Grace is More Important
Whatever you are worried about, obtaining grace is more important.
If you feel like the world is in shambles, grace is more important than whatever you think might improve the situation. Asking for peace will not avail much unless God’s grace helps those there to maintain peace by providing the means of building up virtue.
If you feel like things in the Church are troubled, grace is more important than whatever you think might fix things. Asking for the Church to be freed from whatever corruption or lack of faith is good, but these things would have little staying power unless God’s grace is there, as a living faith needs God’s grace.
Are you worried about bad behavior at work? Asking for things to improve likely will not end up leading to a good long-term outcome unless God continually gives those who are misbehaving God’s grace, as in order to follow all of the natural law, God’s grace is necessary. You may wonder if God’s grace could make those misbehaving act better, why doesn’t He? Well, why does God wait until we pray to give it to us? The reason is for the merit of the asker, as prayer is a good work, and thus it is for the benefit of the asker that he prays to ask for grace on behalf of another. Also of even greater importance is that God’s Providence is so grand that he can, and does, bring good out of evil. Behold the Passion of Our Lord.
According to the National Safety Council, an average company with 1,000 people in Texas faces annual costs of $1,220,720 due to mental health issues of its employees. How many more millions of costs are faced by the average company due to employees not having God’s grace (given all of the necessities fulfilled by grace as stated above)? Yet where do we see the national campaigns stressing the costs of insufficient grace in our country or in the world?
Are you worried about how hard it will be to go to heaven when you die? Well, God’s grace is necessary for final perseverance. Whatever you are worried about is not worth worrying about compared to going to heaven. [B]e not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the raiment? (Matthew 6:25)
We could make the excuse that God’s grace is his free gift, and not up to us. God’s grace, after all, is ultimately up to Him. But while it is true, as far as it goes, God’s grace is ordinarily made available to us through the sacraments. How many of the world’s and the Church’s problems could be solved if we all just went to daily mass? The mass is the greatest conduit of God’s graces. Indeed, St. Louis, despite being the King of France, went to mass twice a day. He puts all of us, myself included, to shame. Nothing is more practical for resolving the problems of the world and the Church than assisting at the Holy Mass. When daily mass is not possible, you could go every other day, or on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday (besides Sunday) like the early Christians did. Finally, if you can’t do that, one option is to do a daily spiritual communion, using some formula like that of St. Alphonsus Liguori.
According to Fr. Pietro Parente and the other authors of the Dictionary of Dogmatic Theology (1951), grace is necessary for the following things…. Grace is necessary “to know truths that are objectively supernatural”. Grace is necessary “for supernatural faith”. Grace is necessary morally “to know the moral-religious truths easily, certainly, and without admixture of error”. Internal grace is necessary “to do all good according to all the precepts of the natural law”. Internal grace is necessary “to love God above all things, not only affectively but also effectively (in every action)”. Grace is necessary to avoid all mortal sin for long periods of time, and to avoid all venial sin. Finally, grace is necessary for any salutary work (anything which merits eternal life).
Also according to the Dictionary of Dogmatic Theology: Grace is a new principle of action for us, one which purifies us, allows us to combat our fallen nature and elevates our faculties to the supernatural order. The reason for the necessity of grace for the knowledge of all those moral truths and truths of the faith are the disproportion between the intellect and the objects of that knowledge. The moral necessity of grace for all of the remaining things is because of our fallen nature due to original sin. It is true however that we can do some good with our solely natural faculties. But grace is needed to do the lion’s share of it.
God’s grace is more important than anything else you are worried about. Have you worried about how you or those you are worried about could obtain more of it? If you are like me, you haven’t worried enough about it. We should structure our companies, families, and countries to increase access to God’s grace. Let’s do our best to do this, and everything we worry about will get better. Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you (Matthew 6:33).