Sect. 147The State of Grace (Concluded)—its Character of New Creation—grace and Free WillThe State of Grace (Concluded)—its Character of New Creation—grace and Free Will
I. As grace gives the creature a new and higher state of being, its bestowal by God is analogous and equivalent to the generation or creation of a new living being; and since this new being is of a kind which no created power can either produce or claim by any title, the production of it must be placed side by side with the creation of nature as a “supernatural creation.” This notion is familiar to Scripture, to the Fathers, and the Theologians. The parallelism, however, is only perfect between the gift of grace and the “second creation”—that is, the formation of the cosmos out of the chaos already created—inasmuch as the communication of grace builds up in the soul a supernatural cosmos. Nay, the communication of grace is even more a creation than the second natural creation. The things formed in the second creation can be reproduced by generation, and are, one and all, dependent on created causes. Grace, on the contrary, cannot be reproduced by generation, and is not dependent for its being on the natural powers of its subject. God alone produces and reproduces it. He may, indeed, use created forces as external instruments for its communication, but the subject of grace can itself co-operate only indirectly and negatively, viz. by putting no obstacles in the way. From this point of view, the bestowal of grace has an analogon in the production of the human soul, which is at once dependent on God and independent of the body. But the soul is produced as a substance not essentially dependent on the body, and consequently its production is like the “first creation.” Grace, on the other hand, is essentially produced as an accidental form of a subject.
1. From the point of view of “second creation,” Holy Scripture speaks of the higher life given in grace as regeneration (ἀναγέννησις), transformation (μεταμόρφωσις), new creation or reformation. In the language of Scripture and of the Church, all these designations convey the secondary meaning of “restoration to a higher state of perfection destroyed by sin.” The direct and proximate sense, however, is that a second being, higher and more godlike, is added to the purely natural, and that the creature who receives it is brought back to that perfect likeness to God which it possessed at the beginning. The renovation (ἀνακαίνωσις) of the soul by grace has an analogon in the renovation of heaven and earth at the end of time (2 Pet. 3:13 sqq.), so much the more as this renovation, according to Rom. 8:19, is but a consequence and a reflection of the glory of the children of God to be made manifest at the end of time.
2. The gift of grace is often described by the Greek Fathers as τελείωσις—that is, final perfection pure and simple. The creature endowed with grace has a perfection beyond all the requirements of its nature, and, as this “superabundant” perfection implies the possession of the Highest Good, it is final. By it the image of God, formless and lifeless in natural man, acquires a specific likeness to its Divine prototype.
3. To answer to the notion of a second birth and second creation, grace must introduce into nature a “new nature,” or principle of activity. This need not be a substantial principle, like the human soul, but it must be equivalent to a substantial principle in its effects. Grace fulfils this condition by making the sanctified participate in the Divine Nature. Hence the complement and final perfection given by grace, consists in the “supernature” with which grace endows the soul. Nature and supernature are organically bound into one whole: together they constitute a complete nature of a higher order, after the manner of body and soul, plant and graft, viz. the nature of sons of God. Sin, being inconsistent with grace, is really the “death of the soul,” driving out, as it does, the supernatural principle of its higher life.
4. Grace also gives to the soul a higher order of life, viz. a godlike life. The excellence of the Divine Life in the Holy Ghost, and through Him communicated to the creature, consists in the purest spirituality and sanctity; hence grace manifests its Divine character as principle of supernatural life in enabling nature to lead a spiritual and holy life of a supernatural order. From this point of view, grace is always conceived in connection with the Holy Ghost, Whose breath or emanation it is, and the life it inspires is called “spiritual” life. The spirituality and holiness of grace, as contrasted with the inferior spirituality and holiness to which unendowed nature can attain, manifest themselves in many ways. Nature can be the principle and the subject of both a holy and an unholy life, of virtuous actions as well as of error and sin. Grace, on the contrary, being the pure radiance of God’s truth and goodness, remains pure and holy whatever may happen in the soul where it resides, just as the light of the sun does not lose its purity by contact with unclean things. Grace cannot, like nature, exist side by side with sin; God withdraws it as soon as the creature turns away from Him as the highest Truth and Goodness. This quality of grace is seen best in the state of glory, when it excludes not only sin but even the possibility of sinning. The text “Every one that is born of God committeth not sin; for His seed abideth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1 John 3:9), is commonly understood to refer to the incompatibility of sin and grace: it is impossible to be at the same time a child of God and a sinner.
