Isaiah 41:10
Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.
One of the dangers of the Christian life is the temptation to exaggerate some valid teaching of the faith to the point where it denies other, equally valid, teachings of the faith. One example of this process in action is curious habit of some believers who insist that God declares us righteous yet who strenuously deny that he actually makes us righteous. For some inexplicable reason, such Christians believes that for us to actually become “participants in the divine nature” as St. Peter says we do (2 Peter 1:4) would somehow rob God of glory. The classic image of such “salvation” is that of snow on a dunghill: God’s purity allegedly covering us in some mysterious legal sense, while we remain objectively the sinful filth we always were. In contrast, Catholic teaching retains the sensible balance. Yes, God calls us beloved even when we are not loveable (much as a parent loves his screaming brat and sees something beautiful despite the red face and shrieking). But the whole point of the love is to make us truly loveable, not to leave us screaming brats who are “good” only in some enigmatic “legal” sense. In other words, God promises not only to “help us” and “uphold us” in our moments of brattishness but to “strengthen us” so that we will live out the life of Christ in our lives and be conformed to his image. We’re not just forgiven but transformed. Today, let us thank God for his forgiving — and transforming — grace.