48. The Life of Grace
10. Man’s Divinization
The intimate life of God consists, above all, in the intra-Trinitarian processions: The Father begets the Son (the eternal generation of the Word) and from the Father and the Son proceeds the Holy Spirit (the eternal spiration of the divine gift).
It has been beautifully and profoundly said that our God, in his most intimate mystery, is not someone locked up in his own solitude, but constitutes a family; for the divinity shares within itself the relations of paternity, filiation, and love, which are of the essence of a family. This love in the divine family is the Holy Spirit.1
The above quotation contains three key notions: paternity, filiation, and love. In the human family, paternity is proper to the parents, who—even before becoming parents—were already constituted as persons. In them, paternity is a relation to their children. This relation qualifies or adds a new dimension to the personal being they possess independent of their parenthood.
Filiation is proper to the children. Just like the parents, they have their own personal being, to which this relation (of filiation) to their parents is added. The love or affection that unites the members of the family to one another is found in all the members, but does not constitute one more person—it is simply the bond that keeps the whole family united.
On the other hand, God, in his intimate life, is a Trinity of distinct Persons who share the greatest unity possible among themselves—the unity of the divine substance, which is unity by essence. Hence, the distinction of the three divine Persons should not be conceived of as the distinction between three different individuals of the same species. In the one and the same divine nature, we have the Father who is subsistent paternity, the Son who is subsistent filiation, and the Holy Spirit who is the subsistent passive spiration of the Father and the Son.
By an eternal and gratuitous decree of his will, God calls humanity to share in the ineffable life of the Blessed Trinity. This participation in the divine life is different from the participation in Being that the Creator gives each human being through his creative and conserving action. It involves a new divine action on a creature in the state of grace whereby God communicates with the person as Father, as Son, and as Holy Spirit. By virtue of this re-creation, the individual possesses, along with the being proper to creatures, the being that makes him or her a God-by-participation. Hence, grace makes humans godlike. It brings about a divinization of a person, gives one a new mode of being and living (according to God’s image and likeness), and brings one into the intra-Trinitarian life of God.
11. Divine Filiation
Through grace, we are made children of God (de fide).
The Council of Trent defined justification as the process whereby we are constituted in the state of grace and of adoption as God’s children.2
The new quality that God puts into humans in order to conform them to his only-begotten Son, adopt them as children, and bring them into the intra-Trinitarian life is sanctifying grace.
Man is configured to Christ in Baptism. Through Christ, he is made to share in the intimacy of the life of the Trinity; and being born of the Spirit, he becomes spiritualized; being made unto the image of the Son, he becomes a son; and with the Father of the Only-Begotten, he is united in most intimate bonds: the Father indeed becomes a father to him.3
This truth of faith appears constantly in Sacred Scripture. After Baptism, our relationship with the Father becomes filial: “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom 8:15–16).
The life of grace, or supernatural life, is not of itself a reality that can be felt, because it exceeds the bounds of human nature. It is a truth of divine and Catholic faith that no one can be absolutely certain of being in God’s grace unless he receives a special revelation from heaven.4 However, if we are in God’s grace, we are really his children, although nothing unusual is felt. Ordinarily, however, joy and peace are consequences of a genuine spiritual life. The more intense and profound one’s spiritual life, the more apparent and deeply felt is one’s sense of divine filiation—a gift of the Holy Spirit.
In the above-cited text of the epistle to the Romans, St. Paul wishes to impress upon us the awareness of our condition as God’s children. This awareness necessarily increases in those who strive to behave as children of God, imitating the example of Jesus Christ. “It is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit”; from the depth of our soul, the Paraclete makes us aware of what we are—children of God; certain of this truth, we cry out, “Abba! Father!” with filial piety.
This mystery is strictly a supernatural one, and human language is incapable of adequately expressing it. However, since our filiation to God is different from that of the Son to the Father, we need adjectives to distinguish them. The filiation of the only-begotten is natural, since it is proper to God’s nature that the Father beget the Son and that both share one and the same substance. We refer to our filiation as divine adoptive filiation in order to distinguish it from the Son’s filiation, which is the cause and model of our own.
The word adoptive, however, scarcely reflects the reality of our condition as children of God in Christ. When a man adopts a child as a son, he gives him his affection, his family name, his solicitude, and his property. However, the child was already constituted as a person prior to the adoption and cannot be born again. The human nature he has is the same that he received from his biological parents.
When God adopts us as his children, however, he gives us a share of his own nature, and we undergo a new supernatural rebirth as a consequence of this adoption. St. John writes, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 Jn 3:1). In earthly adoption, a father cannot truly say that an adopted child is his own flesh and blood. It is not so with divine adoption, for God himself accomplishes this wonder: “So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Eph 2:19).
12. Grace is a Participation in Divine Nature
Sanctifying grace is a participation in divine nature within the soul (de fide eccl.).
It is in this sense that the Magisterium of the Church understands the following words of St. Peter: “He has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may … become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pt 1:4).
