Sect. 227Meritoriousness of the Good Works of the JustifiedMeritoriousness of the Good Works of the Justified
In the kingdom of God on earth the children of God lead that supernatural life which is to terminate in the Beatific Vision. The same Divine Spirit worketh in all, but to every one He divideth His gifts according to His will and to the measure of their receptivity. With Him the justified freely co-operate, and thus works are performed meritorious of eternal life. We have now to inquire into the nature of merit, and to prove the existence of meritorious works.
I. An act is said to be “worthy of praise or of blame” when it comes of free will; “right or wrong” when viewed in connection with its object; “meritorious or demeritorious” in connection with the reward which it deserves. Hence the notion of merit implies a quality of the work by virtue of which some retribution is connected with it; and a meritorious work may be defined as “a work done in the service of another person, and entitled to a retribution of some kind.” If the quality of the work done claims a reward as a matter of strict justice, its merit is termed de condigno; if it only claims a reward as a matter of liberality or fittingness, its merit is de congruo. The soldier who has fought well in battle merits his pay de condigno, and a decoration de congruo.
1. In order to be meritorious, an act must be (a) free, (b) good, (c) supernatural.
(a) We constantly and necessarily associate the notion of meritoriousness with that of freedom: no man is deemed worthy of reward or punishment for acts which he does not perform “knowingly and willingly,” i.e. freely. For only free acts are properly human or man’s own, and these only can he hold out for reward or have imputed to him for punishment.
(b) That only “good actions” can be meritorious is self-evident. To be good, an act must have a good object and a good subject-matter, and must not be vitiated by bad circumstances, according to the axiom: Bonum ex integra causa, malum ex quocunque defectu. To make a good action bad, adverse circumstances must change either its object or its subject-matter; if they are merely concomitant, as e.g., involuntary distractions in prayer, the action remains good, though in a less degree.
(c) Works which aim at a supernatural retribution must belong to the supernatural order; that is, they must be vital acts of the life of grace (cf. § 143).
2. To be able to perform meritorious works, a person must be (a) in the “wayfaring state” (status viæ), that is, here on earth; and (b) to merit de condigno, he must be in the state of grace.
(a) The present, or wayfaring state, is a state of imperfect participation in the Divine Life. “While we are in the body we are absent from the Lord,” ἐνδημοῦντες ἐν τῷ σώματι, ἐκδημοῦμεν ἀπὸ τοῦ Κυρίου (2 Cor. 5:6); whereas in the final state (status termini) the participation perfectly fills the measure of happiness of which each saint is capable. Hence, in the final state merit has no object, and therefore no existence. But to the present state, longing and working for more perfections are natural. The wayfaring state ends with life on earth. Such is the now universal sense of the Church, founded upon Scripture (Ecclus. 14:17; 11, 3; and John 9:4).
(b) A claim in strict justice requires a due proportion between act and reward, and therefore in the agent, as well as in the act, a supernatural dignity is required. The propositions in which Baius denies this were condemned by the Holy See (propp. 12, 13, 17, 18). “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me” (John 15:4). But we abide in Christ by grace. St. Paul argues (Rom. 8:16, 17), “… We are the sons of God, and if sons, heirs also,” thus resting our claim to eternal life on our adoptive sonship, or grace.
3. God must be willing to accept the work as meritorious.
Even from other men we cannot in strict justice claim a reward for services done, unless they have expressly or by implication agreed to remunerate them. So Christ’s saving work owes its sufficiency to God’s acceptation (§ 206, ii.). We cannot benefit God by our service, for our very existence, with all its modes and modifications, is His gift. “We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which we ought to do” (Luke 17:10). In the matter of merit, God is bound to us by His own promises and decrees, which He keeps as faithfully as the laws which He has made for the natural order of the universe.
II. The notion of the total depravity of human nature after the Fall, led the Reformers into many errors concerning good works. With the negation of free will in man Luther removed an essential element of meritorious works; he was driven to ascribe to God alone all the good done in us, and to God working through or with us all our evil deeds. His more moderate followers allow some freedom to the will after the reception of grace. Again, if nature is totally depraved, if the motives and promptings of concupiscence are sins, and if it is impossible to fulfil the law of charity, it follows that no work good in itself can proceed from man—that there is in him no righteousness, and much less any merit before God.
