Grace, Actual and Habitual Part 1

Grace, Actual and Habitual.

by Joseph Pohle.

INTRODUCTION

Humanity was reconciled to G.o.d by the Redemption. This does not, however, mean that every individual human being was forthwith justified, for individual justification is wrought by the application to the soul of grace derived from the inexhaustible merits of Jesus Christ.

There are two kinds of grace: (1) actual and (2) habitual. Actual grace is a supernatural gift by which rational creatures are enabled to perform salutary acts. Habitual, or, as it is commonly called, sanctifying, grace is a habit, or more or less enduring state, which renders men pleasing to G.o.d.

This distinction is of comparatively recent date, but it furnishes an excellent principle of division for a dogmatic treatise on grace.(1)

PART I. ACTUAL GRACE

Actual grace is a transient supernatural help given by G.o.d from the treasury of the merits of Jesus Christ for the purpose of enabling man to work out his eternal salvation.

We shall consider: (1) The Nature of Actual Grace; (2) Its Properties, and (3) Its Relation to Free-Will.

GENERAL READINGS:-St. Thomas, _Summa Theologica_, 1a 2ae, qu.

109-114, and the commentators, especially Billuart, _De Gratia_ (ed. Lequette, t. III); the Salmanticenses, _De Gratia Dei_ (_Cursus Theologiae_, Vol. IX sqq., Paris 1870); Thomas de Lemos, _Panoplia Divinae Gratiae_, Liege 1676; Dominicus Soto, _De Natura et Gratia_, l. III, Venice 1560; *Ripalda,(2) _De Ente Supernaturali_, 3 vols. (I, Bordeaux 1634; II, Lyons 1645; III, Cologne 1648).

*C. v. Schazler, _Natur und ubernatur: Das Dogma von der Gnade_, Mainz 1865; IDEM, _Neue Untersuchungen uber das Dogma von der Gnade_, Mainz 1867; *J. E. Kuhn, _Die christliche Lehre von der gottlichen Gnade_, Tubingen 1868; Jos. Kleutgen, S. J., _Theologie der Vorseit_, Vol. II, 2nd ed., pp. 152 sqq., Munster 1872; R.

Cercia, _De Gratia Christi_, 3 vols., Paris 1879; *C. Mazzella, S.

J., _De Gratia Christi_, 4th ed., Rome 1895; *J. H. Oswald, _Die Lehre von der Heiligung, d. i. Gnade, Rechtfertigung, Gnadenwahl_, 3rd ed., Paderborn 1885; *D. Palmieri, S. J., _De Gratia Divina Actuali_, Gulpen 1885; *Heinrich-Gutberlet, _Dogmatische Theologie_, Vol. VIII, Mainz 1897; *S. Schiffini, S. J., _De Gratia Divina_, Freiburg 1901; G. Lahousse, S. J., _De Gratia Divina_, Louvain 1902; Chr. Pesch, S. J., _Praelectiones Dogmaticae_, Vol. V, 3rd ed., Freiburg 1908; G. van Noort, _De Gratia Christi_, Amsterdam 1908; E. J. Wirth, _Divine Grace_, New York 1903; S. J. Hunter, S. J., _Outlines of Dogmatic Theology_, Vol. III, pp. 1 sqq.; Wilhelm-Scannell, _A Manual of Catholic Theology_, Vol. II, 2nd ed., pp. 227 sqq., London 1901; A. Devine, _The Sacraments Explained_, 3rd ed. pp. 1-43, London 1905.-L.

Labauche, S. S., _G.o.d and Man, Lectures on Dogmatic Theology II_, pp. 123 sqq., New York 1916.-J. E. Nieremberg, S. J., _The Marvels of Divine Grace_, tr. by Lady Lovat, London 1917.

On the teaching of the Fathers cfr. Isaac Habert, _Theologiae Graecorum Patrum Vindicatae circa Universam Materiam Gratiae Libri III_, Paris 1646; E. Scholz, _Die Lehre des hl. Basilius von der Gnade_, Freiburg 1881; Hummer, _Des hl. Gregor von n.a.z.ianz Lehre von der Gnade_, Kempten 1890; E. Weigl, _Die Heilslehre des hl.

Cyrill von Alexandrien_, Mainz 1905.

Chapter I. The Nature Of Actual Grace

Section 1. Definition Of Actual Grace

1. GENERAL NOTION OF GRACE.-The best way to arrive at a correct definition of actual grace is by the synthetic method. We therefore begin with the general notion of grace.

