Opening Prayer
I want us to pray this together. So this is the canticle from the Letter to the Philippians. It’s a beautiful prayer. It’s one of the songs that Paul wrote. So we pray this: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness. And found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee must bend, in the heavens, on the earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess to the glory of God the Father: Jesus Christ is Lord. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Saint Paul, pray for us. All right, so here we go. I’m excited to see what — so the structure of the talks.
Saint Paul Lent Talk Series Week 1This is the basic structure of the talks. This is the main point. After you get this point right here, you can just leave. Like, this is the main thing that I want to say. So maybe you think the structure of Saint Paul’s theology goes like this: that moral transformation — that’s what you should start with. And after you’ve been morally transformed, then, right, what happens is you’re able to participate in the sacraments. And then you participate in the sacraments so that you can be a part of the church. And you’re a part of the church so that you can be saved. Good. How many agree with this? Who would think that? Yeah, that’s kind of what we’re working with. Wrong.
So I want to put this on its head. I want to flip this over. When we think about Saint Paul’s theology, his teaching, we see that salvation is first. God first saves us by his grace. Why? So that we can be united to his church. And why are we united to his church? So that he can feed us with the sacraments. And then why does he feed us with the sacraments? So that we can be morally transformed. This is Paul’s understanding of the sacraments. This is Paul’s understanding of the life of the church. This is his understanding of why Christ saves us. This is central. This is key. We have to get this right. If you take one thing away from all of these talks, take this away: this order — that salvation flows into our unity with the church, flows into our sacramental life, flows into moral transformation. This is what is at the heart of our Catholic faith.
All right. So that’s what the outline of these talks is going to be. First, we’re going to talk about “By Grace, Through Faith and Love.” So we’re starting with salvation. Next week will be all about the Body of Christ, which is the church. And then the third week will be about the sacramental life, and then finally moral transformation. This order is so, so critical.
All right. “By grace, through faith and love.” You recall this: “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” So throughout this talk, I want to answer a bunch of questions: What is salvation? What is grace? What is faith? What is love? And who cares? That’s the kicker, right? Why does this matter? Why is this affecting my life?
So first, what is salvation? Again, in Saint Paul’s mind, one of the central questions is: how is the sinner made right with God? How is the person who has fallen away from a relationship with God made right with him? Saint Paul has a keen understanding of this. We celebrate in January the Conversion of Saint Paul. You remember that moment where Saint Paul realizes that what he is doing in persecuting the Christians and killing them is ripping apart his relationship with God, even though he thinks he’s doing something right. So he’s aware that there’s this deep need to be reconciled.
And he says: “For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.” He has that understanding of what original sin is, and all of us have had that as well. I hope we’ve had an understanding of our need — our desperate need — to be reconciled with God.
All right. This then leads to an understanding of what is grace, what is salvation. And it’s always helpful to start with the negative. What is salvation as opposed to what it is not? A few points to help us get on the right track. So when we’re thinking about salvation: the fall — that dramatic event that we heard about in Mass today. They took the apple, ate it. What happened there? The fall. Some people say it completely destroyed human nature. And we would say, if the fall completely destroyed human nature, then what’s left to save? There’s nothing there. This is the teaching of Calvin, right? “It is so vitiated by foul bites that every part of him is corrupted.” We as Catholics would say no — God preserves something so that he can save it.
What else is salvation not? Simply an external legal declaration — saying, “Okay, I declare you’re good,” even though I know you’re not really good. Again, this is Calvin’s teaching — that Christ’s righteousness is the only thing that’s perfect, and then we just kind of get it draped over us. That simple declaration is not what we’re talking about when we talk about salvation.
What else? We can think about Luther saying that “I am at the same time a sinner and saved.” So you’re these two things at the same time. We as Catholics would say no as well. You’re either saved or not — you can’t be two things that are opposed to each other at the same time.
What else is salvation not? It’s not having nothing to do with our actions. Luther would say works have nothing to do with our justification. But we know that we have this great dignity as human creatures made in God’s image — that our actions are united with God, and so they have the most central connection to our life of salvation.
