Sect. 223Acts Preparatory to JustificationActs Preparatory to Justification
I. The early Reformers denied the necessity of any disposition on the part of the adult to fit him for the reception of habitual grace. To them the enslaved will is but a lifeless instrument in the hands of God. Faith they require, not as a disposing or preparing act, but as the instrument, or the hand, by which man seizes upon justification. Luther even went so far as to assert the sinfulness of acts intended by man to fit him for the reception of grace. He, as well as Calvin, held that such acts interfered with the essential gratuity of God’s gifts. Against these errors the Council of Trent defined that “they who through sin were turned away from God, through His awakening (excitantem) and helping grace, are disposed to turn themselves to their own justification by freely assenting to and co-operating with that same grace” (sess. vi. chap. 5). “If any one saith that the impious is justified by faith alone, meaning that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to obtain the grace of justification, and that he (the impious, or sinner) need in no way be prepared and disposed by the action (motu) of his own will, let him be anathema” (ibid., can. 9).
II. Free will is the chief faculty to be influenced in the process of justification. But God, acting with or upon His creatures either in the natural or the supernatural order, always acts in harmony with the laws of their nature. A Divine action out of harmony with these laws could only be useless or hurtful. Hence, when God draws unto Him the free will of man, He draws it by its own free motions (§§ 148, 149).
1. Whenever Scripture holds out justification to man, it requires of him some personal acts as a preparation: “But if the wicked do penance for all his sins … and keep all My commandments, and do justice and judgment, living he shall live and shall not die” (Ezech. 18:21). “Behold, I stand at the gate and knock. If any man shall hear My voice, and open to Me the door, I will come in to him” (Apoc. 3:20). “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16), etc.
2. The tradition of the Church on this point is summed up in the words of St. Augustine: “He Who made thee without thee, does not justify thee without thee” (Serm. 15. 13, De Verb. Apost.).
III. Infants are justified by simple “information” of the soul: grace reaches them, in harmony with their undeveloped nature, without their co-operation, by the virtue of Baptism. The same is true of the insane, who have never had the use of their free will. Such as have lost their freedom profit by the sacraments only if, before the loss, they desired to receive them.
The rule that God acts on free will without diminishing its freedom affords a criterion for testing His influence on persons in the state of ecstasy or hypnotic trance. Whenever the liberty of the subject is suspended, the finger of God is not there.
I. The early Reformers denied the necessity of any disposition on the part of the adult to fit him for the reception of habitual grace. To them the enslaved will is but a lifeless instrument in the hands of God. Faith they require, not as a disposing or preparing act, but as the instrument, or the hand, by which man seizes upon justification. Luther even went so far as to assert the sinfulness of acts intended by man to fit him for the reception of grace. He, as well as Calvin, held that such acts interfered with the essential gratuity of God’s gifts. Against these errors the Council of Trent defined that “they who through sin were turned away from God, through His awakening (excitantem) and helping grace, are disposed to turn themselves to their own justification by freely assenting to and co-operating with that same grace” (sess. vi. chap. 5). “If any one saith that the impious is justified by faith alone, meaning that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to obtain the grace of justification, and that he (the impious, or sinner) need in no way be prepared and disposed by the action (motu) of his own will, let him be anathema” (ibid., can. 9).
II. Free will is the chief faculty to be influenced in the process of justification. But God, acting with or upon His creatures either in the natural or the supernatural order, always acts in harmony with the laws of their nature. A Divine action out of harmony with these laws could only be useless or hurtful. Hence, when God draws unto Him the free will of man, He draws it by its own free motions (§§ 148, 149).
1. Whenever Scripture holds out justification to man, it requires of him some personal acts as a preparation: “But if the wicked do penance for all his sins … and keep all My commandments, and do justice and judgment, living he shall live and shall not die” (Ezech. 18:21). “Behold, I stand at the gate and knock. If any man shall hear My voice, and open to Me the door, I will come in to him” (Apoc. 3:20). “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16), etc.
2. The tradition of the Church on this point is summed up in the words of St. Augustine: “He Who made thee without thee, does not justify thee without thee” (Serm. 15. 13, De Verb. Apost.).
III. Infants are justified by simple “information” of the soul: grace reaches them, in harmony with their undeveloped nature, without their co-operation, by the virtue of Baptism. The same is true of the insane, who have never had the use of their free will. Such as have lost their freedom profit by the sacraments only if, before the loss, they desired to receive them.
The rule that God acts on free will without diminishing its freedom affords a criterion for testing His influence on persons in the state of ecstasy or hypnotic trance. Whenever the liberty of the subject is suspended, the finger of God is not there.
Seção 76% da obra, de A Manual of Catholic Theology (Wilhelm & Scannell, sobre a Dogmatik de Scheeben). Ver o original.