The Face of Grace Project

Within the American church, we seem to be caught up in a game of spiritual whack-a-mole. In the arcade game, the player bludgeons each mole with a sledgehammer as he pops up his head from the ground. The more moles hit, the more moles surface and at an increasing rate of speed.

In the spiritual life, what doesn’t happen is as important to notice as that which does take place. Silence is its own type of ‘whack’ and perhaps a more deadly one. Let us follow the example of St. John Paul II in a transformation of conscience. As he told the Polish people: look around you. You are not alone.

Grandparents day is September 13. This year, too many of our loved ones are in lockdown within their retirement communities. Many times, President Trump has voiced his sincere concern for the depression people have suffered under lockdown, particularly by our elders. Unfortunately, the dignity and needs of the elderly is being ignored by the media and their wisdom is only captured when it promotes the goals of social engineering.

Meanwhile, the lived experience of the American people is a multi-generational dynamic. Older family members begin the process of aging, dementia and Alzheimer’s while their spouses and adult children grasp to make sense of this changing inter-relational dynamic.

A look into aging, aided by the wisdom of the saints.

The world demands ambition and teaches that greed is good. Ambition is a vice leading to greed and other sins. Pope Francis says “Careerism is leprosy!” The saints teach us to focus on God in the smallest of tasks for it is His glory that makes them good. Through this, even the lowest of work is honorable and dignifies us, the walking-talking temples of His Holy Spirit.

Words of wisdom from St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Josemaria Escriva, Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, Pope Francis, Servant of God John Arintero OP, St. John Paul II, and St. Walter of Pontoise (Patron of those suffering work-related stress)

“The same word in Hebrew (‘abad) means work, service and worship. For the chosen people these three activities constituted a worship of God that was one and the same.” (Thierry Maertens OSB)

How can I transform my work into worship?

The reason the early Christians were known by their love is because they were vessels of His love. Jesus is counter cultural, and to be His Christian we must be too. We must be Love.

As a young adult I began hearing people talk about the family of choice—our friends. The notion is that we get to choose our friends and they become our family. The implication is that we don’t get to choose our real families and so we are ‘stuck’ with them. An assumption is that we can cease being part of the birth family when we replace it with enough friends. This, of course, is false. While harm is never God’s will, belonging to our family is His design for our salvation—it is our family of Gift. He also would not place us into circumstances without the grace needed to thrive in holiness.

Faith is the gate through which grace enters. We must personally decide whether to be a grace vessel or a grace blocker. There is no partiality in God. He can only give of Himself 100%. The reason we do not receive the effects of that 100% is in us, not Him. I cannot change the past but I can change me today, asking God that I may truly desire they (and I) bask in His glory in Heaven.

Our soul is like the face of a cliff face. Our wounds are the crevices that give the fingertip space to the enemy to hold onto us. And that’s all he needs. Sometimes the smaller crevices run the deepest too. That is why the answer to any distress or conflict, whether spiritual or non-spiritual, is always our relationship with God. The pain of love far surpasses the pain we cling to in our hearts. This letting go, per St. Francis de Sales, is how we become “the instrument of our martyrdom”.