A Pilgrim’s Notes: THE ENCHANTING WORLD OF DIVINE GRACE

FAUSTO GOMEZ OP

         Who is a Christian? A Christian may be correctly defined as a baptized person, who is loyal to the Blessed Trinity – to the grace of the Holy Spirit. Divine grace is the foundation of our being and acting as Christians, who are called to a life of grace, virtues, love, prayer and compassion – to holiness.  Hereafter, I present basic teachings on divine grace. (Cf. CCC 1996-2095)

         For a Christian, grace is the greatest power towards his/her full realization as a human being, a child of God and a brother/sister of all persons. As Christians, we are asked to do good deeds, to acquire by human efforts and’/or receive from God good attitudes or virtues, and to be good in the depth of the soul. The fundamental goodness is given by grace, which elevates the soul to the supernatural level or the level of God as God. Divine grace is always united to love. The New law of the believer is the law of grace and of love.

         Grace is the gift of gifts – a totally unmerited, gratuitous gift. Writes Saint Gregory of Nyssa: What words, thoughts of flight of the spirit can praise the superabundance of this grace? Man surpasses his nature: mortal, he becomes immortal; perishable, he becomes imperishable; fleeting, he becomes eternal; human, he becomes divine.

         In the present state of our wounded nature, we need grace in two ways: at the natural level, to be able to do all the possible good of nature (healing grace), and absolutely at the supernatural level, that is, to be elevated to the level of God as God (elevating grace). “It is through grace that you have been saved” (Eph 2:5). With the gift of grace comes the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity in the depth of the soul (Jn 14:23) is the effect of God’s special love for us.

         Grace in the soul is gratia, charis, chesed:  gracefulness, charm, graciousness, favor, kindness, piety, gratitude. Grace is a special love of God for all humans. God loves with common love all creation, and with special love humanity. God wants the salvation of all, and Christ died for all. Thus, God has bound himself to give sufficient graces to all. No one will be able to say: “Lord, You did not give me enough graces to reach salvation.” As free human beings, we may say no to God and thus commit sin, which is a betrayal of God’s grace and love. Without grace, moreover, one may – and should – pray always, and rely on God’s infinite mercy.

         Grace is a real participation in the very nature of God: “So that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature” (II Pet 1:4). The consequences of this incredible real and limited share in divine nature are truly awesome: we become children of God, God’s heirs, sisters/brothers of and in Jesus Christ, temples of the Blessed Trinity, new creatures indeed (cf. Rom 8:15-17; I Cor 3:16, Col 3:8-10).

         There are different kinds of grace. Grace “gratum faciens” is “grace that makes us pleasing to God by making a person holy (habitual or sanctifying grace) or preparing him for sanctification or preserving him or making him grow in it (actual graces)” (Cf. CCC 1999-2000).

         Another distinction of grace: Sanctifying grace, which is mainly ordered to personal sanctification, and freely bestowed graces (gratis datae), which are given for the salvation of others – like the different vocations and special graces. These special graces, or charisms – like the gift of miracles or of tongues – are also “oriented to sanctifying grace, and are intended for the common good of the Church” (CCC 2003).

         God is the principal cause of Grace: only He who is divine can make us divine. Christ is the meritorious cause of grace: all graces pass through Christ who redeemed us, satisfied for our sins, and ransomed us. Christ is the only Mediator of all graces. All graces flow from Christ: in particular from His Humanity and also from the Sacraments, in a unique way from the Holy Eucharist. To the end of time, the Holy Spirit will make the grace of Christ flow into the world and in the Church.

         The main effects of grace are justification and merit. Justification, which is the principal effect of grace, is the movement of the rational creature from the state of sin to the state of justice/holiness (St. Thomas Aquinas). Justification entails the following elements: forgiveness of sins, renewal and newness of life, and the human person’s free cooperation with grace. “God saving justice given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. No distinction is made: all have sinned and lack of God’s glory, and are justified by the free gift of his grace through being set free in Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:23-24).

