You may have guessed by now, especially if you’ve read this website’s About pages, that I am a little {or a lot!} passionate about flourishing. Even so, I need to remind myself pretty often that flourishing is possible, even in this crazy season of life with little people! Whatever season of life you are in, know that God desires your flourishing and He will help you attain it.
*This is Part 1 in a 2-part series. Go here for Part 2.*
We were all made to flourish.
The Lord and Giver of Life — who formed our vast universe, brimming full of magnificent wonders and vibrant color and perfect order — did not create us for stagnant, flat, dull, dispassionate living.
Deep space from the Hubble.
We are the crowing glory of His creation.
And He longs for us to live our lives in full 3-D, passionate and fearless and overflowing with love, always moving forward towards our Ultimate Goal.
“I came that they might have life, and have it to the full.”
It is only in the Beatific Vision that we will have the very fullness of Eternal Life that Christ won for us with His passion, death, and resurrection. However!!! That does not just mean that Our Lord wants us to wait until Heaven to experience the abundant life. Au contrare, my friends.
That full, abundant, and flourishing life begins now.
But, you say, my life is so not abundant — it’s filled with screaming toddlers and colicky babies and sleepless nights and illness and suffering of every kind!!!
Yes! Mine too! 🙂
But how often you and I forget the radical and transforming power of grace.
What comes to mind when you think of grace? Is it only part of the lyrics to a favorite hymn? Is it a word that’s only a casual and occasional part of your conversations? Or do you remember from catechism class what it really means?
The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of His own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in Baptism. It is in us the source of the work of sanctification. {CCC 1999 – 2000}
Deifying and sanctifying; God’s own life infused into our souls. That is grace.
Let’s not underestimate the magnitude of this gift. God’s very life dwells within us. And as long as we choose to remain free from mortal sin, there is nothing and no one that can separate us from this gift of His love.
What’s more, sanctifying grace “is the source of the work of sanctification” — that is, it enables the soul to daily live the virtues with Christ’s own selfless, healing, and life-giving love. Most especially as we receive Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist, we are transformed by this sanctifying grace into Him. What could make us more alive than that??
Sanctifying grace gives us the power to live a flourishing life.
Fully Alive
One of my very favorite quotes of all time is from St. Irenaeus, a second-century bishop and theologian:
The glory of God is the human person fully alive!
This is such good news for everyone in the world, but I think especially for those of us who struggle with depression and anxiety — or those of us who are experiencing a particularly cross-filled time in life. When we are so heavily burdened by the weight of our sad or dark or anxious thoughts and circumstances, it’s difficult to believe that life will ever be about anything good and beautiful again.
But the whole tradition of the Church affirms what St. Irenaeus proclaimed. While this may look different for each of us, and may vary according to our seasons of life, the unchanging truth is that God desires us to flourish, to thrive, to live fully with every ounce of our being, both in the Life to come and today.
The grace is already in your soul, giving you the potential for greatness.
Why not accept God’s invitation to be fully alive?
The next post in this 2-part series will explore practical ways to work towards and attain a flourishing life.
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