Sanctifying Grace

EWTN Global Catholic Radio and St. Joseph Communications proudly present Life is Worth Living with Archbishop Fulton Sheen. This 50-part series was recorded on photograph records in the 1960s and the sound quality is sometimes limited. But the word of God spoken by Archbishop Sheen is timeless and now here is Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Peace be to you. Once upon a time there were two tadpoles amusing themselves under the water. One of the tadpoles said to the other, I think I'll stick my head up and see if there's anything in this world besides water. The other tadpoles said, don't be stupid. It's only what we know, just water. And so we often wonder, is there any wisdom, is there any power as of the wisdom of the human intellect and above the power of the human will? There is. And that's what we're going to talk about. Now there's something else in the world besides water, there's something else in the world besides human nature, our poor weak human nature. And that is grace. Grace is not the name of a girl. Grace is this higher wisdom, higher power that can come to us. It really is not a very good name because it just means grottis. It merely means that it is free. We cannot merit it in this quick sense. But it appears repeatedly in the New Testament in the Greek its name is Caris. And it is to be covered about 150 times. Now if there is another life above the purity natural or the human, then it is possible for every question to lead a double life. Yes, a real double life. Natural life, a divine life, a human life, a spiritual life. Somewhere in the book of the Apocalypse we read, you call yourselves living and yet you are dead. That means you are biologically alive, but you are spiritually dead. We are constantly bumping up against walking courses on the streets. They seem to be alive, their bodies, their soul is dead. As the life of the body is the soul, the soul, the life of the soul is grace or the partaking of the divine life. Now before we come to an understanding what this divine life is and where it comes from, let us picture a three-story house. It has the cellar, the first floor, and the second floor. The cellar always a kind of a dark place where there is throw on a lot of refuse. First floor is fairly comfortable and the second floor is magnificent. Now these three stories correspond to the three kinds of lives that men may lead. The cellar corresponds to the life of the senses and emotions, food, drink, carnal pleasure, the light. Not saying these things are wrong. It just merely is a form of culture. It is what has been called by the great Harvard professor Sir Rokin, the senseate culture. He said that is the culture of our time, it's a deathly. Now in the first floor, which is far more noble, we might call the floor of reason, science, of art, of humanism, of culture. Namely all the things that make a life really refined. But that's not all. There is another story and that's the floor of grace, where there is a higher intellect, stronger will, new powers, new love. Now there are some people who live in the cellar who say, why am satisfied here? They are the kind of spiritual dropouts. They refuse to walk up to the first floor and to enjoy those cultural pursuits which give men so much joy. And then there are those who live in the first floor of humanism and reason and science and art who say, well, in order to get up to that top floor, I have to walk, don't I? I have to put forth a little effort. I refuse to do that. Why when I play golf, I always go along the golf course on an electric cart. I'm satisfied. You tell me there's great joy and peace and happiness on the third floor? How do I know? I've never been up there. And then I'm not going to end danger by heart by walking anyway. Well that's the attitude. I don't only have those who live in this realm of the senses, but also those who live in the realm of reason. You know the tragedy of life is not so much what people suffer. It's what they miss. That's the great sadness. Well we've not yet defined grace. The Catechism defines it as a supernatural gift of God. He stowed on us by Jesus Christ to save us. We will take out one word supernatural. Well, supernatural means the third floor in relationship to the second and the first. But it needs still a more of an explanation. Before me, as I talk to you, is a microphone. Just suppose this microphone before me suddenly started to bloom. Does it belong to the nature of a microphone to bloom? It certainly does not. If however, it suddenly burst into flour, that would be a supernatural thing for a microphone. Let us take another example. As I am talking to you, I am in my study. I have always arranged my study so that I look into my chapel. That is in order that I may study and work in the presence of our Lord and the Blessed Sacrament. On the altar of my chapel, there are flowers. Now suppose as some of the flowers in the altar, I suddenly began to walk on their stems. And they walked out through our little chapel and they came here into my study. And those flowers stood before me and each one of the little petals bowed down and saluted me. Does the power of movement belong to a flower? It certainly does not. This gift, or it would be a gift, note, exceeds the nature and the power and the needs of a flower. In other words, it would be a supernatural gift. Now there is no dog here, but I used to have a dog incidentally. I used to teach the dog to fast if I would hold out a piece of meat before the dog and say it was lent. The dog would not