DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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Re: DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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Faith is necessary for salvation, for "without
faith it is impossible to please God."
1
The virtue of faith is infused with sanctifying grace,
and hence no one can be saved without faith any more
than he can be saved without grace. Children are born deprived
of sanctifying grace; they are subject to
original sin, which they inherit from our
first parents, and unless they are baptized
they cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
If they be baptized, they receive at the same
time with sanctifying grace, the virtue of
divine faith. Faith is therefore so necessary
that one cannot be saved, even if it is without
any fault of his own that he has not
faith. Such a one is not disposed for
eternal life, and he cannot obtain it any
more than a man can see without eyes.
Grown persons, i.e. they who have attained
the use of reason, must not only have the
virtue of faith, but they must also exercise
certain acts of faith, in order to obtain
eternal salvation. They must believe in
God, and must believe that God rewards
the good and punishes the wicked ;
according to the words of St. Paul, "He that
cometh to God, must believe that He is
and is a rewarder to them that seek Him."
2
In order to come to God one must know
the end to which he is tending; he must
know that God exists, and that if he be
faithful, God is to be his happiness. When
a sinner wishes to obtain justification, he
must be sorry for his sins out of a supernatural
motive, either because he has lost
heaven and deserved the punishments of
hell, or because he has offended God who
is all-good ; without the knowledge of God's
existence, and that God punishes the wicked
and rewards the good, he cannot have such
a supernatural motive.


1 Heb. 11. 6.
2 Heb. 11. 6.



To be continued...
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Re: DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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By justification we approach God,
but in order to approach Him we must
first know that He exists;
we must long for Him as a reward. We
cannot seek God without knowing that He
exists, and we shall not seek Him unless we
expect a reward from Him for our fidelity.
These two things must therefore be believed
explicitly by every adult, so that if one is
ignorant of them, he cannot be saved even
if it be without his fault that he is ignorant
of them. Every adult must believe all that
God has revealed. He may not know all
that God has revealed; but he must be so
disposed that he is willing to believe all
God has made known, and he must try
to acquaint himself with the truths He has
revealed, especially that there are three
persons in God, and that the second person
became man and died to redeem us from sin.

It is therefore an obligation for us to know
the Christian doctrine, so that if we are,
through our own fault, ignorant of it, we
commit sin, and are not worthy of heaven.

It is also of the greatest importance for us
to listen to the instructions that are given
us, so that we may know the truths we
are to believe. God has made them known
to us ; if He has thought it necessary to reveal
these truths to us, we should at least
think it equally necessary to listen to His
voice and to learn those things which He
has found it necessary to teach us.


To be continued...
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Re: DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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How do we know what God has revealed?
After we have seen the importance of believing
all that God has revealed, it is most
necessary to know where we can find those
truths. Christ came to redeem us from sin
and to show us the way to salvation. Our
Lord suffered and died; after His resurrection
He ascended into heaven. In order to
give a guide of faith to those who were to
come after Him, He established a Church
which is to teach all people in His name.
The Church of Christ, or the Catholic Church
which was founded by Jesus, is the ordinary
means by which men are to know the truths
revealed by God. To this Church all must
belong; this Church all must obey.
"He that
heareth you, heareth Me,"
1 said Our Lord
to the apostles. Although God may make
His truths known in some extraordinary way
to those who have no opportunity of hearing
the Church, the ordinary way for all people
is to accept the teaching of the Church and
to believe what she teaches because she
teaches in the name of Christ. When we
recite the Apostles' Creed and say, "I believe
in the holy Catholic Church,"
we profess
our belief in all that God has revealed
and proposes through the Church for our
belief.


1 Luke 10. 16.


To be continued...
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Re: DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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We see, then, that faith is a divine virtue
infused into the soul with sanctifying grace
at Baptism, that it is supernatural, because
its source is the grace of God. The motive
of faith must be the truthfulness of God
and His wisdom.
From this it follows that
we cannot pass judgment upon what we are
to believe, and that we must believe all that
God has revealed, for His truthfulness stands
for all. We cannot accept some truths and
reject others.
We must believe, even though
we do not understand the truths we believe,
otherwise there would be no real faith, and
such acceptance of the truth would be
without all merit. This motive of belief, the
truthfulness and the wisdom of God, gives
to faith a greater firmness than even the
knowledge which we have naturally can give
us, because God's word is more certain than
our understanding.
Faith is necessary for
salvation ; without it we cannot approach
God.
Some truths we must believe explicitly,
i.e. we must know them and believe
them — such as that God exists and rewards
the good and punishes the wicked. These
we must know to be saved. Other truths
we are bound to know under pain of mortal
sin
such as the principal doctrines of Christianity,
that there are three persons in one
God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost; that the Son became man to save
us, etc. Finally, we must believe at least
implicitly, i.e. be ready to accept all that
God has revealed and proposes through the
Church for our belief.



