Chapter III. The Spiritual Organism
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HE interior life, which presupposes the state of grace, consists, as we have seen, in a generous tendency of the soul toward God, in which little by little each one’s intimate conversation with him- self is elevated, is transformed, and becomes an intimate conversa- tion of the soul with God. It is, we said, eternal life begun in the obscurity of faith before reaching its full development in the clarity of that vision which cannot be lost.
Better to comprehend what this seed of eternal life, semen gloriae, is in us, we must ponder the fact that from sanctifying grace spring forth in our faculties the infused virtues, both theological and moral, and also the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost; virtues and gifts which are like the subordinated functions of one and the same organism, a spiritual organism, which ought to develop until our entrance into heaven.
ARTICLE I
THe NATURAL LIFE AND THE SUPERNATURAL LIFE OF THE SOUL
We must distinguish clearly in our soul what belongs to its very nature and what is an entirely gratuitous gift of God. The same distinction must be made for the angels who also have a nature which, though entirely spiritual, is very inferior to the gift of grace.
If we carefully consider the human soul in its nature, we see two quite different regions in it: one belongs to the sensible order, the other to the suprasensible or intellectual order. The sensitive part of the soul is that which is common to men and animals; it includes the external senses and the internal senses, comprising the imagination, the sensible memory, and also sensibility, or the sensitive appetite, whence spring the various passions or emotions, which we call sensible love and hatred, desire and aversion, sensible joy and sadness, hope and despair, audacity and fear, and anger. All this sensitive life exists in the animal, whether its passions are mild like those of the dove or lamb, or whether they are strong like those of the wolf and the lion.
Above this sensitive part common to men and animals, our nature likewise possesses an intellectual part, which is common to men and angels, although it is far more vigorous and beautiful in the angel. By this intellectual part our soul towers above our body; this is why we say that the soul is spiritual, that it does not intrinsically depend on the body and will thus be able to survive the body after death.
From the essence of the soul in this elevated region spring our two higher faculties, the intellect and the will.1 The intellect knows not only sensible qualities, colors, and sounds, but also being, the intelligible reality, of necessary and universal truths, such as the following: “Nothing happens without a cause, and, in the last analysis, without a supreme cause. We must do good and avoid evil. Do what you ought to, come what may.” An animal will never attain to the knowledge of these principles; even if its imagination were continually growing in perfection, it would never attain to the intellectual order of necessary and universal truths. Its imagination does not pass beyond the order of sensible qualities, known here or there in their contingent singularity.
Since the intellect knows the good in a universal manner, and not only the delectable or useful good but the upright and reasonable good (for example: Die rather than become a traitor), it follows that the will can love this good, will it, and accomplish it. Thereby the intellect immensely dominates the sensitive part or the emotions common to men and animals. By his intellect and his will, man re- t To know and to will, the human soul and the angel need two faculties; in this respect both differ from God. God, who is Being itself, Thought, Wisdom, and Love, does not need faculties to know and to love. On the contrary, since the angel and the soul are not being itself, they have only a nature or an essence capable of receiving existence. Moreover, in them restricted existence, which is proper to them, is distinct from acts of knowledge and of will which have an object that is not limited; as a result the essence of the soul or of the angel, which receives the existence that is proper to them, is distinct from the faculties or powers capable of producing, not the permanent act of existence, but the successive acts of knowledge and of will. Cf. St. Thomas, la, q. 54, a. 1-3.
sembles the angel; although his intellect, in contrast to the angelic intellect, depends in this present life on the senses, which propose to it the first objects that it knows.
The two higher faculties, the intellect and the will, can develop greatly as we see in men of genius and superior men of action. These faculties could, however, develop forever without ever knowing and loving the intimate life of God, which is of another order, entirely supernatural, and supernatural alike for angels and men. Man and the angel can indeed know God naturally from without, by the reflection of His perfections in creatures; but no created and creatable intellect can by its natural powers attain, even confusedly and obscurely, the essential and formal object of the divine intellect.? To hold that it could be done would be to maintain that this created intellect is of the same nature as God, since it would be specified by the same formal object.? As St. Paul says: “For what man knoweth the things of a man, but the spirit of a man that is in him? So the things also that are of God no man knoweth, but the Spirit of God.” + This order is essentially supernatural.
Sanctifying grace, the seed of glory, introduces us into this higher order of truth and life. It is an essentially supernatural life, a participation in the intimate life of God, in the divine nature, since it even now prepares us to see God some day as He sees Himself and to love Him as He loves Himself. St. Paul has declared to us: “That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him. But to us God hath revealed them by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” ®
Sanctifying grace, which makes us begin to live in this higher, supra-angelic order of the intimate life of God, is like a divine graft received in the very essence of the soul to elevate its vitality and to make it bear no longer merely natural fruits but supernatural ones, meritorious acts that merit eternal life for us.
This divine graft of sanctifying grace is, therefore, in us an
essentially supernatural life, immensely superior to a sensible miracle and above the natural life of our spiritual and immortal soul.
Even now this life of grace develops in us under the form of the infused virtues and of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. As in the natural order, our intellectual and sensitive faculties spring from the very essence of our soul, so in the supernatural order, from sanctifying grace, received in the essence of the soul, spring, in our superior and inferior faculties, the infused virtues and the gifts which constitute, with the root from which they proceed, our spiritual or supernatural organism.’ It was given to us in baptism, and is restored to us by absolution if we have the misfortune to lose it.
The spiritual organism may be expressed in the following table of the virtues and the gifts.
theo- (charity ............... gift of wisdom lopa a faith. ancy orir nE gift of understanding ical. (NODO erei gratin ate gift of knowledge PLUCCNCE: napoti iria gift of counsel V OOE eenaa G I EiT A10 E gift of piety I R penance F T ioe obedience T U al fortitude of. Seg gcd eNews a gift of fortitude S E patience S temperance soienessie. gift of fear humility meekness chastity
In connection with this table it would be well to consult St. Thomas’ treatise on each of the virtues, where he speaks of the
6 The sensible miracle of the resurrection of a body restores natural life to this body in a supernatural manner; whereas sanctifying grace, which resuscitates a soul, is an essentially supernatural life. The miraculous effect of the corporal resurrection is not supernatural in itself but only by the mode of its production, “non quoad essentiam, sed quoad modum productionis suae.” This is why a miracle, although supernatural by reason of its cause, is naturally knowable, whereas the essentially supernatural life of grace could not be known naturally. To mark this difference a miracle is often said to be preternatural rather than supernatural, and the latter word is reserved to designate the supernatural life.
corresponding gift.® The gift of fear corresponds both to temperance and to hope,® but this latter virtue is also aided by the gift of knowledge, which shows us the emptiness of created things and thereby makes us desire God and depend on Him.’°
ARTICLE II THe THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES
The theological virtues are infused virtues which have for their object God Himself, our supernatural last end. This is why they are called theological. By contrast, the moral virtues have for their object the supernatural means proportioned to our last end. Thus prudence directs our acts to this end; religion makes us render to God the worship that 1s due Him; justice makes us give to everyone what we owe him; fortitude and temperance regulate the sensible part of our soul to prevent it from going astray and to make it cooperate, according to its manner, in our progress toward God.?
