Defending the Faith — Session 15
God’s life, salvation, conversion, and holiness
Opening Prayer
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Lord God,
all that we have comes from You.
Without Your grace we cannot be saved,
we cannot be healed,
and we cannot become holy.
Open our hearts to receive Your gift.
Teach us to trust not in ourselves,
but in Christ our Saviour,
who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.
In this series, we have been asking some of the questions Catholics are often asked.
Why be Catholic?
Did Jesus really found the Church?
Is the Bible enough?
Who has authority in the Church?
Why do Catholics go to Mass every Sunday?
Is the Eucharist really Jesus?
Why confess sins to a priest?
Why baptise babies?
Why do Catholics honour Mary and the saints?
Why does the Church teach difficult moral truths?
Why is there suffering if God is good?
What happens after death?
Why does prayer matter?
Does God still act in the world?
In this session, we come to a word Catholics use often, but do not always understand clearly:
grace.
What is grace?
Why do we need it?
Are Catholics saved by grace?
Can we earn heaven?
Is being a good person enough?
Does God merely forgive us, or does He actually change us?
These are very important questions.
Because if we misunderstand grace, we misunderstand salvation.
The Catholic faith teaches very clearly:
We are saved by the grace of God.
Not by our own power.
Not by our own goodness.
Not by our own achievements.
Not because we have earned heaven.
Not because God owes us anything.
We are saved because God acts first.
God creates.
God calls.
God forgives.
God heals.
God strengthens.
God makes holy.
God brings us to eternal life.
Grace is His gift.
The key line is this:
Grace is not merely God overlooking our sins. Grace is God sharing His life with us, forgiving us, healing us, strengthening us, and making us holy.
1. Grace is God’s free gift
Grace is first of all a gift.
It is not wages.
It is not a payment.
It is not something God owes us.
It is not something we can demand.
It is not something we can manufacture.
Grace is the free and undeserved gift of God.
That is where we must begin.
Everything good begins with God.
We exist because God created us.
We believe because God calls us.
We repent because God moves the heart.
We are forgiven because Christ died and rose.
We are made holy because the Holy Spirit works in us.
No one stands before God and says:
“You owe me heaven.”
No one saves himself.
No one climbs to God by personal effort alone.
The Christian life begins with gift.
This is why pride is so foolish.
Pride says:
“I made myself.”
“I saved myself.”
“I am good enough by myself.”
But faith says:
“Everything I have is gift.”
Grace humbles us.
But it does not humiliate us.
It humbles us because it teaches us dependence.
It lifts us up because it gives us the life of God.
2. Grace is more than God being kind to us
Sometimes people think grace means God is kindly disposed towards us.
That is true, but it is not enough.
Grace is not only God smiling at us from a distance.
Grace is not merely God saying:
“Never mind, I will ignore your sins.”
Grace is much deeper.
Grace is God’s own life given to us.
By grace, we are brought into communion with God.
By grace, the soul is healed.
By grace, sins are forgiven.
By grace, we become children of God.
By grace, we are made temples of the Holy Spirit.
By grace, we are able to live a supernatural life.
This is why Catholicism speaks so strongly about Baptism, Confession, the Eucharist, prayer, holiness, and the sacraments.
Because grace is real.
It does something.
It does not merely cover over the surface.
It changes the soul.
A dirty window may be covered with a curtain, but it remains dirty.
Grace does not merely hang a curtain over sin.
Grace cleanses.
Heals.
Restores.
Strengthens.
Transforms.
God does not only declare sinners forgiven.
He begins to make sinners holy.
That is the glory of grace.
3. We need grace because sin has wounded us
Why do we need grace?
Because we are wounded by sin.
Human nature is good because God made it.
But human nature is wounded.
Our minds are darkened.
Our wills are weakened.
Our desires are disordered.
Our hearts are divided.
We often know the good and fail to do it.
We know we should forgive, but cling to resentment.
We know we should pray, but avoid God.
We know we should be truthful, but lie.
We know we should be pure, but fall.
We know we should be generous, but grasp.
We know we should trust, but fear.
We know we should love, but turn inwards.
This is not only lack of information.
It is a wound in the soul.
We do not merely need advice.
We need salvation.
We do not merely need encouragement.
We need grace.
A person trapped in a pit does not only need someone to shout instructions from above.
He needs someone to rescue him.
Christ does that.
By His Cross and Resurrection, Christ rescues us from sin and death.
By grace, that salvation reaches us personally.
