“God who is rich in mercy because of his great love for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ – by grace you have been saved... For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not from you, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one can boast. For we are his handiwork created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.”
St. Paul was quite clear and insisted that God is the gift giver and we are the beneficiaries. We use the word grace, but what is it?
Grace is the very life of God, offered to us as a gift, and accepted by us. We yearn to have the Lord live in us. The sacraments in our church are channels of God’s grace. Just as we can change channels on our TV going from news, to sports to religious programming, so each of the sacraments offers us strength through the gift of grace. Paul says it simply: ‘I live, not I, but Christ lives in me.’