YOU LOOK LIKE GOD (You are so beautiful)

YOU LOOK LIKE GOD
You are so beautiful.

THERE'S SO MUCH GOOD PREACHING all year round, but perhaps not good enough, due to an unexplainable neglect to preach (in the pulpit) on something so basic and so important, yet, it is to be feared, only vaguely understood by many well meaning Catholics.

An informal survey among Catholics, asking a basic question: “What is SANCTIFYING GRACE?”, might prove to be very revealing. Alas, we might be surprised to discover that so many Catholics have but a vague understanding of this BASIC doctrine of our faith, which is at the root of the Good News–our DEIFICATION.

Easter time is perhaps the most apt time to focus on this Doctrine (Though any time is always a good time). For through Jesus’ Paschal Mystery, His passion, death and Resurrection, He merited for us NEW LIFE, (the life of) Sanctifying Grace, God's very life in us through His Holy Spirit dwelling in our souls, Whose coming at Pentecost we celebrate a few weeks after. For “God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). We become truly children of God by grace. GOD IS TRULY IN US. We have the ‘GENES’ (so to speak), the Holy Spirit infused into our souls at Baptism, by which we are united to our RISEN LORD. The Soul of the Soul of Christ (Holy Spirit) becomes the Soul of our soul. Nothing can separate us now from CHRIST IN US except mortal sin. This is our RISEN LIFE, even now, which will be completed in our physical resurrection on the Last Day.

Sanctifying Grace inheres in the SOUL, a quality which conforms the very substance of the soul to the divine goodness. [“It calls forth in the soul a spiritual reflection of the uncreated beauty of God, which is not to be compared with the soul's natural likeness to God.” “It gives us supernatural life, enabling us to participate in God's very own life; incorporates us into the inner life of the Most Holy Trinity, so that God dwells personally in us, and we in Him; it informs and
sustains our spiritual life, as the soul informs and sustains our body.”] (from CREDO, by Bp Schneider).

Truly we are meant to be divinized, deified, partakers of the divine nature (2Peter 1:4). This is the NEW LIFE Jesus has merited for us. “Dying he destroyed our death (eternal death in hell), rising he restored our life” (cf Heb 2: 14-15), God's life in us through grace.

[“On one occasion the saint and Doctor of the Church, Saint Catherine of Siena, was given by God the grace to contemplate one soul in the state of sanctifying grace. Enthralled and captivated by the magnificent beauty of this one soul, the holy woman mystic fell to her knees ready to adore this soul—believing the soul to be God Himself. Quickly God informed Saint Catherine that this person was not God, but very simply, this was nothing more than a soul living in the state of sanctifying grace. The utter, ineffable and indescribable beauty of this one anonymous soul in the state of sanctifying grace moved Saint Catherine to the very depths of her soul and caused her to fall to her knees, almost casting her into ecstasy!”] From the article “Ten Ways You Can Daily Grow in Grace” by Fr. Ed Broom, OMV.

Indeed we are God's masterpieces of His grace. We are, so to speak, portraits of Him. And when he paints us, He imprints His very image in our soul, His Holy Spirit dwelling in us. We might even say that in a ‘loose sense’ we get God's very DNA. Such is the beauty of a spiritual and immortal soul united with God, the INFINITELY PERFECT SPIRIT. Every soul in the state of grace is beautiful with the beauty of God, no matter what the external appearance of the person is. We have the example of Saints, like St. Margaret of Castello, who were outwardly disfigured but inwardly beautiful in holiness. And this beauty is capable of increase through a deep prayer life– that constant and ever-growing deep communion with God, frequent reception of the Sacraments, and good works– every morally good deed/act we perform in the state of grace consciously or habitually offered to God. And may we not smudge this beautiful image of God in our soul by sin. Let us look to and invoke the intercession of our Blessed Mother whose soul is totally transparent to our Lord.

May we strive to be always in the state of grace, and grow in it through prayer, frequent reception of the Sacraments, and good works. For “after God Himself, whose greatest gift it is, it holds the most important place in our lives. The sacraments were instituted to give, strengthen, preserve, or repair it; the commandments were given to defend and nourish it; the mission of the Church is to extend it to all mankind; the aim of the demons is to deprive souls of it at any cost” (from CREDO by Bp Schneider).

May we also be reminded that as regards the state of our soul there is no in-between; we are either in the 'state of grace' or in the 'state of sin' (disgrace). We are either walking 'gods' in God, or walking dead (spiritual zombies).