Grace… Its Types and Our Position Toward It
Grace… Its Types and Our Position Toward It
What is grace? It is undoubtedly what God bestows upon His creation…
And the first grace God granted to creation is the grace of existence, for He brought them into being when they had no prior existence. The grace of existence also includes the grace of life, with regard to angels, humans, and all living beings… This type of grace is the creative grace.
There is also the grace of care and preservation. For if the grace of God were to withdraw from the universe for even a single moment, the universe with all that is in it would perish; but God, out of His love and providence, upholds this universe and cares for it with His preserving grace. The preserving grace also includes the grace of health, as the wise man says: “Health is a crown upon the heads of the healthy which only the sick can see.”
There is another grace, the grace of beauty. From the beginning God created everything beautiful, and we see this in the beautiful nature of flourishing gardens, flowers, and roses. We see it most wonderfully in the colored butterflies and the colored fish, as we also see this beauty in the singing of birds and nightingales, in the murmuring of water, and in the gentle, beautiful light of the moon.
Every year, beauty pageants are held for queens of beauty throughout the world. Do all these queens realize that their beauty is a grace from God granted to them—one they should meet with thanksgiving to the Creator who gives beauty?!
There is also the grace of peace and serenity which God grants to certain individuals so that their hearts are filled with peace, far from anxiety, disturbance, and fear. He also grants this grace to certain nations or peoples so that they live far from wars, unrest, divisions, and conflicts, living in tranquility…
Likewise, every good that comes to humanity is a grace from God. For example, countries upon which God has bestowed fertile land and abundant water, and consequently abundant production; or countries upon which God has bestowed minerals or precious stones extracted from their mountains; or oil and gases from beneath their lands—all of which enhance their economy and spread goodness among them. Indeed, it is grace.
And we cannot count the graces of God, but everything we have mentioned is only a set of examples. To these we may add the grace of success in life, the grace of a good reputation and people’s love toward the one who finds grace in the eyes of others, and also the grace of righteous offspring… in addition to the grace of free will which God granted us…
At the summit of the graces God granted us stands the grace of immortality, for we have another life after the grace of resurrection from the dead, where we enjoy the other life in eternal bliss.
Another point we mention regarding grace is that it exists in three levels: the first on the ordinary level, the second on the leadership level, and the third on the level of special cases.
As for the ordinary level: grace works in all. No one exists with whom the grace of God has not worked, and grace here guides a person to good and strengthens him to do it, but it does not compel him to do so, so that the person remains free, doing good willingly and with full will, so that he may deserve the reward for it—or he may refuse…
As for those on the leadership level, they receive from grace a doubled power—grace for their own souls and another grace for their leadership work in influencing others. The measure of grace granted to them increases according to the weight of responsibility placed upon their shoulders.
And the more difficult or dangerous the leadership work becomes, the more God grants leaders special gifts which may sometimes reach the level of miracles.
On the special level, there are people whose circumstances require a special grace suitable for the tribulations or problems they are in, or for what they intend to undertake of tasks or projects, or for the responsibilities laid upon them.
Included in the special level is the grace of calling for those whom God calls to perform a particular mission—such as prophets and apostles, for example. In that case, in addition to the grace of calling, God provides them with another grace that includes the capacities needed to fulfill that mission…
Regarding the types of grace as well, there is visible grace and hidden grace. Visible grace is the divine assistance that we see and feel in our lives. Hidden grace, however, is that which helps us without our realizing it, or which repels from us an evil before it reaches us, while we know nothing about it—such as conspiracies woven around us which God nullified before they were carried out.
There are natural graces God grants to a person, such as strength, beauty, intelligence, art, and wisdom, and other graces considered above nature, such as miraculous gifts. There are graces that work within us to purify our hearts, guide our consciences and thoughts, and direct us in the path of virtue and goodness. And there are graces that work outside us to purify the environments surrounding us and repel the forces that battle against us…
There are graces that begin to work with us: either because we do not want to work, or because we cannot work, or because we are ignorant of what we ought to do. Then grace comes, enlightens our minds, stirs our wills, drives us to work, and strengthens us to complete it. Another grace sees that we have begun to do good, or that our intention is directed toward it, and so it comes to complete the path for us and grant us the means we need.
Grace may come on its own, and it may be requested and then come…
It comes on its own because God knows the weakness of our nature and the strength of the demons who fight us, and that without His divine help we cannot do anything. Therefore, He supports us with His grace working in us and helping us with strength from Him, so that we may walk in His path without fear or anxiety…
Grace may also come when we ask for it in our prayers, or as a result of the prayers of others for us, or through the intercessions of the saints on our behalf, or grace may come through the satisfaction of parents and their good supplications, or through the supplications of poor or needy people whom we helped and who prayed for blessings in our lives. Grace may come simply because of God’s tenderness, love, and compassion. Yet in every work in which grace works with us or for us, we must respond to it and participate in the work, for the grace of God working in a person is not a reason for him to become lazy, leaving grace to work alone, saying: “It is all by grace.”
For if everything depended solely on grace, no one would sin! And no one would deserve a reward from God for doing good.
Finally, I would like to say—and I am sorry—that there is a condition we may call the withdrawal of grace. An example of this is a person whom grace helped to do a great work, and his heart became proud and exalted, attributing everything to his own power and forgetting God’s work with him. In that case, grace withdraws from him so that he falls or fails, in order that he may return, humble himself, and give glory to God… And there are other reasons for withdrawal.
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An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in Al-Ahram newspaper on 14-10-2007.
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