II. The elevating influence of grace must specially affect free will. Not only must it strengthen natural liberty, but raise it to a supernatural order, and transform it into the “freedom of the children of God,” the freedom of the Spirit or of grace. This freedom consists in a power given to the created will of moving in a higher sphere—that is, of aiming at supernatural objects, and of producing supernatural works. In this sphere, the creature ceases to be the servant of God; it is His child, it loves and serves Him as a child, and enjoys the rights and privileges of a child. The Greek Fathers love to contrast the perfect and holy liberty of the sons of God with the servitude proper to the creature as such. The Latin Fathers, on the other hand, look upon it as the perfect liberty of original man in opposition to liberty impaired by sin. All, however, agree in including in the perfect freedom of the sons of God the freedom from sin and misery, or “from the servitude of corruption” (Rom. 8:21), in as far as these imperfections are an obstacle to the attainment of perfect beatitude, and especially to the exercise of free will. In this sense the Schoolmen describe freedom in the order of grace as “freedom from all evil”—that is, power to avoid or to overcome all evil, and freedom for all good—that is, power to perform works supernaturally good, and to attain a supernatural end.
III. The infusion of grace does not destroy the substance and the natural perfections of the soul; neither does it remove the soul’s natural imperfections, at least not until the state of glory is reached. The possibility of error and of sin exists side by side with grace, because the proper effect of grace is but to give higher possibilities to the soul. It is, however, clear that, thanks to these higher powers, error and sin are avoided with less difficulty. As sin is still possible, whereas the coexistence of sin and grace is impossible, it follows that grace can be lost, although intended by God to be everlasting. Again, as grace cannot exist without existing in a subject, it further follows that grace is destructible and perishable. The sinner who causes its destruction commits an assault on the living temple of God.
I. As grace gives the creature a new and higher state of being, its bestowal by God is analogous and equivalent to the generation or creation of a new living being; and since this new being is of a kind which no created power can either produce or claim by any title, the production of it must be placed side by side with the creation of nature as a “supernatural creation.” This notion is familiar to Scripture, to the Fathers, and the Theologians. The parallelism, however, is only perfect between the gift of grace and the “second creation”—that is, the formation of the cosmos out of the chaos already created—inasmuch as the communication of grace builds up in the soul a supernatural cosmos. Nay, the communication of grace is even more a creation than the second natural creation. The things formed in the second creation can be reproduced by generation, and are, one and all, dependent on created causes. Grace, on the contrary, cannot be reproduced by generation, and is not dependent for its being on the natural powers of its subject. God alone produces and reproduces it. He may, indeed, use created forces as external instruments for its communication, but the subject of grace can itself co-operate only indirectly and negatively, viz. by putting no obstacles in the way. From this point of view, the bestowal of grace has an analogon in the production of the human soul, which is at once dependent on God and independent of the body. But the soul is produced as a substance not essentially dependent on the body, and consequently its production is like the “first creation.” Grace, on the other hand, is essentially produced as an accidental form of a subject.
1. From the point of view of “second creation,” Holy Scripture speaks of the higher life given in grace as regeneration (ἀναγέννησις), transformation (μεταμόρφωσις), new creation or reformation. In the language of Scripture and of the Church, all these designations convey the secondary meaning of “restoration to a higher state of perfection destroyed by sin.” The direct and proximate sense, however, is that a second being, higher and more godlike, is added to the purely natural, and that the creature who receives it is brought back to that perfect likeness to God which it possessed at the beginning. The renovation (ἀνακαίνωσις) of the soul by grace has an analogon in the renovation of heaven and earth at the end of time (2 Pet. 3:13 sqq.), so much the more as this renovation, according to Rom. 8:19, is but a consequence and a reflection of the glory of the children of God to be made manifest at the end of time.
