Reflections | GRACE
Watch as Msgr. Don reveals how Grace is felt. Not just within you, but how others can feel it resonating from you as well.
Good morning. I want to talk about Grace. What is it? I looked it up in the Oxford English Dictionary and it says “to hover over, to be present due to an event, place, or a person.” And then I think about another word that really connects with Grace to me. It's called resonance. Resonance. What is that? A vibration, a sound.
Isn’t it interesting that we have cell phones? We have all these electronic devices that are interconnected and there's information flying through the radio waves. I'm not very good at all that. But what I'm saying is that we know that there is something going on between things, even though we can't see the thing that's going on between them. And that's a good image for me of explaining Grace.
What is it that God has given to you and to me that's such an incredible gift? Well, he's taken away all our sins. We no longer have to wallow in shame and guilt and fear of punishment. If he takes all that stuff away in our relationship, if we are already in the right relationship with God, not because of our actions, but because of God's response to our actions, which is always love and forgiveness. Then there's something in us that I would call peace, just a gentle feeling of well-being.
I am wondering if I could use that as just a way of describing what it is that is communicated when I am going to use this word grace, when Grace is flowing between one person and another. And I don't know that it's that hard for you to imagine but, you know, when you're with someone and even though you may not talk about something that's troubling you, but you leave that person and you feel better and you feel freer than you did when you were with them and something you feel you got that was not information, but a feeling. Could that be that peaceful feeling in someone else is communicated through this mysterious thing called grace? A resonance that enters into you and attaches to the thing in you that's like it and awakens it.
You know, the thing about a bell is rung in a room where there's all these other bells. If there's another bell over there that is tuned to that frequency, it starts ringing and it's not moving. What is that? Something in you that's a clear pleasant sound based on some insights that you have, goes across the room and touches another person that's ready to to feel that particular feeling. Maybe Grace is that moment of transformation that flows from one person to another. And it's in the form of some kind of peaceful well being. When you're around a lot of people that feel good about their lives and who they are in the world, there is a different feeling than being around a group of people that are talking about how horrible everything is and how terrible people are and how dangerous this world is. Maybe that's a shadow of the judgmental side of any religion. It looks at things that are not the way they should be and spends all their time exposing them and condemning them.
What about a heart that looks at everything not the way it is? It is filled with the quality that God sent to us through the person Jesus called forgiveness, acceptance, surrender, hope, trust. Wow. That's inside of you. And you feel good. I guarantee you that you are grace. Your grace to the people around you. If you're lucky enough and blessed enough to be around a person that has that quality and you feel it, you give thanks. You give thanks to God and to that person because you've witnessed through their resonance the effectiveness of love, acceptance, forgiveness. It's a beautiful, beautiful gift to give the world so be filled with grace today.
Have a good day.