The Reformers’ startling innovations were condemned by the Council of Trent. If any one say “that the Divine commands are impossible of observance, even to man justified and established in grace (can. 18); that in the Gospel nothing is commanded except faith; that all the rest is indifferent, neither commanded nor prohibited, but free; or that the ten commandments do not bind Christians (can. 19); that Christ Jesus was given by God to man as a Redeemer to be trusted, and not also as a Legislator to be obeyed (can. 21); that the justice once received is not preserved, and also increased before God through good works, but that the said good works are only signs of justification obtained, and not causes of its increase (can. 24); that in every good work the just man sins at least venially, or what is more intolerable, mortally, and therefore deserves eternal punishment, and that for this only he is not damned, because God does not impute his sins to damnation (can. 25); that the just, in return for the good works they may have done in God, ought not to expect or to hope for an eternal retribution from God, through His mercy and the merits of Christ, if living well and keeping the Divine commands they persevere to the end (can. 21); that the just sins when he does good in view of an eternal reward (can. 31); that the good works of the justified are the gifts of God in such a way that they are not also the good merits of the just, or that the just by the good works he does through the grace of God and the merits of Christ, whose living member he is, does not truly merit an increase of grace, life everlasting, and, if he die in grace, the possession of life everlasting, and an increase of glory (can. 32), let him be anathema!”
These various definitions may be brought under three heads: Good works are (1) possible; (2) necessary; (3) meritorious of increased grace and of life everlasting.
1. We need not tarry to prove the possibility of good works in the justified. All the conditions required to make a human action good and meritorious before God are present in works done by grace. Besides, God, Who does not command the impossible, commands good works, as will be fully shown below.
2. Motion, exercise, or action is of the very essence of life. Rest means death, and unsuitable motion means disease. The supernatural life, on earth as well as in heaven, must be as active as the natural, under pain of extinction. Evolution or gradual progress is equally essential to life: the life-sap of the tree evolves into leaves, flowers, and fruit; the soul of man gradually builds up his body, and developes by successive stages all his faculties. In like manner the justified man expands the life received in baptism into faith, hope, charity, and the moral virtues into the works of spiritual and corporal mercies. Without these works faith is dead, man is an unprofitable servant who buries the talent entrusted to him, and at last is cast into exterior darkness with the curse of the Judge upon him: “Depart from Me into everlasting fire … for I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat.… (Matt. 25 passim; cf. Matt. 7:21; 19:17; Apoc. 2:4, 5; 1 Cor. 9:24, 26, 27; Rom. 2:6, 8, 9, etc.). These texts tell us in plain terms that though we may have faith in Jesus Christ, and continually have the Lord Jesus in our mouth, there is no salvation, no kingdom of heaven for us unless we do the will of God and keep His commandments, and keep the works of Christ unto the end (Apoc. 3:5); unless we bring forth worthy fruits of penance; unless we strive in good earnest, like men running or fighting for the prize; and thus, like St. Paul, chastise our bodies and bring them into subjection. For it is only the doers of the law that are justified; and on the day of Judgment Christ will assign no other reason for the condemnation of the reprobate than that they have neglected good works.
3. The meritoriousness of good works is a consequence of their necessity. Life naturally produces vital acts; these naturally add to the perfection of life. Make your intellect, your will, your memory, or your hand do “good work,” and the good work done will add power to these faculties. In the same way the supernatural work of the soul is its own reward in the form of increased supernatural life. For the elevation of our nature to higher life does not alter the laws of its working: it only ennobles them. Faith, hope, and charity are but ennobled knowledge, trust, and love; whether they move on the natural or on the supernatural plane, they gather momentum in moving. There is only one difference—if difference it is: in the natural order the momentum or increase of vital force arises from the essence of things fixed by God from the beginning; in the supernatural order the merit arises from the co-operation of the human with the Divine will. This, however, rather discriminates the two orders than the law of their working. We are, then, entitled to conclude that the practice of the life of grace naturally tends to the increase of grace, and ultimately to the crowning grace, which is the participation in the Divine Life through the Beatific Vision. Does this natural tendency establish a claim in strict justice, is it merit de condigno? Yes, because God owes to Himself the preservation of an order founded upon His gracious promises, even more than the preservation of the natural order founded upon His creatorial decrees.
“Godliness is profitable to all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come” (1 Tim. 4:8). “For that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh for us as above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:17). “Sell what you possess and give alms; make to yourself bags which grow not old, a treasure in heaven which faileth not” (Luke 12:33; cf. 14:9; and 14:13, 14). “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Apoc. 2:10; cf. ibid. 3:5 and 21). “Labour the more that by good works you may make sure your calling and election” (2 Pet. 1:10). “Therefore let us consider one another to provoke to charity and good works. For patience is necessary for you, that, doing the will of God, you may receive the promise: for He is faithful that hath promised” (Heb. 10:23, 24, 36). “And God is not unjust that He should forget your work” (Heb. 4:10).
