Sect. 149Relation of Nature to Grace (Continued)—the Process by Which Nature Is Raised to the State of GraceRelation of Nature to Grace (Continued)—the Process by Which Nature Is Raised to the State of Grace

I. The vocation of the creature to the state of grace, being an entirely free act of God, need not necessarily take place at the time of creation. The vocation itself, its mode, and its time, are all equally in the hand of God. Hence we can conceive the vocation to grace as taking the form of an offer or an invitation from God to the creature; and the reception of grace as a free act of the creature. An analogy to this may be found in an invitation addressed by a prince to a person of lowly rank to become his adoptive child or his bride. In our case, however, the vocation includes a new birth and a new creation, and consequently its acceptance requires something more than an external, objective call, viz. an internal drawing or elevating influence which enables the creature to answer the call in a fitting manner. In other words, the creature’s action is itself the result of a supernatural grace, which receives different names. Viewed as preceding any operation on the part of the creature, it is called “prevenient” grace; as instrument of the Divine call, it is termed “grace of vocation or inspiration.” It is also a “moving grace” (gr. excitans) and a “helping grace.” The part played by free will in the motion to grace may be described as “a supernatural function of natural freedom.”

The Church teaches the possibility and necessity of the creature’s self-motion towards grace, only as regards the grace of justification granted to sinners, in which case the “turning to God” is at the same time “a turning away from sin.” But this implies also the possibility of a turning to God in creatures not guilty of sin. In their case, the conversion is simply a desire to be raised to the high estate of adopted sons. The question, then, arises as to the necessity and importance of the conversion to God for the admission into the state of grace, both on the part of the just and of sinners.

II. The striving of the creature after grace (motus ad gratiam) consists in a free desire of grace and in the willingness to act in accordance with it, accompanied by a firm hope that grace will be given. Faith comes in as leading to the desire and the willingness, and as the foundation of the hope. The motion or striving is perfect in its kind as soon as the willingness extends to the performance of all the acts of supernatural life, including Charity.

The import of the motion towards grace is that it is a disposition and a preparation of the subject for the reception of grace. To the creature’s natural receptivity, which implies merely the possibility of admitting grace, it adds a direct and positive receptivity or aptitude, enabling the creature not only to receive grace passively, but to actively and freely accept it. These acts modify the natural receptivity, inasmuch as they show due respect to grace, and assure its free working in the subject. Although such disposition and preparation are something purely moral, yet they have an analogy with the physical disposition of matter for the reception of its form, especially with the organic disposition of the body for the admission of the soul. The difference is, that the preparation is supernatural. As, according to a law of nature, the soul is regularly infused as soon as the body is fit to receive it, in like manner, according to the supernatural law, grace is regularly infused as soon as the soul is properly disposed.

Further, we must consider the motion towards grace as a conversion to God, since He is the Bestower of grace, of Whom grace is expected as a free gift and as the bond of friendship. In this respect, also, the motion is no more than a disposition and preparation, inasmuch as it is not strictly meritorious. Yet, by reason of prevenient grace and of the call to sanctifying grace implied in it, the motion has all the significance of the dispositions of a person of humble station with regard to the prince who offers to confer on him the dignity of adopted son. Hence it can, to a certain extent, procure the gift of sanctifying grace, and act as a link connecting the creature in friendship with God, so that the gift of grace, on the part of God, may be considered as an acknowledgment and as a return of the friendly dispositions of the creature. Thus, between the aspiration of the creature and the condescension of God, there can exist an intrinsic congruence and correspondence; as Scripture says, “Turn ye unto Me and I will turn unto you” (Zach. 1:3), and “He that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him” (John 14:21). When the conversion to God is perfect—that is, when it includes Charity—the relation is so close that the gift of grace and Divine friendship is infallibly granted on the part of God.

III. The bestowal of grace consequent upon the dispositions of free will seems so completely in harmony with the nature of grace and the nature of man and of angels, that this form recommends itself as the more likely to be adopted by God. As far as the justification of sinners is concerned, it is certain that God does not justify them without their co-operation, according to the axiom, “He Who created thee without thy aid will not justify thee without it.”

From these considerations, most of the Schoolmen have been of opinion that even in the state of innocence a motion of the free will is presumably required before grace is given, so that angels and men before the Fall, and all infants and sinners alike come under the above law. The difficulty that infants are unable to do free acts is met in this way: when infants receive grace through Baptism, the faith and promises of the Church take the place of the free acts of the infants; if the state of original innocence had continued, the children born in it would have received grace by reason of the free acts by which Adam disposed himself to receive it, just as they are now born in sin by reason of his fall. The presumed generality of the law led the Franciscan school of theology to infer that grace was not given to our first parents and to the angels “in the very instant” of their creation. St. Thomas, however, and the greater part of his school do not come to this conclusion. They think it possible that, as the first man and woman and the angels were created with the full use of their free will, they were able to perform the required supernatural act of free motion in the very instant of their creation, and, consequently, at the same moment, to be endowed with grace.

It must, however, be acknowledged that the law in question rests only on presumptions and reasons of fittingness, and is not so certain that on its account the simultaneousness of creation and elevation to grace ought to be denied. Grace and nature were undoubtedly produced at the same time. Moreover, we can give as good reasons against the law as in its favour. For instance, supernatural life must be exercised by a supernatural principle: hence this principle must be possessed before any supernatural activity can take place. Again, nature and supernature constitute one perfect image of the Creator; it is therefore fitting that they should coexist from their first beginning.

The notion that the state of grace is a mystical marriage with God may be upheld by both schools, provided that the consent be taken in the sense required by the nature of this mystical union. Its type is the union of Adam and Eve. God created an individual bride for an individual bridegroom; He decreed their union and obliged the bride to accept it. Hence the creature’s acceptance of grace is an act of conjugal fidelity, and its refusal would be like unto adultery against God, even without any previous acceptance. The proof that grace was given in the act of creation will be given below.