CHEAP GRACE

Many items today come at cheap prices. Sometimes they are even given for free. But as soon as you take hold of these items, you realize that they are of poor quality and will easily break. In other instances, though still good and functioning, cheap and free items can simply be discarded since they cost nothing when they were acquired. They fail to mean anything to anyone because nothing is invested upon them. That is very different from the way we treat items that took us months and years to acquire. We protect these items so much that a scratch or damage on them will send us to a pandemonium.

I remember my sister and brother-in-law who at the beginning of their marriage bought a car out of their hard-earned salaries. It was only then that my brother-in-law had been learning to drive. One evening coming from his work, probably too tired because of the daily transactions and meetings in their office, he accidentally bumped the car on the garage wall while parking. It caused a little scratch on the rear side. He informed my sister about the minor accident and the little scratch on the rear of their car. My sister nagged him for over half an hour over a little scratch. No one can blame her, not even my brother-in-law. That car was the fruit of the sweat of their brow as a couple.

Things acquired with great sacrifices are well taken care of, unlike the free and cheap ones. The latter demands nothing in return. They even encourage a throwaway culture since people do not take good care of the things they procure. The moment they find them not to be of great use to them, they dispose of them. Today, it is easier to discard things (even people) for they come cheap and free sometimes. 

God is offering us a gift. He invites us to a way of life; a roadmap that leads to heaven; a “maginhawang buhay.” Though He is offering it freely and generously, it does not come cheap. It costs a lot. It may demand our very own life (LK 14:25-33).

 “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple (cf. Lk 14:25-33). Christian discipleship has its demands and sacrifices. To tread the way to heaven, one must carry a cross, and pass-through “Calvaries” and valleys of tears. To be a good follower of Jesus will cost you something. To be the very best will cost you all that you have; all that you are. That makes heaven a precious destination. That makes our journey meaningful and worth keeping. Ano man ang mahal at mahalaga, panghihirapan.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian talked about cheap grace; a kind of misunderstanding on the gift of God which causes more evil to man and the world than good. "Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance; baptism without Church discipline; communion without confession; absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross; grace without Jesus Christ." It is Christian discipleship without sacrifices; that comes without a cost. And this is the discipleship that Jesus never preached.

Sadly today, cheap grace is not only preached but rather praised and promoted. No wonder some Christians can easily put aside and compromise their being Christians in exchange for worldly ideologies and fanaticism. Their faith means nothing to them, save for being a data which they can attach in their resume. They have become Christians only by name; only when it is convenient to be. They cannot commit themselves fully to Christ; to embrace the cross and tread the path to Calvary. They cannot be Christ's disciples who will enjoy the true glories of the resurrection. Without the rigors and demands of Christ (to carry one's cross), that discipleship fails to be truly Christian and will lead us not to heaven, but down the road of perdition.

Today we celebrate the birthday of the Blessed Mother. The Blessed Mother never made the discipleship her Son offered to her. She never chose to be the mother of Jesus only when it was convenient. She never stayed in Bethlehem or Nazareth. She chose to walk together with her son to Cana, Jerusalem and ultimately to Golgotha or Mount Calvary, accompanying her Son to his suffering and death. And she who never made Christian discipleship cheap enjoys true joy and glory in heaven, to where her faithfulness to the demands of following Jesus led her.