So that’s what salvation is not. Here’s what salvation is. We turn to our brother Paul: “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of God” — pointing to the great gift of baptism. Salvation is truly a washing, a making new, a cleansing. It’s not just a declaration. The reality takes place.
What else? “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away.” Again, this sounds nothing like simply saying, “All right, we stay the same, but we’re just going to say you’re okay now.” What Saint Paul is talking about with salvation is that we become truly new creatures.
What else does he say? “So that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Sin has this — he talks about sin as if it’s a person. Sin is reigning. But when we enter into salvation in Christ Jesus, the reign of sin is put to death, and a new reign of our Lord begins to rule in our lives. These are realities that take place.
What else? “But the law of the Spirit in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.” There’s a trueness here, a reality. We’re truly free. Not simply remaining in our sins, not simply remaining slaves to our sinful actions. No — we’re truly being made free when Christ saves us.
All right. What else would we say on salvation? It’s not a legal fiction. It’s true deliverance. The old dies and the new arises. This is the beautiful teaching of our brother Saint Paul — that something new happens when we’re saved.
All right. Grace — let’s talk about grace. Anyone here need grace? Let’s talk about it. So, grace always comes first. We have to believe this. There’s no pulling yourself up by your bootstraps in the spiritual life. Grace is always God’s initiative. “But now, while you were sinners, Christ died for you.” That’s just the plain reality. We can try to think in our hearts, “Yeah, but I was working for it,” or “I made myself ready to receive God’s grace.” No. His grace is there at the beginning. And even our decisions to accept grace, our decisions to allow ourselves to enter into salvation — it’s his grace alive in us doing this. So grace is always first.
What does our brother say? “They are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” Again, it’s given. What a beautiful gift to receive. And then the Council of Trent: “If anyone says that man can be justified before God by his own works without divine grace through Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.” Let him be cast out. This is how seriously we take it. The first canon of the Council of Trent dealing with justification and salvation and grace. We have to have this as a fundamental understanding — that God’s grace is first in our life. It’s not us. He takes the initiative. He makes the proposal. He’s the one that reaches out to us. And then we begin to be able to respond.
So what else is grace? What is God’s initiative actually leading us toward? Well, it’s leading us toward the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. What is salvation? What does grace do? God begins to dwell within us. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple, that God’s Holy Spirit dwells within you?” “God’s love has been poured into your hearts by the Holy Spirit.” What does grace do? It makes God’s life become alive in us. Think about it — imagine that you are so dignified because God dwells in you through his life, dwells in you through the Holy Spirit. We sell ourselves short so often. But when we live in sanctifying grace, God lives in us — not simply right after we’ve received Holy Communion, not simply when we’re feeling good — at every single moment when we’re living inside of divine grace. God is united to us, in us, breathing his life into us. What an amazing gift. That’s what grace does.
What else does it do? It makes us truly one with God — union with him. “But he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.” Again, this is heaven. This is heaven. This is what we get to experience here and now — oneness with God. Heaven is not a place far out over there. Heaven is union with God. And we experience that here and now through the coming of the Holy Spirit, through his grace.
What else? Christ lives in the believer. He’s not simply standing over there nudging us, whispering in our ears every now and then. Sometimes when we imagine the Lord and our relationship with him, we can think that he’s external to us — like he’s in the passenger seat, just making sure we hit the brakes a little bit, then we speed up, turn left here. No, he’s not sitting in the passenger seat of our life. He’s with us in the driver’s seat, one, united with us. This is what grace does. It makes him not just another one, but one with us.
What else? We become God’s children. Here’s the beautiful passage from our brother Saint Paul about who we are when we have grace alive in us. We don’t address God simply as Father, as King. We address him as “Abba” — which is that deeply affectionate cry to our God. That’s what grace allows us to do — to address God not as some other that’s way out there, but as someone tender. It’s “Papa.” All these beautiful words — that’s what grace allows us to do.