Grace is God reaching into the wound and beginning to heal it.
4. Grace comes before our response
Catholics believe in cooperation with grace.
But we must be clear.
Grace comes first.
Before we turn to God, God is already calling.
Before we repent, God is already moving the heart.
Before we love God, God has already loved us.
Before we choose Him, He has already chosen to seek us.
This is sometimes called prevenient grace — grace that comes before.
It means no one begins the journey to God alone.
When someone starts to wonder about faith, grace is already at work.
When someone feels sorrow for sin, grace is already at work.
When someone thinks, “I should go back to Confession,” grace is already at work.
When someone feels drawn to Mass after years away, grace is already at work.
When someone begins to pray again, grace is already at work.
This should give us hope.
God is working in souls before we can see it.
But grace does not destroy freedom.
God calls, but He does not force.
God knocks, but He does not break down the door.
God offers, but He does not make us puppets.
We must respond.
We must say yes.
But even our yes is helped by grace.
So the Christian life is not God doing one half and us doing the other half, as though salvation were a partnership between equals.
God is the first cause, the giver, the healer, the Saviour.
We truly cooperate.
But our cooperation is itself made possible by His grace.
5. Grace and freedom belong together
Some people think grace and freedom are opposites.
They imagine that if God acts, we are not free.
Or if we are free, God must not be acting.
That is not Catholic.
Grace does not destroy freedom.
Grace heals freedom.
Sin makes us less free.
A person trapped in addiction is not more free.
A person ruled by anger is not more free.
A person enslaved by lust is not more free.
A person unable to forgive is not more free.
A person who cannot say no to selfishness is not more free.
Grace makes true freedom possible.
It strengthens us to choose the good.
It frees us from slavery to sin.
It enables us to love.
It helps us become what God created us to be.
Think of a musician.
At first, discipline feels restrictive.
Scales.
Practice.
Correction.
Repetition.
But over time, the discipline makes freedom possible.
The musician becomes free to play beautifully.
So too with grace.
God’s grace trains the soul in love.
Not by crushing us.
But by healing and strengthening us.
The freest person is not the one who follows every impulse.
The freest person is the saint.
Because the saint is free to love.
6. Sanctifying grace: the life of God in the soul
Catholic teaching often speaks about sanctifying grace.
This means the grace that makes us holy.
It is not merely a passing help.
It is a real sharing in the life of God.
Sanctifying grace dwells in the soul.
It makes us children of God.
It makes us temples of the Holy Spirit.
It gives us a new life.
This grace is first given in Baptism.
In Baptism, sin is washed away.
The person is born again.
The soul receives sanctifying grace.
The person becomes a child of God and member of Christ’s Body, the Church.
That is why Baptism matters so much.
It is not only a symbol.
It is not only a welcome ceremony.
It is new birth.
Sanctifying grace can grow in us.
It grows through prayer, charity, the sacraments, obedience, sacrifice, and faithful living.
But sanctifying grace can also be lost.
That is what mortal sin does.
Mortal sin is not simply “breaking a rule.”
It is a grave, knowing, deliberate turning away from God’s love.
It destroys charity in the soul.
It kills the life of grace.
That is why Confession matters.
In Confession, sanctifying grace is restored.
The soul is brought back to life.
This is not gloomy teaching.
It is merciful teaching.
Because God does not leave the sinner dead.
Christ gives us a sacrament of resurrection.
7. Actual grace: God helping us here and now
The Church also speaks about actual grace.
This means God’s help given at particular moments.
Actual grace moves us, enlightens us, strengthens us, and helps us act.
It may come as a prompting to pray.
A light to understand.
A warning against sin.
A strength to resist temptation.
A courage to speak the truth.
A sorrow for sin.
A desire to return to Confession.
A patience in suffering.
A nudge to help someone.
A moment of clarity.
A call to conversion.
Actual grace is God helping us here and now.
We should learn to notice and respond to these graces.
Sometimes people say:
“I suddenly knew I needed to change.”
“I felt I should go back to Mass.”
“I realised I needed to forgive.”
“I knew I had to stop living that way.”
“I felt drawn to pray.”
“I cannot explain it, but I knew God was calling me.”
That can be actual grace.
Not always dramatic.
Not always emotional.
Often quiet.
But real.
The danger is that we ignore grace.
We delay.
We distract ourselves.
We say, “Later.”
We harden the heart.
This is why Scripture says:
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
Grace should be answered.