Among the theological virtues, infused faith, which makes us believe all that God has revealed because He is Truth itself, is like a higher spiritual sense which allows us to hear a divine harmony that is inaccessible to every other means of knowing. Infused faith is like a higher sense of hearing for the audition of a spiritual symphony which has God for its composer. This explains why there is an immense difference between the purely historical study of the Gospel and of the miracles which confirm it and the supernatural act of faith by which we believe in the Gospel as in the word of God. A very learned man who seeks the truth sincerely can make a historical and critical study of the Gospel and of the miracles which confirm it without as yet coming to the point where he believes. He will believe supernaturally only after receiving the grace of faith, which will introduce him into a higher world, superior even to the natural life of the angels. “Faith . . . is the gift
8 Summa, Ila Ifae.
° See ibid., q.141, a.1 ad 3um: “Temperance also has a corresponding gift, namely, fear, whereby man is withheld from the pleasures of the flesh, according to Ps. 118:120: ‘Pierce Thou my flesh with Thy fear.’ . . . It also corresponds to the virtue of hope.”
of God,” says St. Paul.? It is the basis of justification, for it makes us know the supernatural end toward which we must tend.* The Church has defined against the Semi-Pelagians that even the beginning of faith is a gift of grace.* All the great theologians have shown that infused faith is essentially supernatural, of a supernatural character very superior to that of the sensible miracle and also to that of prophecy which announces a contingent future in the natural order, such as the end of a war.® Faith makes us, in fact, adhere supernaturally and infallibly to what God reveals to us about His intimate life, according as the Church, which is charged with preserving revelation, proposes it to us.
Infused faith belongs thus to an order immensely superior to the historical and critical study of the Gospel. As Lacordaire rightly says: “A scholar may study Catholic doctrine, not reject it bitterly, and may even say repeatedly: ‘You are blessed to have faith; I should like to have it, but I cannot believe.’ And he tells the truth: he wishes and he cannot (as yet), for study and good faith do not always conquer the truth, so that it may be clear that rational certitude is not the first certitude on which Catholic doctrine rests. This scholar therefore knows Catholic doctrine; he admits its facts; he feels its power; he agrees that there existed a man named Jesus Christ, who lived and died in a prodigious manner. He is touched by the blood of the martyrs, by the constitution of the Church; he will willingly say that it is the greatest phenomenon that has passed over the world. He will almost say that it is true. And yet he does not
8 Rom. 4:1-25. Abraham was justified by faith in God, “it was reputed to him unto justice.” We ourselves will obtain salvation only by faith, which is a gift of God, by faith in Jesus Christ.
4 Cf. Denzinger, Enchiridion, no. 178.
5 St. Thomas, Ha Hae, q.6, a.1, 2. As the virtues are specified by their object and their formal motive, this essentially supernatural character of infused faith depends on its first object and on its formal motive, which are inaccessible to all natural knowledge. The first object of faith is, in fact, God Himself in His intimate life, and the formal motive of infused faith is the authority of God revealing. Now we can by reason alone know the authority of God the Author of nature, and even the Author of the sensible miracle; but we cannot by reason alone adhere to the authority of God the Author of grace. It is as the Author of grace that God intervenes when He reveals to us the essentially supernatural mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the redemption, the Eucharist, and eternal life. We have treated this im- portant point at length in De revelatione, 1, chap. 14, pp. 458-514, and in Christian Perfection and Contemplation, pp. 61-80.
conclude; he feels himself oppressed by truth, as one is in a dream where one sees without seeing. The day comes, however, when this scholar drops on his knees; feeling the wretchedness of man, he lifts his hands to heaven and exclaims: ‘Out of the depths I have cried to Thee, O Lord!’ At this moment something takes place in him, scales drop from his eyes, a mystery is accomplished, and he is changed. He is a man, meek and humble of heart; he can die, he has conquered the truth.” °
If acquired faith, born of the historical examination of the Gospel and of the miracles which confirm it, were sufficient to attain the formal motive of Christian faith, infused faith would be useless, as would likewise infused hope and infused charity. Natural good will, spoken of by the Pelagians, would suffice. In the opinion of the Pelagians, grace and the infused virtues were not absolutely necessary for salvation, but only for the easier accomplishment of the acts of Christian life.?
Infused faith is like a faculty of supernatural audition, like a higher musical sense, which permits us to hear the spiritual harmonies of the kingdom of heaven, to hear, in a way, the voice of God through the prophets and His Son before we are admitted to see Him face to face. Between the unbeliever, who studies the Gospel, and the believer, there is a difference similar to that which exists between two persons who are listening to a Beethoven symphony, one of whom has a musical ear and the other has not. Both hear all the notes of the symphony, but one alone grasps its meaning and its soul. Similarly, only the believer adheres supernaturally to the Gospel as to the supernatural word of God; and he adheres to it even though untutored, while the learned man with all his means of criticism cannot, without infused faith, adhere to it in this manner. “He that believeth in the Son of God, hath the testimony of God in himself.”
This is what prompted Lacordaire to say: “What takes place in us when we believe is a phenomenon of intimate and superhuman light. I do not say that exterior things do not act on us as rational e H. Lacordaire, Conférences à Notre-Dame de Paris, 17th conference.