touch it until I said Easter. Well, it took a long time to get that into the dog. That was not a supernatural act or a dog. But suppose any dog came into me as I am talking to you now. And the dog listened to me for a moment and you would suddenly say, say, you missed a good point there. You should have called it the premise of Kunde of St. Thomas at this point. And I think, too, if you have brought in this quotation from Shakespeare, it would have helped you very much. Does it belong to the nature of a dog to speak, in reason? This exceeds the nature and the power and the needs of a dog. And therefore, if it ever did that, it would be a supernatural act for a dog. Now let's come to man. Every man is a creature of God. He's a creature of God because he has been made. Suppose I suddenly became a child of God so that not just the life of my parents, the life of God came into me so that my reason had another light than just the light of reason. And my will had other powers than just my poor, weak human will. Why that gift would be just as much above my human nature as blooming to a microphone, as walking to a rose and this speech to a dog. If I became a new creature so that the body and the blood of Christ somehow was in me, that would be in the strict sense a supernatural gift. I say gift. I certainly do not deserve it. And furthermore, when that gift comes, it always changes our direction. Because by our nature we are weak and we tend to sing and to doubt and to selfishness and the like. If we are to change our direction and new powers if I take for example a ball and throw it across the room, the ball will continue in a straight line unless I'm superior power diverts it. And so to natural human beings continue in certain directions like power would have continued his persecution. Sinners would continue in their sin. Ignostics would continue in their doubt unless some superior power intervened. And that is the power of grace. I'll take for example one example of the changing of direction. The editor rather the former editor of the Communist Daily Worker of London. And his wife or one night listening to a radio program by a commissar Russia. And suddenly the wife got up and shut off the radio and she said to her husband, now remember they both were communists. I don't bring the one's peace. I think he wants war. He's talking peace. But he means war. He said he said don't talk that way. He said if you continue to talk that way I shall report you to the party. She said report me. Why is it your beginning to talk if you might become a Catholic? She said I am. She said shake so am I. No here was the husband and wife living together. She's in communist ideas. And suddenly they both changed. Unknown to one another. What did it? Power outside of them. It's power of grace. There's no such thing as just becoming better and better in the natural order. And then the other side of the world. There's no such thing as just becoming better and better in the natural order. And suddenly in the strict sense, the very strict sense of merit in grace. Now nature in grace are quite distinct. It really is the difference between making and beginning. When you make anything you make something that is unlike you for example you make a table. The table does not share your nature. When parents beget a child they beget something like themselves. Now when God made us God was our creator. But when he begets us as creatures. No when he begets us right of his children. Then he's not just our creator. No. Then he is our father. And then when grace comes into us as our blessed Lord said. The same sat that passes through the branches passes through the vine and the same sat and the vine passes through the branches. In other words, we begin to share the nature of our blessed Lord. So that he pours out his nature upon us. And say, John said, of this fullness we have all received. When we respond to grace, then we become well something like a pencil in the hand. Pencil in the hand. As long as it is directed by the hand, do anything in the hand once. And we are the instruments of God. And we obey his will just as the pencil obeys the will of the hand. When there is total obedience, that means sanctity. That's what the saint is. The saint is one who is as available to God as a pencil is to my hand. Now what does this grace do to our human nature? Well, first of all, it makes the body a temple of God. That is one of the reasons for purity. What is a temple? A temple is a place where God dwells. Remember when our blessed Lord went into the temple of Jerusalem? When the Pharisees asked for a sign, our blessed Lord said, destroy this temple. And in three days I will rebuild it. He was not speaking of that earthly temple. He was speaking of the temple of this body. Because in that human nature of Christ, God dwells. Now, by participation of that divine life, He dwells in us. Now that's why the body is sacred. That's why we have reverence for it. The body is not a worm, something vile. It is a temple. One day it will be glorified too. But the principal effects of race are in the intellect and in the will. Now, the intellect is that faculty of ours by which we know. The will is that faculty by which we choose. The object of the intellect or reason is proof. The object of the will is goodness or love. When grace comes into the intellect, it comes as a kind of a light. It is rather difficult to describe what it does to the human mind. Or picture sunlight shining through a stained glass window. Notice how it is diffused and brings out all the