Sect. 150Nature’s Vocation to Grace by a Law of the CreatorNature’s Vocation to Grace by a Law of the Creator
I. It is a fundamental truth of Christianity that the vocation to grace and supernatural life is given as a strict commandment to every intellectual creature from the very beginning of its existence. It is, therefore, equivalent to a law of nature, strictly binding and universal in its application, although not essential to created nature. St. Augustine calls it a natural law, because it is based upon the essential dependence of the creature on the Creator, by reason of which the Creator is free to destine His creatures to any end He pleases.
Contempt or transgression of this law, or even indifference to it, is a violation of natural law proper, because natural law binds creatures not only to carry out the Divine ordinances founded on their essence, but also to accept from the Creator their ultimate destiny. Resisting the Divine vocation to grace is, then, a sin against nature and against God, the Author of nature. And it is a grievous sin because it deprives nature of its highest good and frustrates its ideal perfection; it is a deep ingratitude to God and an attack upon God’s dominion over His creatures; and, lastly, it prevents the carrying out of a whole system of commandments, nay, it perverts the whole order of divinely instituted worship.
The binding power, the universality and origin of the vocation to grace are implied in the whole teaching of the Church, especially in the dogmas of Original Sin and Redemption. Christ compares the kingdom of heaven to a wedding feast, and declares that the invited guests deserve great punishment simply for not accepting the invitation (Matt. 22), and He orders the Gospel to be preached to all creatures, threatening with condemnation those who refuse to believe (Mark 16:15).
II. If, as a matter of fact, all rational creatures are called to a supernatural end, it follows that their natural end, viz. happiness by the fulfilment of their natural aspirations by natural means, is no longer attainable as a distinct, separate end. Hence God is not bound to grant natural happiness to any one who, through his own fault, fails to attain supernatural happiness. There are not now two eternal lives, one of the natural, the other of the supernatural order; the former can only be attained in the latter. All moral actions must therefore be directed towards the supernatural end, and all actions not so directed have no eternal, but only a temporal, value. Again, the Divine institutions in the order of nature, such as society and matrimony, are, in the Divine plan, subordinate to the supernatural destination of things; and the gifts and helps given by God to creatures in connection with their natural end, are really given towards the supernatural end, and are made dependent on the creatures’ striving after it. Hence those who, through their fault, despise their supernatural vocation, have no hope of any true temporal felicity.
The final state of children who die unbaptized, and therefore in original sin, is certainly not the supernatural happiness to which they were destined; nor is it exactly that state of natural felicity to which man would have had a natural title had he not been called to a higher state.
III. A further consequence of the call to grace is that all moral actions of creatures are valued according to the supernatural standard. In general, the measure of the goodness or righteousness of moral actions is their conformity with the will of God, or their proportion with the final perfection of their authors. But it is God’s will that all rational creatures should attain supernatural final perfection. Hence, only those actions are simply and truly good and just and pleasing to God by which we serve Him as He desires to be served in the order of grace. The difference between natural and supernatural actions is an essential one, affecting their very goodness and righteousness. The latter alone fulfil the Divine Law as God wishes it to be fulfilled, and are, therefore, alone good and right, purely and simply. Actions which are only naturally good are not what they ought to be in the existing order, and, so far, may be called bad or defective. St. Augustine describes them as “a running along outside the right road” (cursus præter viam), which implies on the one hand that they are defective, and on the other that they are not positively a turning away from God. He also calls them “bad actions and sins (peccata),” on the principle that what is not completely and entirely good is bad (Bonum ex integrâ causâ, malum ex quocunque defectu).
IV. Since supernatural actions are alone good, purely and simply, in the sense described, à fortiori nature is good, right, and pleasing to God only when adorned with supernatural sanctity, and thus brought into harmony with its supernatural end. Nature deprived of grace by sin is not merely less pleasing to God, less good, and less just, but it is bad, wrong, and displeasing to God; it is a bad tree which cannot bring forth good fruit. Sanctifying grace is an essential element, or rather the substance, of that goodness and righteousness without which nature itself cannot be called good and right; it is necessary to the completness (integritas) of the justice demanded of nature.
V. Nature, then, is so bound up with grace that it only exists for grace, and is entirely subordinate to it. God created it only as a basis for and an organ of supernatural life. Nature, therefore, does not belong to the creature, nor is it some common, ordinary property of God; it is a specially reserved and appropriated Divine possession, the sanctuary of His own Spirit, on Whom its whole life and being depend in the same manner as the life and being of the body depend on the soul. Hence the creature is bound to acknowledge and to honour this proprietary right of the Holy Ghost, and to submit its whole internal and external, individual and social life to the Holy Ghost and to the law of His grace (cf. 1 Cor. 6:19)
VI. The conjunction or marriage of nature and grace appears in its full light in the unity of nature and grace which existed in the idea of the Creator and was realized in the creation of man and angels. The Fathers look upon grace as an integral part of a created rational being; and, conversely, they look upon nature as intended by God to be endowed by grace: nature and grace are parts of one organic whole. The Greek Fathers, following St. Irenæus, derive their notion from Gen. 1:26, “Let Us make man to Our image and likeness,” which they take to mean that “image” expresses the natural relation and “likeness,” the supernatural relation of man to God. They consider the “breathing in” of the living soul (Gen. 2:7) to be the infusion of grace, so that the soul and the Holy Ghost were given at the same time. Although St. Augustine disputes this interpretation, he nevertheless admits the doctrine of the Greek Fathers. If possible, he even lays more stress on it when he reckons grace as an integral element of nature as by God constituted.