2. The gift of grace is often described by the Greek Fathers as τελείωσις—that is, final perfection pure and simple. The creature endowed with grace has a perfection beyond all the requirements of its nature, and, as this “superabundant” perfection implies the possession of the Highest Good, it is final. By it the image of God, formless and lifeless in natural man, acquires a specific likeness to its Divine prototype.
3. To answer to the notion of a second birth and second creation, grace must introduce into nature a “new nature,” or principle of activity. This need not be a substantial principle, like the human soul, but it must be equivalent to a substantial principle in its effects. Grace fulfils this condition by making the sanctified participate in the Divine Nature. Hence the complement and final perfection given by grace, consists in the “supernature” with which grace endows the soul. Nature and supernature are organically bound into one whole: together they constitute a complete nature of a higher order, after the manner of body and soul, plant and graft, viz. the nature of sons of God. Sin, being inconsistent with grace, is really the “death of the soul,” driving out, as it does, the supernatural principle of its higher life.
4. Grace also gives to the soul a higher order of life, viz. a godlike life. The excellence of the Divine Life in the Holy Ghost, and through Him communicated to the creature, consists in the purest spirituality and sanctity; hence grace manifests its Divine character as principle of supernatural life in enabling nature to lead a spiritual and holy life of a supernatural order. From this point of view, grace is always conceived in connection with the Holy Ghost, Whose breath or emanation it is, and the life it inspires is called “spiritual” life. The spirituality and holiness of grace, as contrasted with the inferior spirituality and holiness to which unendowed nature can attain, manifest themselves in many ways. Nature can be the principle and the subject of both a holy and an unholy life, of virtuous actions as well as of error and sin. Grace, on the contrary, being the pure radiance of God’s truth and goodness, remains pure and holy whatever may happen in the soul where it resides, just as the light of the sun does not lose its purity by contact with unclean things. Grace cannot, like nature, exist side by side with sin; God withdraws it as soon as the creature turns away from Him as the highest Truth and Goodness. This quality of grace is seen best in the state of glory, when it excludes not only sin but even the possibility of sinning. The text “Every one that is born of God committeth not sin; for His seed abideth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1 John 3:9), is commonly understood to refer to the incompatibility of sin and grace: it is impossible to be at the same time a child of God and a sinner.
II. The elevating influence of grace must specially affect free will. Not only must it strengthen natural liberty, but raise it to a supernatural order, and transform it into the “freedom of the children of God,” the freedom of the Spirit or of grace. This freedom consists in a power given to the created will of moving in a higher sphere—that is, of aiming at supernatural objects, and of producing supernatural works. In this sphere, the creature ceases to be the servant of God; it is His child, it loves and serves Him as a child, and enjoys the rights and privileges of a child. The Greek Fathers love to contrast the perfect and holy liberty of the sons of God with the servitude proper to the creature as such. The Latin Fathers, on the other hand, look upon it as the perfect liberty of original man in opposition to liberty impaired by sin. All, however, agree in including in the perfect freedom of the sons of God the freedom from sin and misery, or “from the servitude of corruption” (Rom. 8:21), in as far as these imperfections are an obstacle to the attainment of perfect beatitude, and especially to the exercise of free will. In this sense the Schoolmen describe freedom in the order of grace as “freedom from all evil”—that is, power to avoid or to overcome all evil, and freedom for all good—that is, power to perform works supernaturally good, and to attain a supernatural end.
III. The infusion of grace does not destroy the substance and the natural perfections of the soul; neither does it remove the soul’s natural imperfections, at least not until the state of glory is reached. The possibility of error and of sin exists side by side with grace, because the proper effect of grace is but to give higher possibilities to the soul. It is, however, clear that, thanks to these higher powers, error and sin are avoided with less difficulty. As sin is still possible, whereas the coexistence of sin and grace is impossible, it follows that grace can be lost, although intended by God to be everlasting. Again, as grace cannot exist without existing in a subject, it further follows that grace is destructible and perishable. The sinner who causes its destruction commits an assault on the living temple of God.
Seção 50% da obra, de A Manual of Catholic Theology (Wilhelm & Scannell, sobre a Dogmatik de Scheeben). Ver o original.