I.
Justification
1987
The grace of the Holy Spirit has the power to justify us, that is, to cleanse
us from our sins and to communicate to us "the righteousness of God
through faith in Jesus Christ" and through Baptism:34 ( Rom 3:22; cf. ⇒ 6:3-4.)
But
if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. For
we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no
longer has dominion over him. the death he died he died to sin, once for all,
but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves as
dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.35 ( Rom 6:8-11.)
1988
Through the power of the Holy Spirit we take part in Christ's Passion by dying
to sin, and in his Resurrection by being born to a new life; we are members of
his Body which is the Church, branches grafted onto the vine which is
himself:36 ( Cf. ⇒ 1 Cor 12; ⇒ Jn 15:1 4.)
(God)
gave himself to us through his Spirit. By the participation of the Spirit, we
become communicants in the divine nature.... For this reason, those in whom the
Spirit dwells are divinized.37 ( St. Athanasius, Ep. Serap. 1, 24: PG 26, 585 and 588.)
1989
The first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit is conversion, effecting
justification in accordance with Jesus' proclamation at the beginning of the
Gospel: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."38 (Mt 4:17. ) Moved by
grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and
righteousness from on high. "Justification is not only the remission of
sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man.39 ( Council of Trent (1547): DS 1528.)
1990
Justification detaches man from sin which contradicts the love of God, and
purifies his heart of sin. Justification follows upon God's merciful initiative
of offering forgiveness. It reconciles man with God. It frees from the
enslavement to sin, and it heals.
1991
Justification is at the same time the acceptance of God's righteousness through
faith in Jesus Christ. Righteousness (or "justice") here means the
rectitude of divine love. With justification, faith, hope, and charity are
poured into our hearts, and obedience to the divine will is granted us.
1992
Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ who offered
himself on the cross as a living victim, holy and pleasing to God, and whose
blood has become the instrument of atonement for the sins of all men.
Justification is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith. It conforms us
to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of his
mercy. Its purpose is the glory of God and of Christ, and the gift of eternal
life:40 ( Cf. Council of Trent (1547): DS 1529.)
But
now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the
law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith
in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: since all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace
as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put
forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show
God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over
former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous
and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus.41 ( Rom 3:21-26.)
1993
Justification establishes cooperation between God's grace and man's freedom. On
man's part it is expressed by the assent of faith to the Word of God, which
invites him to conversion, and in the cooperation of charity with the prompting
of the Holy Spirit who precedes and preserves his assent:
When
God touches man's heart through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, man
himself is not inactive while receiving that inspiration, since he could reject
it; and yet, without God's grace, he cannot by his own free will move himself
toward justice in God's sight.42 (Council of Trent (1547): DS 1525.)
1994
Justification is the most excellent work of God's love made manifest in Christ
Jesus and granted by the Holy Spirit. It is the opinion of St. Augustine that
"the justification of the wicked is a greater work than the creation of
heaven and earth," because "heaven and earth will pass away but the
salvation and justification of the elect . . . will not pass away."43 (St. Augustine, In Jo. ev. 72, 3: PL 35, 1823. ) He
holds also that the justification of sinners surpasses the creation of the
angels in justice, in that it bears witness to a greater mercy.
1995
The Holy Spirit is the master of the interior life. By giving birth to the
"inner man,"44 (Cf. ⇒ Rom 7:22; ⇒ Eph 3:16. )justification entails the sanctification of his whole
being:
Just
as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater
iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification.... But
now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the
return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life.45 ( Rom 6:19, 22.)
II.
Grace
1996
Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and
undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of
God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.46 (Cf. ⇒ Jn 1:12-18; ⇒ 17:3; ⇒ Rom 8:14-17; ⇒ 2 Pet 1:3-4.
)
)
1997
Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy
of Trinitarian life: by Baptism the Christian participates in the grace of
Christ, the Head of his Body. As an "adopted son" he can henceforth
call God "Father," in union with the only Son. He receives the life
of the Spirit who breathes charity into him and who forms the Church.
1998
This vocation to eternal life is supernatural. It depends entirely on God's
gratuitous initiative, for he alone can reveal and give himself. It surpasses
the power of human intellect and will, as that of every other creature.47 ( Cf. ⇒ 1 Cor 2:7-9.)
1999
The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own
life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to
sanctify it. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in Baptism. It is
in us the source of the work of sanctification:48 (Cf. ⇒ Jn 4:14; ⇒ 7:38-39. )
Therefore
if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold,
the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to
himself.49 ( 2 Cor 5:17-18.)
2000
Sanctifying grace is an habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition
that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by his
love. Habitual grace, the permanent disposition to live and act in keeping with
God's call, is distinguished from actual graces which refer to God's
interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the course of the
work of sanctification.
2001
The preparation of man for the reception of grace is already a work of grace.