I. It is a fundamental truth of Christianity that the vocation to grace and supernatural life is given as a strict commandment to every intellectual creature from the very beginning of its existence. It is, therefore, equivalent to a law of nature, strictly binding and universal in its application, although not essential to created nature. St. Augustine calls it a natural law, because it is based upon the essential dependence of the creature on the Creator, by reason of which the Creator is free to destine His creatures to any end He pleases.
Contempt or transgression of this law, or even indifference to it, is a violation of natural law proper, because natural law binds creatures not only to carry out the Divine ordinances founded on their essence, but also to accept from the Creator their ultimate destiny. Resisting the Divine vocation to grace is, then, a sin against nature and against God, the Author of nature. And it is a grievous sin because it deprives nature of its highest good and frustrates its ideal perfection; it is a deep ingratitude to God and an attack upon God’s dominion over His creatures; and, lastly, it prevents the carrying out of a whole system of commandments, nay, it perverts the whole order of divinely instituted worship.
The binding power, the universality and origin of the vocation to grace are implied in the whole teaching of the Church, especially in the dogmas of Original Sin and Redemption. Christ compares the kingdom of heaven to a wedding feast, and declares that the invited guests deserve great punishment simply for not accepting the invitation (Matt. 22), and He orders the Gospel to be preached to all creatures, threatening with condemnation those who refuse to believe (Mark 16:15).
II. If, as a matter of fact, all rational creatures are called to a supernatural end, it follows that their natural end, viz. happiness by the fulfilment of their natural aspirations by natural means, is no longer attainable as a distinct, separate end. Hence God is not bound to grant natural happiness to any one who, through his own fault, fails to attain supernatural happiness. There are not now two eternal lives, one of the natural, the other of the supernatural order; the former can only be attained in the latter. All moral actions must therefore be directed towards the supernatural end, and all actions not so directed have no eternal, but only a temporal, value. Again, the Divine institutions in the order of nature, such as society and matrimony, are, in the Divine plan, subordinate to the supernatural destination of things; and the gifts and helps given by God to creatures in connection with their natural end, are really given towards the supernatural end, and are made dependent on the creatures’ striving after it. Hence those who, through their fault, despise their supernatural vocation, have no hope of any true temporal felicity.
The final state of children who die unbaptized, and therefore in original sin, is certainly not the supernatural happiness to which they were destined; nor is it exactly that state of natural felicity to which man would have had a natural title had he not been called to a higher state.
III. A further consequence of the call to grace is that all moral actions of creatures are valued according to the supernatural standard. In general, the measure of the goodness or righteousness of moral actions is their conformity with the will of God, or their proportion with the final perfection of their authors. But it is God’s will that all rational creatures should attain supernatural final perfection. Hence, only those actions are simply and truly good and just and pleasing to God by which we serve Him as He desires to be served in the order of grace. The difference between natural and supernatural actions is an essential one, affecting their very goodness and righteousness. The latter alone fulfil the Divine Law as God wishes it to be fulfilled, and are, therefore, alone good and right, purely and simply. Actions which are only naturally good are not what they ought to be in the existing order, and, so far, may be called bad or defective. St. Augustine describes them as “a running along outside the right road” (cursus præter viam), which implies on the one hand that they are defective, and on the other that they are not positively a turning away from God. He also calls them “bad actions and sins (peccata),” on the principle that what is not completely and entirely good is bad (Bonum ex integrâ causâ, malum ex quocunque defectu).
IV. Since supernatural actions are alone good, purely and simply, in the sense described, à fortiori nature is good, right, and pleasing to God only when adorned with supernatural sanctity, and thus brought into harmony with its supernatural end. Nature deprived of grace by sin is not merely less pleasing to God, less good, and less just, but it is bad, wrong, and displeasing to God; it is a bad tree which cannot bring forth good fruit. Sanctifying grace is an essential element, or rather the substance, of that goodness and righteousness without which nature itself cannot be called good and right; it is necessary to the completness (integritas) of the justice demanded of nature.
V. Nature, then, is so bound up with grace that it only exists for grace, and is entirely subordinate to it. God created it only as a basis for and an organ of supernatural life. Nature, therefore, does not belong to the creature, nor is it some common, ordinary property of God; it is a specially reserved and appropriated Divine possession, the sanctuary of His own Spirit, on Whom its whole life and being depend in the same manner as the life and being of the body depend on the soul. Hence the creature is bound to acknowledge and to honour this proprietary right of the Holy Ghost, and to submit its whole internal and external, individual and social life to the Holy Ghost and to the law of His grace (cf. 1 Cor. 6:19)
VI. The conjunction or marriage of nature and grace appears in its full light in the unity of nature and grace which existed in the idea of the Creator and was realized in the creation of man and angels. The Fathers look upon grace as an integral part of a created rational being; and, conversely, they look upon nature as intended by God to be endowed by grace: nature and grace are parts of one organic whole. The Greek Fathers, following St. Irenæus, derive their notion from Gen. 1:26, “Let Us make man to Our image and likeness,” which they take to mean that “image” expresses the natural relation and “likeness,” the supernatural relation of man to God. They consider the “breathing in” of the living soul (Gen. 2:7) to be the infusion of grace, so that the soul and the Holy Ghost were given at the same time. Although St. Augustine disputes this interpretation, he nevertheless admits the doctrine of the Greek Fathers. If possible, he even lays more stress on it when he reckons grace as an integral element of nature as by God constituted.
Seção 51% da obra, de A Manual of Catholic Theology (Wilhelm & Scannell, sobre a Dogmatik de Scheeben). Ver o original.