III. The above-cited passages, and a hundred more quite as explicit, are met with the objections: (1) that eternal life is our inheritance; (2) that it is a grace or free gift; (3) that when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants (Luke 17:10); and (4) that the merit of good works is derogatory to the merit of Christ.
1. Eternal life is indeed the inheritance of the Adopted Sons, but it is also their reward. We enter into it not by the right of natural filiation, but by the right and on the terms of our adoption. These terms, or conditions, are contained in the same title-deed which also contains the deed of our adoption: “You shall receive the reward of inheritance (τὴν ἀνταπόδοσιν τῆς κληρονομίας). Serve ye the Lord Jesus Christ” (Col. 3:24).
2. Eternal life is a grace and the crown of all graces. Therefore it is the “natural term,” that is, the term “according to the nature of things,” of the life of grace on earth. As the exercise of our natural powers works out and merits temporal happiness, so the exercise of our supernatural powers works out and merits eternal beatitude. “When God crowns our merits, He but crowns His own gifts” (St. Augustine, Ep., cxciv. 19). In short, the fact that eternal life is a grace, only proves that grace is necessary to merit it, but not that it cannot be merited at all.
3. Those who quote Luke 17:7, against the Catholic doctrine, forget that Christ promises to do the very thing which the master in the parable does not do: “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching. Amen, I say to you: He will gird Himself and make them sit down to meat, and passing will minister unto them” (Luke 12:37).
4. There is something comical, perhaps tragical, in the way the Reformers stand up for the merits of Christ, as if these were endangered or interfered with by our doctrine on the merit of good works and the intercession of the saints. We hold fast that Christ is the vine of which we are the branches: is it derogatory to the vine if the branch bears good and valuable fruit? Not only do we highly value the merits of Christ, but we also recognize in them the property of overflowing into us, and of elevating us to the dignity of adoptive sons. We do not insist upon the necessity of good works as if Christ’s merits were insufficient to save us. On the contrary, we consider His merits so excellent and so efficacious, that they merited for us both eternal life and the power of working up to it from the first moment of our justification (cf. Einig, De Gratia, Pars. III.).
In the kingdom of God on earth the children of God lead that supernatural life which is to terminate in the Beatific Vision. The same Divine Spirit worketh in all, but to every one He divideth His gifts according to His will and to the measure of their receptivity. With Him the justified freely co-operate, and thus works are performed meritorious of eternal life. We have now to inquire into the nature of merit, and to prove the existence of meritorious works.
I. An act is said to be “worthy of praise or of blame” when it comes of free will; “right or wrong” when viewed in connection with its object; “meritorious or demeritorious” in connection with the reward which it deserves. Hence the notion of merit implies a quality of the work by virtue of which some retribution is connected with it; and a meritorious work may be defined as “a work done in the service of another person, and entitled to a retribution of some kind.” If the quality of the work done claims a reward as a matter of strict justice, its merit is termed de condigno; if it only claims a reward as a matter of liberality or fittingness, its merit is de congruo. The soldier who has fought well in battle merits his pay de condigno, and a decoration de congruo.
1. In order to be meritorious, an act must be (a) free, (b) good, (c) supernatural.
(a) We constantly and necessarily associate the notion of meritoriousness with that of freedom: no man is deemed worthy of reward or punishment for acts which he does not perform “knowingly and willingly,” i.e. freely. For only free acts are properly human or man’s own, and these only can he hold out for reward or have imputed to him for punishment.
(b) That only “good actions” can be meritorious is self-evident. To be good, an act must have a good object and a good subject-matter, and must not be vitiated by bad circumstances, according to the axiom: Bonum ex integra causa, malum ex quocunque defectu. To make a good action bad, adverse circumstances must change either its object or its subject-matter; if they are merely concomitant, as e.g., involuntary distractions in prayer, the action remains good, though in a less degree.
(c) Works which aim at a supernatural retribution must belong to the supernatural order; that is, they must be vital acts of the life of grace (cf. § 143).
2. To be able to perform meritorious works, a person must be (a) in the “wayfaring state” (status viæ), that is, here on earth; and (b) to merit de condigno, he must be in the state of grace.