         Merit, which is the secondary effect of grace, is a title to a supernatural reward. An essential point: the first grace cannot be merited. Grace belongs to a higher level to which we cannot go up by ourselves but only with God’s help, with his divine grace. Without grace, we can merit nothing. No one can truly boast of the good labor or deeds he or she has performed: “What have you got that was not given to you?” (I Cor 4:7). Our merits, St. Augustine writes, “are God’s gifts” (CCC 2009). With God’s grace and gifts we can “merit” eternal glory, the increase of grace, and – only if helpful on the way to heaven – temporal goods. There are many texts in the Bible that speak of reward for work well done: “Your labor will have a reward” (Jr 31:16}; “Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last arrivals and ending with the first” (Mt 20:8; cf. I Cor 3:8). Jesus’ Parables of the Ten Virgins, the Talents and the Last Judgment speak of different rewards or merits from God.

         Our baptismal and sacramental grace can grow and develop in a threefold manner: through the worthy reception of the sacraments, the practice of infused virtues – especially the theological virtues of faith, hope and, above all, charity-, and prayer of petition. Grace – always in the company of love – is developed and intensified by growing in charity as love of God and neighbor. St. Thomas Aquinas speaks of the ascending perfection of charity: of the charity of the beginners, of the mature, and of the perfect.

         We may also grow in grace by ascending the ladder of prayer: vocal prayer, meditation, contemplation, and union. One of the best descriptions of the development of grace is found in the Interior Castle or Las Moradas of St. Teresa of Avila, where she explains the seven mansions of the soul on its way to spiritual marriage and deepest union with God.

         Graceful believers are asked by their faith to be faithful to divine grace. Fidelity to grace is “the loyalty or docility in following the inspirations of the Holy Spirit in any form that He shows Himself” (A. Royo-Marin). Fidelity to grace entails fidelity to habitual and actual graces; in particular, to the many actual graces that God gives to all daily. It implies fidelity to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 8:14), to the movements of the Holy Spirit and his Gifts.

         With grace, the Holy Spirit enlightens us and moves us to know and do the right thing. He inspires us indirectly, too, through various instruments, such as saints and angels, preachers, good books, friends – and the cross! Our Lady, Mother Mary aids us in a unique way, after Christ: she is the “full of grace.”

         Grace is given to us in baptism as God’s powerful gift, which calls for a task – our free cooperation. It is not given to us as a piece for a museum, nor as a light to be hidden under a bushel: “This grace in me has not been fruitless”; “yes, working together with him, we entreat you not to receive the grace of God in vain” (II Cor 6:1). Divine grace is God’s gift to us that requires our free and responsible cooperation. Life is not easy. With God’s grace and love, one can bear any adversity. St. Paul reminds us of God’s words to him: “My grace is sufficient to you” (II Cor 12:9).

         Grace is “a divine seed” (I Jn 3:9), which we have to water, nurture, and care for through life. A young man entered a beautifully lighted store, which announced itself thus: “Everything you wish.”  He asked the angel managing the store: “I wish the end of all wars; justice for the exploited of the earth, tolerance and generosity towards all foreigners, profound love in the families, decent work for all the unemployed, and… and…” The angel interrupted him kindly: “Excuse me, young man, I think you did not understand me. Here, we do not sell fruits; we only sell seeds.”  Only seeds!  Grace and graces: divine seeds!     

(Published by O Clarim, November 18, 2016)

Significant Work of Mercy: FRATERNAL CORRECTION

                FAUSTO GOMEZ OP

(faustogomezb@yahoo.com)

 Through Christian tradition, the corporal works of mercy were generally focused on almsgiving while the spiritual works of mercy on admonishing the sinner, usually understood as fraternal correction or correction to the erring brother or sister (Mt 18:15). Fraternal correction is recommended by the Fathers of the Church and classical theologians.

Fraternal life means, “a life shared in love” (John Paul II), loving one another as brothers and sisters. Charity is undividedly love of God and love of neighbor. Loving the neighbor entails doing good to him or her, including correcting fraternally and prudently their faults. Fraternal correction is spiritual almsgiving, an external act of charity, an act of charity as love of neighbor by the path of mercy (St. Thomas Aquinas).

We speak here mainly of personal, individual fraternal correction – one on one -, which can only be made public when the fault is public and required to avoid scandal (I Tim 5:20). Beside personal fraternal correction, there is also public social correction not only from authorities and superiors, but also from subjects and citizens. Authentic public social correction is mainly an act of justice and has to do with the common good. As citizens of a country and of the world, and as believers in Jesus, at times we have to condemn and denounce publicly social evils, such as violence, injustice, human trafficking, exploitation of others, corruption.

Individual fraternal correction is ordered to repentance, to the amendment of the brother or sister who committed serious sin. Amendment – or conversion and change – is the goal or end of fraternal correction. I remember the words of Romano Guardini: “What is essential in love (in friendship) consist in this: that one wishes that the other be good and perfect.”

