Often, despite our pursuit for holiness, we find ourselves succumbing to our various vices; though we have the best of intentions, our worst thoughts and habits overcome us and lead us astray. It would be easy for us to give up. Either we think that we have aimed ourselves in the wrong direction, that our passions are telling us what we should embrace and so we turn to them instead of what we once pursued, or else, because we do not have the strength to overcome them, we give in to despair.
Of course, it is quite possible that many things which we avoid are really benign. Nonetheless, we are imperfect creatures and many of our desires, even if they would provide moments of pleasure, are inordinate and would only lead us to some bad end if we embraced them. All we need to do is consider the life of a drunkard, to see the harm alcohol does to them, to see how their desire for alcohol has destroyed their life. Even if we are not alcoholics, we can still become attached to and addicted to things which would do us similar harm, not because they are in themselves harmful, but because of how we would approach and engage them. We long after some good thing and what it can give us, but we become attached to it in an inordinate fashion, trying to acquire it in an inappropriate manner, cutting it off from its proper context, that good becomes hollowed out. What we attain, therefore, is less than the good itself, for what we receive is but some partial similitude of it.
Nonetheless, despite all we do wrong, despite all our mistakes and imperfections, despite all our sins, we can still become holy, we can still become saints. God loves us. In and through that love, God is for us, giving us grace after grace, grace to heal us and those around us from the harm we have caused, grace to heal us of the guilt and shame we feel once we realize how bad our actions have been, grace, indeed, to help lift us up and overcome whatever bad habits we have formed in our lives that would continue to push us to harm ourselves or others. It is this love, this grace, which makes people saints; indeed, it is because God is for us, offering us that grace, it is far easier for us to become saints than it is for us to become prudent, for grace perfects nature and helps us go beyond our accomplishments. This, then, is the message of Paul, this is the good news of Christ: God loves us, and even when we sin, even when we act contrary to the goodness which God desires for us, God loves us and offers us all the mercy and grace which we need to become saints:
But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God — not because of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ep. 2:4-10 RSV).
Paul does not promote cheap grace; saying that God’s love and mercy saves us does not mean we do not have to cooperate with it. We do. We can resist it, if we wish. But we must realize that such grace needs to be there for us to cooperate with it. Grace comes before our efforts. Without it, we cannot be healed. It is necessary for our holiness; indeed, more than anything else, it is grace which renders us holy. Because grace is primary, and God, out of love, offers that grace to all, even to the greatest of sinners, we should never despair when we find ourselves succumbing to temptation. We just need to pick ourselves back up and open ourselves up to grace; we can and will be forgiven and receive all that we need to be restored to holiness. If this is true for us, we can trust this is true for all, which is why we should not have despair for anyone or anything in creation: God’s love is universal, God’s offer of grace is universal, and so all have the possibility of being saved.
Grace can help anyone; the more we cooperate with it, the more we will find ourselves exorcised from our inner demons, and the more, then, we should find ourselves called to share the good news to others, to share what Jesus had done for us, similar to the demoniac at Gerasnes:
The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but he sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him (Lk. 8:38-39 RSV).
When we see what God has done for us, when we see the darkness within expelled by the light of grace, we can appreciate how the Sun of Righteousness will shine forth throughout the world, throughout all creation, bringing the light of grace to all, purifying all things from evil, so that all be made fit to receive the “immeasurable riches” of the kingdom of God. God will indeed be all in all. We, therefore, must never despair, either of our own salvation, nor of the salvation of the world. God is love, and God’s love, God’s grace, God’s mercy, is greater than the power of sin. We must focus on the hope; we can speculate based upon our understanding of how things are, but we must be careful and not let those speculations get the best of us, acting as if they are more than speculations, for they are always limited in value as our understanding of the way things are ultimately is limited. Thus, we should focus on what we know from revelation: God is love, God is rich in mercy, and God’s grace is what can lift us up out of our present situation and lead us to the kingdom of God. We have hope. Let us never despair.
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