But we know that grace is not simply passive. It’s not something that God just does to us. He initiated it, to be sure. But it’s something we must receive. It’s something we must cooperate with. God’s grace must be accepted. Our brother Saint Paul talks about this: “Working together with him, we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain.” Accept the grace of God. Don’t accept it in vain, but accept it truly in this life.
This is again where our dignity as Christians must be exalted — that we have a role to play. We think of the Blessed Virgin above all else in this regard. How did she have that most exalted role, to be the Mother of God? Yet it’s never forced. It’s never demanded. “Behold, you will be the Mother of the Most High. God will come into your womb. Do you want this? Will you receive it? Will you allow it to happen in your life?” And she gives her fiat: “Let it be done.” So it’s the same with each and every single one of us. Grace must be accepted in an active way. It requires our active participation.
Again, in Romans: “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” So sometimes I think we can get into the habit of thinking, “All right, I was baptized, I was confirmed, I receive Holy Communion every single week — sometimes every single day. Like, why isn’t God just getting rid of all of these things in my life?” All of these troubles, all of these patterns of life — we wish that God’s grace just worked like magic. But that’s not how it works. He wants us to actually get involved. He says by God’s grace, use your will to put to death the deeds of darkness in your life. So grace must be cooperated with.
What else about grace? Here’s the kicker: grace can be abandoned. God’s grace can be abandoned. And this is the scary part. “If you continue in his kindness; otherwise, you too will be cut off.” And what does Paul say? “I pummel my body lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” Saint Paul knows this so keenly — that grace is not something that just happens once in our life and then we can move on. It’s something that every single day we have to get up and accept the graces that the Lord has prepared for us each day.
And I love the Curé of Ars, St. Jean Vianney — he has that great quote: “Any sinner is capable of becoming a great saint, and any saint is capable of becoming a great sinner.” I don’t know about you, but I hear that and my heart just kind of spurs on. But this is how grace works — we have to accept it continually. It’s not magic. And then, it’s both divine initiative and human cooperation. Both of these are needed.
Grace. Salvation. Grace. Now, faith. I love starting with the negative — what faith is not. Faith is not simply intellectual assent. It’s not simply our minds saying something. It’s not simply saying, “Oh, I believe in that.” That’s not faith. Because think about this — even the devils believe. But do they have faith? No. And then what does our Lord say? “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Faith is more than simple belief. It involves the doing of the will of the Father.
What else? It’s not simply believing that God exists. There’s something deeper. What else? It’s not simply a belief in the right things. Sometimes, especially as Catholics, we can think, “I have faith because I have the right beliefs about everything. I got this down, I got that down. We got the Trinity, we got the Eucharist — I believe all of this. So I must have faith.” But it’s more than that. Belief is needed, it’s necessary. But it’s much more than that.
What else? It’s not a one-time decision. Faith is more than a simple proposal. Imagine, for husbands — imagine you proposed to your wife and then never again did anything like that. “Oh, no, I just had the one proposal. I got the one yes.” So you never ask her anything for the rest of her life. No, that’s not how it works.
So what is faith? It’s a trusting relationship where we give ourselves over to Christ — a trusting relationship. Father Wilson’s got to love me for putting this quote up here. I’m sure you’ve heard him say this: “It is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” That sounds pretty good to me. I’d like to encounter this event, which is a person, which gives my life a new horizon. There’s something to look forward to, something where I’m going. And again, it’s giving me new meaning.
Faith is that kind of encounter with Christ, where he sets us on this path and he’s walking on the path with us. Think about the road to Emmaus. After Christ rises from the dead, he’s walking beside those disciples along the way to Emmaus, talking with them and explaining things to them, encouraging them. That’s what he was doing — he was giving them faith through that walk with him. That’s what he does with us as well.
What else is faith? It’s all about the ongoing relationship with Jesus. And this is what our brother Saint Paul says: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love.” And he says: “For to me to live is Christ.” “The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.” I want to be able to say those things. I don’t know about you. I want to be able to say, “For me to live is Christ.” Everything I do, I do in union with Christ. The life I live in the flesh — it’s the life of the Son of God lived in me. That’s what I want. I think that’s what you want, probably. But that’s what our faith actually gives us — this ongoing relationship with our God.