Generally, one does not call the attention of our neighbor to any and all moral faults or sins. Jesus tells us: “Do not judge and you will not be judged; because the judgments you give are the judgments you will get …” (This is a kind of karma) “Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own?” (Mt 7:3).

It is difficult for humans to judge another rightly. Indeed, only God judges rightly; we, humans, “by appearance” (cf. I Sam 16:7). God our compassionate Father deals with us all as his sons and daughters, and corrects our faults: “God is treating you as his sons. Has there been any son whose father did not correct him?”(Hb 12:7; Ws 12:1-2). Imitating God our Father, we are asked by Jesus to be compassionate: “Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate” (Lk 6:36). Fraternal correction is a merciful or compassionate act of love of neighbor.

 Jesus also says to us: “Do not keep judging according to appearances; let your judgment be according to what is right” (Jn 7:24). Jesus made corrections. He often calls the attention of his disciples individually or collectively: of Peter, John, Joh and James, and the disciples (cf. Mk 8:32-33, 14:29-31, 9:38-40; Lk 9:51-55). He corrects them for their lack of faith and trust in God (Mt 8:26, 14:31; Lk 17:5-6) and of vigilance (Mt 16:6-8). In Revelation we read the admonitions of the Spirit to the churches (Rev 1:4 – 3:22), and his call to repentance: “I reprove and train those whom I love: so repent in real earnest” (Rev 3:19).

Jesus exhorts us to practice fraternal correction: “If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone, between your two selves. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you… But if he refuses to listen to these, report it to the community …” (Mt 18:15-17). Before Jesus, the prophets – Jeremiah, Amos, Micah… – made strong admonitions to God’s people and some individual leaders. The saints and the preachers make corrections. St. Dominic de Guzman corrected the brethren when they did wrong with justice and compassion: “Brother, you have done wrong, do penance.” Pope Francis practices fraternal correction. For instance when on December 22, 2014, he accused the Roman Curia of fifteen possible “sicknesses.”

Correcting sinners is a serious responsibility of love (Lv 19:17-18; Sir 19:13-15; I Cor 11:17-22; 1 Th 5:14; 2 Th 3:13-15).” Admonishing the sinner is a precept of charity and at times it may be obligatory to practice it. When? When our neighbor commits something morally grave or seriously sinful and the circumstances warrant it. Admonishing someone who is not going to make amends is useless and not advisable. If correction to another is going to be counterproductive or make things worse, then it is not prudent to do it.

It is fashionable nowadays to be “politically correct,” that is, to say what others want to hear regardless of truth, justice and solidarity, which are with freedom the great social values.  Thus, for some – or many – among us, it is not “politically correct” to admonish sinners. Why complicate our life? It is not my concern! He or she knows what to do, anyway. St. Augustine questions us: “You do not care about the wounds of your brother?” Sin really hurts! The Bishop of Hippo sentences: “By keeping silent you are worse than he is by committing sin.” Fraternal correction is a precept and obliges all, including sinners, that is, all of us! Is it proper for a sinner to admonish another sinner? The Fathers of the Church answer in the positive, but caution us to be careful and not fall into the temptation of considering ourselves “holier and wiser than thou”! Often we commit the faults we are accusing others of. In these cases, St. Thomas Aquinas advises: We do not condemn the other but together weep and help each other to repent.

How to admonish sinners properly? Benedict M. Ashley answers wisely: “To make such a fraternal correction one must have certitude of the fault, a real necessity for the correction, a suitable opportunity to speak with the person, and a real possibility of the correction having a good effect.” Christian tradition recommends a fraternal correction which is “charitable, patient, humble, prudent, discreet, and ordered” (A Royo-Marin). The correction to a brother or sister must be done in the first place in secret (Mt 18:15): he or she has a right to a good name.

Generally, the saints accuse themselves and excuse others. They tell us that ordinarily the best way to practice fraternal correction is by giving good example and praying for the sinner in question. “Great wisdom is knowing to keep quiet and not looking neither to words nor deeds nor the lives of others”; “Do not harbor suspicion against your brother, because you will lose the purity of heart” (St. John of the Cross).

Pope Francis teaches us that one cannot admonish another without love or charity. Moreover, the Argentinian Pope adds: one can help another to grow by aiding him recognize the objective evil of his or her actions, but without judging his or her responsibility and culpability (cf. EG 172).

