Question One: On the Existence and Essence of Infused Habits and Virtues

St. Thomas, I-II, q. 51, a. 3 and 4; q. 110, a. 2; q. 62, a. 1 and 2; q. 63, a. 2, 3, 4; De Virt., q. 1, a. 9 and 10; q. 5, a. 4.

618. Thesis. Supernatural operative habits are infused into us by God.

It is proved:

1. No one tends and operates perfectly to an end except through a permanent principle of operation, by which he is intrinsically inclined to that operation; whence God not only moves natural things to their acts, but has given to them permanent principles of operating to their end,¹ by which their motions become connatural and easy. Therefore also to our supernatural end (for which God certainly provides no less) He gave us supernatural habitual and permanent principles, so that we might operate and tend perfectly to it;² otherwise we would be moved not connaturally but as if violently.

¹ Remote: form; and proximate: powers.

² He gave the remote principle: habitual grace; and proximate principles: habits and virtues. - The argument is especially valid when the sweet Providence which we know from revelation is considered.

"It is not fitting that God provide less for those whom He loves for having supernatural good than for creatures which He loves for having natural good. But He provides for natural creatures in such a way that He not only moves them to natural acts, but also bestows on them certain forms and powers, which are principles of acts, so that according to themselves they may be inclined to a motion of this kind; and thus the motions by which they are moved by God become connatural and easy to creatures. Much more, therefore, into those whom He moves toward obtaining eternal supernatural good, does He infuse certain forms, or supernatural qualities, according to which they may be moved by Him sweetly and promptly toward obtaining eternal good" (q. 110, a. 2).

2. This is certain, because it is clearly deduced and is the obvious sense of the Council of Trent, sess. 6, although it is not expressly defined: for it says that grace and charity inhere in us (can. 11), and that man is justified through the reception of grace and gifts (c. 7), and receives infused faith, hope, and charity (c. 7); all of which indicate habitual principles, especially because it attributes the same justification to infants (sess. 5, can. 4; sess. 6, c. 2), who are not capable of acts and of motion to act.

3. Whence the Scriptures say that the seed of divine life remains in us (I John III, 9), and describe justification as regeneration; these indicate the concession of a permanent principle.

619. What the essence of infused habits is. - Supernatural beings are not properly in the categories of natural beings, in the same way as God Himself, of whom they are a participation; nevertheless they are reduced to the categories according to a certain analogy, more or less, and thus sanctifying grace, since it is a spiritual and permanent accident, is reduced to quality, as an entitative habit. Similarly supernatural operative principles are reduced to quality, and indeed as operative habits, although they do not have all things in common with them. For they are neither pure habits nor pure powers, but have something of power and something of habit. For:

1. In something they fall short of the account of habit, because they do not give facility for operating in every way: they indeed confer an intrinsic inclination, aptitude, and promptitude toward the good, indeed a greater one than acquired habits, but not an extrinsic one, because they do not remove from us all obstacles to good, as is clear from a converted sinner, who does not experience a facility toward good much greater than before; whence they are not habits properly so called.³

³ "Facility of operating the works of virtues can be from two things, namely, from preceding custom, and infused virtue does not bestow this facility in its beginning; and again from strong inherence in the object of virtue, and this is found in infused virtue immediately in its beginning." St. Thomas, in IV Sent. d. 14, q. 2, a. 2, ad 5. Cf. q. 65, a. 3, ad 2 and De Virt., a. 10, ad 15.

2. But they make man able to operate supernaturally, which habit does not do, and in this therefore they do not agree with habit but rather with operative power.

3. But in all other respects they agree with habits, for a) just like habits, they reside in natural operative powers, which they elevate and with which they operate: for they do not give simply the power to act, but the power to act better and supernaturally; b) man, if they are active, uses them when he wills and in what grade he wills, intensely or remissly, and he can use them only for good; c) they can be increased and corrupted. All these things do not belong to power properly so called. Therefore they have more of the account of habit than of the account of power, and therefore they are customarily called supernatural habits.

620. Supernatural habits and virtues differ from natural ones in many ways:

a) On the part of essence: natural virtues are habits properly so called, whence they do not give power but facility of acting; supernatural virtues give the power of acting supernaturally, but not such facility in every way.

b) On the part of the efficient cause: natural virtues are acquired from the principles of nature and from our acts; supernatural virtues must be infused by God (q. 51, a. 4; q. 63, a. 1).

c) On the part of the nature and end to which they are ordered: by natural virtues man has himself well in order to human things and to natural acts suitable to human nature; by supernatural virtues man has himself well in order to this, that he be an adoptive son of God, destined to eternal life, and in order to this, that he exercise supernatural acts suitable to the divine nature (q. 54, a. 3; q. 63, a. 4).

d) On the part of the formal object: in natural virtues there is good according to the rule and light of human reason, or conformity to the natural end; in supernatural virtues there is good according to the supernatural rule and light of the law divinely revealed (which exceeds human reason), or conformity to the supernatural end. Therefore they are nobler than acquired virtues (q. 63, a. 4).

621. Observation. - By exercising supernatural virtues man will conquer and remove obstacles extrinsic to the habit, and thus will acquire facility in every way and perfect facility toward the good. For acts produced from a supernatural habit can be considered in two ways:

1. as supernatural, or as tending toward something precisely as supernatural, exceeding human nature, and thus they cannot produce habits of the same species, or supernatural habits, which are infused by God alone (n. 639); but

2. supernatural acts, while they tend to the supernatural end or good and object, at the same time tend under some respect to the natural end and to the natural good suitable to reason, both because natural faculties are exercised at the same time, and because supernatural act and good eminently contain and include natural act and natural goodness. But in this way they can produce natural habits of the same species as that object as it is natural and conformable to reason, and by this conquer and remove obstacles opposed to this act and object, in the same way as was said concerning acquired virtue (n. 567). And thus facility in every way is acquired, which nevertheless is not supernatural virtue, as not proportioned to the supernatural end, but is a natural habit: for example, while someone believes God, exercises chastity or justice with a view to eternal life, he also does something conformable to reason. Cf. De Verit. q. 10, a. 10, ad 1; Quodl. VIII, q. 2, a. 2.

Others say that habits are not produced, but only impediments are removed; whence now every difficulty in acting ceases.