§ 1. On The Production Of Grace Ex Opere Operato

35. Principle. It is of Catholic faith that the sacraments of the New Law confer grace ex opere operato upon all who place no obstacle.

1. For the Council of Trent¹¹² defined: "If anyone says that the sacraments of the New Law do not contain the grace which they signify, or do not confer that grace itself upon those who place no obstacle, as though they were only external signs of grace or justice received through faith, and certain marks of Christian profession by which among men the faithful are distinguished from unbelievers, let him be anathema." "If anyone says that grace is not conferred through the sacraments themselves of the New Law ex opere operato, but that faith alone in the divine promise suffices for obtaining grace, let him be anathema." As appears to one considering them, these definitions are opposed to the false acceptations of the sacraments handed down by the heretical Reformers.¹¹³

The Catholic doctrine, therefore, is this: The sacraments of the New Law confer grace ex opere operato. Certainly, since the sacraments are sensible signs, they cannot confer supernatural grace as principal causes, but only as instrumental causes. For Christ is the principal cause, both efficient and meritorious, of all grace.

Therefore, Christ uses the sacraments to produce grace in men almost as a writer uses a pen to write. It is said: the sacraments confer grace ex opere operato, that is, not ex opere operantis; in other words, not from the holiness of the minister or the merit of the recipient, but through the very application of matter and form rightly made, provided, however, that there is no obstacle on the part of the recipient.¹¹⁴

Since the supernatural virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit always accompany sanctifying grace,¹¹⁵ these also are produced or increased through the sacraments.

The Catholic doctrine concerning the efficacy of the sacraments is proved from Sacred Scripture, from the Holy Fathers, and from theological reason.

a) From Sacred Scripture, in which men, although already believing and penitent, nevertheless are commanded to receive a sacrament in order to obtain the remission of sins. "Let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins."¹¹⁶ Therefore, baptism truly causes the remission of sins, which cannot occur without the conferral of grace. St. Paul explicitly asserts this, saying: "According to His mercy He saved us, by the laver of regeneration and renovation of the Holy Spirit."¹¹⁷

b) From the Holy Fathers, many texts can be adduced for the Catholic doctrine.¹¹⁸ It suffices to adduce only three texts. St. Chrysostom¹¹⁹ says concisely: "What the womb is to the embryo, water is to the believer; for in water he is fashioned and formed." St. Augustine, however, who had first said: "Baptism is established not by the merits of those by whom it is administered, nor of those to whom it is administered, but by its own holiness and truth on account of Him by whom it was instituted,"¹²⁰ exclaims in another place:¹²¹ "Whence is there so great a power of water, that it touches the body and washes the heart!" Tertullian¹²² says: "The flesh is washed, that the soul may be cleansed; the flesh is anointed, that the soul may be consecrated; the flesh is signed, that the soul also may be fortified; the flesh is overshadowed by the imposition of the hand, that the soul also may be illuminated by the Spirit; the flesh feeds upon the Body and Blood of Christ, that the soul also may be fattened upon God."

c) From theological reason. For baptism validly conferred upon an infant by an unbeliever confers grace. But that grace cannot be given from the faith or merit of the minister, as is evident, especially if that minister is an unbelieving and sinful man; nor from the faith or merit of the infant, since he is incapable of eliciting any deliberate act. Therefore, it is given by the power of the sacrament alone, or ex opere operato.

¹¹² Sess. 7, cann. 6 and 8 on the sacraments in general (Denz., nn. 849 and 851).

¹¹³ Cf. above, n. 5.

¹¹⁴ Cf. below, n. 36.

¹¹⁵ Cf. above, I, nn. 445 and 472.

¹¹⁶ Acts 2:38. Cf. also Acts 22:16; 1 Cor. 6:11; Eph. 5:26; 2 Tim. 1:6; 1 Pet. 3:21.

¹¹⁷ Titus 3:5.

¹¹⁸ See Drouven, De re sacr. l. 1, q. 5.

¹¹⁹ Hom. 25 or 26 on John, n. 1 (Migne, Patr. graec. 59, 153).