Like "nature,"(3) grace (_gratia_, ?????) is a word of wide reach, used in a great variety of senses. Habert(4) enumerates no less than fourteen; which, however, may be reduced to four.

a) Subjectively, grace signifies good will or benevolence shown by a superior to an inferior, as when a criminal is pardoned by the king's grace.

b) Objectively, it designates a favor inspired by good will or benevolence. In this sense the term may be applied to any free and gratuitous gift (_donum gratis datum_), as when a king bestows graces on his lieges.

c) Grace may also mean personal charm or attractiveness. In this sense the term frequently occurs in Latin and Greek literature (the Three Graces).

Charm elicits love and prompts a person to the bestowal of favors.

d) The recipient of gifts or favors usually feels grat.i.tude towards the giver, which he expresses in the form of thanks. Hence the word _gratiae_ (plural) frequently stands for thanksgiving ("_gratias agere_," "_Deo gratias_," "to say grace after meals").(5)

The first and fundamental of these meanings is "a free gift or favor." The benevolence of the giver and the attractiveness of the recipient are merely the reasons for which the gift is imparted, whereas the expression of thanks is an effect following its bestowal.

Dogmatic theology is concerned exclusively with grace in the fundamental sense of the term.

e) Grace is called a gift (_donum_, d??e?), because it is owing to free benevolence, not required by justice. It is called gratuitous (_gratis datum_), because it is bestowed without any corresponding merit on the part of the creature. A gift may be due to the recipient as a matter of distributive or commutative justice, and in that case it would not be absolutely gratuitous (_gratis_). Grace, on the contrary, is bestowed out of pure benevolence, from no other motive than sheer love. This is manifestly St. Paul's idea when he writes: "And if by grace, it is not now by works: otherwise grace is no more grace."(6) It is likewise the meaning of St. Augustine when he says, in his Homilies on the Gospel of St. John, that grace is "something gratuitously given ... as a present, not in return for something else."(7)

2. NATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL GRACE.-Grace is not necessarily supernatural.

Sacred Scripture and the Fathers sometimes apply the word to purely natural gifts. We pet.i.tion G.o.d for our daily bread, for good health, fair weather and other temporal favors, and we thank Him for preserving us from pestilence, famine, and war, although these are blessings which do not transcend the order of nature.(8)

a) Our pet.i.tions for purely natural favors are inspired by the conviction that creation itself, and everything connected therewith, is a gratuitous gift of G.o.d. This conviction is well founded. G.o.d was under no necessity of creating anything: creation was an act of His free-will. Again, many of the favors to which human nature, as such, has a claim, are free gifts when conferred upon the individual. Good health, fort.i.tude, talent, etc., are natural graces, for which we are allowed, nay obliged, to pet.i.tion G.o.d. The Pelagians employed this truth to conceal a pernicious error when they unctuously descanted on the magnitude and necessity of grace as manifested in creation. It was by such trickery that their leader succeeded in persuading the bishops a.s.sembled at the Council of Diospolis or Lydda (A. D. 415) that his teaching was quite orthodox. St. Augustine and four other African bishops later reported to Pope Innocent I, that if these prelates had perceived that Pelagius meant to deny that grace by which we are Christians and sons of G.o.d, they would not have listened to him so patiently, and that, consequently, no blame attached to these judges because they simply took the term "grace" in its ecclesiastical sense.(9)

b) Generally speaking, however, the term "grace" is reserved for what are commonly called the supernatural gifts of G.o.d, the merely preternatural as well as the strictly supernatural.(10) In this sense "grace" is as sharply opposed to purely natural favors as nature is opposed to the supernatural.

The importance of the distinction between supernatural and purely natural grace will appear from an a.n.a.lysis of the concept itself. Considered as gifts of G.o.d, the strictly supernatural graces (_e.g._, justification, divine sons.h.i.+p, the beatific vision) ontologically exceed the bounds of nature. Considered as purely gratuitous favors, they are negatively and positively undeserved. The grace involved in creation, for instance, is not conferred on some existing beneficiary, but actually produces its recipient. The creation itself, therefore, being entirely _gratis data_, all that succeeds it, supernatural grace included, must be negatively undeserved, in as far as it was not necessary for the recipient to exist at all. But the supernatural graces are _indebitae_ also positively, _i.e._ positing the creation, because they transcend every creatural claim and power. Both elements are contained in the above-quoted letter of the African bishops to Pope Innocent I: "Though it may be said in a certain legitimate sense, that we were created by the grace of G.o.d, ... that is a different grace by which we are called predestined, by which we are justified, and by which we receive eternal beat.i.tude."(11) Of this last-mentioned grace (_i.e._ grace in the strictly supernatural sense), St. Augustine says: "This, the grace which Catholic bishops are wont to read in the books of G.o.d and preach to their people, and the grace which the Apostle commends, is not that by which we are created as men, but that by which as sinful men we are justified."(12) In other words, natural is opposed to supernatural grace in the same way that nature is opposed to the supernatural. "[To believe] is the work of grace, not of nature. It is, I say, the work of grace, which the second Adam brought us, not of nature, which Adam wholly lost in himself."(13) Adding the new note obtained by this a.n.a.lysis we arrive at the following definition: Grace is a gratuitous _super-natural_ gift.(14)

