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THE STATE OF GRACE

 

       Modern thinking and practices (e.g., decline in moral stature, victimization of unborn children, sinister applications of scientific knowledge), as well as, futuristic trends are, not surprisingly, characteristically devious, to a large extent hedonistically oriented, and hence are exceedingly alarming. Brute influences of progressivism need to be uncompromisingly scrutinized and conquered by spirited intellects, delivering efficacious defense of the realm of innocence and wisdom that are of enduring significance. In a highly explosive world, evident disintegration of values, disordered politics, where civilization is increasingly turning back toward barbaric tendencies, proneness to hardened - degrading habits, the world needs urgently responsive, compassionately disposed, sagacious and farsighted individuals - minds and hearts trained by the Holy Spirit. For without supernatural resources - without reliance on the supreme aid of the Author of Grace, all mental creations, fabrications and prospects are but vain attempts, proffering frightening insensibility and unpromising future.

       Salvation is not just salvation from sin and death, but salvation to life of Grace - life filled with the Holy Spirit - the Guarantor of humility, wanted receptivity, intellective accuracy, spiritual fortitude, and genuine empathic relatedness or connectedness with others. Neither redemption, authentic freedom, changeless Truth, Love nor any lasting benefits can be attained without freely and providentially offered Grace. The soul remains infirm and powerless if it is not sustained by the solidity of Grace; that is, it remains helpless and immobilized without the omnipotent action of Grace - without fitting preparation and reception of Grace. Sinfulness evinced in clear violations of divine Laws (especially in grave matters), prevents human beings from receiving sanctifying Grace in order to grow in sanctity, and in accepting unreservedly divinely revealed Truths in their entirety, contributing to expansion or continuance of false interpretations of Catholic Doctrine. Indeed, the mysteries of Christian faith are brought low in eminence whenever they are made into an object of repudiation or even affirmation, when they ought to be an object of contemplation. That is, they become fully meaningful whenever these divinely disclosed principles and Truths of faith are unconditionally accepted and devotedly practiced. The Sacred Truths must be first "tasted" in order to be fittingly appreciated and understood; they cannot be judged by reason alone for again, they can be elucidated unmistakably by the omnipotent power and inspirations of the Holy Spirit. Saint Bonaventure reasserted that there is no such thing as philosophy based entirely on reason, since it is always joined with supernatural communication, that is, the preeminent action of divine inspiration or promptings of the Holy Spirit. To put it differently, a virtuous life is necessary in order to understand Sacred Truths disclosed by God as well as truths about God. Christ emphatically declared that whoever does not know the work of perfection, whoever is not perfected by sanctifying Grace, knows nothing of what is of the outmost relevance for eternal life, and thus subsists in a largely confusional state in earthly life, which is the preparatory training for heavenly living. To allow ourselves to be wholly instructed by the Author of Grace, be enlightened and trained thoroughly by divine Grace comes to be the most sublime and unsurpassable marvel in human earthly existence and hereafter. In order to secure the right to fuller - more perfected existence, what is indispensable is a genuine confrontation with ourselves and the world for the purpose of uncovering the unsightliness of immoral habits and spiritual laxity as well as craving for inferior goods, which weaken, blind, blemish and can completely ruin the soul. Therefore, the conception of true failure can be viewed as the direct result of refusal to contemplate the bizarreness of sin. Without the higher and nobler pursuits of morality (with the right intention - love) - without personal uprightness and virtue - without internal illumination and restoration through divine Grace, there neither can be public morality nor conceivable hope for true progress, since proper moral conduct is the source and the way of ensuring true advancement of humanity. A skeptic-marred, rapidly deteriorating world, and humankind's perdurable culpability are therefore curable, reformable and perfectible through the all-powerful action of Grace. The dynamics of divine Truths possess the exclusive liberating supremacy to overthrow the mindlessness and unmeaningness prominently apparent in modern mindset. As one of the literary giants of our times, Joseph Pearce, pointedly expresses it,"...the Trinitarian life of the soul, centered on the life-giving trinity of confession, contrition and satisfaction, leads us from the darkness of ignorance and sin to the sunshine of grace and the light of His Presence."

 

Christian Works by Dorothy Kardas, Psy.D. Th.D. 

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