The Church teaches that habitual grace is “a divine quality infused into the soul, a kind of splendor and light that cleanses the soul of all blemish, making it very beautiful and resplendent.”5
Among the errors of Baius condemned by Pope St. Pius V (1567), one states, “the justice whereby the sinner is justified consists formally in one’s obedience to the Commandments.” This error contradicts Catholic doctrine as reaffirmed by this pope, namely, that justification consists in the grace infused into the soul, “whereby man is adopted as a son of God and renewed according to the inner man and made to share in the divine nature, in such a way that, renewed as he is by the Holy Spirit, he may henceforth live rightly and obey the commandments of God.”6
The Second Vatican Council teaches, “The followers of Christ, called by God not in virtue of their works but by his design and grace, and justified in the Lord Jesus, have been made sons of God in the Baptism of faith and partakers of the divine nature, and so are truly sanctified.”7
In Sacred Scripture, sanctifying grace is described as a seal that God stamps on the hearts of the faithful (cf. 2 Cor 1:22), a “spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn 4:14), and a seed that germinates and buries its roots in the inner depths of man—“No one born of God commits sin; for God’s nature abides in him” (1 Jn 3:9).
The notion of participation connotes multiplicity. There is only one divine nature common to the three divine Persons, but this divine nature can be participated in by a multitude of human beings, who thereby become “gods by participation.”8 There is only one subsistent filiation (the only-begotten Son of the eternal Father), but there can be a multitude of people who participate in this filiation: a multitude of children of God in Christ in such a way that Christ becomes “the first-born among many brethren” (Rom 8:29).
Divine adoptive filiation is the reality that affects the entire person of the Christian, and sanctifying or habitual grace is the supernatural quality received by the human nature of that person. Sanctifying grace and divine filiation, though two different realities, are therefore inseparably linked.
This is how the Fathers of the Church understood one’s participation in the divine nature, which is made possible by sanctifying grace. Among the Greek Fathers, the expressions “becoming godlike” or “divinization of man” by grace are rather common. St. Athanasius, for instance, writes, “The Logos became man so that we might become God [or godlike].”9 Pseudo-Dionysius, a witness of Tradition, comments that divinization is “becoming similar to God and achieving the greatest possible union with him.”10
Among the modern writers, the expression endiosamiento, “divinization,” or “becoming godlike” occurs frequently in the writings of the Founder of Opus Dei:
God only wants us to be humble and to empty ourselves, so that he can fill us. He wants us not to put obstacles in his way so that—humanly speaking—there will be more room for his grace in our poor hearts. For the God who inspires us to be humble is the same God who “will refashion the body of our lowliness, conforming it to the body of his glory, by exerting the power by which he is able to subject all things to himself” (Phil 3:21). Our Lord makes us his own, he makes us divine with a “true godliness” [endiosamiento bueno].11
13. Grace Presupposes Nature
The entire supernatural order that we find in man is an accidental reality. This expression does not mean that it is of inconsequential importance, but that it requires a substance in which to inhere. In the case of grace, this necessary substance or subject is the substance of humanity itself.
The Church teaches that the “supernatural order … not only does not in the least destroy the natural order … but elevates that order and perfects it, each affording mutual aid to the other, and completing it in a manner proportioned to its respective nature and dignity. This is because both come from God, who cannot contradict himself: ‘The works of God are perfect and all his ways are judgments’ (Dt 32:4).”12 Hence, the true Christian, far from avoiding the undertakings of temporal life or the use of one’s natural abilities, strives to cultivate them and bring them to perfection in harmony with one’s supernatural life. The Christian thereby ennobles the natural order by enriching it, not only with spiritual and eternal goods, but also with material and temporal ones.13
Since original sin did not completely corrupt human nature, God’s designs for creation still hold. His plans for the redemption of mankind do not supplant those of creation, but are an ensuing path intended for humanity to follow. Grace does not replace nature but heals and elevates it. This mysterious union and continuity between the creative and redemptive designs of God for humanity is alluded to in the Second Vatican Council when it describes the Christian as “living by faith in the divine mystery of the creation and redemption.”14
This truth has important consequences for the ascetical struggle (one needs to cultivate human virtues in order to acquire the supernatural ones) and for the apostolate (need for unity of life, Christian naturalness). It also sheds light on the supernatural value of human work and the Christian’s role in society:
If we enter into the theology of it instead of limiting ourselves to functional categories, we cannot say that there are things—good, noble or indifferent—which are exclusively worldly. This cannot be after the Word of God has lived among the children of men, felt hunger and thirst, worked with his hands, experienced friendship and obedience and suffering and death.15
14. Inhabitation of the Blessed Trinity in the Soul
The Blessed Trinity inhabits the soul of the just through grace (de fide).
The Council of Trent declared that imperfect contrition or attrition “is a gift of God and an inspiration of the Holy Spirit; not, indeed, as already dwelling in the soul, but as merely giving an impulse that helps the penitent make his way towards justice.”16
The doctrine about the inhabitation of the Blessed Trinity in the soul of the just is contained in the Gospels and has been developed by the Magisterium of the Church.
Pope Leo XIII taught, “by means of grace, God inhabits in the soul of the just as in a temple, in an intimate and singular way.”17 It is a supernatural presence in the soul of a person. This presence is different from the natural presence of God whereby he preserves all things in existence, and is infinitely superior to the presence of God in creatures endowed with intelligence and will (which is likewise natural).