¹²⁰ Contra Crescon. l. 4, c. 16, n. 19 (Migne, Patr. lat. 43, 559).

¹²¹ On John, tract. 80 (Migne, l.c. 35, 1840).

¹²² De resur. carn., c. 8 (Migne, l.c. 2, 852).

36. 2. On the manner in which the sacraments cause grace. All Catholics indeed agree in this, that they hold that the sacraments cause grace ex opere operato, and not ex opere operantis, as Protestants teach; but they do not at all agree whether the causality of the sacraments is physical or moral.

The expression ex opere operato is explained in two ways, namely:

a) From the very valid administration of the sacrament,¹²³ provided no obstacle is present. An obstacle is found only in adults, and is the defect of some essentially required disposition, for example, faith, contrition, etc.

b) From the very work of redemption effected by Christ. This second explanation, proposed by a few theologians,¹²⁴ is less correct. For Christ the Redeemer through His Passion is indeed the meritorious cause of sacramental grace, and even of all other graces, but in the sacraments of the New Law grace is caused effectively (although instrumentally) through the sensible sign itself, that is, through the due application of form to matter.

The expression opus operantis signifies the merits and dispositions either of the minister or of the recipient of the sacrament.

Protestants not rarely ridicule the expression ex opere operato, since it was recently introduced and even sins against the rules of grammar.¹²⁵ It must indeed be admitted that Peter of Poitiers (d. 1205) was the first in whom this expression is found.¹²⁶ St. Thomas indeed knew this expression, but he himself did not employ it in the Summa theologica.¹²⁷ But does the phrase "matter and form" occur before the same time? Is it not lawful to employ new and more suitable words to express an ancient thing? The things said concerning violated rules of grammar are sufficiently paltry. For each discipline has terms called technical which do not always correspond to the obvious sense of the words.

Moreover, nothing prevents the word operari from being taken in a passive sense. Thus, for example, in Tertullian¹²⁸ there is: "charisms wrongly wrought." Lactantius, whose elegant Latinity is much praised, speaks "of virtues received and wrought."¹²⁹ St. Augustine has this phrase: "corruption wrought by a noble woman, Lucilla."¹³⁰ Even Cicero himself sometimes employs deponent verbs in a passive sense, for example, he writes to Nepos: "He who is poor is scorned." Therefore, the ridicules of Protestants concerning the expression opus operatum are themselves to be ridiculed.

¹²³ By the validly performed administration of the sacrament alone.

¹²⁴ Möhler, Symbolik, § 28; Hilgers, Symbolische Theologie, 157.

¹²⁵ Cf. Harnack, Dogmengeschichte III, 463, 482 sqq.

¹²⁶ Sent. l. 5, c. 6 (Migne, Patr. lat. 211, 1235).

¹²⁷ IV Sent., dist. 1, q. 1, a. 5, quaestiunc. 1: "The sacrament itself is called by some the work worked, but the use of the sacrament is the operation itself, which is called by some the work working. When it is said that a sacrament, speaking per se, confers or does not confer grace, it must be referred to the work worked." Cf. IV Sent., dist. 2, q. 1 at the end.

¹²⁸ De praescript., c. 27 (Migne, l.c. 2, 48).

¹²⁹ Instit. 7, 27 (Migne, l.c. 6, 819).

¹³⁰ De unit. Eccl., c. 28, 73 (Migne, l.c. 43, 443).

37. Opinions of Catholics concerning the causality of the sacraments. It is of Catholic faith that the sacraments of the New Law cause grace ex opere operato, that is, through a power divinely communicated to them. But how is this power exercised? Since this question pertains rather to Dogmatic Theology than to Moral Theology, here the diverse opinions of authors are adduced only very briefly.

1. The sacraments of the New Law cause grace as a physical instrumental cause. Certainly, God is the principal cause; but almost as an artisan employs a brush for painting, so God employs the sacraments for infusing grace into the soul. St. Thomas (at least in his mature work)¹³¹ and almost all Thomists¹³² teach this physical causality of the sacraments; in addition, Suarez, Bellarmine, Tanner, Schäzler, Scheeben,¹³³ Gihr, and others.

