Agents of grace

Since the very name you bear as Christians is a profession of love for men, imitate the love of Christ.

Reflect for a moment on the wealth of his kindness. Before he came as a man to be among men, he sent John the Baptist to preach repentance and lead men to practice it. John himself was preceded by the prophets, who were to teach the people to repent, to return to God and to amend their lives. Then Christ came himself, and with his own lips cried out: Come to me, all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. How did he receive those who listened to his call? He readily forgave them their sins; he freed them instantly from all that troubled them. The Word made them holy; the Spirit set his seal on them. The old Adam was buried in the waters of baptism; the new man was reborn to the vigor of grace.

What was the result? Those who had been God’s enemies became his friends, those estranged from him became his sons, those who did not know him came to worship and love him.

Let us then be shepherds like the Lord. We must meditate on the Gospel, and as we see in this mirror the example of zeal and loving kindness, we should become thoroughly schooled in these virtues. - Saint Asterius of Amasea, bishop

This wonderful truth can elude our consciousness if we omit the first part of the last sentence. The discipline of regularly focusing our attention back on the truth allows it to penetrate and transform our lives.

But when we see a phrase like "become thoroughly schooled in these virtues," we can get the idea that our transformation in Christ by the Holy Spirit is primarily of our own doing and by our own effort. It isn't that our effort isn't important, but the transformation is God's work, in which our role is to participate as we are called. There is an element of relationship which is completely beyond our ability to make happen. We have no hope of embracing God by our efforts, yet we are nonetheless called into communion with God. As we respond to that call, humbly acknowledging that we need God and that God alone can reach us in our need (not vice versa), we find that God makes his wondrous way into our lives, and we can live in him as we could not of our own efforts. Our lives become full of thanksgiving (Eucharist) for what God has done for us, and we then become purveyors of the grace we have received, ministers of God's grace in others' lives.