God tirelessly calls each person to a mysterious encounter with Himself, and this divine initiative of love always comes first 1, 7. God, who is infinitely perfect and blessed, freely created humanity out of sheer goodness to share in His own blessed life 2. For this reason, God draws close to every person at all times and in every place, calling them to seek, know, and love Him with all their strength 2.
This universal call to salvation in Christ means that all people are invited to eternal life 8, 10. God's plan of salvation does not relegate human creatures to a state of mere passivity; rather, it requires their free response and acceptance 5. This response is faith, through which a person freely commits their entire self to God, responding to God's prior and superabundant love with concrete love for others and steadfast hope 5.
The Holy Spirit offers every person the possibility of being associated with Christ's paschal mystery, even those who have never heard the Gospel 8. This indicates that God provides the capacity to respond to His call 8. The divine initiative of grace precedes, prepares, and elicits the free response of humanity, calling freedom to cooperate with it and perfecting it 4. Human cooperation with God in salvation involves joining human effort to divine grace, with a person's vocation lying in their willingness to allow grace to inhabit and act within them 3.
While God's call is universal and persistent, the intensity of the pursuit, as perceived by individuals, might vary based on their openness and response to grace. God has given gifts so that the desire to seek and find Him comes from the human person itself 6. Although a person can re-orient the dynamism of their nature, they are constituted for the love of God, for the grace and salvation He intends 6. The Holy Spirit seeks to penetrate every human situation and all social bonds, and accepting God's love brings forth a fundamental response to desire, seek, and protect the good of others 9.
[1] CCC 2591
[2] CCC 2567
[3] CCC 1
[4] Select Questions on the Theology of God the Redeemer IV.47
[5] 1997 Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification 16
[6] Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church 39
[7] CCC 2022
[8] Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church: Christ – Our Pascha 744
[9] Select Questions on the Theology of God the Redeemer IV.31
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