340. Grace does not compel. God’s love wants our free assent.

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 340

Ave Maria series

How is God’s grace related to our freedom?

God’s grace is freely bestowed on a person, and it seeks and summons him to respond in complete freedom. Grace does not compel.  God’s love wants our free assent.  [2001-2002, 2022]

The Annunciation by Paolo de Matteis 1712.  in Marian art the white lily in the angels hand is symbolic of Mary’s purity. …..340

One can also say “No” to the offer of grace.  Grace, nevertheless, is not something external or foreign to man; it is what he actually yearns for in his deepest freedom.  In moving us by his grace, God anticipates man’s free response.

“And Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the handmade of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.’” Luke 1:38

“Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”  Romans 3:23-24

2001-2002, 2022]

GRACE

 2001 The preparation of man for the reception of grace is already a work of grace. This latter is needed to arouse and sustain our collaboration in justification through faith, and in sanctification through charity. God brings to completion in us what he has begun, "since he who completes his work by cooperating with our will began by working so that we might will it:"(St. Augustine, De gratia et libero arbitrio, 17:Patrologia Latina 44,901.)⁵⁰–Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

Indeed we also work, but we are only collaborating with God who works, for his mercy has gone before us. It has gone before us so that we may be healed, and follows us so that once healed, we may be given life; it goes before us so that we may be called, and follows us so that we may be glorified; it goes before us so that we may live devoutly, and follows us so that we may always live with God: for without him we can do nothing.(St. Augustine, De natura et gratia, 31:Patrologia Latina 44,264.)⁵¹–CCC

2002 God's free initiative demands man's free response, for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know him and love him. The soul only enters freely into the communion of love. God immediately touches and directly moves the heart of man. He has placed in man a longing for truth and goodness that only he can satisfy. The promises of "eternal life" respond, beyond all hope, to this desire: --CCC

If at the end of your very good works . . ., you rested on the seventh day, it was to foretell by the voice of your book that at the end of our works, which are indeed "very good" since you have given them to us, we shall also rest in you on the sabbath of eternal life.(St. Augustine, Conf. 13,36 51:Patrologia Latina 32,868; compare Genesis 1:31.)⁵²  –CCC

IN BRIEF

2022 The divine initiative in the work of grace precedes, prepares, and elicits the free response of man. Grace responds to the deepest yearnings of human freedom, calls freedom to cooperate with it, and perfects freedom. –CCC

Annunciation by Paolo de Matteis