The Apostle St. Peter, meditating on the greatness and glory of grace, says to the faithful: "By Whom He hath given us great and precious promises: that by these you may be made partakers of the Divine nature" [2 Pet. 1, 4]. These promises, which are founded on sanctifying grace, are superlatively great because they, immeasurably, surpass all created things. But they are also precious, because they contain the best that God can give us, yes, the more precious because they have been purchased by the price of the Blood of Jesus. What can, consequently, be for us poor fallen creatures, for us sinful men, greater than to be raised up from the depths of our misery, and made children of God and participators in His Divine Nature and glory?

   In this, the whole greatness and glory of grace lies open before us. It is the sublime mystery, which was hidden from men before the coming of Jesus Christ. But the greater that this mystery is which God alone could reveal, the greater appears the richness and glory of grace. Through it, man is incorporated with the Divine Redeemer, and shares in the fullness of His Redemption. Alas, this sweet and sublime mystery is all too little known among Christians. This lack of knowledge is the reason why our own dignity as faithful, the greatness of our hopes and the inexhaustible merits of Jesus Christ are so little esteemed among us. I will, therefore, speak today on the glories of Divine grace.

   O Jesus, assist us with Thy grace!

   1. Sanctifying Grace is a ray of the Divine Beauty, which is poured into our soul and penetrates it with such a Divine Light that even God Himself is delighted with it, and through it the soul becomes a child of God, and is called to pass beyond the confines of human nature to the glory of God and to the heritage of Heaven. The light of the sun is a weak picture of this grace, which pours out encouragement, beauty and life over all creation which without the sun would present a sad and sorrowful appearance, as it does when covered with dark clouds.

   Grace surpasses in the most sublime manner all created things. Heaven and earth will pass away according to the words of the Redeemer, but the salvation and justice of the just will remain, for those are the works of God, but this is His likeness. The great Doctor of the Church, St. Thomas, says that it is a greater work to awaken a sinner to the life of grace than even to create Heaven and earth, for these are inanimate and changeable substances, but grace continues on in the eternal participation of the glory of God. The world is indeed His house, but the sanctified soul is His temple. From this is evident the truth that grace far surpasses all created things as God Himself, because it is a Heavenly good which is poured into the soul out of the fullness of the Divine Nature.

   But grace not only surpasses all natural things, but also all other works of God. His omnipotence shows itself in His works, but His omnipotence shows itself more brilliantly and sublimely in His mercy, in the grace with which He sanctifies men. St. Augustine explains the promise of Our Divine Savior that the faithful would do greater things than He did on earth, by the grace through which the ordinary tasks and sufferings are raised and made meritorious for eternal life. Yes, the gift of grace is more glorious for God and man than visible miracles, such as the sudden healing of the sick, the resurrection of the dead, and the like. For by grace God works in the soul, creates it anew, raises it above every natural being, breathes into it supernatural life, and impresses upon it His own likeness.

   This marvelous power God gave also to His Church and to His priests, in so far, as they, through the preaching of the Catholic faith, and through the administration of the Sacraments form souls, redeem souls, and make them worthy of grace and eternal life. Such a power is really greater than that of giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, or speech to the dumb. These miracles we can see, but the infusion of grace through the Holy Ghost we cannot see, and yet it is a far more sublime miracle, because it takes place in the soul which we can see with our bodily eyes as little as we can see God. God would not be the infinitely great God if we could behold Him in a natural manner, and in the same manner grace would not be such a sublime and heavenly good if it were visible to us. It will be visible to us only on the day of judgment, when the soul will behold itself in its glory and beauty, and will eternally meditate on it as the source of new joys.

   2. Sanctifying grace raises us also, my beloved, high above our human nature. It is the spring of eternal life; it is the root whose blossoms and fruits are the bliss of Heaven. Even the Saints who now rejoice in Heaven, rejoice only on account of the grace which they possessed on earth. Therefore the happiness of Heaven is nothing more than the final development and completion of grace. The Apostle St. Paul says: "For the wages of sin is death. But the grace of God, life everlasting, in Christ Jesus our Lord" [Rom. 6, 23]. As sin on earth must precede before eternal death could follow, so, too, must grace precede before the soul can receive the reward of happiness. Grace is consequently such a wonderful good that even the bliss of Heaven depends upon it.

       But as the happiness of Heaven is sublimely high above our sinful nature, so, too, is Divine grace. It does not lower itself to us but elevates and raises us above our nature to its Heavenly substance, and makes our soul like to God and worthy of God. It unites itself with our soul and communicates to it all its own excellences and beauty. It weaves, as it were, its Heavenly treasures into a bridal robe with which it clothes the soul, and as it is itself the most glorious work of God, so, too, it transforms the soul into the most sublime work of God. We comprehend now why we are, when in the state of grace, the children of God and heirs of Heaven, and co-heirs with Jesus Christ, temples of the Holy Ghost and companions of the Angels. 