7 Cf. Denzinger, Enchiridion, no. 179. Acquired faith exists in the demons who have lost infused faith, but who believe as it were reluctantly because of the evidence of miracles and other signs of revelation. Cf. St. Thomas, Ia lae, q.5, a.2; De veritate, q.14, a.9 ad gum. 8 See I John 5:10.
motives of certitude; but the very act of this supreme certitude, which I speak of, affects us directly like a luminous phenomenon (infused light of faith); I would even add, like a transluminous phenomenon. . . . We are affected by a transluminous light. . . . Otherwise how could there be proportion between our adherence, which would be natural and rational, and an object that surpasses nature and reason? . . . ® Similarly sympathetic intuition between two men accomplishes in a single moment what logic could not have brought about in many years. Just so, a sudden illumination sometimes enlightens the genius.
“A convert will tell you: ‘I read, reasoned, wished, and I did not arrive. Ihen one day, I don’t know how, on the street corner or at my fireside, [ don’t know, but I was no longer the same; I believed. . . . What took place in me at the moment of final conviction is of a totally different nature from what preceded. Remember the two disciples who were going to Emmaus.’ ” 7°
Fifty years ago, a man who did not yet know radio would have been surprised to hear it said that the day would come when a symphony that was being played in Vienna could be heard in Rome. By infused faith we hear a spiritual symphony which originates in heaven. Ihe perfect chords of this symphony are called the mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the redemption, the Mass, and eternal life. By this superior sense of hearing man is guided toward eternity; he ought ever to advance toward the summit from which this harmony comes.
To tend effectively toward this supernatural end and to reach it, man has received two helps, hope and charity, which are like two wings. Without them he could make progress only in the direction indicated by reason; with them he flies in the direction pointed out by faith.
Just as our intellect cannot know our supernatural end without
° St. Thomas says the same thing in De veritate, q.14, a.2: “Eternal life consists in the full knowledge of God. Hence there should be in us some beginning of this supernatural knowledge; and this is through faith, which from an infused light believes things that exceed natural reason.”
Summa, Ila ae, q.6, a.1, 2: Doubtless the light of faith is still obscure, but it is transluminiously obscure, that is, superior and not inferior to the evidences of reason.
10 Lacordaire, loc. cit.
the infused light of faith, so our will cannot tend toward it unless its powers are augmented, increased more than tenfold, raised to a higher order. For this the will needs a supernatural love and a new impulse.
By hope we desire to possess God, and in order to attain Him we rely, not on our natural powers but on the help that He promised us. We rely on God Himself who always comes to the assistance of those who invoke Him.
Charity is a superior and more disinterested love of God. It makes us love God, not only in order to possess Him some day, but for Himself and more than ourselves, because of His infinite goodness, which is more lovable in itself than all the benefits we receive from it.1? This virtue makes us love God above all else as a friend who has first loved us. It ordains to Him the acts of all the other virtues, which it vivifies and renders meritorious. Charity is our great supernatural force, the power of love which through centuries of persecution has surmounted all obstacles, even in weak children, such as St. Agnes and St. Lucy.
A man illumined by faith thus advances toward God by the two wings of hope and love. As soon as he sins mortally, however, he loses sanctifying grace and charity, since he turns away from God, whom he ceases to love more than himself. But divine mercy preserves infused faith and infused hope in him as long as he does not sin mortally against these virtues. He still preserves the light which indicates the road to be followed and he can still entrust himself to infinite mercy in order to ask of it the grace of conversion.
Of these three theological virtues, charity is the highest, and together with sanctifying grace, it ought to endure forever. “Charity,” says St. Paul, “never falleth away. . . . Now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.” 1? It will last forever, eternally, when faith will have disappeared to give place to vision, and when hope will be succeeded by the inamissible possession of God clearly known.
Such are the superior functions of the spiritual organism: the three theological virtues which grow together, and with them the infused moral virtues that accompany them.
ARTICLE III Tue Mora VIRTUES
To understand what the action of the spiritual organism should be, we must clearly distinguish on the level below the theological virtues, the acquired moral virtues which were described by the moralists of pagan antiquity and which can exist without the state of grace, and the infused moral virtues which were unknown to pagan moralists and which are described in the Gospel. ‘The acquired moral virtues, as their name indicates, are acquired by the repetition of acts under the direction of more or less cultivated natural reason. The infused moral virtues are called infused because God alone can produce them in us. They are not the result of the repetition of our acts; we received them in baptism as parts of our spiritual organism, and absolution restores them to us if we have had the misfortune to lose them. The acquired moral virtues, known by the pagans, have an object accessible to natural reason; the infused moral virtues have an essentially supernatural object commensurate with our supernatural end, an object which would be inaccessible without the infused light of faith in eternal life, in the gravity of sin, in the redemptive value of our Savior’s passion, in the value of grace and of the sacraments. !
In relation to the interior life, we shall discuss first of all the acquired moral virtues, then the infused moral virtues, and finally the relationship of the first to the second. This subject matter is important, especially since some souls consecrated to God do not in their youth give sufhicient importance to the moral virtues. Over and above a rather calm and pure sensibility, they seem to have the three theological virtues, but they almost lack the moral virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and so on.? Something like an intermediary stage seems to be lacking in their souls. Yet they have the infused moral virtues, but not the corresponding acquired moral virtues in a sufficient degree. Others, on the contrary, who are older and have seen the importance of the moral virtues of prudence, ciently focused on them, and they have the corresponding acquired virtues only in a feeble degree.1
justice, fortitude, and so on, in social life, do not sufficiently value the theological virtues, which are, however, incomparably higher since they unite us to God.
THE ACQUIRED MORAL VIRTUES
We shall ascend progressively from the lower degrees of natural morality to those of supernatural morality. We must, first of all, observe with St. Thomas that in a man in the state of mortal sin there are often false virtues, such as the temperance of the miser. He practices it, not for love of honest and reasonable good, not for the sake of living according to right reason, but for love of that useful good, money. Similarly, if he pays his debts, it is rather to avoid the costs of a lawsuit than for love of justice.
Above these false virtues, true acquired moral virtues may exist even in a man in the state of mortal sin. Some practice sobriety in order to live reasonably; for the same motive they pay their debts and teach some good principles to their children. But as long as a man remains in the state of mortal sin these true virtues remain in the state of a somewhat unstable disposition (in statu dispositionis facile mobilis); they are not yet in the state of solid virtue (difficile mobilis). Why is this? The answer is that, as long as a man 1s in the state of mortal sin, his will is habitually turned away from God. Instead of loving Him above all else, the sinner loves himself more than God, with the consequent result that he shows great weakness in accomplishing moral good, even of the natural order.
