Grace Is Indeed A Gift, Free For the Taking; But Is Not Cheap!

Grace is a Gift, but is Not Cheap!

God gives; and God takes away.  God is the giver of all gits & blessings, all the graces in the universe -- both the actual graces and the sanctifying grace.  Man can ask all the time, and all he needs.  Yet it is still up to God's providence and mystery whether he gives them or not.  We are all humble beggars before the Lord; let us never be poor takers.

The Good News of Salvation consists in Christ being the answer to all our problems. Christ has given us a new life, the life of grace. This is the life of freedom. If you believe, nothing is impossible in Christ; and if it is in accord with the will of the Father.

And so we have been blessed with the Church, comprising of the Saints and saintlies as well as newly the initiated and yet un-initiated followers of the faith. Thus to be a believer or follower of Christ is to become entitled to the marvellous powers of Christ's grace as to live that life of grace. To this, gloriously testify the Saints and the saintlies, especially they who are already in heaven, (the Saints), and the saintlies in Purgatory, and among the living on earth, who are steadfast in their trying to abide by the will of God. Hence, we are happy for all of these, in particular for the Apostles, and the individual Saints we have come to know, like the Saints Francis, George, John Bosco, Teresas', Rita de Cascia, Padre Pio, Thomas, Anthony de Padua, Margaret a la Coque, Catherine, Elizabeth Seton, Edith Stein, Maximillian Kolbe, Lorenzo, etc.. It is God's glory that they worship God now permanently in heaven; it is God's glory that in the process of their worship and union with God they are so gloriously happy. And it is God's glory that through the process and reality of the Communion of Saints in the Body of Christ these Saints are effectively interceding for the many petitions of souls to the heavens, eg the little miraculous helps and assistances they are able to procure from Christ's depository of graces by their prayers to God for the needy and soliciting souls of both the Purgatory and the earth. Thus we can not but say, "Alleluia! Praise God, and thanks be to God! Salvation is with them "triumphants" of heaven, and salvation is forthcoming with them sufferers of Purgatory and militants/vigilants of the earth.

Yet lest we become remiss with the reality of salvation, redemption, or the living in the new life of Christ we are to become aware about how these heavenly triumphants have finally gotten to heaven! Let us look back at the lives of the Apostles. Except for John the Evangelist, all the Apostles were martyred before they eventually transited to heaven. To begin with St. John the Baptist was beheaded. Then starting from St. Peter, he was crucified upside down. St. James was also beheaded. St. Bartholomew was skinned to death. Of course, there was St. Stephen stoned to death as he already was having vision of heaven while yet dying. Then St. Paul was also beheaded. We mentioned in some places of the first Christians who were thrown to the devouring lions in the Roman arenas as they were persecuted for their faith. Then among the latter Saints, Maximillian Kolbe was executed by the Nazis. St. Edith Stein was among them victim of the holocaust. St. Rita de Cascia was abused by her husband. And there were young Virgins among the first Christians who were also martyred for refusal to be espoused by force to some Pagan "Lords"/Masters/Kings. From the biographies of Saints we could cite enumerable examples or witnesses to believers' astounding living of their faith.

Thus we say grace is not cheap. Any talk or writing or treating of grace in the most casual manner in terms of the manner of receiving and living it is not a worthy and proper and therefore not a meaningful referencing or identifying of grace. It will take more than mere honesty or integrity of the mind. For the life of grace is not a mere mental activity or literary activity. St. Paul says, "..if I could speak all languages of humans and of angels but have no love for others, I would be nothing more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." In other words we might have experienced a lifetime of philosophizing or verbalizing of great words of wisdom so astonishing sounding as to soundspiritual, or angelic; but unless they cease being just mental acts, and unless they are become actual acts of the heart, body, and soul of the person precisely acted upon by grace, (namely sacramentally), then they are nothing more than earthly and vain noises of the moments.

Hence we are back to a statement we have said in some other places: No pain, no gain; no dying to self, no rising into a new life of the spirit.

To recapitulate this truth: it takes faith by grace, not mere thoughts of honesty to be able to attain meaningfulness from life. To persist only in horizontal, humanistic exercise is to be forever disillusioned and cut-off from the wonders of living graces from God, from Christ.  And in the end, it is never up to man to obtain the blessings or graces.  Graces are God's gifts.  It is providentially up to the wisdom and mystery of the Almighty if he does or does not grant our prayers. Always we are to remember:  God gives, and also God takes away; (we might add, according to his judgment, he also does not give.)