I was thinking about some excerpts I transcribed on my blog, from the authors Emily Stimpson Chapman and Scott Hahn (The power of Confession). I really liked both of them, but something in Chapman's text seemed disjointed to me. Maybe I fell short her reasoning. At the same time, I think that disagreeing with that part helped me to progress in my understanding.
She said:
"All the good that is done to us and that we do comes from God and God alone. We cooperate with His Grace. However, one thing we can give the Lord that He does not have is our sin. If we give God our sin and offer Him our brokenness and weakness, He can use that for His greater glory and our redemption."
What makes no sense, in my opinion, is to say "one thing we can give the Lord that He does not have is our sin." Because there can be nothing that God doesn't have, that is not part of His Creation. So what is sin?
As if by inspiration, as if whispered in my ear—although I have heard nothing—the memory of the Angel Gabriel’s greeting to Our Lady came to my mind: Hail, full of Grace! And we know that she is a person who was preserved from sin. I associated the two things: she is sinless because she is full of Grace. Yes, this is the explanation we have learned about the Immaculate Conception.
From this reasoning, I think we can infer that sin is the absence of Grace. Depending on the gravity of the sin, there must then be the absence of a greater or lesser portion of Grace, so to speak, to make it easier to understand. And the total absence... well, I don't like to think of that name.
This is not news to anyone who knows theology; I'm probably making obvious conclusions. I remember hearing and reading people define evil as the absence of good, in the endless discussions about whether God created evil; but this was not very clear to me. The association with the greeting of the Angel Gabriel came to enlighten my understanding.
Hence the term “desgraçado” (desgraçado in Portuguese was commonly used meaning an unkind person, but the term means a person who lacks grace), which my parents didn’t like us to use. Now I understand their repulsion for this word. I remember my mother telling me, when I was still young, that we shouldn’t call anyone desgraçado, because it was too bad. My God, how important is the catechism passed on by our parents! It stays engraved and, sooner or later, comes to the surface, even if we didn’t grasp its full scope when it was taught.
I had already come across this idea when I wrote a text where I used what Jesus said: "Only God is good" (Matthew 19:16-22). Thus, I had concluded that God IS good and we are not, but we HAVE goodness in varying degrees (Scratching the head). Grace is the good, for us, in portions of what is good and fair. These goodnesses are Graces that we receive. Our Lady received fully the Grace, she was the first one to be redeemed by the merits of Jesus (time does not exist for God). Now, it all seems so obvious!
Returning to the text by the American author that I mentioned at the beginning, I now understand what she said. It does make sense. What she says God does not have, the sin, are "voids" of Grace. He is infinite Grace! When we give Him our "voids", of our own free will, He fills them again! She is right.
My God, how beautiful! Thank you very much!
Amen!
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O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul.
Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here; ever this day be at my side, to light and to guard, to rule and to guide. Amen.
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