Not tomorrow only.
Today.
8. Are Catholics saved by works?
This is one of the major apologetic questions.
Some people say:
“Catholics believe they earn salvation by works.”
That is false.
The Catholic Church does not teach that we save ourselves.
The Church does not teach that we earn grace by our own natural power.
The Church does not teach that heaven is a wage paid for good behaviour.
We are saved by grace.
Through Christ.
By His Cross and Resurrection.
No grace, no salvation.
No Christ, no salvation.
No mercy, no salvation.
But Catholics also reject the idea that grace leaves us unchanged.
True grace bears fruit.
Faith works through love.
A dead faith, without charity, is not the fullness of Christian life.
If someone says, “I have faith,” but refuses repentance, refuses charity, refuses forgiveness, refuses obedience, refuses the poor, refuses the commandments, something is wrong.
Good works do not replace grace.
Good works are the fruit of grace.
A tree is alive before it bears fruit.
But if it never bears fruit, we question whether it is alive.
So Catholics do not say:
“I do good works, therefore God owes me heaven.”
We say:
“God’s grace saves me, and that grace must bear fruit in love.”
Even our good works, when truly good, are already gifts of grace.
God crowns His own gifts in us.
That is very Catholic.
It preserves humility and responsibility together.
9. Grace does not make holiness optional
Another misunderstanding is to think grace means sin does not matter.
Some people say:
“God is merciful, so it does not matter how I live.”
That is not grace.
That is presumption.
Grace is mercy, but mercy transforms.
Grace forgives sin, but it also fights sin.
Grace comforts, but it also converts.
Grace accepts us where we are, but it does not leave us where we are.
Jesus forgives sinners.
But He also says:
“Go, and sin no more.”
A hospital welcomes the sick.
But it does not say sickness is health.
The Church welcomes sinners.
But she does not say sin is holiness.
Grace is not permission to remain enslaved.
Grace is power to become free.
This matters for all of us.
We should never despair because of sin.
But we should never make peace with sin either.
If we fall, we return to Confession.
If we are weak, we ask for strength.
If we struggle, we keep going.
If we are tempted, we pray.
If we are far away, we come home.
Grace means holiness is possible.
Not easy.
Not instant.
Not by our own strength.
But possible.
Christ does not call us to mediocrity.
He calls us to sainthood.
And He gives grace for the journey.
10. The sacraments are channels of grace
This leads naturally to the sacraments.
God can give grace in many ways.
Through prayer.
Through Scripture.
Through suffering.
Through friendship.
Through acts of charity.
Through quiet promptings of the Holy Spirit.
But Christ has given His Church sure channels of grace.
These are the sacraments.
In Baptism, grace gives new birth.
In Confirmation, grace strengthens.
In the Eucharist, grace nourishes.
In Confession, grace forgives and restores.
In the Anointing of the Sick, grace comforts, strengthens, forgives, and prepares.
In Marriage, grace strengthens husband and wife to live their covenant.
In Holy Orders, grace configures a man to Christ for sacred ministry.
The sacraments are not empty rituals.
They are not only signs of belonging.
They are not merely human ceremonies.
They are actions of Christ.
Through visible signs, invisible grace is given.
This is why Catholics take sacraments seriously.
Not because we love rules for their own sake.
But because grace matters.
If grace is real, then Baptism matters.
Confession matters.
Mass matters.
Holy Communion matters.
Confirmation matters.
Marriage matters.
Anointing matters.
The priesthood matters.
The sacraments are Christ’s way of touching us through His Church.
11. Grace and the Holy Spirit
Grace is inseparable from the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is not merely an idea or influence.
He is the Lord, the giver of life.
He dwells in the soul in grace.
He makes us children of God.
He teaches us to pray.
He gives faith, hope, and charity.
He convicts us of sin.
He strengthens us in temptation.
He brings Christ’s life into us.
He builds up the Church.
The Christian life is life in the Holy Spirit.
Not vague emotion.
Not religious excitement only.
Not noise.
Life.
Holiness.
Charity.
Truth.
Prayer.
Courage.
Perseverance.
The fruits of the Holy Spirit show what grace does in a person.
Love.
Joy.
Peace.
Patience.
Kindness.
Goodness.
Faithfulness.
Gentleness.
Self-control.
These are not merely personality traits.
They are signs of grace at work.
When grace grows, Christ’s likeness grows in us.
Slowly perhaps.
With struggle.
With many confessions.
With many new beginnings.
