Just Pray for Courage

I logged on to my favorite fat Dominican this morning (Father Philip Neri Powell) and was given great pause.  He was called back from Rome and is now assigned a parish in New Orleans and posts his daily sermons.  If I understand him in this morning's sermon (the feast of St Matthew), he's saying that according to St Paul (reading for the day) we have (past tense) recieved ALL the graces necessary for our perfection at the moment of our baptism, and our prayer should be for the gift of courage to apply these (MAYBE THIS?) graces moment-by-moment throughout our life.  I grew up with a very juridical understanding of grace.  You say a prayer, perform a good act:  grace flows into the bucket of your soul.  Commit a sin and the devil pokes a hole in the bucket and there goes the grace off into the sand.  Well this won't get you very far without anxiety or craven fear and it militates against seeing love as the only arbitor.  So what should my prayers consist of?  I think it is to pray for the courage (will) to conform my life to the great grace of sonship in Christ which is already given and available to me.  Then to pray for everybody and everything else. Nothing more or less. Anyway, here's Father Philip's sermon:

St. Matthew
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

How many times have I heard otherwise faithful, intelligent Catholics say something like: “I've been asking God to give me the grace to forgive/forget/move on/stop this sin/grow in purity/etc. And it seems like He just doesn't hear me”? How many times? If I were given a dollar for every time I heard this, I could buy a complete set of Japanese silk, hand-embroidered, jewel-encrusted, air-conditioned vestments and have plenty left over to start my own fried chicken and pecan pie franchise. That's a lot of time, folks. A lot. Despite the frequency of and urgency with which I am asked about the apparent absence of God's favor in someone's life, I always take the time to answer patiently b/c we're not messing around with an abstract philosophical question here. We depend, totally depend, on God's grace to make it day to day. Forget growing in holiness. How about just getting out of bed? How about just making it to work, to school? “Father, I've been asking God to give me the grace but it seems like He just doesn't hear me. What's wrong?” I answer, quoting Paul, “. . .grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.” Was given. That's past tense. You have already been given the grace you need. 

Does knowing this truth solve your problem? Probably not. Why? Because the problem is not a lack of knowledge. The problem is most likely a deficiency in the will. Are you using the grace you've already been given? Are you cooperating with all of God's efforts to get you untangled? Let's go back to Paul. What is he telling the troubled Ephesians to do? “I. . .urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received. . .with all humility and gentleness, with patience.” No small order, and we know that Paul knows he's asking a lot b/c he follows his order with: “BUT grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.” So, using Christ's death and resurrection as the measure for merit, we have been given the grace we need to grow in holiness, and that grace comes to each one of us and takes shape in us according to our individual natures so that we might be made perfect. How do we exercise the will to cooperate with the grace we have been given and received? Grace does not destroy my nature; it perfects my nature. If I live a life worthy of the call I've received, then grace gives me all I need to approach perfect holiness. 

Now, you're probably thinking: but that's the problem, Father, I need grace to live a worthy life! How do I live a worthy life w/o grace? You don't. That you exist in the first place, that you exist at all is a grace, a gift. You live, you move, you breath in the presence of God. To repeat: you already have all the grace you need. Use it. Cooperate with God's gifts and you will approach perfection. Look at Matthew. A lying, cheating, traitorous tax-collector for a heathen empire that's invaded his own country! Jesus looks at him and says, “Follow me.” That's it. What is it in Matthew that helps him to stand up, turn away from his lucrative job, and become a fool for Christ? He sees in Christ his own perfect self; he hears from Christ the word of grace that he already knows will teach him the way to salvation. Something in Matthew assists him in responding to what we sees and hears in Jesus. We call that something “grace.” The next time you find yourself confused by temptation or stuck in sin, don't pretend you are helpless and ask for the grace you already have. Ask for the courage and the strength to use that grace to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Ask for the courage to be Christ for the world. 

love,
Your pontificating father

PS: What are the sacraments for but to renew in us the courage to apply the great gift recieved once and for all? The only horror is to spurn the gift and lose it all.