If faith is so necessary for us that without
faith it is impossible to please God, we
should cultivate this virtue by frequent acts
of faith, we should make ourselves acquainted
with all that belongs to our religion, and hence
be regular at the instructions given concerning
the things we are to believe. We must pray for
the gift of faith and say with the apostles,
Increase our faith, O Lord! 1


1 Luke 17. 5.


To be continued...
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Re: DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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VI - ON HOPE AND CHARITY


ON HOPE


What is hope?

Hope is a divine virtue by which we firmly trust that
God will give us eternal life and the means to obtain it.



In Baptism we receive sanctifying grace and
with it the divine virtues of faith, hope, and
charity. By sanctifying grace we are justified,
that is, by grace our sins are remitted,
and we are interiorly sanctified, we are
made children of God, and heirs of heaven.
As children of God we receive a supernatural
knowledge of Him by faith; as His children
and heirs of heaven we receive a supernatural
trust in Him, so that we hope without hesitation
that He will give us the inheritance
which He has promised to His children, and
will give us also the necessary grace to reach
heaven, as God's children, destined to be for
ever happy through the mercy of God. We
are given a supernatural love by which we
love Him above all things. These virtues
are infused into the soul together with sanctifying
grace and are a free gift of God ;
they always accompany grace, and belong
to the state of grace.
We have seen what
faith is and how necessary it is for salvation.
Faith is the foundation of hope. Because
through faith we know the power of God and
His infinite mercy, we trust in His fidelity,
and hence hope to receive the reward He
has promised to His children, as also the
means necessary to obtain the happiness
God has promised us.



To be continued...
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Re: DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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Like faith, hope is a something
permanent put into our souls, not merely a
passing, momentary act, but something that
remains and inclines us to acts of hope. It
is a divine virtue because it comes entirely
from God, who puts it into our souls without
our having deserved it ; it has God for its
object, in as much as we hope to be happy
by possessing Him for all eternity; the
motive, too, is something pertaining to
God, namely His fidelity to His promises.



God has promised His children a great
reward; they are to possess Him for all
eternity. That they might tend toward
Him, as their ultimate end, He has infused
into their souls, together with sanctifying
grace, the knowledge of Himself and the
end for which they are created, and has
given them the virtue of hope to reach that
end, so that when they consider the greatness
of God and their own littleness they
may not faint by the wayside.
By the
virtue of hope they trust firmly that God
will give them the help necessary to reach
the end for which they are destined.



To be continued...
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Re: DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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By the divine virtue of hope we trust
firmly that God will give us eternal happiness
and the means to obtain it. Hope is
therefore a firm trust. Its motive is the
fidelity of God to His promises ; that He
can fulfil these promises we know from His
omnipotence.
By one word He made
heaven and earth out of nothing; He preserves
them continually in being, and rules
all things by His providence. He is all-
powerful ; He can do all things ; He can,
therefore, also make us supremely happy for
all eternity. He wishes to make us happy
because He is all-merciful and loves us. He
has shown His love and mercy toward
us in innumerable ways : He has created us ;
when we fell into sin, He redeemed us.

"God so loved the world as to give His
only-begotten Son that whosoever believeth
in Him, may not perish, but may have life
everlasting."
1


Jesus lived for thirty-three
years upon the earth, "going about doing
good and healing all."
For thirty-three
years He instructed us in the way of salvation,
and gave us an example that, as
He had done we also should do. 2 Finally
He offered Himself a sacrifice for the Redemption
of the world. Surely we cannot
doubt His love and mercy, and hence His
will to make us happy.
God is faithful to
fulfil His promises.
"Let us hold fast the
confession of our hope without wavering (for
He is faithful that hath promised)."
3


1 John 3. 16.
2 John 13. 15.
3 Heb. 10. 23.


To be continued...
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Re: DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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Since, then, God's fidelity to His promises,
founded in His omnipotence and mercy
toward us, is the motive of our hope, our
hope must be firm ; it is infallible and absolutely
certain, as far as God is concerned.

There cannot be the least doubt that He
wished us to be forever happy in heaven;

likewise we cannot have the least doubt but
that He is all-powerful and therefore able to
make us happy. " Hope confoundeth not." 1
We know that "no one hath hoped in the
Lord and hath been confounded,"
2 and that
"They that trust in the Lord shall be as
Mount Sion : he shall not be moved forever."
3
God wishes all men to be saved and come to
the knowledge of His Son ; He gives every
one sufficient grace, so that no one need be
lost. For this Christ came into the world,
and for this He suffered and died on the
cross.



