The Theology of Grace

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on the cross to redeem mankind and open up heaven for all of us. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus won and gained for us immense, countless, powerful, precious and beautiful graces that have poured down upon us like a waterfall of diamonds and jewels. These graces Jesus passed to Mary and the Church to distribute to all humanity for its salvation.

Jesus established the seven sacraments as a way and means for us to concretely obtain these graces. The three “c’s” is what the sacraments do in regards to grace: they cause, contain and confer graces. Luther denied the power of the sacraments (except for two) to cause, contain and confer graces. He saw them as mere and empty symbols and completely useless to effect any spiritual change in a person. That is why Luther threw out the window the sacraments of reconciliation, the Mass, Confirmation, Holy Orders and Anointing of the sick.

If one does away with grace, one does away with the whole sacramental order. If one does away with the sacraments, one does away with the priesthood. If one does away with the priesthood, one does away with the Church and eventually Jesus himself. What is left? Absolutely nothing remains. A Church based solely on the private interpretation of a book called the Bible is doomed to die and wither away, leaving no vestiges behind.

Through Christ’s power and presence in the Church, the sacraments do cause, contain and confer grace. Grace is necessary for salvation and without it one cannot enter heaven. Grace is a free gift of God and the only requirement on the part of the receiver is that he put no obstacle to it through conscious refusal or mortal sin. That is why a small baby can receive baptism and enter heaven. Even so, in God’s presence, the small baptized baby that died in the sacrament still needs to say a total yes to God to obtain eternal life. At the moment of death, God grants to him the illumination, free will and consciousness as conditions necessary for him to make this response.

Grace creates a state of friendship between God and the soul in baptism. If this friendship is unbroken throughout the life of the person by mortal sin, then there is really no need of the sacrament of confession. The sacrament of confession was invented by Jesus for sins that would be committed after baptism, which unfortunately occur in the lives of millions of people. In order to obtain eternal life and enter heaven, we need to be and die in the state of grace or friendship with God. To refuse this friendship through mortal sin and turn one’s back on God and end the friendship is to accept hell forever.

Grace operates many wonderful things in the soul of its recipient. It makes it lovely and beautiful, fills it with peace and joy, makes it strong, holy and powerful, fills it with virtues, makes it Godlike, opens heaven and eternal life, etc. We have only this lifetime to gain as many graces as possible, because in the next life the accumulation of graces will stop. Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus expressed it as raking diamonds and jewels into one’s house like raking tons of leaves on an autumn day in one’s backyard.

In heaven, grace is transformed into glory. One minute of glory in heaven is equivalent to a hundred years of the purest and most profound joys that the earth could offer. It is too bad that Luther threw away all this for himself and his foolish followers. That is why there will be the crying and gnashing of the teeth in hell when the souls there will realize what they lost before God.

Theologians divide grace into two types: sanctifying and actual grace. Sanctifying grace unites the soul immediately to God through the reception of the seven sacraments. The baby that is baptized, the penitent who confesses his sins, the communicant who receives the Body and Blood of Christ, the young man ordained to the priesthood, the couple married before God, the young girl receiving the Holy Spirit in Confirmation and the dying sick person receiving the last rites are all united immediately to God by the grace of the sacrament conferred. A state of friendship between God and the soul is established that is supposed to last forever.

Actual grace is the daily and countless graces that God sends to us to lead us to salvation, sanctity and conversion. This could consist in a spiritual reading, a moment of prayer and adoration, a wise spiritual counsel, a work of charity, etc. Saint Augustine was the great theologian who invented the word “grace” as a theological tool to explain the concept of it. He elaborated a whole theology of grace and that is why he is known as and referred to as the “Doctor of Grace”. Luther, being an Augustinian monk, should have paid attention to him.

Luther did not believe in the sacrament of confession and that is why he and his Lutheran followers died in the state of sin without forgiveness. Jesus told the unbelieving Jewish priests: “You will die in your sins.” Jesus gave the keys of heaven to Peter and not to Luther. Jesus had told Peter that whatever he bound on earth would be bound in heaven and whatever he loosened on earth would also be unloosened in heaven (Matthew 16:19). Saint Augustine, in his book “On Christian Doctrine” comments on this passage and says that those who do not believe that the Church forgives sins will not have their sins forgiven. On the contrary, those who believe and correct themselves and remove sin from their lives will be reconciled to the Church and be saved.

In order to enter heaven a person needs to die in the state of grace. This state is conceded to us through baptism and makes us to be friends of God. As long as this friendship is not broken by mortal sin, there will be no obstacles to eternal life. If by misfortune we commit a serious sin, then we have the sacrament of confession that removes this sin and restores us to friendship with God again.  If an evangelical who left the Catholic Church wants to save himself and escape from hell, he needs to return to the Church, confess his fault and sin of apostasy and reconcile himself once again to the Church.  He will be restored to grace and God’s friendship. If, in his obstinate and rebellious diabolical spirit and pride he refuses the sacrament of confession, then there are no other means of salvation for him and he will be lost forever if he dies in these unrepentant sins. The sin that will particularly condemn him will be that of causing division in the Church by his separation from her, being a serious sin against charity and unity.

As far as the question of people confessing to priests and the absolution received from them, that is something that Christ Himself established. Anyone who has eyes to see and knows how to read the Bible can perceive this. I need not remind one that after the Resurrection, Jesus appeared to His Apostles, breathed the Holy Spirit on them and gave them the authority and power to forgive sins. The priest is the representative of the community that was offended by someone's sins and the one, in the name of this community, to forgive the offense. The community is offended specifically in and through Jesus’ being offended

If a person was dying and there were no priests around, of course God would forgive him of his sin if he was repentant. Many times, also, people do not even know what a sin is. The priest, as a moral judge, sheds light on the subject and illuminates the conscience of the sinner.

How is it that one recognizes the authority of civil judges to tell us what a civil crime is or is not, but refuse to recognize the authority of one God has left as his voice here on earth in spiritual and moral matters?

God's infinite goodness, however, moved Him to give us nothing less than a real and eternal participation in his heavenly life. But He did establish conditions for the access to this supernatural life. This is what He asks:

    1) Acceptance and Belief of the Person and Teachings of Jesus Christ

    2) Renouncement of sin and obedience to the Ten Commandments

    3) A state of purity and grace (rejection of impurities like artificial birth control, sterilization, contraceptives, etc)

    4) A "proof" that one’s' Faith is genuine, and not false, through the manifestation of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy in one's life (acts of charity to our neighbors)

    5) Reception of the Bread of Life (the Eucharist) which is our door to and guarantee of eternal life.

Of course God established His Church, but any half-wit knows that one can't have an organization of any type without a head (unless you are an anarchist). How can you have a Church without a leader? Jesus would have to be some sort of imbecile with a hippie movement if He had visualized a church with no one to guide it. The absolute infallible authority of the Pope was given by Christ Himself when he declared “and on this rock…I will build my church, and  the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. “ (Matthew 16:18-19) When the Pope speaks infallibly in certain solemn and important truths, it is not just him speaking that way, but the whole universal Catholic Church with him! It is the Catholic Church that is infallible.
 
Father Anthony Mellace