Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 338 – Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 338 – Part II. What is grace?

(Youcat answer - repeated) By grace we mean God’s free, loving gift to us, his helping goodness, the vitality that comes from him. Through the Cross and Resurrection, God devotes himself entirely to us and communicates himself to us in grace. Grace is everything God grants us, without our deserving it in the least.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2005 a) Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes our experience and cannot be known except by faith. We cannot therefore rely on our feelings or our works to conclude that we are justified and saved (Cf. Council of Trent (1547): DS 1533-1534). However, according to the Lord's words - "Thus you will know them by their fruits" (Mt 7:20) - reflection on God's blessings in our life and in the lives of the saints offers us a guarantee that grace is at work in us and spurs us on to an ever greater faith and an attitude of trustful poverty.

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) “Grace”, says Pope Benedict XVI, “is being looked upon by God, our being touched by his love”. Grace is not a thing, but rather God’s communication of himself to men. God never gives less than himself. In grace we are in God.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2005 b) A pleasing illustration of this attitude is found in the reply of St. Joan of Arc to a question posed as a trap by her ecclesiastical judges: "Asked if she knew that she was in God's grace, she replied: 'If I am not, may it please God to put me in it; if I am, may it please God to keep me there'" (Acts of the trial of St. Joan of Arc). (CCC 2021) Grace is the help God gives us to respond to our vocation of becoming his adopted sons. It introduces us into the intimacy of the Trinitarian life.     

(The next question is: What does God’s grace do to us?)