grace

In the eighth chapter in the Second Letter to the Corinthians (NABRE), we encounter an especially difficult concept to nail down—grace. The text describes gracious acts of people and of God. The idea of grace is extremely broad in English. What do we mean when we describe an action as graceful? What does it mean to get into someone’s good graces? What do we mean by social graces? What do we mean by grace as given by God?

In Greek, the concept is equally ambiguous. The Greek word χάρις (charis) can mean, among other things, grace, glory, beauty, favor, kindness, goodwill, gratitude, delight, and gratitude. All of these concepts contain the same basic idea of being pleasing to another person in some capacity or the person’s corresponding pleasure. Movement is described as graceful because it is a joy to watch. Social graces are a joy or delight to others. Even thankfulness is an acknowledgement of the joy received by another and an effort to share and return that joy.

Grace in a Christian context involves God showing his favor to his creatures in such a way that is pleasing to us and in turn makes us pleasing to him. For us to be favorable to God, he must make us so. More miraculously, God shows us this favor regardless of any merit on our part and so endeavors to make us pleasing to him.

Where have you seen God’s favor in your life? How have you responded?

related topics: economy of grace; favor with God; glory; gracious; joy

you also may like our study of the Gospel According to John
The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth, a 25-lesson Catholic Bible study with an imprimatur, examines the Fourth Gospel’s view of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, with special emphasis on the institution of the sacraments of the Church as the means by which Christians are purified and made holy. This recently revised study includes maps and additional commentary, and takes a closer look at the way in which Jesus relates to individual men and women. Click on the book’s cover to view a sample lesson.

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