Moreover, the true acquired virtues which are in a man in the state of mortal sin lack solidity because they are not connected, because they are not sufficiently supported by the closely related moral virtues that are often lacking. We may take as an example a soldier who is naturally inclined to acts of bravery and has often shown himself courageous, but who 1s also inclined to become intoxicated. It may happen that, by reason of intemperance, on certain days he fails in the acquired virtue of fortitude and neglects his essential duties as a soldier.’ This man, who is inclined by temperament to2 be courageous, has not the virtue of fortitude as a virtue. Intemperance makes him fail in prudence, even in the domain of the virtue of fortitude. Prudence, which ought to direct all the moral virtues, supposes in fact that our will and our sensible appetites are habitually rectified as regards the end of these virtues. A man who drives several horses hitched to a chariot must see to it that each animal is already broken and docile. Now prudence is like the driver of all the moral virtues, auriga virtutum, and it ought to have them all in hand, so to speak. One does not go without the other: they are connected in prudence, which directs them.
Therefore, that true acquired virtues may not be simply in a state of unstable disposition, and that they may be in a state of solid virtue (in statu virtutis), they must be connected. That this may be so, a man must no longer be in the state of mortal sin, but his will must be set straight in regard to his last end. He must love God more than himself, at least with a real and efficacious love of esteem, if not with a love that is felt. This love is impossible without the state of grace and without charity.* But after justification or conversion, these true acquired virtues may come to be stable virtues; they may become connected, relying on each other. Finally, under the influx of infused charity, they become the principle of acts meritorious of eternal life. For this reason, some theologians, such as Duns Scotus, have even thought it not necessary that we should have infused moral virtues.
THE INFUSED MORAL VIRTUES
Are the acquired moral virtues we have just spoken of sufficient, under the influence of charity, to constitute the spiritual organism of the virtues in a Christian? Must we receive infused moral virtues?
Cursus theol., De virtutibus, disp. IV, dub. 1, no. 1; dub. 2, nos. 26, 27. Billuart, Cursus theol., De passionibus et virtutibus, diss. IT, a.4, par. 3, especially in fine.
We treated this subject at greater length in the Revie Thozniste, July, 1937: “The instability of the acquired moral virtues in the state of mortal sin.” Consult in particular St. Thomas, Ia Hae, q.49, a.2 ad 3 um; this text is of primary importance.
t See Ia Iae, q.65, a.2. In the present state of humanity, every man is either in the state of mortal sin or in the state of grace. Since the Fall, man cannot, in fact, efficaciously love God the Author of his nature more than himself without healing grace, a grace which is not really distinct from sanctifying grace which elevates. Cf. St. Thomas, Ia Hae, q. 109, a. 3.
In conformity with tradition and with a decision of Pope Clement V at the Council of Vienne,® the Catechism of the Council of Trent (Part II, On baptism and its effects), answers: “The grace (sanctifying), which baptism confers, is accompanied by the glorious cortege of all the virtues, which, by a special gift of God, penetrate the soul simultaneously with it.” This gift is an admirable effect of the Savior’s passion which is applied to us by the sacrament of regeneration.
Moreover, in this bestowal of the infused moral virtues, there is a lofty fitness that has been well set forth by St. Thomas.’ The means, he observes, must be proportioned to the end. By the infused theological virtues we are raised and directed toward the supernatural last end. Hence it is highly fitting that we should be raised and directed by the infused moral virtues in regard to supernatural means capable of leading us to our supernatural end.
God provides for our needs not less in the order of grace than in that of nature. Therefore, since in the order of nature He has given us the capacity to succeed in practicing the acquired moral virtues, it is highly fitting that in the order of grace He should give us infused moral virtues.
The acquired moral virtues do not suffice in a Christian to make him will, as he ought, the supernatural means ordained to eternal life. St. Thomas says, in fact, that there is an essential difference between the acquired temperance described by pagan moralists, and the Christian temperance spoken of in the Gospel.” The difference is analogous to that of an octave between two musical notes of the same name, separated by a complete scale. We often distinguish between philosophical temperance and Christian temperance, or again
5 Clement V at the Council of Vienne (Denzinger, Enchiridion, no. 483), thus settled this question, which was formulated under Innocent III (Denzinger, no. 410): “Whether faith, charity, and the other virtues are infused into children in baptism.” He answers: “We, however, considering the general efficacy of the death of Christ, which is applied by baptism equally to all the baptized, think that, with the approval of the sacred Council, we should choose as more probable and more consonant and harmonious with the teachings of the saints and of modern doctors of theology, the second opinion, which declares that informing grace and the virtues are bestowed in baptism on infants as well as adults.” By these words, “and the virtues,” Clement V means not only the theological virtues, but the moral virtues, for they also were involved in the question fonniulared under Innocent III.
between the philosophical poverty of Crates and the evangelical poverty of the disciples of Christ.
As St. Thomas remarks,® acquired temperance has a rule and formal object different from those of infused temperance. Acquired temperance keeps a just medium in the matter of food in order that we may live reasonably, that we may not injure our health or the exercise of our reason. Infused temperance, on the contrary, keeps a superior happy mean in the use of food in order that we may live in a Christian manner, as children of God, en route to the wholly supernatural life of eternity. Infused temperance thus implies a more severe mortification than is implied by acquired temperance; it requires, as St. Paul says, that man chastise his body and bring it into subjection,® that he may become not only a virtuous citizen of society on earth, but one of the “fellow citizens with the saints, and the domestics of God.” 1°
The same difference exists between the acquired virtue of religion, which ought to render to God, the Author of nature, the worship due Him, and the infused virtue of religion, which offers to God, the Author of grace, the essentially supernatural sacrifice of the Mass, which perpetuates in substance that of the cross. Between these two virtues of the same name, there is even more than the difference of an octave; there is a difference of orders, so that the acquired virtue of religion or that of temperance could grow forever by the repetition of acts without ever attaining the dignity of the slightest degree of the infused virtue of the same name. The tonality is entirely different; the spirit animating the word is no longer the same. In the case of the acquired virtue, the spirit is simply that of right reason; in the infused virtue, the spirit is that of faith which comes from God through grace.
‘These two formal objects and two motives of action differ greatly. Acquired prudence is ignorant of the supernatural motives of action, infused prudence knows them. Proceeding not from reason alone, but from reason illumined by infused faith, it knows the infinite eievation of our supernatural last end, God seen face to face. It knows, consequently, the gravity of mortal sin, the value of sanctifying grace and of the actual graces we must ask for every day
in order to persevere, and the value of the sacraments that are to be received. Acquired prudence is ignorant of all of this, because this matter belongs to an essentially supernatural order.