     3. It is something great, my beloved, that we, through Divine grace, are elevated above all created nature, but it is something still greater that we become participators in the uncreated Divine Nature. The nearer an object approaches a fire the more light and warmth does it receive, and the nearer we approach to God the more do we participate in God. But we come closer to God by sanctifying grace and enter through it into the most intimate union with Him. St. Peter teaches us this when he declares that the promises are great and precious, which God made to us through Jesus Christ in order that through them we might become participators in the Divine nature. On earth this takes place through grace, but in Heaven through entrance into the eternal glory of God. As the earth attracts all created things to it, so also God attracts all sanctified souls to Himself, and gives to them a dignity and a beauty which the material eye could not bear to look upon. It reveals only after death that transfiguration of which the Apostle says that eye hath not seen nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man what God hath prepared for those who love Him, that is, for those who are in the state of sanctifying grace.

   This participation in the Divine Nature is such a sublime mystery of the glory of Divine grace, that I shall endeavor to explain it as far as possible. Everything, even the smallest creatures, have a certain participation in the Divine perfections, be it in their existence and life, or in their qualities and faculties. They are all traces of the glory of God, all a mirror in which we behold the omnipotence, wisdom and providence of God, and they are all a book in which we can read of His love, goodness and mercy. But since the visible creatures are corporeal they are indeed an evidence of the work of God and reveal His wisdom and omnipotence, but by no means represent to us His Divine Nature, since God is a Spirit; but our souls and all pure spirits, as the Angels, are even according to their spiritual nature a likeness of God, and therefore rational and immortal. Consequently they become like to God if they are a pure and unblemished mirror of Divine grace from which is reflected a ray of the Eternal Beauty and Sanctity. But this takes place through Divine grace which transforms and sanctifies the soul. And herein lies the participation in the Divine Nature, which gives to the soul a most particular and sacred attribute and likeness to God, a reflection of His Divine Sanctity. The innocence which shines forth from the eyes of a Baptized child, the sublime patience of a Martyr, the Heavenly purity of the Christian virgin, the marvelous piety and courage of so many Saints-----they are not of the earth, they are something superterrestrial, which comes from Heaven, a reflection of the Sanctity of God, rays of His Divine Being. And Divine grace is the source of all this.

  4. This truth enlightens us still more if we reflect that God alone is eternal and unchangeable, and that all creatures, even the soul, have been created out of nothing. And even if they live, they fall back into nothingness just as soon as God removes His hand from them and ceases to preserve them in existence. But through grace, we are called to eternal life, to the source of all being and life, to God. Here our existence is so secured, as if we were of ourselves eternal; here there is no death. Heaven and earth may pass away and the whole world be shaken to its foundations, but we have in and through grace nothing to fear.

   Therefore Holy Scripture says: "But the just shall live for ever more; and their reward is with the Lord, and the care of them with the Most High" [Wis. 5, 16]. But the sinners and the godless complain: "Of what use to us is the pride and pomp of riches? Everything has disappeared like a shadow . . . So also have we, scarcely having been born, ceased to exist, and we are consumed in our malice." They have despised grace, and with it eternal life; therefore they live not eternally but die eternally, that is suffer the most terrible pain, namely, eternal death. If we wish to live, if we wish to be truly like to God, we must take our refuge to the Spring of all life and all being, to God, and seek His grace and preserve it.

   5. This truth, my beloved, leads us to a new glory of Divine grace. When Lucifer rebelled against. God he said: "I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the Most High" [Isaias 4, 14], but he seduced Eve to disobedience towards God with the words: "You will become as gods." This attempt without God and against God to become like unto God of one's own power is boundless pride, and a real self-deification. For this reason Lucifer fell so deeply, and our first parents lost grace in Paradise, and learned from their own misery their own nothingness. But with grace we can, yes we should, become like to God. Our Divine Savior Himself says to us: "Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect."

 It is Divine grace that raises us ever more and more to Divine perfection. The world is filled with the glory and perfection of God which He pours out over Heaven and earth, and all, even the most insignificant of His creatures, in an infinitely more wonderful manner than the sun spreads heat and light and beauty over the earth. Yet all the perfections and all the beauty of creatures cannot be compared with the perfection and beauty which grace pours into the soul. In this manner it becomes a supernatural likeness of God, in which is contained the perfection of creatures, just as in God the perfections of the whole universe are contained. "The kingdom of God is within you," said Our Divine Savior to His Apostles, though it may be perhaps hidden and invisible as is the plant in the seed. For this reason St. John wrote:

"We are already children of God, but it hath not yet appeared what we shall become when we see God as He is" [1 John 3, 3]. As long, therefore, as we cannot see God, we cannot see His likeness in our soul, but grace is, as it were, the aurora of the Divine Sun; if we patiently await and live a Christian life, until this Sun rises and God shows Himself after our death, then the whole glow of the Divine beauty will penetrate the soul and transfigure it. Grace offers a secure pledge of this. "We shall be like unto God because we shall see Him as He is" [1 John 3, 2]. The soul, in the state of grace, awaits this immeasurable happiness in Heaven; there it will enter into its own unspeakable beauty and glory.

