Lord Make Me A Channel Of Grace

30-10-2016 THIRTY-FIRST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR (C).

SCRIPTURAL READING:

Wis. 11:22-12:2
Ps 145:1-2.8-9.10-11.13cd-14 (R. 1)
2 Thess. 1:11-2:2; Accl; 1 Jn. 3:16
Gospel Lk 19:1-10

Preamble:

Dear friends please repeat these words after me;
Thank you Jesus for your word which I will receive at this hour,
Please Lord, make my heart a fertile soil for the reception of your word today
Holy Spirit, rekindle in me the fire of your love and may God’s word bear fruit in my life. Amen.

THEME: THE EUCHARIST: OUR SOURCE AND SUMMIT
TOPIC: LORD, MAKE ME A CHANNEL OF GRACE

Becoming a channel of grace means living in grace-that is, dwelling continuously in God. And the sacrament of the body and blood of Jesus helps us remain in grace since we commune on the Lord’s body and blood. The sacrament of reconciliation which we celebrated yesterday also known as a sacrament of healing-is a sacrament which heals the soul, prepares us for a life of grace, enables us live in grace and become a channel of grace. Sacrament is defined according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church as an outward sign of inward grace by which grace is given to our soul.

If a sacrament is defined thus, what then is the meaning of GRACE? According to a Catholic Dictionary by Donald Attwater, Grace is strictly a supernatural gift of God to an intellectual creature, bestowed with a view to eternal life.

In 1713, in the Papal Bull UNIGENITUS DEUS FILIUS, Pope Clement XI condemned the Jansenist proposition that no grace is given outside the Church. Sometimes, broadly, any gift freely given by God irrespective of a relation to man’s supernatural end. So creation and conservation are sometimes called graces.

There are different kinds of Graces;
Actual Grace: - means any supernatural and transient aid by which God enlightens the mind or assists the will to produce supernatural acts. It affects the faculties of the soul (intellect and will).

Habitual or sanctifying grace: - makes the soul holy, friends with God, adopted Sons, coheirs with Christ, “partakers of the divine nature.” Ways we can gain habitual grace is by meditating on the scripture or hearing of a sermon, from a joy, or a sorrow, a dream, a sunset or a song.

Baptismal Grace:- the particular grace bestowed in the sacrament of baptism for the securing of the special effect of the sacrament. Every sacrament gives such a sacramental grace, which is not distinct from sanctifying grace, but is a special aspect of it.

Baptism produces sanctifying grace for the first time in the soul at the moment in which it remits original sin, and any actual sin which may be there, and the punishment due to actual sin. With sanctifying grace, it bestows the infused virtues, the gifts of the Holy Ghost and a title to those actual graces which will enable the recipient, now spiritually regenerated, to live the Christian life worthily.

Natural Grace:- a purely natural gift of God to which we have no claim.

Elevating Grace:- that grace which gives the power of producing supernatural acts. This must itself be supernatural, otherwise it could not be the source of supernatural effects.
 

Prevenient Grace: - actual grace enlightens the mind and fires the will with a view to the work of salvation. In this stirring of the will there are two moments: the first of these is a grace which moves the will spontaneously, unfreely, making it incline to God, and this is a prevenient grace.

The heavenly inspirations may be accepted freely or rejected freely by the aroused will. If they are accepted it is in virtue of a further grace (or the same grace under a different aspect) which is called “consequent or co-operating grace.”

Beloved in Christ, the underlying fact about this various graces is that it is supernatural which helps man to live holy lives. This is possible only when man co-operates with this supernatural assistance called Grace. For every season, there is a grace which is in abundance to help us make sufficient use of it in order to experience the beauty of the presence of the Lord. It is only when we cooperate with this grace can we be said to be a channel of grace.

To be a channel of grace means that you are able to touch lives in an extraordinary way and manner. Been a channel of grace is not dependent on position or title but been whom God has created you to be.

Been a channel of grace means that you are staying in peace. That God has your back always. David in psalm 23:5- “you prepare a banquet for me, where all my enemies can see me; you welcome me as an honoured guest and fill my cup to the brim.”

It means therefore that in everything you do-God’s blessings is upon it most especially in that position you are in and importantly as you co-operate with the grace of the Lord. More than anything else, he will bless you in front of your enemies. God could promote you anywhere, but he will give you honour, recognition, and favour in front of the people who tried to pull you down. People may want to keep you from rising higher, the truth is that if you co-operate with the grace of the Lord in that position one day they will see you receiving the credit that you so deserve.

Been a channel of grace in whatever position you are in, comes only when you function aright in line with your destiny, call, profession and not doing things that are against the will of the Lord. You cannot be a channel of grace by living carnal and fleshly lives-living under the impulse and urge of the flesh-subject to fleshly habits, fleshly control, fleshy bondage, fleshly judgment, fleshly enslavement, fleshly condemnation, fleshly death.