What else? Faith is union with Christ. “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him.” “Live in me.” This relationship of faith gives us union with God. We don’t see him. We serve him. Do we love him? We know him. Yes. All of these things are beautiful and good. But above all, our faith makes us unified, one with him. This is the heart of our faith — to be one with God. What more do we want?
What else? It requires movement. Faith requires walking by faith, not by sight. Think of those disciples to Emmaus. They didn’t see the Lord, although he was right there with them. But they were talking to him. Their hearts were stirred. They sensed that he was close. So when we start moving, we allow our faith to move us to acts of trust, acts of faith. Although we might not see him, our hearts start to burn, knowing that he’s there.
All right, love. How about it? So what is love? Love is an integral part of salvation. It’s not an add-on. It’s not “we have faith, and then we also have love.” Love is an integral part of salvation. What did Paul say? “If I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.” I have nothing. And he means it. If he believes everything but isn’t loving, he has nothing. It’s not an add-on. It’s not as if, “Yeah, I know Christ is with me, but I don’t really have any love in my heart.” No — you have nothing.
And this love — it’s given to us. It’s not earned. It’s given. “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” And we know that this love is the fulfillment of the law: “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.” When Paul is thinking about what love looks like in the life of a Christian, he understands that it is the central part of what it means to be a faithful son of Israel. All of those laws, all of those precepts of the Old Covenant — what were they all pointing toward? Self-gift. Placing myself at the hands of another so that I can give myself to them. Love fulfills the law.
This is why our brother Saint Augustine had that beautiful quote: “Love, and do what you will.” Some of us hear that and think, “Oh, so we can do whatever we want?” No. What does he mean by “Love, and do what you will”? He means: truly see that my life doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to you. So I’m going to lay it down for you constantly. I can do whatever I want, and as long as I see that I’m not my own — I’m for you — that’s the kind of love that fulfills the law.
Let’s talk a little bit about works of love versus works of the law. So, who’s ever heard — maybe from a Protestant perspective — “Oh, you Catholics, you’re always worried about works saving you. Saint Paul clearly says works don’t save you.” Anyone ever heard that? So, Paul, when he’s rejecting the works of the law, he’s not rejecting works of love. That’s unimaginable.
So what are the works of the law? The Mosaic Law has three parts to it as a means of salvation. First, the juridical codes — this is how you act in society, this is what you wear, this is where you go, these are the places you visit, these are the places you don’t visit. How do we function harmoniously in society? We have our own laws, right? Turn right on red. Put your wipers on when it’s snowing. Put your lights on. We have all these. They help us to live well in society, but those don’t save you.
What else? Then the ritual laws — how to worship. “Have you wronged your neighbor? I need you to get two turtledoves. I need you to sacrifice them on the altar over here.” The Levitical codes of what are the priests going to wear, what’s the temple going to look like, what are all the instruments going to look like in the Old Testament — all of that Old Testament worship. Do those things save us? No.
And then the third part of the Mosaic Law is the moral codes. Think about the Ten Commandments. Think about even the Old Testament law that Jesus quotes — “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus didn’t come up with that. He came up with that before he took on flesh — he was God in the Old Testament. So these moral codes, these right actions — do those sustain into the New Testament? Absolutely. And these are ultimately what works of love are: upholding those moral codes of right loving toward your neighbor.
So these works of love matter. “God will repay everyone according to his works.” What are the works that Saint Paul was talking about? It’s not the juridical codes. It’s not the worship codes. It’s those acts of love, those acts of moral rightness toward your neighbors, toward those whom God has put in your life. When you do that, that’s what God is judging you on. That’s what he rewards.
All right. Who cares? I’m speeding through this. I want to have time for questions at the end. Who cares about what salvation is, what grace is, what faith is, what love is?