What a difference there is between the philosophical modesty described by Aristotle and Christian humility! The latter presupposes the knowledge of two dogmas: that of creation ex nihilo, and that of the necessity of actual grace for taking the slightest step forward in the way of salvation. What a distance there is also between the virginity of the vestal virgin, whose duty it was to keep up the sacred fire, and that of the Christian virgin who consecrates her body and heart to God that she may follow our Lord Jesus Christ more perfectly!
These infused moral virtues are Christian prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, and those which accompany them, such as meekness and humility. They are connected with charity in this sense, that charity, which sets us aright in regard to our supernatural last end, cannot exist without them, without this multiple rectification in regard to the supernatural means of salvation.'t Moreover, he who loses charity by a mortal sin, loses the infused moral virtues; because, by turning away from the supernatural end, he loses infused rectification in regard to the means proportioned to this end. But it does not follow that he loses faith and hope, or that he loses the acquired virtues; the latter, however, cease to be stable and connected in him. In fact, a man who is in the state of mortal sin loves himself more than he does God and tends through egoism to fail in his duties even in the natural order.
RELATIONS BETWEEN THE INFUSED MORAL VIRTUES AND THE ACQUIRED MORAL VIRTUES
The relations between these virtues and their subordination are explained by what we have just said.’? First of all, the facility of virtuous acts is not assured in the same way by the infused moral virtues as by the acquired moral virtues. The infused virtues give an intrinsic facility, without always excluding the extrinsic obstacles;
12 Cf. St. Thomas, Quaest. disp.: De virtutibus in communi, a. 10, in corp., ad rum, ad 13um, ad 16um, also P. Bernard, O.P., La vie spirituelle, January, 1935; suppl., pp. 25-54: “La vertu acquise et la vertu infuse.”
whereas these extrinsic obstacles are excluded by the repetition of acts that engender the acquired virtues.
This is easily understood when by sacramental absolution the infused moral virtues, united to sanctifying grace and to charity, are restored to a penitent who, though he has imperfect contrition for his sins, has not the acquired moral virtues. This happens, for example, in the case of a man who is accustomed to becoming intoxicated and who makes his Faster confession with sufficient attrition. By absolution he receives, together with charity, the infused moral virtues, Including temperance; but he has not yet the acquired virtue of temperance. [he infused virtue that he receives gives him a certain intrinsic facility for the exercise of the obligatory acts of sobriety; but this infused virtue does not exclude the extrinsic obstacles which would be eliminated by the repetition of the acts that engender acquired temperance.'* This penitent ought also to watch seriously over himself in order to avoid the occasions that would cause him to fall back into his habitual sin. For this reason it is evident that the acquired virtue of temperance greatly facilitates the exercise of the infused virtue of the same name.!4
How are the virtues exercised? They are exercised simultaneously in such a way that the acquired virtue is subordinated to the infused virtue as a favorable disposition. Thus, in another domain, the agility of a pianist’s or a harpist’s fingers, which is acquired by a repetition of acts, favors the exercise of the musical art that is in the artist’s intellect and not in his fingers. If he completely loses the nimbleness of his fingers as a result of paralysis, he can no longer exercise his art because of an extrinsic obstacle. His art, however, remains in his practical intellect, as we see in the case of a musical
18 Hence it follows that this penitent has through experience a much greater knowledge of the obstacles to be conquered than of the infused virtue of temperance, which he has just received, and which is of too elevated an order to fall under the scope of sensible experience.
14 Infused temperance can exist without acquired temperance, as in the case we have just discussed. And inversely, acquired temperance can exist without the infused virtue, for the latter is lost after every mortal sin, whereas acquired temperance remains at least in an imperfect state (in statu dispositionis facile mobilis) if it existed before this sin. Thus the sensible memory, which is at the service of intellectual knowledge, can exist without it; inversely, a great scholar, preserving his knowledge in his intellect, can, by reason of a cerebral lesion, lose his memory which facilitated the exercise of this knowledge.
genius who is stricken with paralysis. Normally there ought to be two subordinated functions that should be exercised together. The same holds true for the acquired virtue and for the infused virtue of the same name.?® In like manner the imagination is at the service of the intellect, and the memory at that of knowledge.
These moral virtues consist in a happy mean between two extremes, shown by excess on the one hand and deficiency on the other. Thus the virtue of fortitude inclines us to keep a happy mean between fear, which flees danger without a reasonable motive, and temerity, which would lead us into the danger of getting our head broken without sufficient reason. However, this happy mean may be misunderstood. i: picureans and the tepid intend to keep a happy mean not for love of virtue, but for convenience’ sake in order to flee from the discomforts of the contrary vices. They confuse the happy mean with mediocrity, which is found not precisely between two contrary evils, but halfway between good and evil. Mediocrity or tepidity flees the higher good as an extreme to be avoided. It hides its laziness under this principle: “The best is sometimes the enemy of the good”; and it ends by saying: “The best is often, 1f not always, the enemy of the good.” It thus ends by confusing the good with the mediocre.
The right happy medium of true virtue is not only a mean between two contrary vices; it is also a summit. It rises like a culminating point between these contrary deviations; thus fortitude is superior to fear and temerity; true prudence to imprudence and cunning; magnanimity to pusillanimity and vain and ambitious presumption; liberality to avarice or stinginess and prodigality; true religion to impiety and superstition.
Moreover, this happy medium, which 1s at the same time a summit,
15 In the just man, charity commands or inspires the act of acquired temperance by the intermediary of the simultaneous act of infused temperance. And even outside the production of their acts, since these two virtues are united in the same faculty, the infused confirms the acquired. Only in those Christians who live a more supernatural life, does the supernatural motive most appear as the explicit motive of acting; in others it is a rational motive, and the supernatural remains somewhat latent (remissus). Similarly, one pianist may show great technique and a modicum of inspiration, whereas in another the inverse may be true. The motives of inferior reason, which touch on health, are more or less explicit according as a person is more or less freed from these preoccupations, or according as he is so healthy that he need not think of his health.
tends to rise without deviating to the right or the left in proportion as virtue grows. In this sense the mean of the infused virtue is superior to that of the corresponding acquired virtue, for it depends on a higher rule and has in view a more elevated object.
