The Catholic Leader continues its series of Year of Grace articles with theologian SR MARIE T FARRELL’S look at the biblical understanding of “grace”
THE Year of Grace is a time of spiritual opportunity, of openness to divine “favour” as we claim and own the many blessings that touch our lives day by day and so often in mysterious ways.
The biblical understanding of “grace” as “divine favour” is richly nuanced.
When referred to as charis, it suggests overtones of “charm”, “freshness” and “youthfulness” related to “springtime” experiences of the wonder of our having been blessed with “newness” of life in Christ.
When “grace” is named as gratia it suggests the sheer largesse of divine “graciousness”; it expresses our “gratitude” in thanksgiving for what God has done for us in Christ through the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit.
Charis immediately evokes two New Testament associations. The first is the Annunciation passage in the Gospel of Luke (1:1-36) where Mary is greeted by Gabriel as “Rejoice! O highly favoured one …” and is assured that she need not be afraid for “you have found favour with God” and “the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.”
The second invites us with the author of the letter to the Ephesians, to marvel at the extraordinary realisation that “God has destined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of God’s glorious grace that God freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:5-6)
Ecstatic rejoicing over God’s favour in delivering Israel from her misfortunes is a frequent Old Testament theme
.
The prophet’s great Song of Joy declares:
“Sing aloud. O Daughter Zion;
Shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart
O Daughter Israel!
The Lord has taken away the
judgements against you,
has turned away your enemies.
The King of israel, the Lord is in your midst;
You shall fear disaster no more.
On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
do not fear O Zion;
Do not let your hands grow weak.
The Lord your God is in your midst,
a warrior who gives victory;
God will rejoice over you with gladness,
God will renew you in his love [and]
will exult over you with loud singing
as on a day of festival.” (Zephaniah 3:14-17)
In remembering our experiences of divine favour – of “light” but also those hidden in darkness and sorrow – how better than to make our own the New Testament Song of Joy, Mary’s Magnificat:
“I acclaim the greatness of the Lord,
I delight in God my Saviour,
who regarded my humble state.
Truly from this day on
all ages will call me blessed.
For God, wonderful in power,
has used that strength for me.
Holy the name of the Lord!
Whose mercy embraces the faithful
one generation to the next.
The mighty arm of God
scatters the proud in their conceit,
pulls tyrants from their thrones
and raises up the humble.
The Lord fills the starving
And lets the rich go hungry.
God rescues lowly Israel
recalling the promise of mercy,
the promise made to our ancestors,
to Abraham’s heirs for ever. Amen (Luke 1:46-55)
The biblical tradition teaches us that the gift of “divine favour” carries implications of “election” and “mission”.
Prayerful contemplation of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ baptism enables us to reaffirm our own Christian election through sacramental baptism, even as we enter into the mystery of his.
Likewise, contemplation of the scene where Jesus publicly proclaims his mission, may allow us to hear the Spirit’s prompting to recommit to our mission as pledged in sacramental Confirmation.
When Jesus came to Nazareth …, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath, as was the custom. He stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.
He unrolled the scroll where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” (Luke 4:16-19)
As Christ’s baptised-confirmed-eucharistic disciples, how might we each “spell out” anew the pattern of mission appropriate to our own sphere of influence and according to our vocation in life?
Poet Gerard Manly Hopkins can help us see how “mission” must reach out to others beyond one’s self-centredness:
“I say more: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eyes what in God’s eyes he is – Christ – for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces. (From As Kingfishers catch fire; note generic use of “men)
Our faith reveals that every participation in the Eucharist “encloses” us in grace – from the initial liturgical welcome, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all”, throughout the liturgy of the Word, the offering of the “bread and wine” of our daily lives, the Eucharistic prayer and solemn consecration of the gifts into the Body and Blood of Christ, the great “Amen”, our holy communion and, finally, to the “sending forth” to mission, “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life”.
We respond in gratitude, “Thanks be to God!”
In order to find Christ in the eyes of our brothers and sisters, we must be willing to meet the eyes of Christ and allow ourselves to be steadfastly gazed upon by Christ.
Sacred iconographers have discovered the spiritual art of depicting the eyes of Christ in such a way that, whatever way we turn, we cannot escape his gaze.
In this Year of Grace let us contemplate the face of Christ.
Sr Marie T Farrell, a Sister of Mercy, was formerly senior lecturer in theology and spirituality at the Catholic Institute of Sydney, and is still involved in adult theological education through workshops, occasional talks and writing.
Her book God Among Us: Australian Images of Jesus was launched by St Paul’s Publications in time for the Year of Grace.
