Great Grace
My friend arrived at the restaurant in really good spirits. Her eyes sparkled, and she seemed happy. When we sat down at our table, she shared her news.
She’s in her late 80s, and she’s been studying the Scriptures since she was 2. She was the youngest of 12 children, raised in a Baptist family that immigrated to Ohio from Sweden. As her mother would iron the family’s clothing, she would teach her toddler short Bible verses.
Today, my friend cherishes the Word of God, and she reads the Bible every day. That day at lunch she told me that after all of her years of study, she had found something new, and it gave her comfort. She had found a pearl of great price!
She was sitting quietly one afternoon reading a passage from Acts 4 when she saw it. The word “great” preceding the word “grace.”
In that chapter, when the apostles Peter and John are detained and questioned, they respond by talking about Jesus. Peter quotes a verse from Psalm 118, “He is the ‘stone rejected by you — the builders, which has become the cornerstone.’”
He adds, “There is no salvation through anyone else.”
When the disciples are ordered to stop talking about Jesus, they reply, “It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.”
The writer of Acts tells us that they then went to meet with their own people, and during this time great grace was bestowed upon them.
That cold January day, as my friend and I sat and talked about her discovery of the word “great,” we tried to reflect on the majesty and the mystery of the Holy Spirit. As Catholics, we pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit in every part of our daily lives.
Saint Teresa of Calcutta said it beautifully in her daily morning prayer:
“Dear Jesus, help me to spread Thy fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with Thy spirit and love.
“Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of Thine. Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Thy presence in my soul.
“Let them look up and see not longer me but only Jesus. Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine, so to shine as to be a light to others. Amen.”
When we study Mother Teresa’s life, we agree that her morning prayers were answered. She did indeed shine as a light to the world as she attended the poorest of the poor and the sickest of the sick. I imagine there were days when only “great grace” fortified her and helped her carry on.
As we honor her, we need to remember the power of the Holy Spirit is not just for someone as saintly as Mother Teresa. It’s for all of us.
During an ecumenical prayer vigil in 2017, Pope Francis reminded participants that the grace of the Holy Spirit is for the whole Church, not just for some. Great grace is something we each can pray to be filled with.