The presence of the Trinity in the soul of the just is a prelude of heaven in the same way that grace is the beginning of eternal glory while one is still on earth. Thus, the Church teaches, “It is only because of its [temporal] condition and nature that this admirable union [of the Trinity and the soul in grace] differs from that [eternal union with himself] which God bestows on the blessed in heaven.”18
Pius XII says that it is a “hidden mystery, which in this earthly exile can never be fully disclosed, and grasped, and expressed in human language.”19 However, some light can be shed on this mystery if we see it in the context of the other supernatural mysteries of our faith and of the final end to which all of us are called. Hence, “the Divine Persons are said to inhabit [the soul in grace] inasmuch as they are present to intellectual creatures in a way that transcends human comprehension, and are known and loved by them, yet in a way that is unique, purely supernatural, and in the deepest sanctuary of the soul.”20
As was said earlier, heaven is the total fulfillment of this inhabitation, and, with the beatific vision, “it will be granted to the eyes of the human mind strengthened by the light of glory, to contemplate the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in an utterly ineffable manner, to be immediately present throughout eternity at the processions of the Divine Persons, and to rejoice with a happiness very much like that with which the holy and undivided Trinity is happy.”21
Christ himself has revealed this sublime mystery to us; “The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive … dwells with you, and will be in you” (Jn 14:17). And, he told his apostles, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (Jn 14:23).
15. The Holy Spirit’s Action in the Soul
The work of our transformation in Christ by grace is attributed to the Holy Spirit (de fide eccl.).
Every divine operation ad extra (operations that refer to creatures) is common to the three divine Persons. Hence, the infusion of grace into the soul and the process of divine adoption is the work of the Trinity. Nevertheless, all divine operations that convey a special outpouring of God’s love are attributed to the Holy Spirit, who is the substantial love between the Father and the Son. This is why the transformation of souls into Christ by grace is attributed to the Holy Spirit.
The Magisterium of the Church uses expressions based on the doctrine of appropriation, which in turn is rooted in Sacred Scripture. The Council of Trent, for example, teaches that the justice whereby we are made just (or the habitual grace received in Baptism) and charity, along with the other virtues, are “poured out” and “distributed” to the hearts of the faithful “by the Holy Spirit.”22 The doctrine of appropriation with regard to works attributed to the Holy Spirit is further elaborated upon in the encyclical Divinum Illud Munus of Leo XIII. It is also found in liturgy, especially in the rituals of Baptism and Confirmation, and in the prayers of the Liturgy of the Hours.
“The Holy Spirit is the Spirit sent by Christ to carry out in us the work of holiness that our Lord merited for us on earth.”23 The final objective of this gradual transformation effected by the Spirit of the Lord is our full identification and union with Jesus Christ, which will take place in heaven. Until then, God carries out his work within us through the grace that he abundantly lavishes upon us through the sacraments.24
The moral life of a Christian must be directed toward collaborating with the Lord in the task of his or her own sanctification, which means removing the obstacles to the action of the Holy Spirit and carrying out works pleasing to God. “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work” (Jn 4:34).
What is the surest path leading to personal intimacy with the Holy Spirit? The Founder of Opus Dei writes: “The Holy Spirit comes to us as a result of the cross—as a result of our total abandonment to the will of God, of seeking only his glory and renouncing ourselves completely.”25 “It is he who leads us to receive Christ’s teaching and to assimilate it in a profound way. It is he who gives us the light by which we perceive our personal calling and the strength to carry out all that God expects of us. If we are docile to the Holy Spirit, the image of Christ will be formed more and more fully in us, and we will be brought closer every day to God the Father. ‘For whoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the children of God’ (Rom 8:14).”26
16. Divine Grace and Free Human Correspondence
Divine grace calls for man’s cooperation (de fide in the case of an adult).
The Council of Trent condemned as heretical the Protestant thesis that “the free will of man, moved and awakened by God, in no way cooperates with the awakening call of God by an assent by which man could dispose and prepare himself to get the grace of justification.”27 Also condemned was the notion that “man cannot dissent, if he wishes, but, like a lifeless object, he does nothing at all and is merely passive.”28 A century later, Innocent X condemned the Jansenist view that “in the state of fallen nature, interior grace is never resisted.”29
In truth, divine grace never suppresses human freedom. Hence, “far removed from the truth are those who say that voluntary actions are less free because of the intervention of God (through grace). The power of divine grace is interior to man and in keeping with his natural inclinations, for it proceeds from the same author of our understanding and our will, who moves all things in accordance with their specific natures.”30 Rather, grace enlightens the intellect and strengthens the will to do good so that the use of one’s freedom is actually facilitated and rendered more secure.31
Sacred Scripture stresses human responsibility in some passages and divine action in others. Its constant exhortations to penance and holiness show that grace does not do away with freedom: “How often would I have gathered your children together … and you would not!” (Mt 23:37). “You always resist the Holy Spirit” (Acts 7:51; cf. Dt 30:19; Sir 15:14–17; 31:10).