The first step is to be renewed — “Be transformed by the renewal of your minds.” Saint Paul invites us to this. When we start to really reform our understanding of the faith, to take it more seriously, a mental conversion has to take place first. A mental conversion of understanding: “I have to get this right. God’s grace comes first. It’s not me changing my life, getting my act together so that he’ll give me grace.” This is the first step we really have to take — a renewal of our minds. To think clearly that no matter what I’ve done, no matter what I’m doing right now, no matter what sins I’m eventually going to commit, no matter what broken relationships I find myself in, no matter what struggles, no matter what sickness — God’s grace comes first. God’s grace takes the initiative in my life. And that then allows me to know, “Okay, I can trust him. He’s at work in me. He’s got to be doing something here.” Although I might not see it yet, I trust that he’s going to be doing something.
What else? Who cares? Why does all this matter? Because salvation is not just about going to heaven when I die. Salvation is about living the life of heaven now. When grace is poured into our hearts, we receive heaven. All of us tangibly know that. After we receive Holy Communion, what do we do? We go back to our pews. We close our eyes. We kneel down, and we have that one moment of peace. It’s almost a little taste of heaven right here on earth. That’s what our hearts long for. And that’s what we can live at every moment — that life of heaven. Those little moments where we close our eyes when we’re in the car — maybe not for too long; that traffic light’s only so long — but when we close our eyes and we know, “Okay, the Lord is here with me. He’s united to me. And so I’m in heaven. I’m truly in heaven. Because I’m united to the one who loves me and whom I love.” That’s why Saint Paul’s teaching about salvation matters.
Why else? Because it helps us understand that our daily choices do matter. Every single one of them. From the moment that alarm goes off to the time our head hits the pillow at the end of the day, every single one of these choices either helps to unite us more deeply to God, or it takes us away from him. This is our dignity as Christians — people who have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. We know that everything done in union with Christ is a work that’s building up the kingdom. There’s nothing too small. There’s no act of virtue too small, done in union with Christ, that doesn’t change the world.
So often we think, “I just live kind of a hidden life. No one really sees anything. Nothing really matters that much. The only person that sees me is my wife, my husband. And they’ve been there for the past 50 years — they’re not impressed.” But every single little human act matters, and it helps to build up the kingdom.
What else? Christ is not far from you. He’s active in you. This is a beautiful gift. When you’re praying, when you’re imagining the Lord this week ahead — think about what it would be like when you’re praying to him, when you’re talking to him, when you’re asking him something: you’re not doing it external to you, but you’re actually going into the depths of your heart. When you make that ask, you’re going into the depths of your heart, your own soul. When you speak to him, going to Christ is not simply going outside — it’s going inside, deeper and deeper inside of you. Try it out this week, knowing that he dwells in you. I think, at least for me, it changes everything. Because then I start to realize that I’m not alone — ever, for a moment. And if I know that I’m not alone, I can actually be joyful even in the midst of trial, even in the midst of crisis.
What else? Christianity is about being transformed to become like God. He’s right here in us. We become like him. As Athanasius said: “God became man so that man might become God” — so that we can have that life of God within us.
And then perseverance. Don’t presume. Why does this matter? Saint Paul’s teaching on salvation spurs us on. It gives us the encouragement we need to know I have to persevere. I cannot grow weary. I cannot turn back. I have to persevere in the faith. And it gives us seasons like Lent. When we really take up those disciplines of the faith, when we start to take this faith a little more seriously, it’s like, “All right, yeah, I’ve kind of had these things living in me for a while, and they’ve been holding on to me. It’s time. It’s time to really take them seriously — to persevere, to cut them off — so that we can start to live in freedom.”
So, practical advice. Begin each day by receiving grace, not self-reliance. If you’re anything like me, one of the first things I do when I get out of bed is check my calendar for the day, and then my mind starts going immediately: “All right, I have to do this, then I gotta get there, then I’m going to have this conversation with that person. What do I want to say to them?” My mind starts planning everything, and I’ve already got 90% of the day already planned before I even get out of bed. I know how it’s all going to go, and I know what I have to do in order to get there.
