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Grace According to Flannery O’Connor

Hey, everyone.

I found it fitting to end my “Friday Ramblings” the same way I started them, with a Catholic writer.

So, allow me to introduce you to Flannery O’Connor.

Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964)

Mary Flannery O’Connor was born on March 25th, 1925, in Savannah, Georgia, to a devoutly Catholic family.

She carried on that devotion her whole life, which also caused her to write from the unique perspective of a Catholic in the southern United States (the most Protestant part of the country).

While best known for her short stories and two novels, I, instead, want to focus today on a letter she wrote nearly 70 years ago.

On the 9th of December, 1958, O’Connor wrote to her friend Cecil Dawkins on the topic of grace. Here’s what she had to say:

“The Church is founded on Peter who denied Christ three times and couldn’t walk on the water by himself. You are expecting his successors to walk on the water. All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.”

Let’s unpack that.

The Pain of Grace

O’Connor makes the point that all people, including church leaders, have a flawed nature that is in need of grace.

But, according to her, that very same nature “vigorously resists grace…”

Why?

Because grace hurts.

We’re shown grace when we receive something that’s better than we might deserve otherwise. 

In a theological sense, God’s grace covers our sin and enables us to enjoy eternal life with Him. This contrasts with what sin normally leads to, that is, as the Apostle Paul said, “death.”

But grace is more than a “get out of death free” card.

Grace enables us to become more like Jesus, which is great, but it also causes us to see how unlike Jesus we already are.

And that hurts.

It’s like your laptop screen.

On a cloudy day, the screen looks pretty good, just like the day you bought it. But when the sun breaks through and hits it, all of a sudden, you can see every last defect.

Smudges, dust, all that stuff.

Before grace, we’re like the screen in the dark - unaware of the depths of our nature. Then grace comes in, shines right on us, and in its winnowing light, our defects, which were always there, can no longer be ignored.

So, no wonder people shy away from grace.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. The change might be painful, we might want to resist it, but let’s not forget what’s on the other side.

Resurrection.

In Luke 9:24, Jesus famously said: For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

The tearing away of the old nature, by grace, hurts, but what do we trade it for?

Communion with Christ, redemption, living in flow with the Creator.

The change is painful but completely worth it.

Be Blessed,

Jon

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