The Fathers of the Church are unanimous on this point, for all their earnest incitements to the ascetical life and to exerting effort to achieve sanctity presuppose the conviction that man must make use of his freedom. St. Augustine’s testimonies are of special significance, for even though he had to emphasize the need of grace for salvation in order to refute the Pelagians, he still did not hesitate to write, “He who created you without your help, will not save you without your help.”32 Hence, the Christian’s transformation into Christ is the work of God, but it is also the work of the person insofar as the person does not place obstacles to inner divine action.
People, therefore, are endowed with the mysterious ability to decide their own destiny:
It is only we men (I am not referring now to the angels) who can unite ourselves to the Creator by using our freedom. We are in a position to give him, or deny him, the glory that is his due as the Author of everything that exists.
This possibility makes up the light and shade of human freedom. Our Lord invites us, urges us to choose the good, so tenderly does he love us!…
Ask yourself now (I too am examining my conscience) whether you are holding firmly and unshakably to your choice of Life? When you hear the most lovable voice of God urging you on to holiness, do you freely answer ‘Yes’? Let us turn our gaze once more to Jesus, as he speaks to the people in the towns and countryside of Palestine. He doesn’t want to force himself upon us. “If you have a mind to be perfect…” (Mt 19:21), he says to the rich young man. The young man refused to take the hint, and the Gospel goes on to say: abiit tristis (Mt 19:22) (“he went away forlorn”). That is why I have sometimes called him the “sad lad.” He lost his happiness because he refused to hand over his freedom to God.
Consider now the sublime moment when the Archangel Gabriel announces to the Virgin Mary the plans of the Most High. Our Mother listens, and asks a question to understand better what the Lord is asking of her. Then she gives her firm reply: Fiat! (Lk 1:38) (“Be it done unto me according to thy word”)! This is the fruit of the best freedom of all, the freedom of deciding in favor of God.33
17. Radical Primacy of Grace
Divine grace requires man’s cooperation, but, at the same time, always precedes it (de fide).
The entire work of salvation has God as its beginning. It can truly be said that God’s action always precedes that of the human being. When a person takes a step closer to God, it is because the Lord had first drawn that person to himself. Nevertheless, God does nothing supernatural in us without eliciting our free cooperation. In this way, God—the Author of our sanctification and the one who brings this work to its completion—associates us with himself in carrying out this task.
The Magisterium of the Church, in the Council of Trent, has spoken with great precision on this subject. The teaching regarding the radical primacy of grace can be summarized as follows:
· Without previous actual grace, no one can take the first steps that lead to conversion and Baptism.34
· A special help from God is needed in order to carry out any supernaturally meritorious act.35
· The very desire for grace requires the help of grace itself.36
· Actual grace is required in order to believe,37 and in order to:
o desire to believe,38
o pray,39
o fulfill the commandments,40
o overcome temptation,41
o avoid falling into mortal sin,42
o repent and make acts of penance,43
o dispose oneself to receive habitual grace and merit eternal life,44 and
o persevere in grace until death.45
Footnotes:
1. John Paul II, Homily in Puebla, Jan. 28, 1979.
2. Cf. DS 1524; CCC, 1987–2005.
3. John Paul II, Ap. Letter Patres Ecclesiae, Jan. 2, 1980.
4. Cf. DS 1534.
5. Roman Catechism, 2.2.50.
6. DS 1942.
7. LG, 40; cf. CCC, 1996–1997.
8. St. Thomas Aquinas, In III Sent., d. 34, q. 1, a. 3.
9. St. Athanasius, Or. de Incarn. Verbi, 54.
10. Pseudo-Dionysius, De Eccl. Hier., 1.3.
11. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Friends of God, 98.
12. Pius XI, Enc. Divini Illius Magistri: DS 3689.
13. Cf. LG, 40–41.
14. AA, 29.
15. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Christ is Passing By, 112.
16. DS 1678; cf. CCC, 1453.
17. Leo XIII, Enc. Divinum Illud Munus, May 9, 1897: DS 3330.
18. DS 3331.
19. Pius XII, Enc. Mystici Corporis, June 29, 1943: DS 3814.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. DS 1528–1530, 1561; cf. CCC, 1987–1989.
23. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Christ is Passing By, 130.
24. Cf. LG, 7: “All the members must be formed in his likeness, until Christ be formed in them (cf. Gal 4:19). For this reason we, who have been made like to him, who have died with him and risen with him, are taken up into the mysteries of his life, until we reign together with him.”
25. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Christ is Passing By, 137; cf. CCC, 1992, 2015.
26. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Christ is Passing By, 135.
27. DS 1554.
28. DS 1554.
29. DS 2002.
30. Leo XIII, Enc. Libertas Praestantissimum, June 20, 1888.
31. Cf. CCC, 1993, 2001–2002.
32. St. Augustine, Sermon 169: PL 38.923.
33. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Friends of God, 24–25.
34. Cf. DS 1525, 1526, 1551, 1553.
35. Cf. DS 242, 246, 248.
36. Cf. DS 373.
37. Cf. DS 1526, 1553.
38. Cf. DS 373.
39. Cf. DS 373, 376.
40. Cf. DS 1536, 1552, 1568.
41. Cf. DS 1520.
42. Cf. DS 1544.
43. Cf. DS 1553.
44. Cf. DS 1545.
45. Cf. DS 1541, 1566, 1572.
The intimate life of God consists, above all, in the intra-Trinitarian processions: The Father begets the Son (the eternal generation of the Word) and from the Father and the Son proceeds the Holy Spirit (the eternal spiration of the divine gift).