When and how to admonish or criticize others then? There are two kinds of criticism or judgment: negative (to destroy) and immoral, and positive (to improve) or ethical. The qualities of positive criticism are: first, we usually praise others and exceptionally, criticize or admonish them; second, we do it out of fraternal love; third, our correction is rooted in humility, and fourth, our neighbor’s moral fault is true and not the result of suspicion or rumor-mongering. When we are obliged to judge others, to make corrections, we do it, then, truthfully, humbly, charitably, and exceptionally! (Martin Descalzo).

On one hand, charity as love of neighbor calls us to admonish others when it is proper. If we love others and they feel loved by us, they will accept our correction: “Nothing moves to love than to feel loved.”  Moreover, as some authors underline, our humble and fraternal correction to the other may lead us to become more aware of our own faults and more committed to erase them. On the other hand, merciful charity urges us to accept proper fraternal correction from others: “Whoever rejects discipline wins poverty and scorn; for anyone who accepts correction: honor” (Pr 13:18). We will accept the corrections of our brothers and sisters because they love us, and “We listen to those who love us.”

Jesus keeps telling us: “Love one another just as I have loved you” (Jn 13:34).

(Published in O Clarim, November 4, 2016)

Remembering Saint John Paul II

FAUSTO GOMEZ OP

On October 22, 2016 the Church celebrates the feast of Saint John Paul II: October 22 (1978) was the day of his papal inauguration. The Polish Pope was proclaimed a Saint by Pope Francis on April 27, 2014. Earlier, Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed him Blessed on May I, 2011. Karol Josef Wojtyla – the future Pope – was born in Wadowice, Poland, on May 18, 1920.

I had the great luck of meeting John Paul II personally a few times. The first time I met him was on September 5, 1980 in Castel Gandolfo. Together with twenty eight priests and eight bishops, I had the great luck of concelebrating at the Eucharist presided over by the Holy Father. What impressed me most then was the contemplative attitude of the Holy Father through the Mass:  totally absorbed, following carefully the rhythm of the Mass, pronouncing each word (in Latin) slowly and distinctly, making strategic pauses of silence.

Throughout his 26 years as successor of Saint Peter the (he is the 264^th successor), John Paul II showed the primary place of prayer in his life. Some authors today consider him a modern mystic. It is said that he made decisions on his knees. Monsignor Slawomir, the postulator of the Pontiff’s cause of beatification, was asked: What aspect of the Pope’s life particularly struck you? He answered: He was certainly a mystic, “a mystic in the sense that he  was a man who lived in the presence of God, who let himself be guided by the Holy Spirit, who was in constant dialogue with the Lord, who built his whole life around the question (asked by Jesus to Peter), ‘Do you love me’.” A close collaborator of the Pope said on April 30, 2011: “To see him pray was to see a person who was in conversation with God.”

I remember with special fondness the third time I met him personally. (The second time I met him took place during his first visit to the University of Santo Tomas, Manila in February 1981; in this visit, he beatified Lorenzo Ruiz and Companions Martyrs – now saints – at the Luneta Park, Manila) It was during the World Youth Day in Manila (January 1995), where the Holy Father had the greatest audience ever – until then: more than four million people attended the Pope’s final Mass. (One Hong Kong newspaper wrote that on that occasion the multitude became a megatude). Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass in the University of Santo Tomas with the youth delegates – 245 from all over the world – to the 5^th International Youth Forum. This time after the Mass he greeted one by one the students and some others who had the great luck of attending the Mass. While the Holy Father greeted the youth he embraced them – and also some others not so young including me. While he embraced me I could hardly tell him, “Holy Father I have read your lovely book Crossing the Threshold of Hope.” He looked at me intensely and kindly, and told me “Bene, bene.” I was deeply touched! I remember the words of TIME when the magazine named the Pope Man of the Year (1994): “He generates electricity unmatched by anyone else in the world.”

