Grace and the 12 Steps:
the Cup that Sanctifies Replaces the Cup that Stupefies

“Never be too hard on the man who can’t give up drink. It’s as hard to give up the drink as it is to raise the dead to life again. But both are possible and even easy for Our Lord. We have only to depend on Him.” Ven. Matt Talbot

CATHOLICS AND ALCOHOLISM

Are Catholics more likely to be alcoholics than Protestants? “Yes,” according to the title of a recent article from the Pew Research Center. But if you read the article carefully, you’ll see that title is misleading. The title doesn’t distinguish between lapsed, C&E or observant Catholics.  Moreover, if you examine the differences between different categories of religious belief, you’ll see that agnostics and atheists are much more likely to engage in binge drinking than Catholics (of whatever degree of belief):

• Agnostics: 33%
• Atheists: 26%
• Catholic: 17%

So, is this evidence that those who believe in God (or the 12 Step equivalent—a “Higher Power”) can be sober, clean, free from codependency or from the other addictive behaviors that afflicts us mortals? Perhaps, but for many of us drunks, addicts,… it takes more than a vague, undefined Higher Power. As Venerable Matt Talbot, that good old Irish drunk, said in the opening quote, it requires a deep faith in the power of Our Lord to help us. But by itself, that deep faith may not always suffice for recovery. As one recovering priest put it at a Calix meeting, “if you have the flu or covid you don’t to go to me for a cure, you go to an MD.” Prayer is a good thing, but God expects us also to use medicine. Catholics are not Christian Scientists.

THE CALIX SOCIETY, A SPIRITUAL MEDICINE

What medicine, in addition to a 12 Step program, might one use to recover from addictions? My prescription is the Calix Society. Since I’ve written about the Calix Society elsewhere, I’ll not give a detailed account here, but only quote from the Calix Credo (read at every meeting) to tell you what the group does.

“Calix is an association of Catholic alcoholics, drug addicts, and family members and friends affected by addiction, who are maintaining their sobriety through participation in their Catholic faith and a 12 Step program.” Calix Society Credo.

Members share ESH (Experience, Strength and Hope) stories, stimulated by a book section read at the meeting, Lectio Divina on the Gospel or Divine Office. These ESH stories tell about being at the bottom and by the grace of God, being shown the steps to recovery, and conversion to the faith. Two images come to mind that will, I hope, set the scene.

• Jack D lies in a snowbank after an all night drunk, sees a church across the street, goes in to get warm, hears noises in the basement, goes down to an AA meeting…grace, given and accepted;
• Anne T is in despair, recovery is not going well, she’s white knuckling abstinence, her sponsor told her to go to a Priest for Step 5 (“admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs”), shaking as she begins Confession, the priest tells her “relax, I’ve been sober myself for 19 years—Remember, Christ is mercy and love.”…. grace , given and accepted.

ACCEPTING GRACE FOR RECOVERY

Although many such stories can be put into a framework of grace and recovery, one question remains. Why is it that some people recover, come back to the Church and others do not? I don’t hold with the Calvinist theology of grace, unconditional election and irresistible grace. Rather, Jesus Christ extends His Divine Mercy to us all. It is the other gift of God to us, free will, that makes the difference—our freedom to accept or to reject grace
In his book, By the Grace of God, Fr. Francis Canavan, S.J. emphasizes this point:

“…although we cannot do God’s will without His grace, God never deprives us of our freedom. Grace is not an omnipotent decree of God which we cannot resist. Because we are free, we can, and unfortunately we do sometimes reject the grace which God gives us.” –Rev. Francis Canavan, S.J., By the Grace of God, p. 43

By grace, the 12 Steps enable the drunk, addict or codependent to recover. But free will assent is required in doing the Steps. Step 1 requires belief that you can’t recover on your own. Step 2 requires you to acknowledge that God can help. Step 3 requires surrender, to let God do it. Or, as the slogan condensation of Steps 1,2,3 goes: “I can’t, God can, I think I’ll let Him do it.” And so it goes for Steps 4-12.

A THEOLOGY OF GRACE

The Catholic theology of grace applies not only to recovery from alcoholism but generally to recovery from all kinds of sin. According to Fr. Canavan,

“When we cooperate with the grace by which God saves us from our sins we are doing essentially the same thing that we do when we cooperate with God in our recovery from alcoholism.” op.cit., p.42

Calix Society members recognize the grace given to them, as one father did in a recent sharing:

When I learned to go to Adoration and pray for knowledge of God’s will, rather than for my son to be clean, it was God’s grace that enabled that surrender, that abandonment of control. And God’s grace that led my son to be free from drugs.”

REFERENCES

I’ll assume the reader knows about the 12 Steps. For a Catholic Perspective on these programs see the following:
Calix Society website and Catholics in Recovery website.