It has been beautifully and profoundly said that our God, in his most intimate mystery, is not someone locked up in his own solitude, but constitutes a family; for the divinity shares within itself the relations of paternity, filiation, and love, which are of the essence of a family. This love in the divine family is the Holy Spirit.1
The above quotation contains three key notions: paternity, filiation, and love. In the human family, paternity is proper to the parents, who—even before becoming parents—were already constituted as persons. In them, paternity is a relation to their children. This relation qualifies or adds a new dimension to the personal being they possess independent of their parenthood.
Filiation is proper to the children. Just like the parents, they have their own personal being, to which this relation (of filiation) to their parents is added. The love or affection that unites the members of the family to one another is found in all the members, but does not constitute one more person—it is simply the bond that keeps the whole family united.
On the other hand, God, in his intimate life, is a Trinity of distinct Persons who share the greatest unity possible among themselves—the unity of the divine substance, which is unity by essence. Hence, the distinction of the three divine Persons should not be conceived of as the distinction between three different individuals of the same species. In the one and the same divine nature, we have the Father who is subsistent paternity, the Son who is subsistent filiation, and the Holy Spirit who is the subsistent passive spiration of the Father and the Son.
By an eternal and gratuitous decree of his will, God calls humanity to share in the ineffable life of the Blessed Trinity. This participation in the divine life is different from the participation in Being that the Creator gives each human being through his creative and conserving action. It involves a new divine action on a creature in the state of grace whereby God communicates with the person as Father, as Son, and as Holy Spirit. By virtue of this re-creation, the individual possesses, along with the being proper to creatures, the being that makes him or her a God-by-participation. Hence, grace makes humans godlike. It brings about a divinization of a person, gives one a new mode of being and living (according to God’s image and likeness), and brings one into the intra-Trinitarian life of God.
11. Divine Filiation
Through grace, we are made children of God (de fide).
The Council of Trent defined justification as the process whereby we are constituted in the state of grace and of adoption as God’s children.2
The new quality that God puts into humans in order to conform them to his only-begotten Son, adopt them as children, and bring them into the intra-Trinitarian life is sanctifying grace.
Man is configured to Christ in Baptism. Through Christ, he is made to share in the intimacy of the life of the Trinity; and being born of the Spirit, he becomes spiritualized; being made unto the image of the Son, he becomes a son; and with the Father of the Only-Begotten, he is united in most intimate bonds: the Father indeed becomes a father to him.3
This truth of faith appears constantly in Sacred Scripture. After Baptism, our relationship with the Father becomes filial: “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom 8:15–16).
The life of grace, or supernatural life, is not of itself a reality that can be felt, because it exceeds the bounds of human nature. It is a truth of divine and Catholic faith that no one can be absolutely certain of being in God’s grace unless he receives a special revelation from heaven.4 However, if we are in God’s grace, we are really his children, although nothing unusual is felt. Ordinarily, however, joy and peace are consequences of a genuine spiritual life. The more intense and profound one’s spiritual life, the more apparent and deeply felt is one’s sense of divine filiation—a gift of the Holy Spirit.
In the above-cited text of the epistle to the Romans, St. Paul wishes to impress upon us the awareness of our condition as God’s children. This awareness necessarily increases in those who strive to behave as children of God, imitating the example of Jesus Christ. “It is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit”; from the depth of our soul, the Paraclete makes us aware of what we are—children of God; certain of this truth, we cry out, “Abba! Father!” with filial piety.
This mystery is strictly a supernatural one, and human language is incapable of adequately expressing it. However, since our filiation to God is different from that of the Son to the Father, we need adjectives to distinguish them. The filiation of the only-begotten is natural, since it is proper to God’s nature that the Father beget the Son and that both share one and the same substance. We refer to our filiation as divine adoptive filiation in order to distinguish it from the Son’s filiation, which is the cause and model of our own.
The word adoptive, however, scarcely reflects the reality of our condition as children of God in Christ. When a man adopts a child as a son, he gives him his affection, his family name, his solicitude, and his property. However, the child was already constituted as a person prior to the adoption and cannot be born again. The human nature he has is the same that he received from his biological parents.
When God adopts us as his children, however, he gives us a share of his own nature, and we undergo a new supernatural rebirth as a consequence of this adoption. St. John writes, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 Jn 3:1). In earthly adoption, a father cannot truly say that an adopted child is his own flesh and blood. It is not so with divine adoption, for God himself accomplishes this wonder: “So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Eph 2:19).
12. Grace is a Participation in Divine Nature
Sanctifying grace is a participation in divine nature within the soul (de fide eccl.).
It is in this sense that the Magisterium of the Church understands the following words of St. Peter: “He has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may … become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pt 1:4).
