[00:00] ♪ Ave, regina, mater misericordiae ♪ Praised be Jesus and Mary. This gospel we hear how to enter the wedding feast

[00:30] a wedding garment is needed. To enter into heaven, sanctifying grace is needed. The one thing absolutely necessary in our life is union with the Lord. And this is effected by means of sanctifying grace. In our baptism, supernatural sanctifying grace

[01:00] is infused into our souls and we truly become children of God. We become partakers of the divine nature. We share in the very life of our Lord. And also supernatural virtues, theological virtues are infused into our souls as well, giving us the intrinsic capacity to live as children of God,

[01:32] to make acts of faith, supernatural acts of faith, supernatural acts of hope and of charity. And this sanctifying grace is meant to grow in our soul. This is something that can develop with the grace of God, with His actual graces, or could be lost through mortal sin. So the reality is there are only two choices in life,

[02:05] either to live as slaves of the devil or to live in the freedom of the children of God. In reality and in the end, these are the only real choices. As sons, we are also heirs, as St. Paul says. Those who are living in Christ have the same inheritance as the Son of God.

[02:40] This is why you can only enter into the wedding feast with the wedding garment. To be able to enter into heaven, we need to be in sanctifying grace. What's important to remember is just like our Lord is both Son of God and Son of Mary, we too, through sanctifying grace, share in His double filiation.

[03:13] God is truly our Father. The Blessed Mother is truly our mother in the order of grace. And this is not a simple metaphor. This is reality. It's an ontological reality because sanctifying grace is not something merely extrinsic. So this is what some Protestants and most Protestants say. It's an extrinsic justification.

[03:45] Just like our sins, it's like the dust that is swept under the rug. Christ covers our sins, this is what Protestants would say, but the dust is still there. Catholic doctrine, as the Council of Trent has expressed it, is sanctifying grace is a supernatural quality inherent in our souls, meaning it really and truly transforms our souls

[04:17] and we really and truly become children of God. So let us choose to live in that reality as children of God and choose to continue to grow in that life that we share with the Lord because in the end, this is the one thing necessary and only those who have the wedding garment enter into the wedding feast of the Lamb.

[04:49] Only those who are in sanctifying grace enter into heaven. ♪ O God, misericordia cunctorum, ♪ ♪ ad nos converte, ♪ ♪ et Jesum benedictum, fructum ventris tui. ♪

[05:30] ♪ O God, misericordia cunctorum, ♪ ♪ ad nos converte, fructum ventris tui. ♪ ♪ O God, misericordia cunctorum, ♪ ♪ ad nos converte, fructum ventris tui. ♪ ♪ O God, misericordia cunctorum, ♪