But how can we actually start to live Paul’s understanding of salvation? How about the first thing we do is, yeah, maybe we check our calendar, sure, but then we start begging God for the grace to lead us through every one of those interactions. We just start begging him. “All right, Lord, I have no clue how these conversations are going to go. I don’t want to plan it, but I beg you to actually help me in the moment, to see where you’re leading.” Or, “Lord, I’ve got to drive 30 minutes across town. I don’t know how I’m going to make it, but help me to get there.” Or, “I have a lot of work to do today, and I know that distraction isn’t going to help me to focus, but I need you to help me just stay on task.” If we start to live like this — not making our plans as a first step to the day, but begging the Lord to allow his grace to take that first initiative — I think we’re going to start living Saint Paul’s theology a lot more.
What else? Making acts of faith throughout the day. One of my favorite books is The Practice of the Presence of God. Anyone ever heard of it? Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection is the author. Making acts of faith throughout the day — don’t let an hour go by without acknowledging God’s presence within you. Again, if you’re anything like me, I wake up, I have my morning time of prayer, but then it’s like noon and I haven’t thought of God once. That should shock us. Or I get to the end of the day: “All right, I asked for things throughout the day, but then after I was done asking, I forgot that you were actually there helping me.” So making these acts of faith throughout the day helps us to remember that he’s with us.
What does an act of faith look like? Just say: “Jesus, I trust that you are with me today. Jesus, I know that you are here.” And that’s all. Then you go. And then you try to live in that for as long as possible. And then when you’ve forgotten, you turn back to him again and say, “Lord, I’ve forgotten you for the past hour. I’m sorry. But you know how weak I am, and that doesn’t scare you. It doesn’t make you run away. It doesn’t make you angry. So I’m running back to you.”
It’s like a little kid. When little kids are playing — I see my little nephew run around the house. He’ll run upstairs for a while, and then eventually he’ll get probably nervous up there, and he’ll have to come back and check. So he comes back to the living room where all the adults are and sees, “Reality still exists. The world hasn’t fallen away.” And then he can go back. I think that’s part of what our Lord invites us into when he says you must become like little children if you’re going to enter the kingdom of heaven. How do we become like little children? We’re just constantly running back to our Heavenly Father, checking in with him, saying, “All right, you’re still here. Good. I was worried a little bit, but I know you’re here.” Making these little acts of faith throughout the day can really connect us to God.
Again, let your watch be a reminder — every hour, if you can: “All right, Lord, you’re with me.”
What else? Embracing those little hidden acts of love throughout the day, however small — whether it’s just being faithful in our work, giving of our time, those little acts of love, the little text messages that you send to people. All of these little acts of love help us to allow the grace that’s in us to take fruit, to bear fruit in the lives of others.
What else? Cooperate with his grace in overcoming sin. What would that look like this week? We make these plans — “I’m sick and tired of it, I’ve fallen into this habit, whatever it is. How am I going to overcome it? Well, I’m going to do this, and then I’m going to do that, and I’m not going to go there, and I’m not even going to think about that.” Again, we think it’s all us. So how about this week, we identify one sin that we’re just sick and tired of, one that we want to get rid of. And then as a first act, we ask for God’s grace. “All right, Lord, throughout this week, I need your grace first. I need your grace to help me overcome this, whatever it is.” And then we have to cooperate with it. “All right, Lord, give me the grace to actually know those little moments where I have to say: Lord, I’m tempted. I’m like Eve — I want to turn, I want to grab the apple. The serpent is whispering in my ear. I want to say yes, but I’m going to turn back to you instead.” So this week, let’s see what happens if we live like that.
What else? Examine each day by faith, not just by rules. One of the practices that’s present in religious life that we take up is every single day at the end of our day, we pray Night Prayer. In the midst of that, we examine our consciences. What does that mean? It’s not simply going through a list of all of your failures of the day — that would be depressing. But examining the whole day. Don’t let a day go by. I get it, sometimes you get to the end of the day and you’re exhausted. The kitchen’s finally clean. The kids are down. “I just gotta crash.” Those days, we need those. But some days, what do we need? We need to actually look back. “All right, Lord, just help me to remember. Help me to see where you were throughout the day. Help me to see those moments where I was faithful to your little nudges. Oh, maybe I wasn’t even aware of it in the moment, but help me to realize it now.” Or, “Lord, help me to realize — I know I messed up there. Help me to be more faithful tomorrow.” Actually being obedient. So examining our days at the end of the day is a way that we can live by faith that much more abundantly, because it allows us to see how obedient we were to God’s presence within us.