3. THE GRACE OF G.o.d AND THE GRACE OF CHRIST.-Though all supernatural graces are from G.o.d, a distinction is made between the "grace of G.o.d" and the "grace of Christ." The difference between them is purely accidental, based on the fact that the "grace of Christ" flows exclusively from the merits of the atonement.

a) The following points may serve as criteria to distinguish the two notions:

A) The _gratia Dei_ springs from divine benevolence and presupposes a recipient who is unworthy merely in a negative sense (=not worthy, _non dignus_), whereas the _gratia Christi_ flows from mercy and benevolence and is conferred on a recipient who is positively unworthy (_indignus_).

B) The _gratia Dei_ elevates the soul to the supernatural order (_gratia elevans_), while the _gratia Christi_ heals the wounds inflicted by sin, especially concupiscence (_gratia elevans simul et sanans_).

C) The _gratia Dei_ is a gratuitous gift conferred by the Blessed Trinity without regard to the theandric merits of Jesus Christ, whereas the _gratia Christi_ is based entirely on those merits.

b) The Scotists hold that the distinction between _gratia Dei_ and _gratia Christi_ is purely logical. They regard the G.o.d-man as the predestined centre of the universe and the source of all graces.(15) The Thomists, on the other hand, regard the grace of the angels, and that wherewith our first parents were endowed in Paradise, purely as _gratia Dei_; they hold that the merits of Christ did not become operative until after the Fall, and that, consequently, there is a real distinction between the grace of the angels and that of our first parents on the one hand, and the grace of Christ on the other.

As it cannot reasonably be supposed that the angels are endowed with specifically the same graces by which mankind was redeemed from sin, the Scotists are forced to admit a distinction between the grace of Christ as G.o.d-man (_gratia Christi Dei-hominis_) and the grace of Christ as Redeemer (_gratia Christi Redemptoris_), so that even according to them, the dogmatic treatise on Grace is concerned solely with the grace of Christ _qua_ Redeemer.

Hence, grace must be more particularly defined as a gratuitous supernatural gift _derived from the merits of Jesus Christ_.(16)

4. EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL GRACE.-External grace (_gratia externa_) comprises all those strictly supernatural inst.i.tutions which stimulate pious thoughts and salutary resolutions in the human soul. Such are, for example, Holy Scripture, the Church, the Sacraments, the example of Jesus Christ, etc. Internal grace (_gratia interna_) inheres or operates invisibly in the soul, and places it in relation with G.o.d as its supernatural end. Internal graces are, _e.g._, the theological virtues, the power of forgiving sins, etc. The Pelagians admitted external, but obstinately denied internal grace.(17)

St. Paul(18) emphasizes the distinction between external and internal grace by designating the former as "law" (_lex_, ????) and the latter as "faith" (_fides_, p?st??). With one exception, (_viz._, the Hypostatic Union, which is the climax of all graces), external is inferior to, because a mere preparation for, internal grace, which aims at sanctification. We are concerned in this treatise solely with internal grace. Hence, proceeding a step further, we may define grace as a gratuitous, supernatural, _internal_ gift of G.o.d, derived from the merits of Jesus Christ.(19)

5. "GRATIA GRATIS DATA" and "GRATIA GRATUM FACIENS."-The supernatural grace of Christ, existing invisibly in the soul either as a transient impulse (_actus_) or as a permanent state (_habitus_), tends either to the salvation of the person in whom it inheres or through him to the sanctification of others. In the former case it is called ingratiating (_gratia gratum faciens_), in the latter, gratuitously given (_gratia gratis data_). The term _gratia gratis data_ is based on the words of our Lord recorded in the Gospel of St. Matthew: "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils: freely have you received, freely give."(20)

a) The _gratia gratum faciens_ is intended for all men without exception; the _gratia gratis data_ only for a few specially chosen persons. To the cla.s.s of gratuitously bestowed graces belong the charismata of the prophets and the ordinary powers of the priesthood.(21)

Each of these two species of internal grace may exist independently of the other because personal holiness is not a necessary prerequisite for the exercise of the charismata or the power of forgiving sins, etc.