colors. Well, that's what grace does for the intellect. It gives it a new vision. Faith then becomes to reason something like the telescope is to the eye. It does not destroy the eye. It just perfects it. When faith gets into us, it gives us a new certitude. Quite beyond reason, all that you get in these instructions and records of mind are merely motives of credibility. But I do not give you certitude. That has to come from faith. That has to come from God. That is why our Blessed Lord said to Peter, flesh and blood have not revealed this to me. But my father was in heaven. And the certitude that comes from faith is so great that nothing can destroy it. As a matter of fact, the certitude that comes from faith is greater than the reasons for faith. That's because the light comes from God. We often have many certitudes that are stronger than the reasons we can give. For example, if we were challenged, all of a sudden, to prove that we were legitimate children, it might be rather difficult. We do not have the documents, but nothing could shake that certitude. And so a learned man could give many reasons against the existence of God and the divinity of Christ to one of our children, but he could never destroy the faith of that child. Not only does faith give that certitude, but it also gives us a new outlook. New outlook on birth, suffering, death, joy, pleasure, literature, art. Those who have what Saint Paul calls a carnal man, or rather the carnal mind, cannot understand the things of faith. Pretty much like trying to make a blind man understand color. Very often those who like to give faith wonder, why is it that we are so certain? Why do we have this outlook on suffering? Why are we not depressed? Why do we not contemplate suicide? Well, it's simply because we see things very much better. We have a light that they have not. Perhaps we've already said, but it bears repeating that we have the same eyes of night as we have in the day. But we do not see it night. Why? Because we lack the light of the sun. And so let two people look out on the same problem. They see it very differently because one has only his reason and his senses and the other has faith. But there's also the human will. Now when grace comes into the will, it gives us new power, new strength that we never had before. It gives us the new ability to resist temptations. Too often in this world as soon as anyone becomes a slave of sin, we speak of him as having a compulsion. We say, oh, he is a compulsive drinker. He is a compulsive eater. Now that is true. The word that our blessed Lord used to explain that compulsion was a family. But this does not mean that these people have completely destroyed their freedom. Believe me, there's always a little area of freedom left in an alcoholic and in a pervert and in anyone who is given to the slavery of sin. These sins which start it with free acts of our own, they have weakened our will, but they have not completely destroyed it. It is possible for grace to establish a beachhead. Grace has its deed and God can get in to any one of these people. And after all, when we are trying to cure people of vices, we can never drive out of vices. We can only crowd it out. How do you crowd it out? You crowd it out by putting something else. It is in you. Grace of God comes in. When we begin to love him, then these vices begin to be pushed out. All and more and more. Once the new love comes in, we are changed. I remember once dealing with an alcoholic woman, and I said to her, you love alcohol more than anything else in the world. Because you do love alcohol more than anything else in the world, I can't cure you until you begin to love something else more. So we prayed for Grace and Grace came in. She was cured. Now this is what Grace does to the poor, weak human will. And it also gives power. So that we influence others. Now if there is any influence, for example, in these words of mine, you may have been listening to these records for many hours. If I have any influence on you, if I have changed you, then it is not because of any knowledge that I possess, that is not because of any power that I possess. If I have any influence on you, it is because the spirit and the grace of God are working on you. My words are nothing. Of course I did not begin these instructions without a prayer that the spirit and the grace of God might give me strength. But if in any time you were changed, do not say all bishops shun, we are so grateful to you that bishops shun did nothing. I am only the poor instrument of the good Lord. That is all. A very poor one. So if you are changed, there is a difference now between your nature and grace. Because before grace comes you acting your own way. After you receive grace you act in his way. That is the difference. Your conscience becomes weakened. What before was so very precious to you now seems as nothing. What before seemed as so much loss. Now to you is praise. That is grace. Grace is that supernatural power. There is a moment to remind to see things above reason. That supernatural power would strengthen your will. To do things which before you could not do. It changes you from a creature into a child of God. And most of all, it enables you to call God. Father, Father. This has been Life's Worth Living with Archbishop Fulton Shien. For more information about this series, contact St. Joseph Communications at 1-800-526-2151. Outside the U.S. call 818-3313-3549. And please join us again next time for Life's Worth Living with Archbishop Fulton Shien on EWTN Global Catholic Radio. Thank you.