We note, lastly, that spiritual authors insist particularly, as the Gospel does, on certain moral virtues which have a more special relation with God and an affinity with the theological virtues. They are religion or solid piety,1® penance,” which render to God the worship and the reparation which are due to Him; meekness,*® united to patience, perfect chastity, virginity,’® and humility,?° a fundamental virtue which excludes pride, the principle of every sin. By abasing us before God, humility raises us above pusillanimity and pride and prepares us for the contemplation of divine things, for union with God. “God giveth grace to the humble,” ?! and He makes them humble in order to load them with His gifts. Christ delighted in saying: “Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart.” ?? He alone, who was so well established in truth, could speak of His humility without losing it.
Such are the infused and acquired moral virtues which, with the theological virtues to which they are subordinated, constitute our spiritual organism. This ensemble of functions possesses great harmony, although venial sin may more or less frequently introduce discordant notes in it. All the parts of this spiritual organism grow together, says St. Thomas, like the five fingers of one hand. This proportionate growth demonstrates that a soul cannot have lofty charity without profound humility, just as the highest branch of a tree rises toward heaven in proportion as its roots plunge more deeply into the soil. We must take care in the interior life that nothing troubles the harmony of this spiritual organism, as happens un-
23 See Ia Hae, q.66, a.2. These virtues grow together with charity because of their connection with this virtue, just as the different parts of our physical organism grow simultaneously. But the infused moral virtues grow especially with charity. The acquired virtues may not develop as much if they are not sufficiently exercised.
fortunately in those who, while perhaps remaining in the state of grace, seem more preoccupied with human learning or exterior relations than with growth in faith, confidence, and the love of God.
To form a right idea of the spiritual organism, it is not sufficient to know these virtues. We must consider the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, and not ignore the diverse forms under which divine help is offered.
ARTICLE IV THe SEven Girts oF THE Hoty Guost
We shall recall what divine revelation, the traditional teaching of the Church, and the explanation of this teaching given by theologians, especially St. Thomas, teach us about the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost.
THE TEACHING OF SCRIPTURE
The revealed doctrine on the gifts of the Holy Ghost is contained principally in the classic text of Isaias (11:2) which the fathers have often commented upon, saying that it is applied first of all to the Messias, and then by participation to all the just, to whom Christ promised to send the Holy Ghost. In this text, Isaias says in reference to the Messias: “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him: the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of godliness, and He shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord.” ?
In the Book of Wisdom we read also: “Wherefore I wished, and understanding was given me; and I called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came upon me. And I preferred her before kingdoms and thrones. . . . Silver in respect to her shall be counted as clay. I loved her above health and beauty. . . . Now all good things came to me together with her. . . . I knew not that she was the mother in verse 3, and in the Old Testament the terms ”fear of God” and “piety” have almost the same meaning.3
of them all. Which I have learned without guile, and communicate without envy. . . . For she is an infinite treasure to men, which they that use, become the friends of God. . . . She reneweth all things, and through nations conveyeth herself into holy souls, she maketh the friends of God and prophets. For God loveth none but him that dwelleth with wisdom.” ? This passage in itself shows that wisdom is the highest of the gifts of the Holy Ghost enumerated by Isaias.
This Old Testament revelation takes on its full meaning in the light of our Savior’s words: “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you forever. The spirit of truth
. shall be in you. . . . The Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you.” 3 To fortify the faithful against the promoters of heresy, St. John adds: “But you have the unction from the Holy One. . . . Let the unction, which you have received from Him, abide in you. And you have no need that any man teach you; but as His unction teacheth you of all things and is truth, and is no lie.” 4 Moreover, Scripture contains texts commonly quoted as relating to each gift in particular.’
TRADITION
In the course of time, the fathers of the Church often commented on these words of Scripture, and, beginning with the third century, tradition explicitly affirms that the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost are in all the just.* Pope St. Damasus, in 382, speaks of the sevenfold Spirit which rested on the Messias, and he enumerates the gifts.”
St. Augustine, especially, explains this doctrine in his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount.® He shows the correspondence be-
6 St. Thomas quotes these texts when he treats of each of the seven gifts.
6A. Gardeil, O.P., “Dons du Saint-Esprit,” Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, IV, 1728-81.
8 De sermone Domini, l, 1-4; De doctrina christiana, Il, 7; Sermo 347.4
tween the evangelical beatitudes and the seven gifts. Fear represents the first degree of the spiritual life; wisdom is its crown. Between these two extremes, St. Augustine distinguishes a double period of purifying preparation for wisdom: a remote preparation, by the active practice of the moral virtues corresponding to the gifts of piety, fortitude, knowledge, and counsel; then an immediate preparation, in which the soul is purified as a result of a more enlightened faith by the gift of understanding, of a firmer hope sustained by the gift of fortitude, and of a more ardent charity. The first preparation is calied the active life; the second, the contemplative life,® because moral activity is ere entirely subordinated to a faith rendered luminous by contemplation, which, in pacified and docile souls, will one day culminate in perfect wisdom.!°
To know the teaching of the Church on this subject we shall recall what the Council of Trent says: “The efficient cause [of our justification] is the merciful God who washes and sanctifies gratuitously (I Cor. 6:11), signing and anointing with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance (Eph. 1:13 f.).” 1
The Catechism of the Council of Trent fixes this point exactly by enumerating the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost according to Isaias (11:2 f.), and by adding: “These gifts of the Holy Ghost are for us, as it were, a divine source whence we draw the living knowledge of the precepts of Christian life. Moreover, by them we can know whether the Holy Ghost dwells in us.” +? St. Paul says, in fact: “For the Spirit Himself giveth testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God.” 13 He gives us this testimony by the filial love which He inspires in us, and by which He makes Himself, so to speak, felt by us."
One of the most beautiful testimonies that tradition offers us on the seven gifts is found in the liturgy for Pentecost. We read in the sequence for the Mass of that day:
10 Cf. Fulbert Cayré, A.A., La contemplation augustinienne, chaps. 2 f. He shows here that contemplation, according to St. Augustine, is a supernatural wisdom. It has for its principle, together with faith, a superior action of the Holy Ghost, which makes the soul, so to speak, touch and taste God.
11 Council of Trent, Sess. VI, chap. 7.
12 Catechism of the Council of Trent, Part 1, chap. 9, § 3: “I believe in the Holy Ghost.”
Veni sancte Spiritus, Et emitte coelitus Lucis tuae radium.
