I was listening to Christian radio the other day and there was caller that gave a very moving story. This caller, Andrew, was down and out. He had planned his own suicide. On his way to work in the morning, he was planning to run off the road (I suppose it was a dangerous place to do so), he had the spot picked out and everything. Then, Mandisa's song "Overcomer" came on and he felt something. He couldn't describe exactly how it felt, but the song was so powerful that he decided not to kill himself. He was an overcomer, and God loved him, and he finally knew it. It was quite moving to hear him call in right after this experience had happened... The song had saved his life.
While he attributed this feeling to the song in question, I think it raises an interesting point. What he felt wasn't the "song" per-se, it was obviously God's grace that he felt. It was God's own life in him that makes a person feel that way. It wasn't the song that saved him either, it was grace. God can give us His grace in any way that he sees fit. We could just be born with it, never sin, and be on our merry way up to heaven because it was just there. However, God, having created us in His image, knows more about us than we do. He knows that we need tangible things to attach grace to. The song is quite independent of grace, but the song makes us feel a certain way, so God uses that. He uses visible signs to communicate invisible realities. You probably see where I am going with this...
God chooses to give us grace in certain ways. Not because He needs to, but because WE need Him to. The definition of a Sacrament is: "An outward sign, instituted by Christ, to give grace." Why the outward sign? Because we need it. Our senses only detect things of this world, things with matter. We see, hear, smell, touch, and taste, and God uses all of them. Take, for example, the Sacrament of Reconciliation (confession). We need to repent of our sinfulness, and we could simply take our sins straight to God, but God knew us better. He knew that we needed to say them aloud, and to hear the words "you are forgiven." He didn't need to do this at all, but He knew his children did. It is a little funny, you hear people say that they take their sins straight to God. But then later, they feel the need to confess it to one of their friends. It's as if, simply telling God in prayer and dropping it wasn't enough. It might be enough for God to forgive us, but it doesn't seem to be enough for us to forgive ourselves. We need to say them aloud. The Eucharist is another one of these outward signs. Jesus could have infused us with his body in infinitely many different ways. But, he chose to come to us under the vail of bread and wine, things we could taste. All of the Sacraments have this aspect, baptism with water, confirmation with oil, etc., etc..
Back to Andrew's story. God is, of course, not bound by the Sacraments. He can give his grace to anyone, at any time, and in any way. But, think long and hard about this. When do you feel it? Usually it is tied to something external. After all, those are the only things we really "feel". God is a great psychoanalyst; He knows what his children need.
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