Third Part: On Habits According to Supernatural Being, or On Infused Virtues

614. Necessity of supernatural habits. - The end to which in fact we are destined consists in participation of the life proper to God, that is, in seeing and loving God in that mode by which He sees and loves Himself. Such an end is absolutely supernatural, and therefore no creature can arrive at it through the principles of its nature. Whence, in order that man may be ordered to it and tend to it by his acts, it is necessary that certain principles or habits be added to human nature, by which he may be elevated above himself, transported to the divine order, and made capable of eliciting divine operations proportioned to the supernatural end. This is done by the gift of habitual divine grace, which is formally sanctifying.

"Acts leading to the end must be proportioned to the end. But no act exceeds the proportion of the active principle; and therefore we see in natural things that no thing can perfect by its operation an effect which exceeds its active power, but only can produce by its operation an effect proportioned to its power. But eternal life is an end exceeding the proportion of human nature,... and therefore man by his natural things cannot produce meritorious works proportioned to eternal life; but for this there is required a higher power, which is the power of grace." I-II, q. 109, a. 5.

615. What supernatural habits are given. - Grace, as Dogmatic Theology hands down, is as it were an entitative habit which perfects the very essence of the soul, which it elevates to the divine order, and renders deiform, that is, similar to the divine nature itself and participating in its life (II Pet. I, 4; I John III, 2); whence it is as it were a new supernatural and divine nature, or a new divine form inserted and communicated to us. Hence it is not a pure ornament of the soul, something merely static, but also a dynamic principle which founds and constitutes a new supernatural life, by which we live to God, live with Christ in God, and Christ lives in us (Rom. VI, 4-11; VIII, 2; John X, 10; II Cor. V, 15-17; Col. III, 3; Gal. II, 20), by which we are inserted into Christ as branches into the vine (John XV, 1-5), by which the seed of God and the beginning of divine life remain in us (I John III, 9), by which we are regenerated and born again from God unto new life (John I, 13; III, 5; Jas. I, 18; Tit. III, 5; I Pet. I, 23; I John III, 9), as sons of God (I John III, 1-3; V, 18; John I, 12; Eph. I, 5; Rom. VIII, 15; Gal. IV, 5-7).

But for life three things are required: a fundamental vital principle, vital operative faculties, and vital acts. Whence in the infusion of habitual grace there are given at the same time:

a) grace itself, which is a new vital principle elevating us to a new grade of intellectual life, which far exceeds rational life and is a participation of the very intellectual life of God; a new principle of new operation, namely, of the intuitive vision of God and of operation preparatory to it;

b) infused virtues which flow from grace: they are as it were new faculties by which the powers naturally implanted are perfected and elevated so that they are able to elicit supernatural acts, deiform acts. For "just as from the essence of the soul flow its powers, which are the principles of works, so also from grace itself virtues flow into the powers of the soul, through which the powers are moved to acts" (q. 110, a. 4, ad 1);

c) supernatural and meritorious vital acts which proceed from the virtues and by which we tend toward the supernatural end and merit to obtain it. But since, in our acts, we are not sufficiently directed toward that end which so surpasses our nature by our own reason, even illuminated by faith, but need the Holy Spirit Himself as guide, who moves us by the instinct and inspiration of actual grace so that, eliciting supernatural acts even in a superhuman mode, we may be conserved in supernatural life and progress in it; hence we also need principles or habits by which we are ordered to following the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the use of infused virtues, which are called the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

1. Concerning these may be consulted: Scheeben, Die Herrlichkeiten der gottlicher Gnade; Terrien, La Grace et la Gloire; Froget, L'Habitation du Saint-Esprit dans les ames justes; Waffelaert, De Unione iustorum cum Deo; Mercier, La Vie interieure; Marmion, Le Christ, Vie de l'ame; Janvier, Conf. de N.D.: La grace; La vertu; Sauve, L'Homme intime; Garrigou-Lagrange, Perfection et Contemplation; Gardeil, La Structure de l'ame et l'experience mystique; and the articles which we wrote in the periodical Revue Eccl. de Liege, years 10, 11, 12, and 13.

616. The root of the whole supernatural life. - Therefore the very essence of grace, and the fundamental account from which all its attributes are conceived to be derived, is a physical participation of the divine nature insofar as it is intellectual, and therefore a resplendence of divine light in us (Eph. V, 8), and a participation of the life proper to God, which renders us deiform (q. 110, a. 3). From this follow:

A. First and immediately, absolute perfections: for because grace renders the soul deiform, therefore it renders it:

1. lovable and worthy of the love and friendship of God (John XV, 14-15), and pleasing and acceptable to Him; hence

2. also worthy of eternal life and divine beatitude (Col. I, 12-13; Rom. VI, 23; II Cor. I, 22; Eph. I, 13-14); thence

3. remotely capable of supernatural operations meritorious of eternal life: for supernatural nature is ordered to operation, and he who is worthy of eternal life ought to do works worthy of eternal life; whence

4. grace is the root of the virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit, which flow from it and by which we are proximately capable of supernatural works; but especially it is the root of charity, by which we are proximately capable of meriting.

By all these is constituted the state of holiness and justice (Eph. IV, 24) and of supernatural beauty (Eph. V, 8).

B. Then from these result relations which are founded in the absolute perfections: because grace renders one a participant of the divine nature, pleasing to God and worthy of eternal life, therefore it renders man:

1. the adoptive son of God, especially of the Father, and therefore heir of eternal life (I John III, 1; Rom. VIII, 15-17); thence

2. brother of the Son and coheir (Heb. II, 11; Rom. VIII, 17), and image of the Word (Rom. VIII, 29), indeed, in the hypothesis of the Incarnation, a member inserted into Christ the Head, and it renders the soul a spouse united to Him (Eph. V, 28);

3. by means of charity which flows from it, it renders him a friend and associate of God, and a temple of the Most Holy Trinity dwelling within (John XIV, 23), especially of the Holy Spirit (I Cor. III, 17), so that we may be directed by Him on the way of eternal salvation and enjoy His love and presence.

C. Finally, from all these are derived further permanent and transitory effects: because grace renders us participants of the divine nature, it also renders us participants of divine operations, whence from it are derived:

1. supernatural operative habits, namely, infused virtues, theological and moral, and gifts of the Holy Spirit (II Pet. I, 5-7);

2. supernatural and meritorious acts, namely, divine operations.

617. Matter to be treated. - Concerning the mode by which God elevates us to supernatural being through habitual grace, enough is said in the treatise on grace. Whence it remains to speak of the supernatural operative principles or habits, which are the proximate principles of human acts and thus pertain specially to moral theology.