Resistance to Grace
This blog usually focuses on faith and reason, but occasionally matters of faith must creep in. Today is one of those days.
I had been struggling with my own Christian witness (it's quite poor; those of you who may know me will understand), and the following thoughts came to mind. For those of you reading this who may not be Christian, the fundamental job of any Christian is to spread the faith. Scripture and the church teaches us that the best way to spread the faith is to act like Christ, that is, to let the love of the savior shine throughout us.
Most Christians can point back to one or more people in their lives whose gentle character or self sacrificing nature led them to try to understand how to be like them, and thus were led to Christ. Indeed, it was Jesus' character that drew people to him. Any Christian who thinks that they are going to do this on their own is also in trouble. One can only be peaceful and loving in the most difficult situations via grace. Do you follow the thread? Christians are led to Christ by other Christians who, by grace, set a compelling example. They make Christ present through their example.
Now the stage is set. 1) A Christian's main job is to bring others to Christ. 2) A Christian best does this by example. 3) A Christian relies on gifts of grace to accomplish this. 4) The gift of grace makes Christ present to the world. Clearly, people like Mother Theresa show this in a big way. Most of us can only open ourselves to a little bit of grace, and thus show only a little bit of Christ. Mother Theresa was able to drink in big gulps of grace,and managed to actually change the world a little.
Hold on just a little longer. We're almost there. A scientist will always want to extend a theory to its limits. This tests the theory at its weakest point. This is what Onnes was doing when he discovered superconductivity. He wasn't just adding a few points to the resistance curve of mercury, which theory said would just continue decreasing with the temperature. Onnes expected something else to happen: either a leveling off of resistance (thus requiring a new theory), or the resistance might go to infinity (also requiring a new theory). He probably didn't expect the resistance to go zero, but it did. The point is, he wanted to test the limits. So let's test the limits of this grace theory ourselves.
What could we do if we were able to receive as much grace as possible. That is, if our resistance to grace went to zero. How much would Christ then be present? I submit that if we were "full of grace", Jesus would be made fully, physically present. In about 9 months. Get it? Mary was this "superconductor of grace", and the result is that through her, the Son of God became materially, physically present in a way that has been unmatched since. This is one reason why Catholics revere Mary: she is a primary example, the first and best Christian.
See the Matt1618 website for some Catholic apologetics addressing the protestant resistance to Catholic Maryology. See also this blog of mine from February.
I had been struggling with my own Christian witness (it's quite poor; those of you who may know me will understand), and the following thoughts came to mind. For those of you reading this who may not be Christian, the fundamental job of any Christian is to spread the faith. Scripture and the church teaches us that the best way to spread the faith is to act like Christ, that is, to let the love of the savior shine throughout us.
Most Christians can point back to one or more people in their lives whose gentle character or self sacrificing nature led them to try to understand how to be like them, and thus were led to Christ. Indeed, it was Jesus' character that drew people to him. Any Christian who thinks that they are going to do this on their own is also in trouble. One can only be peaceful and loving in the most difficult situations via grace. Do you follow the thread? Christians are led to Christ by other Christians who, by grace, set a compelling example. They make Christ present through their example.
Now the stage is set. 1) A Christian's main job is to bring others to Christ. 2) A Christian best does this by example. 3) A Christian relies on gifts of grace to accomplish this. 4) The gift of grace makes Christ present to the world. Clearly, people like Mother Theresa show this in a big way. Most of us can only open ourselves to a little bit of grace, and thus show only a little bit of Christ. Mother Theresa was able to drink in big gulps of grace,and managed to actually change the world a little.
Hold on just a little longer. We're almost there. A scientist will always want to extend a theory to its limits. This tests the theory at its weakest point. This is what Onnes was doing when he discovered superconductivity. He wasn't just adding a few points to the resistance curve of mercury, which theory said would just continue decreasing with the temperature. Onnes expected something else to happen: either a leveling off of resistance (thus requiring a new theory), or the resistance might go to infinity (also requiring a new theory). He probably didn't expect the resistance to go zero, but it did. The point is, he wanted to test the limits. So let's test the limits of this grace theory ourselves.
What could we do if we were able to receive as much grace as possible. That is, if our resistance to grace went to zero. How much would Christ then be present? I submit that if we were "full of grace", Jesus would be made fully, physically present. In about 9 months. Get it? Mary was this "superconductor of grace", and the result is that through her, the Son of God became materially, physically present in a way that has been unmatched since. This is one reason why Catholics revere Mary: she is a primary example, the first and best Christian.
See the Matt1618 website for some Catholic apologetics addressing the protestant resistance to Catholic Maryology. See also this blog of mine from February.
posted by Phil Shea | 8:12 AM
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