always gnawed in human hearts. Perhaps it
always will.
Vatican II devoted a long section to
problems of belief and unbelief in
its document on “The Church Today.” It
identified many causes of unbelief. One in
particular has persisted throughout human
history: the problem of evil.
Evil is more than a problem — it is mystery.
It is not difficult to accept the idea that God
permits physical and moral evil so that good
may come from it. But it is often extremely
difficult to see this happening — and even more
difficult to understand why all-good and
all-powerful God should tolerate this state of
affairs.
IT IS NOT ESPECIALLY
DIFFICULT to accept that God
permits physical and moral evil so that
good may come from it, Russell Shaw
writes, but it is often extremely
difficult to see this happening. The
Book of Job probes this mystery
profoundly and arrives at the answer
that humanly speaking, “there is no
answer.” (NC Sketch from the Catholic
Encyclopedia for School and Home
reprinted with permission of Grolier,
Inc.
The Book of Job probes the mystery
profoundly and arrives at the answer that,
humanly speaking, there is no answer. At the
end Job concedes to the Lord: “I know that
you can do all things, and that no purpose of
yours can be hindered. I have dealt with great
things that I do not understand; things too
wonderful for me, which I cannot know.” And
God observes that “my servant Job” has
“spoken rightly concerning me” (Job 42, 1-7).
Still it is a matter of Christian belief that
“God makes all things work together for the
good of those who have been called according
to his decree”. (Rom. 8:28); that “God must be
proved true though every man be proved a liar”
(Rom. 3:4); that “if we are unfaithful He will
still remain faithful, for He cannot deny
Himself” (2 Tim. 2:13). Most of us do believe
this, truly though imperfectly. Our biggest
problem of belief is less with God than with
ourselves.
To speak of disbelieving in ourselves may
sound paradoxical. It is not meant to be.
Regardless of how they think about God, many
people find it next to impossible to accept the
truth about themselves: that they are God’s
adopted children, Christ’s brothers and sisters,
rescued by Him from Sin and destined to rise as
He did and live forever with God.
Most Catholics have heard these formulas
repeated since early childhood. If pressed, most
of us would say we believe them. But do we
really? Does belief make any practical
difference in the way we live? If not, what does
that say about our belief?
Pessimistic skepticism about the human is
commonplace these days, perhaps especially
among those who think of themselves as
humanists. It amounts to a denial, in theory or
in practice, that human nature has been raised
above the limitations imposed on it by sin or
that human life enjoys a transcendent destiny
and dimension. Such disbelief in ourselves can
be more corrosive than disbelief in God. It leads
us to settle for tragically less than the destiny
to which we are called.
Full accepting the truth about ourselves
would make a profound difference in our lives.
What is the truth? St. Paul puts it this way:
“We are children of God. But if we are children,
we are heirs as well: Heirs of God, heirs with
Christ, if only we suffer with Him so as to be
glorified with Him” (Rom. 8,16-17). We are to
“consider (ourselves) dead to sin but alive for
God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6. 11). And “if we
have been united with Him through likeness to
His death,” we know that “through a like
resurrection” we shall be raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father (Rom. 6,5).
As a practical matter, then, the problem of
belief for many people centers more upon the
human than the divine. Who are we? Why are
we here? Where are we going? These are
perennial human questions. Upon the answers
we give depends the meaning — or lack of
meaning — we assign to our own lives.
Ultimately, as Vatican II said, it is in Jesus that
we must find the answer. In revealing God’s
immense love for us, He “brings to light (our)
most high calling” (“The Church today,” 22).
How is one to acquire and sustain this vision
of human life? To do so is a significant part of
what it means to have faith. Philosophy,
theology, apologetics — these things can help.
But in the last analysis faith is a free gift given
to us by God who loves us. He will give us this
gift as we open ourselves to receive it as did the
father in Mark’s Gospel: “I do believe! Help my
lack of trust!”
seventh son the youngest, whom God wanted. David who was
out tending his sheep was called and annointed by Samuel as
depicted in this painting by Brother Eric deSaussure. (NC Photo)
THE CHOICE of David to be king Father John J. Castelot
writes was unexpected. The first six sons of Jesse all looked
good to Samuel who was to -make the choice. But it was the