Fleshly living corrodes your peace, progress, joy, growth, dampens and weakens your spirit, keeps you in bondage and will always make the plans, instigations, attacks, arrows of the enemy come to pass in your life. The fruits you will produce will be; immortality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing and the like.

All that would come out of you will be what destroys in fact you become a channel of death, curse, and evil. But the moment you begin to live in consonance with the will of God, cooperate with the spirit of God, you become a channel of grace and of peace. You will produce fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. You won’t experience sorrow, all that you do will be done gracefully.

It doesn’t matter how many people sit to conspire against you, spread wrong information about you, once you are a channel of grace, he has discharged his angels to go ahead of you to make things easy for you. Those who tried to make it unbearable for you, will become on lookers as they see you rise to position of power, authority, fame, promoted, blessed and favoured they will watch you accomplish your dreams in the name of Jesus.

Beloved in Christ, all the things that come against us to try to get us upset-people talking, gossiping, spreading rumours, not giving you respect-are all distractions. That’s the enemy trying to lure us off course, get us bent out of shape, and waste our valuable time and energy on something that doesn’t really matter. Just keep your focus on God, say to yourself daily, I am a channel of grace, God is fighting my course, my battle, and he has made those enemies of my footstool. Just keep saying to those challenges, they are all under my feet because God is in control, God is in charge. I want you beloved to know this that “when you are in peace, it’s a position of power.” It’s not your fight; the battle is of the Lord.

When challenges come our way- we should turn quickly to God to say: “I know challenges will come but I have a God who gives authority and I have that authority with me, therefore this challenge is under my feet in the name of Jesus.”

There are women in the sacred scriptures who were women of grace, in fact channels of grace, I shall give you a few example;

RAHAB THE BRAVE IN THE BOOK OF JOSHUA:
Rahab may have been as brave as Esther. She risked her life to hide the spies sent into Jericho by Joshua as she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof-Joshua 2:6.

If these men had been discovered, it would have been certain death for Rahab but she had heard about Israel an something deep inside her must have realized that the God of Israel was a true God for she said in Joshua 2:9-11 that “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.

For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.”

Rahab is one of the few heroines of the Bible mentioned in what is called the Hall of faith in Hebrew 11:3 saying about her that it was “By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.” And because she allowed herself to be a channel of grace by putting faith into action, in Joshua 6;25- Joshua saved her life and her father’s household and all who belonged to her because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

OUEEN ESTHER:
Esther is another sterling example of a woman who was a channel of grace. Her faith and courage was so outstanding that it brought deliverance to the children of Israel. She was queen to king Ahasuerus because the king loved Esther more than any other woman (Esther 2:17). When her nation Israel was in problem of being wiped out (Esther 3:13), Mordecai told Esther in Esther 4:13-14 “Do not think to yourself that in the King’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish.

And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this.”
After the entire nation fasted, Esther in chapter 4:16b said “I will go to the king, though it is against the law and If I perish, I perish.” Queen Esther risked her life when she went before king Ahasuerus because if he did not put out the sceptre, then she would have surely died but we know that by Esther’s bravery, the Jews were saved.

ZACCHAEUS: is another man who allowed himself to be a channel of grace. Though he was small in stature, yet he was a man of faith. His faith made him run ahead of Jesus and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Jesus. This singular action made Jesus recognize him and Jesus said today I must stay at your house. His faith and decision to let go of his past sins led Jesus to declare “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man came to seek and save the lost.”

Faith in the Lord and readiness to follow the Lord by letting go of one’s past makes it easy for one to be a channel of grace. Sin is an obstacle to our path if we continually dwell in them. Zacchaeus turned a new leave and brought salvation to his household.

Zacchaeus was not interested in what people said of him or what they knew about him, what he was interested in was more of putting his entire trust and faith in the Lord. It takes faith to say, “God, I know you are fighting my battles. I know you will make my wrongs right. You promised it would work out for my good. So I am going to keep my joy and stay in peace.”

When you put your whole trust in God, God will take those things that seem as though they are over you, those things that are holding you back and he will bring them under your feet. He will turn them around and make that enemy your footstool. When you have faith and keep your cool, I mean your peace, God will take what was meant for harm and use it to your advantage.

Beloved in Christ, God can vindicate you better than you can vindicate yourself. If you will let God do it his way, it will be bigger, sweeter, more rewarding, and more honouring. God can take the very people who are trying to push you down, the very people who are trying to make you look bad or paint you as a terrible sinner, to be the same people who will promote you and say all kind of good things about you. You just allow God do his work, stop fighting, let God do the battle for you.

Prayer: Lord, make me a channel of grace wherever I go and in whatever I do. Make me an instrument that will bring joy and not disaster to those around me.

This I ask you through Christ our Lord. Amen.