Sacraments and Grace

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church[1], “Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers in the divine nature and of eternal life.”  In Henri De Lubac’s book, “A Brief Catechesis on Nature and Grace”, De Lubac makes the claim that nature has been graced from the beginning. [2] The purpose of this blog is to reflect on how De Lubac would respond to a person who claims that sacraments are just part of a generally graced world, which seems to diminish their important role in man’s salvation. While it may be true that the sacraments are part of a naturally graced world, they are a vital in combatting sin and restoring man’s relationship with God.

We know from the Genesis story that God created the world out of nothing, and everything He created was good. In that sense one could say that the world is graced, or sacramental from the very beginning. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, were born with an intellect and free will, and God gave them dominion over the earth and all its inhabitants. The only constraint God placed upon them was to refrain from eating fruit from a specific tree, which He deemed off-limits. However, Eve succumbed to Satan, who persuaded her to eat fruit from the forbidden tree and share it with Adam. This first, Original Sin, began man’s fall from God’s Grace[3]. And, although the sacrament of Baptism cleanses man from Original Sin[4], he is still left with the scar of concupiscence, the tendency to sin. Ever since the great fall, God has desired to repair his relationship with man. And grace is the gift which helps man return to God.

Henri De Lubac begins his book by describing the relationship between nature and the supernatural. He defines human nature as “anything that does not derive from divine adoption on man, even if it does derive from the spirit and liberty in him”.[5] . He goes on to define supernatural as “the divine order considered in its relationship to, and of unison with, the human order.”[6] Importantly, he asserts that, “God from the beginning made himself man’s end, by presenting himself to man as his salvation; and it is because he first set man in motion towards that end that man’s essence and existence were given their determination”.[7] In other words, man’s original purpose has always been oriented towards God.

In speaking of the relationship between nature and the supernatural, De Lubac paraphrases French philosopher Maurice Blondel who said that there is a “infinite disproportion” between our human nature and our destiny which can be bridged only by divine charity. Blondel further adds that therefore, the supernatural (man’s relationship with God) is an entirely gratuitous relationship, which is “totally un-naturalizable”.[8] This divine charity and the entirely gratuitous relationship is Grace. God is constantly calling us into relationship with Him by the gift of Grace. However, it is our decision whether to humbly accept his gift. This is beautifully illustrated in our prayer before receiving the sacrament of Holy Communion. Like the centurion who believes himself unworthy to have Christ enter his home to cure his sick servant (Matthew 8:8), we pray, “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof”. In humbly receiving the Eucharist, our souls are healed. As  sacramental participation in the heavenly liturgy, the Eucharist is the figure of Christ perpetually offering Himself to his Father on our behalf.[9] Christ died for the forgiveness of our sins and to reconcile us to God.  However, Christ’s Incarnation did not erase sin. And because of man’s continued tendency to sin God is continually working to return us back into loving relationship with him. And that relationship is our path toward eternal salvation with Him. But how can man refrain from sinning if he does not recognize the existence of sin in his own life, or God’s gift of merciful Grace which orients us to eternity?

Louis Bouyer traces what he calls a “Crisis of Christianity” today to the emergence of the “bourgeois or middle-class mentality”, based on the attainment of wealth.[10] Along with the accumulation of wealth came comfort and security in the temporal world. The result is to “rob man of his ability to see the world as a meaningful cosmos oriented toward transcendence” [11] . In other words, nothing matters beyond the here and now; salvation and how to attain it is not considered.  De Lubac agrees with this concern when he speaks of man’s “Allergy to sin”, which stems from his inability to recognize “not only the authority of some transcendental law but also a personal relationship between man and a personal God” [12] Man would prefer to not believe in sin anymore, especially personal sin. And whether or not man chooses or even sees it as such, De Lubac references French Theologian Henri Bouillard when he calls sin a “rupture”; a “breaking away from God that divides man against himself” [13] As such, it is a personal refusal to allow God’s grace to transform us, which would be a denial of the Christian belief in the “drama the sinful man and God who offers him grace” [14]

However, even if man seems complacent in his bourgeois world, there is still exists in him a lack that can only be fulfilled by God. And this lack is ordered toward the supernatural.[15] Importantly, the supernatural must not be defined solely by its characteristic of gratuitousness, and yet it is infinitely more gratuitous than any other kind of favor one could possibly be, and infinitely surpasses the necessities of any possible nature. [16]

Sin is part of the human condition. All have sinned. And all are unworthy of God’s Grace. But God proved how much he loves us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.[17] Through the sacrament of reconciliation, we can humble ourselves before God and confess our sins. As a sign of grace our merciful God forgives our sins and asks that we sin no more.

The Sacraments are, “efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us."[18] Christ gave us the sacraments to combat sin and evil in the world, infuse us with God’s grace,  and are essential to help keep our eye fixed on everlasting life with God in Heaven.

[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC)1996

[2] O’Malley Lecture on Nature and Grace

[3] Genesis 1-3

[4] CCC 1216

[5] Henri De Lubac, A Brief Catechesis on Nature and Grace, 13

[6] Ibid, 20

[7] O’Malley Lecture

[8] Ibid, 25

[9] Jean Danielou, SJ, The Bible and The Liturgy, 131

[10] Ibid, 121

[11] Ibid, 122

[12] Ibid 128-129

[13] Ibid, 130

[14] Ibid

[15] O’Malley lecture

[16] De Lubac, 26

[17] Ibid, 134

[18] CCC 1131