But truly.
The Holy Spirit makes sinners into saints.
12. How to answer this simply
So if someone asks:
“What is grace?”
You might say:
“Grace is God’s free gift of His life and help. It forgives us, heals us, strengthens us, and makes us holy.”
If someone says:
“Do Catholics believe we are saved by works?”
You can say:
“No. Catholics believe we are saved by God’s grace through Jesus Christ. But grace changes us and must bear fruit in love.”
If someone asks:
“Why do we need grace?”
You can say:
“Because sin has wounded us. We cannot save ourselves or become holy by willpower alone. We need God’s help and His life within us.”
If someone asks:
“What is sanctifying grace?”
You can say:
“Sanctifying grace is the life of God in the soul. It makes us children of God and temples of the Holy Spirit.”
If someone asks:
“What is actual grace?”
You can say:
“Actual grace is God’s help at particular moments, moving us to pray, repent, resist sin, do good, and follow Him.”
If someone asks:
“Can grace be lost?”
You can say:
“Yes. Mortal sin destroys the life of grace in the soul. But Confession restores us through Christ’s mercy.”
Simple answers are often best.
Grace is not a theory.
Grace is the gift by which God saves us and makes us holy.
13. What this asks of us
If grace is God’s gift, then we must receive it humbly.
We should stop pretending we can save ourselves.
We should stop relying only on willpower.
We should stop delaying conversion.
We should stop making peace with sin.
We should ask for grace.
We should respond to grace.
We should receive the sacraments.
We should go to Confession when grace has been lost through mortal sin.
We should receive Holy Communion worthily.
We should pray daily.
We should cooperate with the Holy Spirit.
We should give thanks for every good movement of the heart.
We should never despair.
Because grace can reach the sinner.
Grace can restore the fallen.
Grace can strengthen the weak.
Grace can purify the impure.
Grace can humble the proud.
Grace can soften the bitter.
Grace can awaken the lukewarm.
Grace can make saints.
Each of us can ask:
Am I relying on myself more than on God?
Am I asking for grace each day?
Am I resisting a grace God is offering me?
Is there a sin I need to bring to Confession?
Do I believe holiness is possible?
Do I receive the sacraments as real channels of grace?
Do I thank God for the good He works in me?
The Christian life is not:
“Try harder and hope God is impressed.”
The Christian life is:
“Receive grace, cooperate with grace, and let Christ make you holy.”
Conclusion
So what is grace, and why do we need it?
Grace is God’s free and undeserved gift.
It is His life and help given to us.
It comes before our response.
It heals our wounded nature.
It forgives sin.
It makes us children of God.
It strengthens freedom.
It enables good works.
It bears fruit in charity.
It is given especially through the sacraments.
It is the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul.
Without grace, we cannot be saved.
Without grace, we cannot become holy.
Without grace, we remain trapped in ourselves.
But with grace, sinners can become saints.
So we do not say:
“I can save myself.”
We say:
“Lord, have mercy.”
We do not say:
“My works earn heaven.”
We say:
“Your grace saves me, and Your grace must bear fruit in love.”
We do not say:
“I am too weak to become holy.”
We say:
“Lord, give me grace.”
To summarise, remember these three simple answers.
What is grace?
Grace is God’s free gift.
Grace is God’s life and help in the soul.
Grace forgives, heals, strengthens, and makes us holy.
If you remember nothing else, remember this:
Grace is not merely God overlooking our sins. Grace is God sharing His life with us, forgiving us, healing us, strengthening us, and making us holy.
Each of us should ask:
Am I living by grace, or merely by my own strength?
Because Christianity is not self-improvement with religious language.
It is new life in Christ.
Amen.
Q&A after Session 15
- What is grace?
- Why do we need grace?
- Are Catholics saved by grace?
- Do Catholics believe we earn heaven?
- What is sanctifying grace?
- What is actual grace?
- Can grace be lost?
- How is grace restored after mortal sin?
- How do the sacraments give grace?
- How can I cooperate with grace?
Closing prayer
Lord God,
without Your grace we can do nothing.
Thank You for loving us first,
calling us, forgiving us,
and drawing us into Your life.
Give us grace to repent,
grace to pray,
grace to resist sin,
grace to receive the sacraments worthily,
and grace to become holy.
May the Holy Spirit dwell in us,
form Christ in us,
and bring us at last
to the joy of eternal life.
Amen.
St. Mary's, St. John Bosco and St. Edward's 