On the Abuse of Grace

First Point - Grace is absolutely necessary to salvation, yet there is nothing that we neglect more. There is nothing more precious than grace, and nothing that we despise more. The smallest grace is worth more than all the goods and pleasures of the world. Christ purchased grace for us at the cost of His most precious blood. Therefore when we abuse grace we trample under foot the blood of Jesus Christ. What a profanation! We not only render useless the fruit of Christ's death, but we make the most efficacious instrument of our salvation the cause of our condemnation. What blindness! If the voice of the very blood of Jesus Christ condemn us, what will justify us?

Second Point - When we do not heed the secret reproaches of our conscience, when we suppress these salutary promptings, when we close our eyes to the light that God gives us, and neglect the inspirations that He sends us, do we fully realize that we are rebelling against grace, that we are despising and abusing it? Are we fully aware of the consequences of our sin? The damned in hell know the value of grace, they weep eternally over their abuse of it; but their weeping is vain, because they can not make amends for their sin. Their abuse of grace constituted their sin in time, their vain repentance is part of their punishment in eternity. If you reflect on this, can you any longer resist the inspirations of grace, which God is perhaps sending you at the present moment?

Third Point - Alas, I had believed, O Lord, that I must fear only for the crimes that I had committed; but now I realize that I should fear yet more for the graces that I have received, than for my crimes, or rather I should fear for my crimes according to the measure of grace that has been mine. "Woe to thee, Corozain, woe to thee, Bethsaida: for if in Tyre and Sidon had been wrought the mighty works that have been wrought in you, they would have done penance long ago, sitting in sack-cloth and ashes. But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, at the judgment than for you" (Luke 10:13,14). O slothful and unfaithful Christian, some poor pagan will be your judge. One-half of the graces that God has given you would have converted him, and have made him, perhaps, a saint; and yet all these graces together have failed to make you a faithful Christian.

Take the resolution to be more faithful to grace; and if you feel that God is sending you His grace at the present moment, do not resist it lest He withdraw it from you entirely.

We exhort you, that you receive not the grace of God in vain. - 2 Corinthians 6:1

It is not grace alone that does good, nor man alone, but the grace of God with man. - Saint Augustine of Hippo

- text taken from Meditations for Every Day in a Month, by Father François Nepveu