By Stephen Smoot
Three decades ago, in the almost other-planet environment of the 1990s, this was a funny joke on a Christmas movie.
Now in 2024, it almost seems like the act – even the concept – of grace has disappeared from both human vocabulary and behavior.
For those in the Christian faith and others who put stock in the ideal, grace is a gift from God that humans can – and should – choose to give to each other. St. John Paul II the Great, perhaps the greatest figure of the 20th century both religious and otherwise, said “grace has the power to make straight the paths of human love.”
Billy Graham in various works, described grace as God’s love expressed through support, forgiveness, and the opportunity of redemption. He also emphasized that grace is not easy. Graham said “the work of grace was the death of Christ on the Cross,” then went on to say that grace is often strongest for those who suffer the slings and arrows of a hateful society for taking up the Cross or living in the example of Christ. “When you pick up the Cross of unpopularity,” Graham said, “wherever you may be, you will find God’s grace is there, more than sufficient to meet your every need.”
St. Augustine wrote in City of God that “the only Son of God, while remaining unchangeably in His own proper being, clothed Himself in humanity and gave to men the spirit of His love by the meditation of a man, so that by this love men may come to Him.”
Most importantly, as he told Porphyry the philosopher, “humility was the necessary condition for submission to this truth; and it is no easy task to persuade the proud necks of you philosophers to accept this yoke.”
The Jewish faith sees grace somewhat differently, but not in terms unfamiliar to Christians. In the Torah version of Genesis it says of grace, which is synonymous with mercy, “Thus said the Holy One, blessed be His name! ‘If I create the world with the attribute of mercy, sin will abound; and if I create it with the attribute of justice, how can the world exist? Therefore I create it with both attributes, mercy and justice, and may it thus endure'”
This duality even extends to the name of God. The older “Elohim” refers to God’s justice while the tetragrammaton YHWH, the unpronounceable name of God, comes from mercy or grace.
The Jewish faith clearly, and Christianity in some ways less so, states that grace is unmerited and perhaps even undeserved, whether it be from God to mankind or human beings toward each other.
Jonathan Edwards, the 18th century New England Congregational minister, expressed the idea of grace as unmerited in quite colorful terms in his “Sinners In the Hands of An Angry God.” Edwards states that “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you and is dreadfully provoked” but it is “His hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment” Also “there is no other reason to be given why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning but that God’s hand has held you up.”
Edwards, who also wrote sincere, simple, and beautiful poems about nature certainly did not conceive of God as an angry tyrant, but used imagery to express the power of grace and the unworthiness of anyone to receive it.
Grace, therefore, is a gift that God gives humanity and that people give to each other. Grace is mercy, understanding and forgiveness, even, especially when undeserved. Society without grace as a foundation degenerates into judgment, counter-judgment, and the accompanying recriminations.
If pride, and people with inordinate pride, are not the enemies of grace, pride certainly serves as a way to effectively block grace, whether for oneself or extended from one human being to another.
And therein lies a latent, but serious, problem with the 21st century West. Inordinate levels of pride have rudely, sometimes violently, shoved grace from people’s minds and how they treat one another.
A little pride is a healthy and positive expression, just like a little candy every day does not make one a full glutton. Eating one chocolate bar leaves room for nutritious food that the body needs while eating 20 does not. Feeling a little pride in one’s country, one’s family, or oneself can do wonders. Holding too much pride, however, can force out such needed human characteristics as love, compassion, respect, sense of duty – and the conferring of grace on one’s fellow man.
The logical end of too much pride is narcissism.
Grace extended from one person to another serves as a very pale reflection of the powerful version shown by God toward humanity. Yet it serves as a vital part of maintaining a polite, civil, and well-functioning society.
One way to rephrase the concept of grace extended from one person to another is to say “give them the benefit of the doubt” at least until the person proves otherwise.
That waitress who acted a bit short likely has a plethora of concerns outside of work that kept her from showing her best customer service face.
That high school official from another town who missed the call does not have a secret and hidden grudge. More likely, he or she got distracted, forgot an arcane rule, or just made an honest mistake.
Those in the community who will vote differently in the upcoming election. They are not stupid, easily misled, nor malevolent. They simply looked at the same sets of facts and drew a different conclusion.
So often, the excess of pride and the absence of grace brings the conversation back to an individual who may have an inflated sense of self. They lack the humility to look through another person’s eyes and focus instead on the wrong, or perceived wrong, done to themselves or their group. Invariably, instead of understanding, compassion, or forgiveness, the lack of grace creates a need for revenge – for someone to pay.