Why is God not more prodigal with dispensing grace?

[detached43]

My question is a variant on the problem of evil . . . the presence of evil stems from original sin and man using his free will to rebel against God, and that rebellion results in evil. I have a practical problem on the other side: I’m a committed, practicing Catholic, but can’t seem to knock a quick temperment. I can be praying at one second and the next have a short fuse and start yelling. It frustrates me so much because I feel like such a hypocrite. I beg God for grace to overcome my faults, but why is it so long in forthcoming? I would think God would dispense very generously of His grace, particularly with our free will we want to overcome our faults. I’m not asking God for His grace so that I can then be proud about how “good” I am, but merely so that I don’t hurt the people I love so much. Why would God not quickly honor that prayer and answer it with sufficient grace to quickly overcome the fault?

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Hi,

Your quick temper is your way to heaven. It is the cross that you need. Our crosses do us the favor of continually reminding us that we need Him. They humble us by showing us how self-centered we are. We need to live our lives on His terms—not ours.

I suggest that you spend some time daily going over in your mind all the ways He suffered for you on Good Friday and thank Him. That God would allow Himself to suffer to such a degree for people He created from nothing—and then DIE for them is far more generosity than you and I can imagine. Nothing can bring us some perspective faster than this.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.