The last time I met the John Paul II was on February 21, 2004 at the Sala Clementina in the Vatican in the company of about a hundred and fifty people, most of us members of the Pontifical Academy for Life. By that time, he was already sickly, with his Parkinson developing slowly. He could not walk anymore and it was hard to understand his speech. But even then, and against the advice of some of his assistants, Pope John Paul II greeted us – about 130 people – one by one: we knelt before him and kissed his ring; he blessed us and smiled.  Many writers on John Paul II underline this characteristic of the late Pope: he was concerned with the person, with each person, each one creature and image of God. This is one of the reason he touched the hearts of so many people throughout the world: the young, the children, the old, men and women from other religions and cultures…

In his first Encyclical Redemptor Hominis, Redeemer of the World (1979), issued a few months after his election, Pope John Paul II explains that man is the road of the Church and Christ is the road of man: Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Son Mary, the primordial foundation of Christian morality, the Way, the Truth and the Life. John Paul II was missionary of the world: he visited about 130 countries during his papacy. He was from Poland but, indeed, the world was his parish. The well-known Catholic convert André Fossard once said: “This is not a Pope from Poland, but a Pope from Galilee.”

St. John Paul II knew Jesus deeply, loved him intimately and followed him unconditionally up to the end. He was a great devotee of Mary the Mother of Jesus and her faithful servant: totus tuus, all yours! The Polish Pope believed that it was mainly the Virgin Mary the one who saved him after being shot and gravely wounded in St. Peter’s Square precisely on May 13 (1991), the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima.  In his lovely Apostolic Letter on “the most holy Rosary,” Rosarium Virginis Mariae (2002), Pope John Paul II writes that Mary is the best teacher on Jesus. In union with Mary, we “learn” Jesus: we learn “to read Christ, to uncover his secrets and to understand his message.”

October of every year – the month of the Holy Rosary – will remind us of St. John Paul II’s holy life, of his total dedication to Christ, Mary and the Church, of his fundamental writings and teachings. In particular one recalls his teachings on human life found especially in his Encyclical (he wrote fourteen encyclicals) Evangelium Vitae,” or The Gospel of Life (1995), the first encyclical on bioethics, where he repeats one of his constant mottos: “Human life must be defended from the moment of conception to natural death.”  I also treasure his radical and creative social teachings found in his three social encyclicals and many addresses and exhortations. It is worth noting here that John Paul II, a remarkable worker since he was a youth, was beatified on May 1, the day of labor. He wrote a pace-setting social encyclical on human work, Laborem Exercens (1981): “Capital is for labor; work is for man.”  From the social teachings, I consider this point most innovative: heretic is not only the believer who does not accept or distorts an article of the Creed, but also one who does not share something with the poor and weak of the world. (Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, 2001)

I love to underline his substantial teachings on freedom and truth (in his basic encyclical Veritatis Splendor, The Splendor of Truth, 1994): “Freedom is not freedom from the truth but freedom in the truth”; on justice and love: “love is the soul of justice”; on peace and democracy (as it is well known, the late Pope contributed immensely to the collapse of European communism in 1989). Just before the war of Iraq he shouted from the famous papal balcony in the Vatican: “No to war. War doesn’t resolve anything. I have seen war. I know what war is.” The Pope words on justice and forgiveness (after the incredible terrorist attacks against the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001) ring frequently in my ears: “No peace without justice, no justice without forgiveness.”

As a consecrated person I appreciate John Paul II Vita Consecrata (1996), his important Apostolic Exhortation in which he invites religious men and women to be holy, that is prayerful and compassionate: to go up to the mountain of prayer and to come down to the market-place of the world and witness their passion for God and compassion for humanity.

I remember that once, somewhere in 2004, I discussed with a Dominican brother from the States the possibility that John Paul II might resign as Pope. Later on I read somewhere that someone asked John Paul II: “Will Your Holiness resign.” The Pope answered him marvelously: “I cannot, because Jesus did not go down from the cross.” On February 21-23, 2005, the members of the Pontifical Academy for Life could not have an audience with the Holy Father. By then John Paul II was gravely ill. He would die one month and a half later, on April 2, 2005, after giving his most moving and last speech to the world:  his patient, compassionate, dignified, exemplary way of dying and facing death. Before dying, when thousands of young people were camping near the Vatican and praying for the Pope, he said to his assistants: “Tell the young, I love them.” We are told that his last words – almost inaudible – were: “Let me go… Let me go to the house of the Father.” I remember the Pope had said at the beginning of his pontificate, then with his booming voice: “Our life is a pilgrimage to the house of the Father.” He is in the house of the Father! I am sure he remembers us singing in Manila, in New York, in London, in Rome: “John Paul II, we love you!” Now we petition him: Saint John Paul II, pray for us!

(Published by O Clarim, October 21, 2016)