One day, Jesus had been walking for hours under the burning sun with His Apostles. Tired, He sat down by a well at the hour when the light falls harshly on the stones and thirst is most keenly felt. His Apostles had gone into the town to buy food.
A woman approached, alone, with a jar on her shoulder. In Samaria, everyone knew of her disordered life.
Jesus, who wished to convert her, began to speak with her. He asked her for a drink. Surprised, she wondered why a Jew would speak in this way to a Samaritan woman. Then Jesus opened before her an unexpected horizon:
“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
The woman looked at Him, puzzled and moved without knowing why. Jesus continued:
“Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I give will never thirst.”
The woman spoke of the Messiah, the One who was to come. Then Jesus revealed Himself:
“The Messiah? I am He who speaks to you.”
Then, with a disarming gentleness, He laid bare the faults of her past life. There was no harsh reproach – only a light that pierced her heart. Struck by this truth that enlightened and transformed her, she felt deep sorrow for having offended God and a desire to change her life so as to please Him.
Not only was she converted – she became a witness to Jesus. Her joy was so great that she wanted to share it with everyone. She left her jar behind, ran into the town, and called all whom she knew to come to Jesus.
This sudden transformation was a powerful effect of the grace of God.
The word “grace” refers precisely to this free gift that God gives us to lead us to salvation. We distinguish two kinds of grace: habitual grace and actual grace.
Habitual grace, or sanctifying grace, is a grace that remains in us and makes us pleasing in the eyes of God. It makes us His friends. A single grave sin is enough to make us lose it.
The state of grace is the most precious of all treasures. To be in a state of grace – to have a pure conscience – is to resemble the angels, to reflect within oneself the image of God, to love Jesus and to be loved by Him. It is happiness, and it is beauty, because it is love.
Actual grace is a temporary help that God gives us in a particular moment of difficulty. It is a passing assistance by which God moves us to do good and avoid evil. Imagine a strong hand lifting you in a single motion over a ditch you could never cross on your own: in the same way, actual grace helps us pass over the gap of sin and keeps us from falling where our weakness would lead us.
Without grace, we are incapable, by ourselves, of fully keeping the commandments or meriting Heaven. “Without Me, you can do nothing,” says Jesus in the Gospel.
That is why all our prayers, at their core, ask for one thing: grace. And God does not refuse it to the one who asks for it with humility and perseverance.