Sect. 217Some General NotionsSome General Notions
I. The primary object of the saving grace of Christ is to restore and to foster in man that life of holiness and justice which was lost through original sin, and thereby to enable him to secure his supernatural end, the beatific vision of God. Whatever was essential to holiness of life in Adam, must be restored to us by this saving grace of Christ, lest His Incarnation be in vain. From our fallen state we must be raised to a new, higher, and godlike life; our will, weakened and impaired in the fall, must be healed and strengthened, and receive back its supernatural rectitude. Unlike the human physician, whose skill consists in enabling the existing principle of life to accomplish its natural functions, Christ, the heavenly physician, infuses into the soul a new principle of a new life; He removes sin, heals the wounds inflicted by it, and renovates the interior—that is, the spiritual—man. “Even when we were dead, (God) hath quickened us together in Christ, by Whose grace you are saved, and hath raised us up together, and hath made us sit together in the heavenly places through Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:5–7).
II. The renovation of the “interior man” is not the complete restoration of that state in which God created Adam, but only of a part, viz. supernatural sanctity. Even after the new birth in the “laver of regeneration,” free will remains bent towards the earth and weakened in its power for good. On this infirmity the grace of Christ acts like wholesome medicine on a convalescent; without restoring health altogether and at once, it prevents relapses, and helps the invalid to go through his duties until he reaches his final goal. The power of Christ’s grace is made perfect in this infirmity (2 Cor. 7:9), inasmuch as greater power and efficiency are required to save the weak than the strong. This special power comes to the new-born man through his ingrafting on Christ as a member of His spiritual body, partaking of the life of the Head. The new life is given in the Sacrament of Baptism, the strengthening power is communicated, though in various ways, in Confirmation, Extreme Unction, and Holy Eucharist.
III. Scripture attributes to the Holy Ghost the diffusion or distribution of the graces merited by Christ (Rom. 5:5) The sending of the Holy Ghost was promised by Christ as a fruit of His saving work on earth. The third Person of the Trinity is the principle of our supernatural life, not separately, but conjointly with the Father and the Son, since all external works are common to the three Divine Persons (§ 107). The distribution of grace is specially attributed to the Holy Ghost because He is the Breath of the Divine Love, which Love is the source of all God’s gifts. Again, He is the “vivifying Spirit, proceeding from God,” and thus represents a principle which can be communicated to creatures, and act in them as an immanent principle of higher life. He comes to man as a cloud of light (cf. 1 Cor. 10:2), and as a fountain of water springing up into life everlasting (John 4:14); as the Spirit of Life in the mystical body of Christ, diffusing, from the Head, new life into each member. As the mother is the principle of the life of the child still growing in her womb—or, to use a better analogy, as the spiritual essence of the human soul influences the vital functions of the vegetative life in the body—so does the indwelling Holy Ghost influence man’s spiritual life. As the spiritual essence of the soul supplies its energy to the principle of vegetative life, so the Holy Ghost supplies energy to the principle of man’s sanctified life. viz. to his reason and free will.
IV. Dealing with the saving grace of Christ specifically as the source of the new moral life in man, we consider it chiefly as “actual grace;” differing from “habitual grace” as a passing act differs from an habitual state. This treatment is commonly followed by modern theologians; the Fathers and the Schoolmen, on the contrary, do not emphasize the difference, and frequently speak of habitual and actual grace as of one whole. Controversial reasons account for this discrepancy, which readers of the older theologians should constantly bear in mind.
I. The primary object of the saving grace of Christ is to restore and to foster in man that life of holiness and justice which was lost through original sin, and thereby to enable him to secure his supernatural end, the beatific vision of God. Whatever was essential to holiness of life in Adam, must be restored to us by this saving grace of Christ, lest His Incarnation be in vain. From our fallen state we must be raised to a new, higher, and godlike life; our will, weakened and impaired in the fall, must be healed and strengthened, and receive back its supernatural rectitude. Unlike the human physician, whose skill consists in enabling the existing principle of life to accomplish its natural functions, Christ, the heavenly physician, infuses into the soul a new principle of a new life; He removes sin, heals the wounds inflicted by it, and renovates the interior—that is, the spiritual—man. “Even when we were dead, (God) hath quickened us together in Christ, by Whose grace you are saved, and hath raised us up together, and hath made us sit together in the heavenly places through Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:5–7).
II. The renovation of the “interior man” is not the complete restoration of that state in which God created Adam, but only of a part, viz. supernatural sanctity. Even after the new birth in the “laver of regeneration,” free will remains bent towards the earth and weakened in its power for good. On this infirmity the grace of Christ acts like wholesome medicine on a convalescent; without restoring health altogether and at once, it prevents relapses, and helps the invalid to go through his duties until he reaches his final goal. The power of Christ’s grace is made perfect in this infirmity (2 Cor. 7:9), inasmuch as greater power and efficiency are required to save the weak than the strong. This special power comes to the new-born man through his ingrafting on Christ as a member of His spiritual body, partaking of the life of the Head. The new life is given in the Sacrament of Baptism, the strengthening power is communicated, though in various ways, in Confirmation, Extreme Unction, and Holy Eucharist.
III. Scripture attributes to the Holy Ghost the diffusion or distribution of the graces merited by Christ (Rom. 5:5) The sending of the Holy Ghost was promised by Christ as a fruit of His saving work on earth. The third Person of the Trinity is the principle of our supernatural life, not separately, but conjointly with the Father and the Son, since all external works are common to the three Divine Persons (§ 107). The distribution of grace is specially attributed to the Holy Ghost because He is the Breath of the Divine Love, which Love is the source of all God’s gifts. Again, He is the “vivifying Spirit, proceeding from God,” and thus represents a principle which can be communicated to creatures, and act in them as an immanent principle of higher life. He comes to man as a cloud of light (cf. 1 Cor. 10:2), and as a fountain of water springing up into life everlasting (John 4:14); as the Spirit of Life in the mystical body of Christ, diffusing, from the Head, new life into each member. As the mother is the principle of the life of the child still growing in her womb—or, to use a better analogy, as the spiritual essence of the human soul influences the vital functions of the vegetative life in the body—so does the indwelling Holy Ghost influence man’s spiritual life. As the spiritual essence of the soul supplies its energy to the principle of vegetative life, so the Holy Ghost supplies energy to the principle of man’s sanctified life. viz. to his reason and free will.
IV. Dealing with the saving grace of Christ specifically as the source of the new moral life in man, we consider it chiefly as “actual grace;” differing from “habitual grace” as a passing act differs from an habitual state. This treatment is commonly followed by modern theologians; the Fathers and the Schoolmen, on the contrary, do not emphasize the difference, and frequently speak of habitual and actual grace as of one whole. Controversial reasons account for this discrepancy, which readers of the older theologians should constantly bear in mind.
Seção 74% da obra, de A Manual of Catholic Theology (Wilhelm & Scannell, sobre a Dogmatik de Scheeben). Ver o original.