Sect. 142The Supernatural in Our Life on Earth (“In Statu VIŒ”)The Supernatural in Our Life on Earth (“In Statu VIŒ”)

I. The supernatural character of the final destiny of rational creatures implies the equally supernatural character of all the acts which, in one way or another, contribute to its acquisition. In other words, the vocation to the beatific vision contains the vocation to a supernatural life here on earth, made up of acts preparatory to and meritorious of eternal life in heaven. Hence the mark or note to distinguish the natural from the supernatural acts of this life, is whether or not these acts tend to the acquisition of eternal life. In the language of theology they are termed, “acts meritorious of eternal life,” taking meritorious in its widest meaning; “salutary acts,” i.e. acts leading, in any way whatsoever, to salvation. As, however, these acts have the same material object as the corresponding natural acts (e.g. natural love of God, justice, chastity), and are designated by the same names, they are commonly distinguished from the latter by the qualification that they are “conducive to eternal life.” Thus, the supernatural act of Faith is distinguished from a similar natural act by styling it “an act of faith capable of meriting eternal life” (sicut expedit, or sicut oportet, ad vitam æternam consequendam). Other expressions, easily understood, are: “acts of justice before God (coram Deo), “of spiritual justice,” “of the justice of sanctity.” They are best characterized as acts making up the life of the adopted sons of God, and consequently as a participation in the Divine Life.

II. The supernatural character of salutary acts lies in their inner and substantial exaltedness above all natural acts. Their worth is not extrinsic, as is, for instance, the value of paper money, but intrinsic, like the value of a gold coin; otherwise they would not really and truly merit supernatural life. This intrinsic value can accrue to them only from the proportion and relationship which they bear to the acts of eternal life themselves; the doer of salutary acts moves towards God and approaches Him in the same way as the blessed are united with Him and possess Him. Only from this position is it possible to defend scientifically the absolute necessity of grace for all salutary acts, even for the very first. The soul performing salutary acts may fitly be compared to a bird on the wing, easily reaching a height which it would never be able to attain by using its feet.

The intrinsic and substantial exaltedness of salutary acts, and of the life which they constitute, must further be determined in relation to their object and end. The best way to arrive at a satisfactory solution of the question is to consider the several classes of salutary acts. We may look at the supernatural life here on earth from three points of view: (1) as a striving after life eternal; (2) as a beginning and anticipation of life eternal by acts of supernatural union with God; (3) as the fulfilment of the moral duties incumbent on the vocation of sons of God.

1. Striving after the possession of God in eternal life—that is, wishing, trusting, and resolving to do whatever is required to such end—to be efficacious must necessarily be above the powers of nature. A natural striving, although possible, is entirely out of proportion to that supernatural end. In order to be efficacious and salutary, the striving must be infused and inspired by God Himself, because the object striven after is entirely and solely His own free gift. The acts of the striving will are thus, as it were, borne up towards God by God Himself, and thus endowed by a supernatural excellence. The striving in question is the root of all works and virtues which tend to God; hence it is clear that all such works and virtues must be supernatural, at least in so far as their root and mainspring is supernatural. The supernatural character of salutary acts, as it appears from this point of view, is most insisted on by St. Augustine; with him, every act of good will for which grace is necessary, is an act of Charity (caritas), and by Charity he understands all efficacious striving of the soul after the vision and fruition of God.

2. The supernatural life here on earth is not only a striving after eternal life, it is an introduction to, a beginning, and an anticipation of that life. Even here below, spiritual life consists in a union with God as He is in Himself, and also in a participation in God’s own Life analogous to the union and participation realized in heaven. The acts of theological virtues—Faith, Hope, and Charity—which form the substance of all supernatural life, should be considered from this point of view. They have this advantage, that their supernatural character can be shown in two ways: indirectly, as being salutary acts; and directly, from the manner in which they seize and grasp their Divine Object. For this purpose it is sufficient to consider theological Faith as a supernatural thinking, and theological Love as a supernatural volition. Hope draws its supernatural character from Faith and Charity, and rather tends to a future union with God than expresses a present union.

