Grace, Effort, and the Call to Holiness | Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time | Sunday Reflection

In this week’s Gospel Jesus raises the bar for us. We hear those immortal words; “whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement” and “everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” He systematically dismantles the previous understanding of God’s Law and calls his disciples higher, to the heart of the Law, the reality of grace and love that God our Father wants us to live.

But what about us today? How do we live these teachings out? Jesus sets a high bar, upon reading this one might find themselves questioning if any human today can live this perfect life. After all, who do you know who can live entirely free of all these vices?

There are two common temptations in the face of this seemingly impossible message. First, we can be tempted to despair. If anyone who insults his brother, or even holds a grudge, has already murdered him in his heart, then we are all murderers. Following this reasoning, we can easily drift deeper and deeper into the hopelessness of the reality of our sins and despair of ever being saved. But this is not the message Jesus came to give us. We are not meant to despair, but to have hope in his grace and mercy. Jesus sets this high bar not to condemn us, but to demonstrate how utterly powerless we are in the face of our broken nature and teach us how to rely on him for our salvation. Salvation from God is a totally free, gratuitous gift. It’s not something we earn, it’s not something we can ever achieve by ourselves, or by just being a good person. Even the best of us falls short in at least one of these areas when we try to do things on our own.

So then, if we are utterly hopeless on our own and Jesus is the one who saves us from our sins, the next temptation we can face is laziness. If Jesus is going to save me and I can’t earn my salvation, then why should I even do anything? What difference does my effort make if nothing I can do will win my salvation?

This is a trap that many of our Protestant brothers and sisters fall into, a doctrine many refer to as, “once saved always saved.” It’s the idea that once a person accepts Jesus and his sacrifice for him/her, they are saved and all their sins, past, present, and future are forgiven. But this can lead us to a false sense of security. The idea that we needn’t try to grow in virtue and away from vice. That no matter what we do, we’ll be forgiven, so why even try? We Catholics can fall into this too, especially if we have a poor view of the Sacrament of Confession. We can see Confession as our get out of jail free card, that we can do whatever we want assuming we can make it to confession afterward. But the truth is that a good confession requires a desire from the penitent to not sin again. It doesn’t mean we’ll be perfect afterward, but we can’t abuse the confession intending to just go back to our former lifestyle. There has to be a conversion, a desire to change, to grow in love for God and neighbor and increase in virtue. When done well, this is exactly the grace the Sacrament of Reconciliation gives to us; graces of healing from our sin and strength to sin less and less each time.

So the balance becomes the Catholic belief in Faith and works. Our salvation is a free gift from God, given in our Baptism, and there is nothing we can do to earn that salvation on our own. However, our works are also necessary. They earn merit, they store up treasures in heaven, they bring us and those around us closer to God. They train us in deeper virtue, lifting us free from the swamp of sin and vice in the process. It’s by this process of practicing virtue and eliminating sin that we become more and more perfected in this life, we become more and more like Christ, some Church Fathers even going so far as to say that God became man so that man could become God.

This is how we attain higher levels of glory in the Heavenly Kingdom, and how we grow deeper and deeper in relationship with Our Loving Father. This is how we become Saints.

Understanding all this, I want to share a practical tip. As we live our life with Christ and we seek to do good, to pray, to evangelize, to serve our brothers and sisters and our God with our lives, there is one technique that I’ve found to be the greatest help. There is no greater antidote to sin than gratitude. Take a look back at the Gospel passage, pick any of the vices Jesus lists, and ask yourself, “If I am practicing genuine gratitude to God, can I commit this sin?” How can we remain angry at our brothers in our heart if we thank God for the gift they are to us? How can we lust after our sisters if we see them as beloved daughters of Our same Father, and thank Him for the gift of their beauty? How can we take the name of the Lord in vain, swear a false oath, or hold an idol in veneration over God if we are grateful to Him each day for the gift of His tender love and care?

Gratitude fundamentally changes the way we view everything and everyone around us. It breaks down walls and builds bridges in their place. It destroys the poisons of self-centeredness and pride that are the root cause of our sins. On a fundamental, physiological level, it rewrites our brains to see situations differently, and removes the impetus for anger and resentment. Our Loving Father, in His Divine Wisdom, saw fit to build into our very bodies an antidote to the excess of vice that we are exposed to throughout life in this fallen world. Are you making use of this powerful weapon for holiness that He has given you?