God’s Grace in Sample, Gutierrez, and Groody
Wendy Sumner Winter

            A principle theme which holds up all of the arguments in Tex Sample’s Blue Collar Ministry, Gustavo Gutierrez’s “Essential Writings,” and Daniel Groody’s Border of Death, Valley of Life is God’s grace, especially in regards to the poor. In each author’s account the form of grace has unique characteristics as it is applied to different groups of disadvantaged and oppressed people. For each group, God intervenes with God’s grace in a way that facilitates liberation, not just toward an abstract “home in the sky,” but toward a life of flourishing here on earth.

Tex Sample begins the discussion with a theory of “Winners and Losers.” He suggests that society, Western society especially, is centered around what he calls the philosophy of winning. This philosophy, advanced in The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, contends that the only way for humans to thrive is through competition. This competition, however, requires there to be losers.

Sample argues that this entire social construct is against the picture of the Kingdom of God that Jesus described, yet shows that the American culture, in particular, is so infected by this idea of winning and losing that we have come to blame the losers for the loss that really is their only possibility. The American psyche is engineered to believe that a person gets what he or she earns, that if enough effort is expended that effort will be rewarded with success. People who do not succeed are either not worthy or have not worked hard enough.

“The theology of grace takes the opposite position in respect to human worth. Human worth is not earned; it comes as a gracious gift from God in Jesus Christ” (Sample 122). If the Church could infect its people with this notion, it would be transformative for society. When Christians begin to really understand that their success is neither a measure of their human worth in the eyes of God, nor an earned state, they can begin to effect change that reflects the coming Kingdom of God. That is, they will begin to facilitate success for everyone, regardless of perceived worth or achievement.

For his part, Gustavo Gutierrez posits the idea of the “gratuitousness of God.” “The quest for justice must be situated within the framework of God’s gratuitous love. There is no opposition or competition between grace (love) and justice because the graciousness of God’s love – and this alone – makes it possible to perceive the divine predilection for the victims of injustice” (Gutierrez 166). This predilection, or preferential option, Gutierrez claims, will, again, transform society. What this transformation looks like for Gutierrez is a liberated and free Latin America – though surely a change there could spread throughout the world.

Gutierrez discusses this gratuitousness in the context of the Biblical Job. This is interesting because at the surface of Job’s life it would seem that God’s grace is absent. He is abandoned. Gutierrez’s picture of God’s grace in this circumstance is very important. The suffering is not the will of God, yet the will of God – an understanding of God’s greatness and gratuitousness – is accomplished in its midst. Still there is a critical difference between the African American religious tradition, for instance, of escapism – “Some day I’ll rest from this journey – in the sweet by and by.” – and the liberation that Gutierrez describes. In terms of Job, Gutierrez illustrates, essentially, that God’s ways are not our ways. Through his suffering, Job learned how to speak about God. “The new awareness in turn showed him that solidarity with the poor was required by his faith in a God who has a special love for the disinherited and exploited of human history” (Gutierrez 171). He goes on to say that God’s special love for the poor does not have any relationship to the special merits that they may have, rather it is simply the very character of God. It is the picture of God’s goodness and freedom.

Finally, Daniel Groody’s picture of grace is very practical. The intervention of God into the lives of the Mexican immigrants to the United States takes a very tactile and experiential form. Groody describes the work of the Valley Missionary Program which extends God’s grace and healing to this downtrodden group of people. These immigrants, often cut off from any form of daily love, are offered a retreat where they are introduced to the service and graciousness of Christ by other migrant workers and Catholic ministers. By showering these people with love, acceptance, forgiveness, the retreat hosts paint a picture of the Kingdom of Heaven which equips the immigrants to re-enter society armed with a new sense of self-worth. “Grace, in the context of the retreat, deals with God’s free offer of Himself to His people” (Groody 62).

For all three authors, God’s grace functions first to make us understand who we are. As God’s children, we all are marked as blessed. Because Christ intervened in history, for us, we can see the powerful implications of that grace throughout history. Christ’s intervention calls us to action – action that imitates the manner in which He intervened. That is, in solidarity with the poor. If He stood for feeding, clothing, healing the “least of these,” then we are compelled to follow that example. As each author suggests, following this compulsion can be transformative for the society in which we find ourselves be it capitalist United States or fascist Latin America.

Works Cited

Groody, Daniel. Border of Death, Valley of Life: An Immigrant Journey of Heart and Spirit. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing, 2002.

Gutierrez, Gustavo. Gustavo Gutierrez: Essential Writings. New York: Orbis Books, 1996.

Sample, Tex. Blue Collar Ministry: Facing Economic and Social Realities of Working People. New York: Judson Press, 1994.

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