Falling on His Grace

Jesus came to earth to teach us about God and to show us the love of the Father, to forgive our sins, and to redeem and reconcile us to Himself. He came to be Love Incarnate. Good Friday is an especially good day to remember and meditate upon this. It is a day to unite ourselves to Him for that purpose. Jesus also came to earth to sanctify suffering. He took on a human form and was born a baby, of a woman. Our God lived life on this earth in a human body for thirty three years and immersed Himself in the human experience. For this reason, "God, too, knows exactly how it feels to be cold, or tired, or hungry, or sore with pain, because he, too, has had a body. He has spent long hours, for years at a time, doing the routine and unspectacular work of a carpenter, has walked long days over dusty roads with tired feet, has curled his shoulders against the night air or a chill rain, has been without sleep while others slept, has been thirsty and hot and weary and ready to drop from ...

My family and I went to Lifest yesterday. Lifest is a Christian music celebration - a "party with a purpose" as they say of themselves. Bob Lenz, the guy in charge, was up on stage speaking between shows, showing off a new t-shirt design that they are selling. BGTF, it says - by grace through faith. I have thought a lot about this idea of being saved by faith vs being saved by good works. Now, let's get one thing straight right off the bat. Protestants tend to think that Catholics actually believe we are saved by good works, and we Catholics get a lot of flack for that. But a Catholic that actually understands his or her faith understands that, while God does indeed care about our decisions and does indeed care about how we treat others and about what we do "for the least of [His] brothers," we are not "saved" by our good works. I am onboard with this idea - no, this truth - that we are saved by grace. Let's examine this. First of all, faith:...