This latter is needed to arouse and sustain our collaboration in justification
through faith, and in sanctification through charity. God brings to completion
in us what he has begun, "since he who completes his work by cooperating
with our will began by working so that we might will it:"50 ( St. Augustine, De gratia et libero arbitrio, 17: PL 44, 901.)
Indeed
we also work, but we are only collaborating with God who works, for his mercy
has gone before us. It has gone before us so that we may be healed, and follows
us so that once healed, we may be given life; it goes before us so that we may
be called, and follows us so that we may be glorified; it goes before us so
that we may live devoutly, and follows us so that we may always live with God:
for without him we can do nothing.51 (St. Augustine, De natura et gratia, 31: PL 44, 264. )
2002
God's free initiative demands man's free response, for God has created man in
his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know him and
love him. the soul only enters freely into the communion of love. God
immediately touches and directly moves the heart of man. He has placed in man a
longing for truth and goodness that only he can satisfy. the promises of
"eternal life" respond, beyond all hope, to this desire:
If
at the end of your very good works. ., you rested on the seventh day, it was
to foretell by the voice of your book that at the end of our works, which are
indeed "very good" since you have given them to us, we shall also
rest in you on the sabbath of eternal life.52 ( St. Augustine, Conf. 13, 36, 51: PL 32, 868; cf. ⇒ Gen 1:31.)
2003
Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies
us. But grace also includes the gifts that the Spirit grants us to associate us
with his work, to enable us to collaborate in the salvation of others and in
the growth of the Body of Christ, the Church. There are sacramental graces,
gifts proper to the different sacraments. There are furthermore special graces,
also called charisms after the Greek term used by St. Paul and meaning
"favor," "gratuitous gift," "benefit."53 (Cf. LG 12. ) Whatever
their character - sometimes it is extraordinary, such as the gift of miracles
or of tongues - charisms are oriented toward sanctifying grace and are intended
for the common good of the Church. They are at the service of charity which
builds up the Church.54 ( Cf. ⇒ 1 Cor 12.)
2004
Among the special graces ought to be mentioned the graces of state that
accompany the exercise of the responsibilities of the Christian life and of the
ministries within the Church:
Having
gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if
prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; he who
teaches, in his teaching; he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who
contributes, in liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does act of
mercy, with cheerfulness.55 ( Rom 12:6-8.)
2005
Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes our experience and
cannot be known except by faith. We cannot, therefore, rely on our feelings or
our works to conclude that we are justified and saved.56 ( Cf. Council of Trent (1547): DS 1533-1534.) However, according to
the Lord's words "Thus you will know them by their fruits"57 (Mt 7:20. ) -
reflection on God's blessings in our lives and in the lives of the saint's offers
us a guarantee that grace is at work in us and spurs us on to an ever greater
faith and an attitude of trustful poverty.
A
pleasing illustration of this attitude is found in the reply of St. Joan of Arc
to a question posed as a trap by her ecclesiastical judges: "Asked if she
knew that she was in God's grace, she replied: 'If I am not, may it please God
to put me in it; if I am, may it please God to keep me there.'"58 ( Acts of the trial of St. Joan of Arc.)
III.
Merit
You
are glorified in the assembly of your Holy Ones, for in crowning their merits
you are crowning your own gifts.59 (Roman Missal, Prefatio I de sanctis; Qui in Sanctorum concilio celebraris, et eorum coronando merita tua dona coronas, citing the "Doctor of grace," St. Augustine, En. in Ps. 102, 7: PL 37, 1321-1322.)
2006
The term "merit" refers in general to the recompense owed by a
community or a society for the action of one of its members, experienced either
as beneficial or harmful, deserving reward or punishment. Merit is relative to
the virtue of justice, in conformity with the principle of equality which
governs it.
2007
With regard to God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man.
Between God and us there is an immeasurable inequality, for we have received
everything from him, our Creator.
2008
The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God
has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace. the fatherly
action of God is first on his own initiative, and then follows man's free
acting through his collaboration, so that the merit of good works is to be
attributed in the first place to the grace of God, then to the faithful. Man's merit,
moreover, itself is due to God, for his good actions proceed in Christ, from
the predispositions and assistance given by the Holy Spirit.
2009
Filial adoption, in making us partakers by grace in the divine nature, can
bestow true merit on us as a result of God's gratuitous justice. This is our
right by grace, the full right of love, making us "co-heirs" with
Christ and worthy of obtaining "the promised inheritance of eternal
life."60 ( Council of Trent (1547): DS 1546.) The merits of our good works are gifts of the divine goodness.61 (Cf. Council of Trent (1547): DS 1548. ) "Grace has gone before us; now we are given what is due.... Our merits are
God's gifts."62 ( St. Augustine, Sermo 298, 4-5: PL 38, 1367.)
2010
Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the
initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion.
Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and
for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace
and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life. Even temporal goods like
health and friendship can be merited in accordance with God's wisdom. These
graces and goods are the object of Christian prayer. Prayer attends to the
grace we need for meritorious actions.