The supernatural character of Faith and Charity lies in this, that they apprehend and embrace God as He is in Himself, directly and in a manner corresponding with the Divine exaltedness, in the same way as in the beatific vision, though here on earth the apprehension is but obscure. Nothing short of a Divine influence, essentially raising the powers of the created mind, can enable it so to apprehend and embrace God. In the sphere of natural knowledge and love, each creature is itself its own proximate object, and the centre from which it extends itself to other objects. If, then, created nature is to know and love God, not merely as its own principle, but is to take God in Himself as the direct and most intrinsic object and motive of its life, then the creature must be raised into the proper sphere of Divine Life, and be empowered, by a communication of that same life, to apprehend the Divine Essence.

We have already (§ 42) pointed out the supernatural elements in theological Faith, wherefore here we deal only with theological Love, i.e. Charity.

The supernatural relations of Charity to God may be illustrated in a twofold direction: (a) as compared with the Love of God to Himself as the Highest Good; (b) as compared with the mutual Love which unites the Three Divine Persons—that is, as a “participation of the Holy Ghost” either in the sense of the Latin or the Greek Fathers (cf. Book II., § 98).

(a) In the first direction, the supernatural relation of Charity to God appears in this, that by charity the creature loves God in Himself and for His own sake, in such a way that the creature’s love for self and for its fellow-creatures is caused by its love for God. Natural love starts from itself, loving all things for its own sake; Charity starts from God and loves all things for His sake. Charity here on earth is, in essence, identical with the Charity of the blessed in heaven: as the clear vision of the Divine essence moves the blessed to love, so supernatural Faith moves the love of the believer; in both cases God is the moving principle. According to Scripture, Charity is an outpouring of the Holy Ghost and a participation of His own sanctity; God lives in the loving soul as in His property, so that the two are one spirit (Rom. 5:5; 1 Cor. 6:17). Thus, in conclusion, theological Love is similar in kind to the love wherewith God loves Himself as the Highest Good; it is a Divine love because of a Divine kind, and therefore also divinely holy and blessed because filled with the holiness and lovableness of the Highest Good.

(b) Charity may also be conceived as tending to God, inasmuch as, in loving condescension, He calls us to share in His own beatitude and offers Himself as the object of our beatitude. In this respect charity appears as a return, on our part, of God’s supernatural love to us, or as mutual love, the ideal of which is the Love between Father and Son in the Trinity, and similar to the love of children for their father, of the bride for the bridegroom, and of one friend for another. Such love is above the faculties of created nature. The creature, as such, can only love God as a servant loves his master, or a subject his king; whereas the love of the sons of God is not servile, but filial, bridal, and friendly, and therefore specifically distinct from the former. Among men no higher power of love is required when their love is given to a person of higher rank, because, although different in rank, all men are equal in nature.

3. The essentially supernatural character of the acts constituting the moral order is not so evident as that of the theological virtues. By moral order we mean the practice of the so-called moral virtues, e.g. justice, prudence, temperance, etc., all of which St. Augustine includes under the name of “the love of justice.” The difficulty here arises from the fact that the will seems to have a natural power sufficient to love order even of the highest kind; and besides, there seems to be no supernatural moral order different in its subject-matter from the natural moral order. As a matter of fact, all theologians, following the lead of St. Augustine, attribute the supernatural value of moral actions to their connection with Charity.

IV. The whole doctrine concerning the supernatural character of the life of the adoptive sons of God here on earth centres in the supernatural character of theological love or Charity, just as the doctrine concerning the life of the blessed in heaven centres in the supernatural character of the Beatific Vision. It is, therefore, a serious mistake to gather the three theological virtues under the one head of religion, which is a moral virtue.