His grace moving me, and me cooperating with it. All right. Any questions on that? I told you it was less than an hour.
[Audience question about praying for grace and whether God is making us do that]
So the question is about receiving grace — when we’re praying, asking for grace, is that God working in us, making us do that, or moving us to do that? In the words of St. Thérèse: “Everything is grace.” Has anyone ever heard her say that? Everything is grace. Our desire to ask God for something is a grace. And think about this — sometimes we can fall into that trap of thinking, “All right, I have to go to confession, and then God will give me his grace again.” I’ve done that before.
But I think we have to realize that when we have sinned, even the acknowledgment of the fact that we’ve sinned is a grace that God has given us. The movement, the desire to go to confession is a grace that is given to us. The courage to stand in line. The courage to actually open the door and walk in. The courage to speak our sins — it’s God’s grace in us, moving us to do all of these things. And then he just pours his sacramental grace on us. His mercy immerses us in the ocean of his mercy in the sacrament itself.
But all of these things — even when we’re asking, “Lord, I need the grace of this” — even that desire is him already at work in us. We have to see this. That’s so encouraging. If you’re wondering, “Lord, I really want this, I really need this, I need you to help me here” — the fact that your heart’s already desiring that, whatever it is, is because he’s already at work in you, giving you that desire, moving you.
[Audience question about sharing the slides]
I’m sure I’ll share them at the end. Yeah, there could be a test. Any other thoughts? Desires? Questions?
[Question about going back to the beginning]
All right, I’m just going to go back to the very beginning and just want to nail this down one more time. I want you to think about this throughout this week as well. Have you fallen into this pattern? I think many of us fall into that first pattern of thinking: “I have to get my act together first before God moves.” And I think that if there’s one thing we have to repent of, it’s that. God’s grace moves us first. He is not scared of our sin. He’s not scared of our brokenness. He’s not angry. He’s not disappointed. He’s not abandoning us. He’s not turning his back on us. He’s not waiting for us to get our act together. No. The opposite is true.
When he sees us — why did he give us salvation? Why did Jesus take on flesh? Why did he enter into his own creation? Not so that he could look around for who has it together and then go to them and say, “Oh, here’s this great reward for you.” Who did Jesus hang out with? A bunch of sinners. A bunch of uneducated fishermen. Prostitutes. Tax collectors. You and me. And we have to know this with certainty. He comes to us first in our brokenness. He comes to us first in our brokenness. He’s attracted to it. So we don’t have to hide it. We don’t have to be ashamed of it. But if we really want healing, we expose it to him so that he can begin to heal it.
And that’s what we’ll be talking about in these next talks — how we are incorporated into his Body, the church, so that we have a family, so that we’re a part of him. How he feeds us with the sacraments to start to really begin to heal that brokenness. And then once that brokenness, once that sin is healed in us, we will be transformed. And it’s not just correct action. That moral transformation is acting like a saint, doing saintly things.
Any final questions?
[Audience question about which of Paul’s letters to read for follow-up]
Sister, thank you so much for the talk. Which one of Paul’s letters should we pick for follow-up reading this week? What do you think, Sister? Romans? I would recommend Romans. Yeah.
All right, let’s say a prayer. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Jesus, we give you thanks and praise for our brother Saint Paul — for his teaching to be a part of our life. Help us to know with certainty that you come to us first, that you fill us with your grace, to fill us with faith so that we may have new life and live in love. We ask through the risen Lord’s intercession to free us from anything that is harming us, free us from anything that’s keeping us away from you, so that we can serve you and love you as you have made us to be. I’m going to bless you now. The Lord be with you. Through the intercession of Saint Paul the Apostle, may almighty God bless you: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Go in peace. All right. We’ll see you around.