(a) The present, or wayfaring state, is a state of imperfect participation in the Divine Life. “While we are in the body we are absent from the Lord,” ἐνδημοῦντες ἐν τῷ σώματι, ἐκδημοῦμεν ἀπὸ τοῦ Κυρίου (2 Cor. 5:6); whereas in the final state (status termini) the participation perfectly fills the measure of happiness of which each saint is capable. Hence, in the final state merit has no object, and therefore no existence. But to the present state, longing and working for more perfections are natural. The wayfaring state ends with life on earth. Such is the now universal sense of the Church, founded upon Scripture (Ecclus. 14:17; 11, 3; and John 9:4).
(b) A claim in strict justice requires a due proportion between act and reward, and therefore in the agent, as well as in the act, a supernatural dignity is required. The propositions in which Baius denies this were condemned by the Holy See (propp. 12, 13, 17, 18). “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me” (John 15:4). But we abide in Christ by grace. St. Paul argues (Rom. 8:16, 17), “… We are the sons of God, and if sons, heirs also,” thus resting our claim to eternal life on our adoptive sonship, or grace.
3. God must be willing to accept the work as meritorious.
Even from other men we cannot in strict justice claim a reward for services done, unless they have expressly or by implication agreed to remunerate them. So Christ’s saving work owes its sufficiency to God’s acceptation (§ 206, ii.). We cannot benefit God by our service, for our very existence, with all its modes and modifications, is His gift. “We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which we ought to do” (Luke 17:10). In the matter of merit, God is bound to us by His own promises and decrees, which He keeps as faithfully as the laws which He has made for the natural order of the universe.
II. The notion of the total depravity of human nature after the Fall, led the Reformers into many errors concerning good works. With the negation of free will in man Luther removed an essential element of meritorious works; he was driven to ascribe to God alone all the good done in us, and to God working through or with us all our evil deeds. His more moderate followers allow some freedom to the will after the reception of grace. Again, if nature is totally depraved, if the motives and promptings of concupiscence are sins, and if it is impossible to fulfil the law of charity, it follows that no work good in itself can proceed from man—that there is in him no righteousness, and much less any merit before God.
The Reformers’ startling innovations were condemned by the Council of Trent. If any one say “that the Divine commands are impossible of observance, even to man justified and established in grace (can. 18); that in the Gospel nothing is commanded except faith; that all the rest is indifferent, neither commanded nor prohibited, but free; or that the ten commandments do not bind Christians (can. 19); that Christ Jesus was given by God to man as a Redeemer to be trusted, and not also as a Legislator to be obeyed (can. 21); that the justice once received is not preserved, and also increased before God through good works, but that the said good works are only signs of justification obtained, and not causes of its increase (can. 24); that in every good work the just man sins at least venially, or what is more intolerable, mortally, and therefore deserves eternal punishment, and that for this only he is not damned, because God does not impute his sins to damnation (can. 25); that the just, in return for the good works they may have done in God, ought not to expect or to hope for an eternal retribution from God, through His mercy and the merits of Christ, if living well and keeping the Divine commands they persevere to the end (can. 21); that the just sins when he does good in view of an eternal reward (can. 31); that the good works of the justified are the gifts of God in such a way that they are not also the good merits of the just, or that the just by the good works he does through the grace of God and the merits of Christ, whose living member he is, does not truly merit an increase of grace, life everlasting, and, if he die in grace, the possession of life everlasting, and an increase of glory (can. 32), let him be anathema!”
These various definitions may be brought under three heads: Good works are (1) possible; (2) necessary; (3) meritorious of increased grace and of life everlasting.
1. We need not tarry to prove the possibility of good works in the justified. All the conditions required to make a human action good and meritorious before God are present in works done by grace. Besides, God, Who does not command the impossible, commands good works, as will be fully shown below.
2. Motion, exercise, or action is of the very essence of life. Rest means death, and unsuitable motion means disease. The supernatural life, on earth as well as in heaven, must be as active as the natural, under pain of extinction. Evolution or gradual progress is equally essential to life: the life-sap of the tree evolves into leaves, flowers, and fruit; the soul of man gradually builds up his body, and developes by successive stages all his faculties. In like manner the justified man expands the life received in baptism into faith, hope, charity, and the moral virtues into the works of spiritual and corporal mercies. Without these works faith is dead, man is an unprofitable servant who buries the talent entrusted to him, and at last is cast into exterior darkness with the curse of the Judge upon him: “Depart from Me into everlasting fire … for I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat.… (Matt. 25 passim; cf. Matt. 7:21; 19:17; Apoc. 2:4, 5; 1 Cor. 9:24, 26, 27; Rom. 2:6, 8, 9, etc.). These texts tell us in plain terms that though we may have faith in Jesus Christ, and continually have the Lord Jesus in our mouth, there is no salvation, no kingdom of heaven for us unless we do the will of God and keep His commandments, and keep the works of Christ unto the end (Apoc. 3:5); unless we bring forth worthy fruits of penance; unless we strive in good earnest, like men running or fighting for the prize; and thus, like St. Paul, chastise our bodies and bring them into subjection. For it is only the doers of the law that are justified; and on the day of Judgment Christ will assign no other reason for the condemnation of the reprobate than that they have neglected good works.
