The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-03-26
ANTICIPATING EASTER

self, for Himself alone therefore there rea-
son why he should suffer in our flesh and go
through the awful ordeal of humiliation and torture
of His life. If He has done So it was merely by
means of substitution and in order to make bene
fit by all His merits But in order that this trans
mission, this transformation of merits might take
effect between two free natures, namely the divine
nature of Christ and our human nature, it was
essary that the will of God and the will of man
should come in contact. This mysterious agent, by
the intervention of which Christ passed in man
and man in Christ, the medium through which the
two natures enter in this state of fusion is precisely
what is termed grace.
By means of grace Christ has become to us like
new tree of life planted in the midst of the human
race, as He Himself tells u.s. He became the trunk
of the vine, and we the branches of the same, not
of course, by the communication of His divine
nature, but by the effusion of His merits And
the scattered tribes of the old of Adam which
consent to abandon their evil ways and try to be
grated the vine receive fresh life, fresh
vigor, a communication of that sap grace, which
makes them strong 1t is like the frank olive tree
and the wild olive tree of which ST. Paul makes
mention: the latter bears only fruits of bitterness
and DEATH this in his fallen condition. whilst
man made Christian, not only in name but in fact
by prayer and by sacrament, is inserted under the
agency of grace, into the frank olive tree and de-
good that prompts him, sometimes, to accomplish
wonders of virtue.
Some inquisitive mind might at this point re-
quire analysis of grace in its very essence This
is mysterious question, no more so, however, than
thousand mysteries which seen in nature itself
and cannot be analysed. Besides, as grace belongs
to the supernatural order of things, it would be
presumptious to attempt it. Then again, how more
difficult it is to explain the transmission of evil
than the transmission of good because the trans
mission of evil is done without the consent of the
will whilst in the of grace the TRANSMISSION is
brought about by the cooperation of the will
But, after all, how little does it matter that we
should understand and comprehend the mystery of
grace as long witnesses of grace itself
and of its effects And what more evident at first
to those who have had the happiness to live under
the control of grace, than the vivifying breath of
the extraordinary energy for the good which is
! found in the practice of the Christian doctrine,
which is felt no longer when the practice of the
Christian virtues is abandoned, and in the exist
ence of which all true Christians are unanimous
What is more evident than the influence of SUI
pernatural principle in many Christian souls that
practice virtue to extraordinary degrees with
out the least human motive, in fact in spite of all
human motives.
Outside of the Christian religion there have
been there are and there will be undoubtedly good
men, virtuous men-in the Christian religion saints
are to be found
There exists between human morality, which
constitutes what is termed in the world the class
of honest people, and through grace of Jesus Christ
which produces what religion calls sanity people
saints another difference which does not consist
only in the degree but in the very principle of these
two states 1t is quite different order of phenom
enon-human morality-is but an abstinence from
evi-or very often the result of happy disposition
or again of surrounding circumstance Such is not
sanctty 1t does not limit itself to abstaining from
evil but earnestly tends to the good. 1t shines in
distinctly in every class of people whatever the
precedent many have been.
Human morality is like one plant of our gar
dens, delicate fed by small delicate roots.
Sanctity blooms and blossoms in the desert. This
is grace manifested in its effects. great Chris
tan philosopher has truly said: "To make saint
out of man, it requires the action of grace Who
ever doubts this does not know what is man. and
what is saint"
We are not in the exact condition to measure
accurately the difference between the morality
as given by nature and sanctity, as given by grace
For the moral bravery which we may observe il
many people is probably weakened grace, or agar
it may be influenced, to a great extent by sur
rounding grace In order to appreciate the situa
ton in all its fullness ought to carry himself
back to the condition of the world when Christ
brought the blessing of redemption to the earth
The victory is not, of course, complete upor
earth. Man feels, and always shall feel in him the
promptngs of nature struggling against the attrac
ton of grace. F. d.
INSPIRED WORDS