We should cooperate with God to attain our salvation.

We should cooperate with God to attain our salvation.
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To make sound with our hands both the hands must cooperate to clap.

One hand alone can neither clap nor produce sound.

Jesus came into the world to bring about our salvation by sacrificing Himself on the Cross.

But Jesus alone cannot save us without our cooperation.

We cannot attain our salvation without Jesus' cooperation.

We must work out our salvation with the cooperation of Jesus.

On the part of Jesus, He underwent unbearable sufferings on His way of the Cross and sacrificed Himself as amendment for our sins.

On our part we must believe in Him, love Him with our whole heart, express our belief in Him by our good acts of love and kindness and carry our cross till our death.

Being nothing by ourselves as everything we have, including our self, is God's free gift to us, we cannot do anything good by ourselves.

So our cooperation itself can be given only with the help of God.

God helps us with His grace.

What we have to do is to accept the God given grace and use it for working out our salvation.

So, God is the one who, for His good purpose, works in us both to make us desire and to work.

We work, but it is really God who works through us.

God’s grace and our free will jointly work out our salvation.

According to St. Thomas Aquinas:

"Free-will is the cause of its own movement,

because by his free-will man moves himself to act.

But it does not of necessity belong to liberty that what is free should be the first cause of itself,

as neither for one thing to be cause of another need it be the first cause.

God, therefore, is the first cause, Who moves causes both natural and voluntary.

And just as by moving natural causes He does not prevent their acts being natural,

so by moving voluntary causes He does not deprive their actions of being voluntary:

but rather is He the cause of this very thing in them;

for He operates in each thing according to its own nature."
(Summa Theologica.)

In our working out our salvation we cannot do anything unless God takes the initiative.

True we have got a free will and God does not interfere in its function.

But it was God who gave us the free will and hence He is the initiator.

Moreover God gives us enough and more actual grace to move us towards making our free will to make  correct choice.

Of course accepting or rejecting the grace depends on our free will.

To give an analogy:

Suppose we go to a super market to buy a talcum power tin.

There are many tins, marketed by different companies, each  having its own look.

We are free to choose whichsoever tin we like.

One tin is more attractive than all others in its design.

Now using our freedom of choice we select that particular tin for purchase.

Like the appearance of that tin, God's actual grace attracts us towards doing a good act.

We do the good act choosing it by our free will.

It is our voluntary act.

But who takes the initiative?

God, by His actual grace.

Let me give one concrete example to show how God takes the initiative.

Suppose we are in the state of mortal sin for a long time without going to confession.

During one Sunday Mass our Parish Priest invites us for a Retreat to be held in our church in a few days.

The Retreat Preacher will be one famous for his oratory.

We attend the Retreat attracted by the Preacher.

The sermons are so convincing and touching that we are moved to contrition and make a good confession.

We attend the Retreat and make a good confession using our free will and hence a voluntary act.

But  God  has taken the initiative by His grace which has done the work of initiation through our Parish Priest and Retreat Preacher.

God has inspired our Parish Priest to invite us for a Retreat.

God operates within us  offering His cooperation for our salvation initiating every good act of ours.

What God expects from us is  our good will, a will that is always ready to cooperate with His will.

We must cooperate with God with our good will to attain our salvation.

Our cooperation itself needs the cooperation of God which is always given.

Lourdu Selvam.