3. The meritoriousness of good works is a consequence of their necessity. Life naturally produces vital acts; these naturally add to the perfection of life. Make your intellect, your will, your memory, or your hand do “good work,” and the good work done will add power to these faculties. In the same way the supernatural work of the soul is its own reward in the form of increased supernatural life. For the elevation of our nature to higher life does not alter the laws of its working: it only ennobles them. Faith, hope, and charity are but ennobled knowledge, trust, and love; whether they move on the natural or on the supernatural plane, they gather momentum in moving. There is only one difference—if difference it is: in the natural order the momentum or increase of vital force arises from the essence of things fixed by God from the beginning; in the supernatural order the merit arises from the co-operation of the human with the Divine will. This, however, rather discriminates the two orders than the law of their working. We are, then, entitled to conclude that the practice of the life of grace naturally tends to the increase of grace, and ultimately to the crowning grace, which is the participation in the Divine Life through the Beatific Vision. Does this natural tendency establish a claim in strict justice, is it merit de condigno? Yes, because God owes to Himself the preservation of an order founded upon His gracious promises, even more than the preservation of the natural order founded upon His creatorial decrees.
“Godliness is profitable to all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come” (1 Tim. 4:8). “For that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh for us as above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:17). “Sell what you possess and give alms; make to yourself bags which grow not old, a treasure in heaven which faileth not” (Luke 12:33; cf. 14:9; and 14:13, 14). “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Apoc. 2:10; cf. ibid. 3:5 and 21). “Labour the more that by good works you may make sure your calling and election” (2 Pet. 1:10). “Therefore let us consider one another to provoke to charity and good works. For patience is necessary for you, that, doing the will of God, you may receive the promise: for He is faithful that hath promised” (Heb. 10:23, 24, 36). “And God is not unjust that He should forget your work” (Heb. 4:10).
III. The above-cited passages, and a hundred more quite as explicit, are met with the objections: (1) that eternal life is our inheritance; (2) that it is a grace or free gift; (3) that when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants (Luke 17:10); and (4) that the merit of good works is derogatory to the merit of Christ.
1. Eternal life is indeed the inheritance of the Adopted Sons, but it is also their reward. We enter into it not by the right of natural filiation, but by the right and on the terms of our adoption. These terms, or conditions, are contained in the same title-deed which also contains the deed of our adoption: “You shall receive the reward of inheritance (τὴν ἀνταπόδοσιν τῆς κληρονομίας). Serve ye the Lord Jesus Christ” (Col. 3:24).
2. Eternal life is a grace and the crown of all graces. Therefore it is the “natural term,” that is, the term “according to the nature of things,” of the life of grace on earth. As the exercise of our natural powers works out and merits temporal happiness, so the exercise of our supernatural powers works out and merits eternal beatitude. “When God crowns our merits, He but crowns His own gifts” (St. Augustine, Ep., cxciv. 19). In short, the fact that eternal life is a grace, only proves that grace is necessary to merit it, but not that it cannot be merited at all.
3. Those who quote Luke 17:7, against the Catholic doctrine, forget that Christ promises to do the very thing which the master in the parable does not do: “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching. Amen, I say to you: He will gird Himself and make them sit down to meat, and passing will minister unto them” (Luke 12:37).
4. There is something comical, perhaps tragical, in the way the Reformers stand up for the merits of Christ, as if these were endangered or interfered with by our doctrine on the merit of good works and the intercession of the saints. We hold fast that Christ is the vine of which we are the branches: is it derogatory to the vine if the branch bears good and valuable fruit? Not only do we highly value the merits of Christ, but we also recognize in them the property of overflowing into us, and of elevating us to the dignity of adoptive sons. We do not insist upon the necessity of good works as if Christ’s merits were insufficient to save us. On the contrary, we consider His merits so excellent and so efficacious, that they merited for us both eternal life and the power of working up to it from the first moment of our justification (cf. Einig, De Gratia, Pars. III.).
Seção 77% da obra, de A Manual of Catholic Theology (Wilhelm & Scannell, sobre a Dogmatik de Scheeben). Ver o original.