On account of the certainty it gives
us, hope is often compared to an anchor.
As long as a ship is held by its anchor, it
can resist the waves and the storm that may
be raging around it; but as soon as it
breaks loose, it is given over to the mercy
of the storm. So it is with hope; as long
as we are firm in hope, we will fix our eyes
upon the eternal reward promised us, and
no matter how strong the passions may be
within us, or how much the world may
strive to lead us into sin, we will be able to
resist them.
If passion represents to us
some pleasure of the senses, divine hope
opposes to it the expectation of eternal
happiness which we are sure to obtain if we
are faithful. If the world represents something
to us as valuable, hope points to God.
Hope shows us the possession of God Himself
and eternal happiness, the insignificance
and worthlessness of the pleasures and of the
goods of this world, as compared to God, so
that heaven at once appears before our minds,
and we are preserved from sin, because by
hope we are anchored to God. By hope we
are led to despise the pleasure which lasts
but a moment, in order to obtain the happiness
which has no end.



To be continued...


1 Rom. 5. 5.
2 Ecclus. 2. 11.
3 Psalm 124. 1.
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Re: DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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The omnipotence, mercy, and fidelity
of God cannot be frustrated ; our hope,
that God will make us happy and will
give us the necessary means to reach that happiness,
is absolutely certain. God will certainly
keep His promises.
However, we
must remember that He has not promised
to give us heaven without our doing something
on our part to deserve so great a
reward. He has promised us eternal happiness
if we are faithful to Him.
"If thou
wilt enter into life, keep the commandments."
1
To obtain heaven we must cooperate
with God's grace ; we must accept it
and use it by doing good works. God has
given us free will, and He gives us His grace
so that we can do that which is pleasing to
Him.



However, because we are not always
certain to cooperate with the grace of God, it
happens, despite the certainty which divine
hope gives us, that we are not absolutely
certain of going to heaven. Hope is certain
and infallible as far as God is concerned ;
He will certainly give us the necessary grace,
and if we accept this grace, He will certainly
give us heaven; but God wishes us
to show our good will and fidelity toward
Him, and for this reason He has promised
us heaven conditionally,
provided we cooperate
with His grace and keep the commandments.

Now, since we cannot be certain that
we shall always do all that is demanded
on our part, it follows that some
uncertainty remains as regards our final salvation.
For this reason the Apostle, St. Paul,
warns us, "With fear and trembling work out
your salvation."
2 Hope does not cast out
fear ; we must still fear lest we be lost, not
because God will be unfaithful to His promises,
but because we are not certain that we
shall always cooperate with the grace of God.
The certainty of hope comes from God ; the
uncertainty and fear comes from us. God is
faithful, and will do His part in our salvation ;
but we are weak and changeable, and may
neglect the grace which God gives us.



To be continued...


1 Matt. 19. 17.
2 Philip. 2. 12.
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Re: DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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The heretical reformers of the sixteenth century
taught that we must have absolute assurance,
that we are just and belong to the
number of the elect, and that by this
assurance we are justified. They taught that,
as long as one had such assurance, he could not
be lost.
The Church teaches us with the
Apostle not to put our trust in our own
justice but in God. St. Paul said, "He that
thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed
lest he fall."
1 We should fear, not that God
will not give us sufficient grace to be saved,

but lest we be deficient in cooperating with
the grace of God.
We must fear our own
weakness and hence watch and pray.

Assurance in our own righteousness will not save
us.
"They that fear the Lord have hoped
in the Lord: He is their helper and their
protector."
2


Hope is necessary for salvation. The
virtue of hope is infused into the soul with
sanctifying grace, and resides in the soul
with grace. As it is impossible to be saved
without grace, so it is impossible to obtain
salvation without the virtue of divine hope.
If we have not the virtue of hope, we have
not grace ; since the divine virtues always
accompany sanctifying grace.
God promised
the eternal happiness of heaven in
order that, by hoping to obtain it, we might
the better be moved to tend toward happiness.
He wishes us, therefore, to hope for
heaven and the means to obtain it. If we
have not hope in God, we doubt His fidelity
to His promises, and this is to insult and
offend Him. To obtain grace and salvation,
it is necessary to pray. We must ask God
for His powerful aid ; but how could we pray
properly, unless we hoped to receive the gifts
for which we are asking? We see, therere,
that hope is just as necessary as prayer,
since prayer must be confident. A prayer,
through which we do not expect to receive
what we ask, is no prayer ; it is an insult to
God. Hope gave strength to the martyrs ;
had they not had Christian hope and hence
trusted firmly that God would reward them,
they would never have been able to bear the
sufferings they were made to undergo for
the sake of their faith.



To be continued...

1 1 Cor. 10. 12.
2 Psalm 113. 11.
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