The Church teaches that habitual grace is “a divine quality infused into the soul, a kind of splendor and light that cleanses the soul of all blemish, making it very beautiful and resplendent.”5
Among the errors of Baius condemned by Pope St. Pius V (1567), one states, “the justice whereby the sinner is justified consists formally in one’s obedience to the Commandments.” This error contradicts Catholic doctrine as reaffirmed by this pope, namely, that justification consists in the grace infused into the soul, “whereby man is adopted as a son of God and renewed according to the inner man and made to share in the divine nature, in such a way that, renewed as he is by the Holy Spirit, he may henceforth live rightly and obey the commandments of God.”6
The Second Vatican Council teaches, “The followers of Christ, called by God not in virtue of their works but by his design and grace, and justified in the Lord Jesus, have been made sons of God in the Baptism of faith and partakers of the divine nature, and so are truly sanctified.”7
In Sacred Scripture, sanctifying grace is described as a seal that God stamps on the hearts of the faithful (cf. 2 Cor 1:22), a “spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn 4:14), and a seed that germinates and buries its roots in the inner depths of man—“No one born of God commits sin; for God’s nature abides in him” (1 Jn 3:9).
The notion of participation connotes multiplicity. There is only one divine nature common to the three divine Persons, but this divine nature can be participated in by a multitude of human beings, who thereby become “gods by participation.”8 There is only one subsistent filiation (the only-begotten Son of the eternal Father), but there can be a multitude of people who participate in this filiation: a multitude of children of God in Christ in such a way that Christ becomes “the first-born among many brethren” (Rom 8:29).
Divine adoptive filiation is the reality that affects the entire person of the Christian, and sanctifying or habitual grace is the supernatural quality received by the human nature of that person. Sanctifying grace and divine filiation, though two different realities, are therefore inseparably linked.
This is how the Fathers of the Church understood one’s participation in the divine nature, which is made possible by sanctifying grace. Among the Greek Fathers, the expressions “becoming godlike” or “divinization of man” by grace are rather common. St. Athanasius, for instance, writes, “The Logos became man so that we might become God [or godlike].”9 Pseudo-Dionysius, a witness of Tradition, comments that divinization is “becoming similar to God and achieving the greatest possible union with him.”10
Among the modern writers, the expression endiosamiento, “divinization,” or “becoming godlike” occurs frequently in the writings of the Founder of Opus Dei:
God only wants us to be humble and to empty ourselves, so that he can fill us. He wants us not to put obstacles in his way so that—humanly speaking—there will be more room for his grace in our poor hearts. For the God who inspires us to be humble is the same God who “will refashion the body of our lowliness, conforming it to the body of his glory, by exerting the power by which he is able to subject all things to himself” (Phil 3:21). Our Lord makes us his own, he makes us divine with a “true godliness” [endiosamiento bueno].11
13. Grace Presupposes Nature
The entire supernatural order that we find in man is an accidental reality. This expression does not mean that it is of inconsequential importance, but that it requires a substance in which to inhere. In the case of grace, this necessary substance or subject is the substance of humanity itself.
The Church teaches that the “supernatural order … not only does not in the least destroy the natural order … but elevates that order and perfects it, each affording mutual aid to the other, and completing it in a manner proportioned to its respective nature and dignity. This is because both come from God, who cannot contradict himself: ‘The works of God are perfect and all his ways are judgments’ (Dt 32:4).”12 Hence, the true Christian, far from avoiding the undertakings of temporal life or the use of one’s natural abilities, strives to cultivate them and bring them to perfection in harmony with one’s supernatural life. The Christian thereby ennobles the natural order by enriching it, not only with spiritual and eternal goods, but also with material and temporal ones.13
Since original sin did not completely corrupt human nature, God’s designs for creation still hold. His plans for the redemption of mankind do not supplant those of creation, but are an ensuing path intended for humanity to follow. Grace does not replace nature but heals and elevates it. This mysterious union and continuity between the creative and redemptive designs of God for humanity is alluded to in the Second Vatican Council when it describes the Christian as “living by faith in the divine mystery of the creation and redemption.”14
This truth has important consequences for the ascetical struggle (one needs to cultivate human virtues in order to acquire the supernatural ones) and for the apostolate (need for unity of life, Christian naturalness). It also sheds light on the supernatural value of human work and the Christian’s role in society:
If we enter into the theology of it instead of limiting ourselves to functional categories, we cannot say that there are things—good, noble or indifferent—which are exclusively worldly. This cannot be after the Word of God has lived among the children of men, felt hunger and thirst, worked with his hands, experienced friendship and obedience and suffering and death.15
14. Inhabitation of the Blessed Trinity in the Soul
The Blessed Trinity inhabits the soul of the just through grace (de fide).
The Council of Trent declared that imperfect contrition or attrition “is a gift of God and an inspiration of the Holy Spirit; not, indeed, as already dwelling in the soul, but as merely giving an impulse that helps the penitent make his way towards justice.”16
The doctrine about the inhabitation of the Blessed Trinity in the soul of the just is contained in the Gospels and has been developed by the Magisterium of the Church.
Pope Leo XIII taught, “by means of grace, God inhabits in the soul of the just as in a temple, in an intimate and singular way.”17 It is a supernatural presence in the soul of a person. This presence is different from the natural presence of God whereby he preserves all things in existence, and is infinitely superior to the presence of God in creatures endowed with intelligence and will (which is likewise natural).
