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Chapter 24. Life in Christ—Part Two • 329
Grace is the free and undeserved assistance God offers us so that
we might respond to his call to share in his divine life and attain eternal
life. God’s grace, as divinely offered gift, does not take away or restrict
our freedom; rather, it perfects our freedom by helping us overcome the
restricting power of sin, the true obstacle to our freedom. We call the
grace of the Holy Spirit that we receive through faith in Jesus Christ
the New Law. Significant expressions of this Law are found in Christ’s
Sermon on the Mount and his Last Supper discourse, where he empha-
sizes union with him in love as the substance and motivation for his law
of grace.
Grace is the help God gives us to respond to our vocation of
becoming his adopted sons. It introduces us into the intimacy
of the Trinitarian life. The divine initiative in the work of grace
precedes, prepares, and elicits the free response of man. Grace
responds to the deepest yearnings of human freedom, calls free-
dom to cooperate with it, and perfects freedom. Sanctifying
grace is the gratuitous gift of his life that God makes to us; it is
infused by the Holy Spirit into the soul to heal it of sin and to
sanctify it. (CCC, nos. 2021-2023)
In addition to speaking about sanctifying grace, we also speak of
actual graces. These refer to the particular interventions God offers
us to aid us in the course of the work of sanctification. We recognize
that many times and in many ways God’s special love is such that he
offers us help to live in a way that leads to sharing his life. Finally, there
are sacramental graces, which are proper to the celebration of the
Seven Sacraments, and special graces or charisms, which, while given to
individuals, are meant for the common good of the Church (cf. CCC,
no. 2003).
In this recognition of the reality and important role of grace in
the Christian moral life, we face a struggle prompted by our culture’s
understanding that everything is within our human power. “My power
is sufficient.” Compare this with our understanding that we are indeed
blessed and gifted, but much of what we fight to achieve—while writ-
ten in our hearts—still needs God’s grace because of the presence of sin
and our inherent human weakness. The New Law is truly Good News,