“Come, O Holy Ghost, and send from heaven a ray of Thy light. Come, Father of the poor. Come, Giver of graces. Come, Light of hearts, excellent Counselor, sweet Guest of our soul, sweet Refreshment, Rest in labor, Coolness in heat, Comfort in tears.”
O lux beatissima, Reple cordis intina Tuorum fidelium.
“O blessed Light, inundate the very depths of the hearts of Thy faithful. . . . Warm what is cold, straighten what is crooked.” Da tus fidelibus, In te confidentibus, Sacrum septenarium.
“Give to Thy faithful who trust in Thee, the sacred sevenfold gift. Give them the merit of virtue. Give them a happy end. Give them eternal joy.”
In the Veni Creator Spiritus, we read likewise:
Tu septiformis munere.... Accende lumen sensibus, lnfunde amorem cordibus.
“The sevenfold gift is Thine. . . . Kindle our senses with fire from above and pour Thy love into our hearts.” 1°
Finally, the testimony of tradition is admirably expressed by the encyclical of Leo XIII on the Holy Ghost, in which the Pope declares that to complete our supernatural life we need the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. He says:
The just man, that is to say, he who lives the life of divine grace and acts by the fitting virtues as by means of faculties, has need of those seven gifts, whieh: are properly attributed to the Holy Ghost. By means of them the soul is furnished and strengthened so as to be able to obey more easily and promptly His voice id impulse. Wherefore these gifts are of such efficacy that they lead the just man to the highest degree of sanctity; and of such excellence that they continue to exist even in heaven, though in a more perfect way. By means of these gifts the soul
15 The composer of this beautiful prayer, which will be said until the end of the world, must have been a great contemplative. It is useless to know his name; he was a voice of God.
is excited and encouraged to seek after and attain the evangelical beatitudes which, like the flowers that come forth in the springtime, are the signs and harbingers of eternal beatitude. .
These sublime truths, which so clearly show forth the infinite goodness of the Holy Ghost towards us, certainly demand that we should direct towards Him the highest homage of our love and devotion. Christians may do this most effectually if they will daily strive to know Him, to love Him, and to implore Him more earnestly. . . . What should be chiefly dwelt upon and clearly explained is the multitude and greatness of the benefits which have been bestowed, and are constantly bestowed, upon us by this divine Giver. . . . We owe to the Holy Ghost love, because He is God. . . . He is also to be loved because He is the substantial, eternal, primal Love, and nothing is more lovable than love. . . . In the second place it will obtain for us a still more abundant supply of heavenly gifts; for whilst a narrow heart contracts the hand of the giver, a grateful and mindful heart causes it to expand. . . . Lastly, we ought confidently and continually to beg of Him to illuminate us daily more and more with His light and inflame us with His charity: for, thus inspired with faith and love, we may press onward earnestly towards our eternal reward, since “He is the pledge of our inheritance.” 16
Such are the principal testimonies of tradition regarding the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. We shall recall briefly the exact statements brought to bear on this point by theology, especially in the doctrine of St. Thomas. His teaching has been approved in substance by Leo XIII, who often quoted the Angelic Doctor in the encyclical, the principal parts of which we have just cited.
THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY GHOST ACCORDING TO ST. THOMAS ?!*
The holy doctor shows us three things in particular: that the gifts are habitual permanent dispositions (habitus) specifically distinct
16 Encyclical Divinum illud munus (May 9, 1897), circa finem. This text shows: (1) the necessity of the gifts (“has need of”); (2) their nature: they make us docile to the Holy Ghost; (3) their effects: they can lead us to the summit of sanctity.
17 Cf. St. Thomas, In III Sent., dist. 34 f.; Ia Iae, q.68; Ia Iae, q.8, 9, 19, 45, 52, 121, 139; see his commentators, especially Cajetan and John of St. Thomas, on Ia Hae, q.68.
St. Bonaventure may also be consulted with profit. His doctrine differs on certain secondary points from that of St. Thomas; cf. Breviloquium, Part V, chaps. 5 f., and J. Fr. Bonnefoy, Le Saint-Esprit et ses dons selon saint Bona- from the virtues; that the gifts are necessary to salvation; and that they are connected with charity and grow with it. St. Thomas says:
To differentiate the gifts from the virtues, we must be guided by the way Scripture expresses itself, for we find there that the term employed is spirit rather than gift. For thus it is written (Isa. 11:2 f.): “The spirit
. of wisdom and of understanding . . . shall rest upon Him,” and so on: from which words we are clearly given to understand that these seven are there set down as being in us by divine inspiration. Now inspiration denotes motion from without. For it must be noted that in man there is a twofold principle of movement, one within him, namely, the reason; the other extrinsic to him, namely, God, as stated above (Ia Hae, q: 9, a. 4, 6), and also by the Philosopher in the chapter on Good Fortune (Ethic. Eudem., vii).
Now it is evident that whatever is moved must be proportionate to its mover: and the perfection of the thing moved as such consists in a disposition whereby the thing moved is made proportionate to its mover. Hence the more exalted the mover, the more perfect must be the disposition whereby the movable object is made proportionate to its mover: thus we see that a disciple needs a more perfect disposition in order to receive a higher teaching from his master. Now it is manifest that human virtues perfect man according as it is natural for him to be moved by his reason +° in his interior and exterior actions. Consequently man needs yet higher perfections, whereby to be disposed to be moved by God. These perfections are called gifts, not only because they are in- venture (Paris: Vrin, 1929), and also art. “Bonaventure,” Dict. de spiritualité.
See also Dionysius the Carthusian, De donis Spiritus Sancti (an excellent treatise); J. B. de Saint-Jure, S.J., L'homme spirituel, Part 1, chap. 4, “Des sept dons”; L. Lallemant, S.J., La doctrine spirituelle, 4th principle, “La docilité a la conduite du Saint-Esprit.” B. Froget, O.P., De habitation du Saint-Esprit dans les dmes justes (Paris, 1900), pp. 378-424. A. Gardeil, O.P., “Dons du Saint-Esprit,” Dict. de théol. cathol., IV, 1728-81; La structure de lame et Pexpérience mystique (Paris, 1927), II, 192-281, Les dons du Saint-Esprit dans les saint dominicains (the introduction particularly), 1903. See several other articles on various gifts in particular by the same theologian in La vie spirituelle, 1932, 1933.