2. The sacraments of the New Law cause grace as a moral instrumental cause. The defenders of this opinion do not agree among themselves what that moral causality is. Some think it is a certain moral dignity inhering in the sacraments, to which grace is owed. Others opine that the sacraments are, as it were, petitions or prayers instituted by Christ, so that through them God is infallibly moved to confer grace on account of the merits of Jesus Christ. Melchior Cano (sixteenth century) is said to have been the first who introduced the term "moral cause" into this question.¹³⁴ Lugo, Lessius, almost all Scotists, and almost all modern Jesuits, such as Franzelin, Chr. Pesch, Hurter, Lehmkuhl, etc., defend the moral causality of the sacraments.

3. The sacraments of the New Law instrumentally and efficiently cause not grace itself, but a certain disposition for it; this disposition is the character in three sacraments, but a certain adornment in the other four sacraments. Thus St. Thomas in his earlier work¹³⁵ and many others, especially the ancients, and, among the moderns, to some degree Billot.¹³⁶

4. The sacraments of the New Law are mere conditions and occasions for grace to be conferred. To explain this opinion the following example is adduced:¹³⁷ "It is similar to one who receives a lead denarius under such an ordinance that he who possesses one of those denarii shall have one hundred pounds from the king; that denarius indeed does not give those one hundred pounds, but only the king gives them to the one receiving it." This opinion is attributed to Alexander of Hales and Scotus, and is also taught by Durandus.¹³⁸

Of these four explanations, physical causality seems to be preferred: a) on account of the authority of St. Thomas; b) on account of the authority of the Roman Catechism, which manifestly favors this opinion;¹³⁹ c) on account of the greater dignity thereby attributed to the sacraments. For just as through the humanity of Christ God performed miracles, so through sacramental signs God infuses grace into the souls of men. But it is more dignified physically to cause the most excellent quality of grace than merely to cause it morally. The almost sole serious difficulty against the physical causality of the sacraments is taken from the reviviscence of certain sacraments; this difficulty, however, is well solved by Billuart,¹⁴⁰ who also treats this entire question very well.

¹³¹ S. theol. I-II, q. 112, a. 1 ad 2; III, q. 62, aa. 1, 3, 4, 6.

¹³² Cf. E. Hugon, O.P., La causalité instrumentale en théologie, Paris, 1907.

¹³³ Die Mysterien des Christentums, § 82.

¹³⁴ After rejecting several other explanations, M. Cano says: "But we ... with the Council of Florence pronounce that our sacraments both contain grace and confer it upon those worthily receiving. They contain it, I say, not as a natural cause contains its effect, but as a moral cause. For a purse is said to contain the redemption of a captive because it contains the money; and the sacraments, which contain the Blood of Christ, are said to contain grace and the remission of sins. And just as a purse, by furnishing the money, confers redemption, so a sacrament confers grace by applying the price of the Blood" (Relect. de sacr., P. 4, concl. 6).

¹³⁵ IV Sent., dist. 1, q. 1, a. 4.

¹³⁶ De sacr., q. 62, thesis VII. Cf. Dalmatius Löcher, Die Theorie vom sakramentalen Seelenschmuck, Bonn, 1913.

¹³⁷ St. Thomas, IV Sent., dist. 1, q. 1, a. 4.

¹³⁸ In IV Sent., dist. 1, q. 4; cf. Billot, De Eccles. sacr., q. 62, § 3.

¹³⁹ Part 2, c. 1, q. 14, and especially q. 18: "By the light of faith we know that the power of almighty God is present in the sacraments, by which they effect that which natural things themselves cannot accomplish by their own power."

¹⁴⁰ De sacr., diss. 3, a. 2. Cf. the new solution given by Marín-Sola (Divus Thomas 1925, pp. 49–63).

38. Corollary. From what has been said, we can briefly embrace in this manner the entire production of grace through the sacraments: Christ is the meritorious cause of the grace produced by the sacraments; the minister is the ministerial cause by joining matter and form; the sacrament composed of matter and form is the instrumental cause; faith, penance, offices of piety, etc., of the man receiving the sacrament are required conditions either for the validity or for the liceity of the sacrament.