Michael Himes was one of my favorite contemporary Catholic theologians. I met Michael when he was 14 years of age and had just graduated from grammar school. I had been a priest for about a month at that time. 

My first assignment was a summer assignment at Our Lady of Good Counsel. How could I have ever guessed how much I would learn from Michael more than 20 years later when, after obtaining a doctorate in theology, he taught at the University of Notre Dame and Boston College? 

Without exaggerating at all, I confess that Michael’s theological insights changed my view of God and changed my view of what Catholics refer to as grace. Though I frequently referred to Michael in books that I wrote, I never had the opportunity to tell him how much his theological reflections played a profound role in my life. I regret that. 

In his book “Doing the Truth in Love: Conversations about God, Relationships and Service” (New York: Paulist Press, 1995), commenting on concepts we might have about God, Himes suggested that no concepts were adequate. 

While it is possible to speak truthfully about God, it is not possible to speak clearly about God. We cannot fit God clearly into human concepts. I am reminded of a poem by Thomas Merton, “The Tears of the Blind Lions.” Merton wrote that when those who love God try to talk about Him their words are like blind lions searching for oases in the dessert. No words are adequate to express the enormous mystery that God is. 

Michael suggested that the least incorrect way of speaking about God is expressed in the Greek word “agape.” Noting that “agape” might be translated as “pure self-gift,” Michael suggested that we think of God as pure self-gift. This is the least incorrect way to speak of God. God is pure self-gift, and this pure self-gift reaches out to everyone. God’s love is not limited to Catholics or Christians but offered to everyone. 

I think one of the most profound and important truths about every person is that every person is unconditionally and infinitely loved by God. We can refuse to accept God’s love, but we cannot stop God from loving us. No matter what sins we might commit, God will never withdraw His love of us. During my years as a seminarian studying for the priesthood, and for several years later, I tried to relate what I believed about God to what I thought of as the secular world. How were the two worlds related? Pointing out that grace was God’s loving self-gift, Fr. Himes wrote: 

“So grace is everywhere. This claim has very important consequences. Often we speak of the sacred as though it was a quite separate realm from the secular. What I am suggesting is that there is no secular realm, if by ‘secular’ we mean ‘ungraced’ or ‘unrelated’ to the ‘agape’ of God. There may be many aspects of life about which we do not customarily use religious or theological language to talk about our experience, but that does not mean that those realms of experience are ungraced. Every aspect of our being is ultimately connected to the fundamental question of where we stand in face of the ‘agape’ of God.” (p. 103) 

When I read those words, my problem dissolved. If by secular we mean some area of reality that is not related to God’s grace, to God’s ongoing self-gift of love, then there is no secular realm. God’s loving “self-gift” touches all of reality. Noting that there are officially seven sacraments that the Church has named: Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the Anointing of the sick, Marriage, and Holy Orders, Michael stresses that there are many sacraments in every person’s life, that any reality that causes contact with God, that causes grace, is a sacrament. Fr. Himes wrote the following: 

“A sacrament makes grace effectively present for you by bringing it to your attention, by allowing you to see it, by manifesting it. Sacraments presuppose the omnipresence of grace, the fact that the self-gift of God is already there to be manifested. But because grace is always present, it frequently goes unnoticed. Anything, any person, place, event, any sight, any sound, any smell, taste or touch that causes you to recognize the presence of grace, to accept it and celebrate it, is a sacrament, affecting what it signifies. … 

“So, then, how many sacraments are there? There are as many sacraments as there are effective pointers for you to the grace that lies at their root. Everything is potentially sacramental. Grace is always and everywhere present…Sacraments are those persons, places, things and events which cause you and me to notice the grace.” (p.108) 

Thank you, Michael!