The presence of the Trinity in the soul of the just is a prelude of heaven in the same way that grace is the beginning of eternal glory while one is still on earth. Thus, the Church teaches, “It is only because of its [temporal] condition and nature that this admirable union [of the Trinity and the soul in grace] differs from that [eternal union with himself] which God bestows on the blessed in heaven.”18
Pius XII says that it is a “hidden mystery, which in this earthly exile can never be fully disclosed, and grasped, and expressed in human language.”19 However, some light can be shed on this mystery if we see it in the context of the other supernatural mysteries of our faith and of the final end to which all of us are called. Hence, “the Divine Persons are said to inhabit [the soul in grace] inasmuch as they are present to intellectual creatures in a way that transcends human comprehension, and are known and loved by them, yet in a way that is unique, purely supernatural, and in the deepest sanctuary of the soul.”20
As was said earlier, heaven is the total fulfillment of this inhabitation, and, with the beatific vision, “it will be granted to the eyes of the human mind strengthened by the light of glory, to contemplate the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in an utterly ineffable manner, to be immediately present throughout eternity at the processions of the Divine Persons, and to rejoice with a happiness very much like that with which the holy and undivided Trinity is happy.”21
Christ himself has revealed this sublime mystery to us; “The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive … dwells with you, and will be in you” (Jn 14:17). And, he told his apostles, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (Jn 14:23).
15. The Holy Spirit’s Action in the Soul
The work of our transformation in Christ by grace is attributed to the Holy Spirit (de fide eccl.).
Every divine operation ad extra (operations that refer to creatures) is common to the three divine Persons. Hence, the infusion of grace into the soul and the process of divine adoption is the work of the Trinity. Nevertheless, all divine operations that convey a special outpouring of God’s love are attributed to the Holy Spirit, who is the substantial love between the Father and the Son. This is why the transformation of souls into Christ by grace is attributed to the Holy Spirit.
The Magisterium of the Church uses expressions based on the doctrine of appropriation, which in turn is rooted in Sacred Scripture. The Council of Trent, for example, teaches that the justice whereby we are made just (or the habitual grace received in Baptism) and charity, along with the other virtues, are “poured out” and “distributed” to the hearts of the faithful “by the Holy Spirit.”22 The doctrine of appropriation with regard to works attributed to the Holy Spirit is further elaborated upon in the encyclical Divinum Illud Munus of Leo XIII. It is also found in liturgy, especially in the rituals of Baptism and Confirmation, and in the prayers of the Liturgy of the Hours.
“The Holy Spirit is the Spirit sent by Christ to carry out in us the work of holiness that our Lord merited for us on earth.”23 The final objective of this gradual transformation effected by the Spirit of the Lord is our full identification and union with Jesus Christ, which will take place in heaven. Until then, God carries out his work within us through the grace that he abundantly lavishes upon us through the sacraments.24
The moral life of a Christian must be directed toward collaborating with the Lord in the task of his or her own sanctification, which means removing the obstacles to the action of the Holy Spirit and carrying out works pleasing to God. “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work” (Jn 4:34).
What is the surest path leading to personal intimacy with the Holy Spirit? The Founder of Opus Dei writes: “The Holy Spirit comes to us as a result of the cross—as a result of our total abandonment to the will of God, of seeking only his glory and renouncing ourselves completely.”25 “It is he who leads us to receive Christ’s teaching and to assimilate it in a profound way. It is he who gives us the light by which we perceive our personal calling and the strength to carry out all that God expects of us. If we are docile to the Holy Spirit, the image of Christ will be formed more and more fully in us, and we will be brought closer every day to God the Father. ‘For whoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the children of God’ (Rom 8:14).”26
16. Divine Grace and Free Human Correspondence
Divine grace calls for man’s cooperation (de fide in the case of an adult).
The Council of Trent condemned as heretical the Protestant thesis that “the free will of man, moved and awakened by God, in no way cooperates with the awakening call of God by an assent by which man could dispose and prepare himself to get the grace of justification.”27 Also condemned was the notion that “man cannot dissent, if he wishes, but, like a lifeless object, he does nothing at all and is merely passive.”28 A century later, Innocent X condemned the Jansenist view that “in the state of fallen nature, interior grace is never resisted.”29
In truth, divine grace never suppresses human freedom. Hence, “far removed from the truth are those who say that voluntary actions are less free because of the intervention of God (through grace). The power of divine grace is interior to man and in keeping with his natural inclinations, for it proceeds from the same author of our understanding and our will, who moves all things in accordance with their specific natures.”30 Rather, grace enlightens the intellect and strengthens the will to do good so that the use of one’s freedom is actually facilitated and rendered more secure.31
Sacred Scripture stresses human responsibility in some passages and divine action in others. Its constant exhortations to penance and holiness show that grace does not do away with freedom: “How often would I have gathered your children together … and you would not!” (Mt 23:37). “You always resist the Holy Spirit” (Acts 7:51; cf. Dt 30:19; Sir 15:14–17; 31:10).
