There, but for the Grace of God, Go I

Catherine Mendenhall-Baugh contemplates a familiar phrase and what it teaches us about the way grace works in our lives.

I’m sure you’ve heard this expression. Maybe you have even said it yourself after avoiding a near misstep from a frightening experience or even a catastrophe. “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” When saying it, we acknowledge outside factors like the grace of God having just played a role in avoiding a similar fate or catastrophic event as that of someone less fortunate. So where did this phrase originate?

It was thought to be credited by a mid-16th-century statement by John Bradford. “There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford.” This was referring to a group of prisoners being led to their execution. (Wikipedia) Ironically, Bradford was eventually burned at the stake for alleged crimes against Mary Tudor. He did not avoid execution.

Initially, the statement was intended to be an expression of sympathy. Yet, it causes me to wonder if, when saying it, we are truly empathetic or if somehow we believe we are luckier than someone else: after all, God must have granted us more grace then the other person. If I’m being honest, I may have made a similar statement when seeing a homeless person or anyone less fortunate than I. There is a certain sense of relief that things I have done in my life make me more fortunate to have not come to a similar outcome as this homeless person.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God [that is] with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10)

Is it possible that some are more blessed than others when it comes to God’s grace?

Grace: the preparation of man for the reception of grace is already a work of grace.

God brings to completion in us what he has begun "since he who completes his work by cooperating with our will began by working so that we might will it.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2001, quoting St. Augustine)

All of us have good and bad things happen to us. That’s just life. Things like a loss of job, or loss of someone close to us, loss of a pet, loss of our financial security, health concerns, a frightening diagnosis—the list goes on. Coping with these things in our lives can be a challenge. It may appear that some people may have more than their fair share of bad things happen to them than others. Do you find yourself saying about them, “There, but for the grace of God, go I?”

I believe very strongly, like most challenging questions, the answer to this all leads back to Jesus.

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Jesus repeatedly reminds us that all of us will face challenges. But in the end, everything in life will lead back to Him. #catholicmom

Jesus had upset throughout his life. He lost friends who betrayed Him. He was put through temptation. He was persecuted and suffered at the hands of His tormentors. He was brutally crucified and left to hang on a cross to die. He knew that His life would be filled with difficulties. Just look at the Gospels to see that Jesus repeatedly reminds us that all of us will face challenges. But in the end, everything in life will lead back to Him. Remember, Jesus was raised from the dead and lives with God, His father in heaven. This, too, is our ultimate goal!

The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of His own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and sanctify it. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in Baptism. (CCC 1999).

How do we achieve this grace needed to help us through life? When I was a child attending Catholic schools, we were taught we should have one ambition. We should try to be Christ like in everything we do. When we are Christ-like, it is then we will be granted these gifts of grace from God. If we make a concerted effort to be what Jesus taught us, we can honestly say with true humility, “there, but for the grace of God, go I.”

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