2011
The charity of Christ is the source in us of all our merits before God. Grace,
by uniting us to Christ in active love, ensures the supernatural quality of our
acts and consequently their merit before God and before men. the saints have
always had a lively awareness that their merits were pure grace.
After
earth's exile, I hope to go and enjoy you in the fatherland, but I do not want
to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for your love alone... In the
evening of this life, I shall appear before you with empty hands, for I do not
ask you, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is blemished in your eyes. I
wish, then, to be clothed in your own justice and to receive from your love the
eternal possession of yourself.63 (St. Therese of Lisieux, "Act of Offering" in Story of a Soul, tr. John Clarke (Washington Dc: ICS, 1981), 277. )
IV.
Christian Holiness
2012
"We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him...
. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image
of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. and
those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also
justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified."64 (Rom 8:28-30.)
2013
"All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of
Christian life and to the perfection of charity."65 (LG 40 # 2. ) All are called to
holiness: "Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."66 ( Mt 5:48. )
In
order to reach this perfection the faithful should use the strength dealt out
to them by Christ's gift, so that . . . doing the will of the Father in
everything, they may wholeheartedly devote themselves to the glory of God and
to the service of their neighbor. Thus the holiness of the People of God will
grow in fruitful abundance, as is clearly shown in the history of the Church
through the lives of so many saints.67 ( LG 40 # 2.)
2014
Spiritual progress tends toward ever more intimate union with Christ. This
union is called "mystical" because it participates in the mystery of
Christ through the sacraments - "the holy mysteries" - and, in him,
in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. God calls us all to this intimate union
with him, even if the special graces or extraordinary signs of this mystical
life are granted only to some for the sake of manifesting the gratuitous gift
given to all.
2015
The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without
renunciation and spiritual battle.68 (Cf. 2 Tim 4.) Spiritual progress entails the ascesis and
mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the
Beatitudes:
He
who climbs never stops going from beginning to beginning, through beginnings
that have no end. He never stops desiring what he already knows.69 (St. Gregory of Nyssa, Hom. in Cant. 8: PG 44, 941C. )
2016
The children of our holy mother the Church rightly hope for the grace of final
perseverance and the recompense of God their Father for the good works
accomplished with his grace in communion with Jesus.70 (Cf. Council of Trent (1547): DS 1576. ) Keeping the same rule of
life, believers share the "blessed hope" of those whom the divine
mercy gathers into the "holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."71 ( Rev 21:2.)
IN
BRIEF
2017
The grace of the Holy Spirit confers upon us the righteousness of God. Uniting
us by faith and Baptism to the Passion and Resurrection of Christ, the Spirit
makes us sharers in his life.
2018
Like conversion, justification has two aspects. Moved by grace, man turns
toward God and away from sin, and so accepts forgiveness and righteousness from
on high.
2019
Justification includes the remission of sins, sanctification, and the renewal
of the inner man.
2020
Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ. It is granted
us through Baptism. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who justifies
us. It has for its goal the glory of God and of Christ, and the gift of eternal
life. It is the most excellent work of God's mercy.
2021
Grace is the help God gives us to respond to our vocation of becoming his
adopted sons. It introduces us into the intimacy of the Trinitarian life.
2022
The divine initiative in the work of grace precedes, prepares, and elicits the
free response of man. Grace responds to the deepest yearnings of human freedom,
calls freedom to cooperate with it, and perfects freedom.
2023
Sanctifying grace is the gratuitous gift of his life that God makes to us; it
is infused by the Holy Spirit into the soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify
it.
2024
Sanctifying grace makes us "pleasing to God." Charisms, special
graces of the Holy Spirit, are oriented to sanctifying grace and are intended
for the common good of the Church. God also acts through many actual graces, to
be distinguished from habitual grace which is permanent in us.
2025
We can have merit in God's sight only because of God's free plan to associate
man with the work of his grace. Merit is to be ascribed in the first place to
the grace of God, and secondly to man's collaboration. Man's merit is due to
God.
2026
The grace of the Holy Spirit can confer true merit on us, by virtue of our
adoptive filiation, and in accordance with God's gratuitous justice. Charity is
the principal source of merit in us before God.
2027
No one can merit the initial grace which is at the origin of conversion. Moved
by the Holy Spirit, we can merit for ourselves and for others all the graces
needed to attain eternal life, as well as necessary temporal goods.
2028
"All Christians . . . are called to the fullness of Christian life and to
the perfection of charity" (LG 40 # 2). "Christian perfection has but
one limit, that of having none" (St. Gregory of Nyssa, De vita Mos.: PG
44, 300D).
2029
"If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his
cross and follow me" (⇒
Mt 16:24).
GO TO:
SECTION ONE MAN'S VOCATION IN THE SPIRIT
CHAPTER THREE GOD'S SALVATION: LAW AND GRACE
PART THREE LIFE IN CHRIST
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