6. Oh, who can adequately describe the greatness and sublimity of Divine grace? It elevates the Christian high above his miserable nature and above all creatures; it is the root and the beginning of Heavenly bliss. But what is still more glorious in grace is the sanctity which it communicates to man. The most glorious attribute of God is His infinite sanctity. It is the special object of the adoration of the Heavenly hosts who without ceasing praise God saying: "Holy, Holy, Holy, art thou Lord God of Sabbaoth." Through grace we share in the Divine sanctity, and therefore we call this grace sanctifying grace. It does not mean merely the forgiveness of sin, the remission of the eternal punishment, and the inheritance of Heaven, but more especially that through it the soul becomes a holy likeness of God. Therefore this grace cannot exist in the soul with sin, no more than God Himself can. Sin annihilates neither human nature nor the understanding, nor the other powers of the soul, but it does destroy grace with its supernatural qualities and glory.

   Even the most immoral and most abandoned men cannot deny their admiration of the sanctity which shines forth in so many members of Holy Church, and exhibits itself in the practice of the most beautiful virtues. St. Paul calls all the true faithful holy, because through grace they share in the sanctity of God. Amiable and lovable is the sanctity of the soul in innocent children, pure and undefiled in holy virgins, earnest and worthy in pious priests, quiet and submissive in suffering Christians, sublime and admirable in the Martyrs. But everywhere, it is the glory and the crown of the soul which elevates it above human nature, and receives, through grace, from the sanctity of God, a supernatural life.

   7. For this reason, grace is truly the greatest good of man on earth, and we understand now the words of Jesus: "If thou hadst known the gift of God!" There is nothing on earth that can be compared in value to grace, for it means as much as the possession of God and eternal bliss.

   Oh, how foolishly therefore do so many Christians act, who so carelessly risk their highest good, this Heavenly pearl and crown of their soul, by committing sin! They act a thousand times more foolishly than Esau, who squandered his heritage for a mess of pottage. We shudder at a long-continued eclipse, and yet what is it in comparison to the darkness of sin which hovers over the soul, when the light of grace is extinguished. We are shocked at earthquakes, at tidal waves, when thousands of men lose their lives, and yet what can be a more terrible sight than the numberless Christians, who live from day to day in a most miserable condition, having lost the grace of God. We are incensed at the stupidity or carelessness of so many who squander their goods or miss the opportunity to acquire a great fortune, but who are not at all disturbed at surrendering wantonly the treasures of grace, or who despise the opportunity of regaining the grace of God by the worthy reception of the Sacraments.

   The sight of the desecrated Holy City filled the prophet Jeremias with sorrow; the friends of Job sorrowed with him or seven days over his misfortune; parents wring their hands in despair when their only child dies; others lose their mind if they lose their fortune-----but at the loss of grace they laugh and joke, when, in reality, they could not mourn and weep enough! With the loss of grace, we lose also the queen of virtues, the love of God, with all the former merits of a Christian life, and with it the Heavenly view of the soul, the Holy Spirit, the rights of children of God and heirs of Heaven.

   We can, my beloved, aptly apply the words of Jeremias to the poor soul that has fallen from grace: "How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! How is the mistress of the Gentiles become as a widow: the princes of provinces made tributary. Weeping she hath wept in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; there is none to comfort her of all them that were dear to her: all her friends have despised her, and are become her enemies" [Lam. 1, 1, 2]. God, the Angels, its pure conscience, its good works, its friends-----all have left it, and poorer than the widow and more abandoned than the orphan, it now stands alone. Is sin worth such sorrow and such a loss? Oh how little we love our true happiness, our true good, if we esteem grace lightly! "If thou hadst known the gift of God!" This light esteem of grace falls back upon God, upon Jesus Christ, upon Redemption and bliss, yes, upon our own souls.

    But let us esteem grace most highly, and preserve it most carefully, and if we have had the misfortune  to lose it, seek and find it again through the worthy, reception of the Sacraments. Then we can say with joy: "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior . . . for He that is mighty hath done great things to me and holy is His name." 

Therefore I close with the words of St. Paul to the faithful at Corinth: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity of God, and the communication of the Holy Ghost be with you all, Amen." [2 Cor. 13, 13]