M i c a h  R u b e n s t e i n
From the Editor:
The Many Faces of Grace...

The game is over, yet there are still 20 seconds on the time clock. Ohio State is beating Michigan by a score of 14 - 3. And the Buckeyes have the ball on Michigan's three-yard line. As the teams face off at the line of scrimmage, Ohio State fans are screaming for another touchdown, hoping for a 21 - 3 rout. Instead, Coach Jim Tressel tells his quarterback to hike the ball, and then drop to one knee, ending the down but letting the clock run out. Ohio State already won… why add insult to injury? When sportscasters swarmed around Tressel, as he and his team walked off the field, the winning coach restricted most of his comments to saying what a wonderful team Michigan was.

Talk about showing grace in victory…

We know grace when we are touched by it: as we watch a swan glide through the water… seeing the way a Japanese woman in a traditional kimono bows her head in greeting… marveling at Michael Jordan, His Royal Airness, as he seems to defy the Law of Gravity by staying suspended in the air, on his way to the basket.

What actually is grace? With this issue of GrailWorld Online, we look at the concept of "grace" in its many guises, and tackle directly the issue of why grace is so important in our lives.

In Greek mythology, the Three Graces were sisters who dispensed charm and beauty, but the word "grace" itself comes from two Latin words, "gratus," which means "pleasing," and "gratia," which means "favor." Certainly, the way a dancer or a cat or a diplomat maneuvers through a space or situation can be pleasing to watch, and therefore full of grace. And when people grace us with their presence, they do us the favor of spending time with us.

But there's another way that we use the word "grace" that's more subtle. To be in a "state of grace" is to experience something that isn't necessarily deserved. In the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament, God purified the earth of all sin through a flood that lasted forty days and forty nights. At the end of Noah's journey, God put a rainbow in the sky and told Noah that this was His Covenant to mankind, that He would never again destroy the earth. When today we look at how as a species we have behaved since that time towards each other, towards our planet and even towards God, it's all too clear, in my opinion, that we are in a position of favor--a state of grace--that we really don't deserve. Perhaps, then, this is why it's so appropriate for us to say "thank you, or "Grace" at mealtimes, for the food that has been placed in front of us… we must know intuitively that it's only through the Grace of God that we're still here, that we still have the opportunity to do better, and that, like Coach Tressel, we can learn to extend the gift of grace to others, even if everyone else around us is shouting, "Take it! It's yours!"

Happy reading!

Micah Rubenstein, Editor