The Fathers of the Church are unanimous on this point, for all their earnest incitements to the ascetical life and to exerting effort to achieve sanctity presuppose the conviction that man must make use of his freedom. St. Augustine’s testimonies are of special significance, for even though he had to emphasize the need of grace for salvation in order to refute the Pelagians, he still did not hesitate to write, “He who created you without your help, will not save you without your help.”32 Hence, the Christian’s transformation into Christ is the work of God, but it is also the work of the person insofar as the person does not place obstacles to inner divine action.
People, therefore, are endowed with the mysterious ability to decide their own destiny:
It is only we men (I am not referring now to the angels) who can unite ourselves to the Creator by using our freedom. We are in a position to give him, or deny him, the glory that is his due as the Author of everything that exists.
This possibility makes up the light and shade of human freedom. Our Lord invites us, urges us to choose the good, so tenderly does he love us!…
Ask yourself now (I too am examining my conscience) whether you are holding firmly and unshakably to your choice of Life? When you hear the most lovable voice of God urging you on to holiness, do you freely answer ‘Yes’? Let us turn our gaze once more to Jesus, as he speaks to the people in the towns and countryside of Palestine. He doesn’t want to force himself upon us. “If you have a mind to be perfect…” (Mt 19:21), he says to the rich young man. The young man refused to take the hint, and the Gospel goes on to say: abiit tristis (Mt 19:22) (“he went away forlorn”). That is why I have sometimes called him the “sad lad.” He lost his happiness because he refused to hand over his freedom to God.
Consider now the sublime moment when the Archangel Gabriel announces to the Virgin Mary the plans of the Most High. Our Mother listens, and asks a question to understand better what the Lord is asking of her. Then she gives her firm reply: Fiat! (Lk 1:38) (“Be it done unto me according to thy word”)! This is the fruit of the best freedom of all, the freedom of deciding in favor of God.33
17. Radical Primacy of Grace
Divine grace requires man’s cooperation, but, at the same time, always precedes it (de fide).
The entire work of salvation has God as its beginning. It can truly be said that God’s action always precedes that of the human being. When a person takes a step closer to God, it is because the Lord had first drawn that person to himself. Nevertheless, God does nothing supernatural in us without eliciting our free cooperation. In this way, God—the Author of our sanctification and the one who brings this work to its completion—associates us with himself in carrying out this task.
The Magisterium of the Church, in the Council of Trent, has spoken with great precision on this subject. The teaching regarding the radical primacy of grace can be summarized as follows:
· Without previous actual grace, no one can take the first steps that lead to conversion and Baptism.34
· A special help from God is needed in order to carry out any supernaturally meritorious act.35
· The very desire for grace requires the help of grace itself.36
· Actual grace is required in order to believe,37 and in order to:
o desire to believe,38
o pray,39
o fulfill the commandments,40
o overcome temptation,41
o avoid falling into mortal sin,42
o repent and make acts of penance,43
o dispose oneself to receive habitual grace and merit eternal life,44 and
o persevere in grace until death.45
Footnotes:
1. John Paul II, Homily in Puebla, Jan. 28, 1979.
2. Cf. DS 1524; CCC, 1987–2005.
3. John Paul II, Ap. Letter Patres Ecclesiae, Jan. 2, 1980.
4. Cf. DS 1534.
5. Roman Catechism, 2.2.50.
6. DS 1942.
7. LG, 40; cf. CCC, 1996–1997.
8. St. Thomas Aquinas, In III Sent., d. 34, q. 1, a. 3.
9. St. Athanasius, Or. de Incarn. Verbi, 54.
10. Pseudo-Dionysius, De Eccl. Hier., 1.3.
11. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Friends of God, 98.
12. Pius XI, Enc. Divini Illius Magistri: DS 3689.
13. Cf. LG, 40–41.
14. AA, 29.
15. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Christ is Passing By, 112.
16. DS 1678; cf. CCC, 1453.
17. Leo XIII, Enc. Divinum Illud Munus, May 9, 1897: DS 3330.
18. DS 3331.
19. Pius XII, Enc. Mystici Corporis, June 29, 1943: DS 3814.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. DS 1528–1530, 1561; cf. CCC, 1987–1989.
23. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Christ is Passing By, 130.
24. Cf. LG, 7: “All the members must be formed in his likeness, until Christ be formed in them (cf. Gal 4:19). For this reason we, who have been made like to him, who have died with him and risen with him, are taken up into the mysteries of his life, until we reign together with him.”
25. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Christ is Passing By, 137; cf. CCC, 1992, 2015.
26. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Christ is Passing By, 135.
27. DS 1554.
28. DS 1554.
29. DS 2002.
30. Leo XIII, Enc. Libertas Praestantissimum, June 20, 1888.
31. Cf. CCC, 1993, 2001–2002.
32. St. Augustine, Sermon 169: PL 38.923.
33. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Friends of God, 24–25.
34. Cf. DS 1525, 1526, 1551, 1553.
35. Cf. DS 242, 246, 248.
36. Cf. DS 373.
37. Cf. DS 1526, 1553.
38. Cf. DS 373.
39. Cf. DS 373, 376.
40. Cf. DS 1536, 1552, 1568.
41. Cf. DS 1520.
42. Cf. DS 1544.
43. Cf. DS 1553.
44. Cf. DS 1545.
45. Cf. DS 1541, 1566, 1572.