D. Joret, O.P., La contemplation mystique daprès saint Thomas d’ Aquin, 1927, pp. 30-62.
We have also treated this important subject at length in Christian Perfection and Contemplation, chap. 5, a.5 f., pp. 271-331. See also La vie spirituelle, November 19, 1932, suppl.: “Les dons ont-ils un mode humain”; ibid., October, 1933, suppl.: “A propos du mode supra-humain des dons du Saint-Esprit,” reproduced in this book, infra, pp. 78-88.
18 In the supernatural order, it is a question of reason enlightened by faith. It is thus, in particular, that infused prudence directs the infused moral virtues.
fused by God, but also because by them man is disposed to become amenable to the divine inspiration,’® according to Isa. 1:5: “The Lord
. hath opened my ear, and I do not resist; I have not gone back.” Even the Phil losopher says in the chapter on Good Bonnie (Ethic. Eudem., loc. cit.) that for those who are moved by divine instinct, there is no ee to take counsel according to human reason, but only to follow their inner promptings, since they are moved by a principle higher than human reason. This, then, is what some say, that the gifts perfect man for acts which are higher than acts of virtue.?°
Thus we see that the gifts of the Holy Ghost are not acts, or actual motions, or passing helps of grace, but rather qualities or permanent infused dispositions (habitus),21 which render a man promptly docile to divine inspirations. Leo XIII, in the encyclical Divinum illud munus, which we quoted at length a few pages back, placed his approval on this manner of conceiving of the gifts. They dispose man to obey the Holy Ghost promptly, as sails prepare a ship to follow the impulse of a favorable wind. By this passive docility, the gifts ae us to produce those excellent works known as the beatitudes.?? From this point of view, the saints are like great sailing vessels which, under full sail, properly catch the impelling force of the wind. ‘The art of navigation teaches a mariner how and when he may most opportunely spread his sails to profit by a favorable breeze.
This figure is used by our Lord Himself when He says: “The Spirit breatheth where He will; and thou hearest His voice, but thou knowest not whence He cometh and whither He goeth. So 1s everyone that is born of the Spirit” °° and is docile to His inspiration. St. Thomas says ** we do not really know where precisely the wind that blows was formed, or how far it will make itself felt. In the same way, we do not know where precisely a divine inspiration begins, or to what degree of perfection it would lead us if we were
19 “Secundum ea homo disponitur, ut efficiatur prompte mobilis ab inspiratione divina.”
2? See la Iae, q.68, a.3: “The gifts of the Holy Ghost are habits whereby man is perfected to obey readily the Holy Ghost.” Cf. ibid., q.70, a.2: “The beatitudes are none but perfect works, which, by reason of their perfection, are assigned to the gifts rather than to the virtues.”
wholly faithful to it. Let us not be like sailing vessels which, because of neglect in noting a favorable wind, have their sails furled when they should be spread.
According to these principles, the great majority of theologians hold with St. Thomas that the gifts are really and specifically distinct from the infused virtues, just as the principles which direct them are distinct: that is, the Holy Ghost and reason illumined by faith. We have here two regulating motions, two different rules that constitute different formal motives. It is a fundamental principle that habits are specified by their object and their formal motive, as sight by color and light, and hearing by sound. The human mode of acting results from the human rule; the superhuman mode results from the superhuman or divine rule, from the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, “modus a mensura causatur.” ?5 Thus even infused prudence proceeds by discursive deliberation, in which it differs from the gift of counsel, which disposes us to receive a special inspiration of a superdiscursive order.?® Even infused prudence hesitates, for example, about what answer to give to an indiscreet question so as to avoid a lie and keep a secret; while a special inspiration of the Holy Ghost will enable us to find a proper reply, as Christ told His disciples.”
Likewise, while faith adheres simply to revealed truths, the gift of understanding makes us scrutinize their depths, and that of wisdom makes us taste them. The gifts are thus specifically distinct from the virtues.?8
St. Thomas adds in his Summa °® a statement that he had not made in his Cowmentary on the Sentences, namely, that the gifts of the Holy Ghost are necessary to salvation. The Book of Wisdom (7:28) tells us in fact that: “God loveth none but him that dwelleth with
25 This principle, contained in the commentary of St. Thomas on the Sentences and in his Summa, marks the continuity of these two works. Cf. II, D. XXXIV, q.2, a.1, qc. 3; q-3, 2. 1, qc. 1; and Ia Iae, q.68, a.1, a.2 ad rum. See also Perfection chrétienne et contemplation, 7th ed., II, [52 ]-[64].
28 Other serious difficulties would follow the negation of the specific distinction between the virtues and the gifts. We could not explain why certain gifts, such as fear, are not numbered among the virtues, or why Christ had the seven gifts, as Isaias teaches us (11:2 f.), without having certain infused virtues, such as faith, hope, and penance, which suppose an imperfection.
wisdom”; and we read in Ecclesiasticus (1:28): “He that is without fear (of God), cannot be justified.” Wisdom is the highest of the gifts, and fear the lowest.
Moreover, St. Thomas notes that even the infused virtues, both theological and moral, which are adapted to the human mode of our faculties, leave us in a state of inferiority in regard to our supernatural end which should be known in a more lively, more penetrating, more delightful manner, and toward which we ought to advance with greater ardor.?°
Even when faith is elevated, it remains essentially imperfect for three reasons: (1) because of the obscurity of its object, which it does not attain immediately, but “through a glass in a dark manner” (I Cor. 13:12); (2) it attains its object only by multiple dogmatic formulas, whereas God is supremely simple; (3) it attains its object in an abstract manner, by affirmative and negative propositions (componendo et dividendo), whereas, on the contrary, the living God is the light of life, whom we ought to be able to know, not in an abstract manner but in a quasi-experimental manner.?! Hope shares the imperfection of faith, and so does charity as long as its object is proposed by faith.
With even greater reason, prudence, though infused, is imperfect from the fact that it must have recourse to reasoning, to the search for reasons for acting in order to direct the moral virtues. It frequently hesitates, for example, about a suitable answer to give to an indiscreet question so as to keep a secret and avoid a lie. In certain cases, only a good 1 Inspiration would be necessary to do so. The same thing 1 is true when it is a case of efficaciously resisting certain temptations, either subtle, or violent and prolonged.
“Human reason,” says St. Thomas, “even when perfected by the theological virtues, does not know all things, or all possible things. Consequently it is unable to avoid folly (stultitia) and other like things. . . . God, however, to whose knowledge and power all things are subject, by His motion safeguards us from all folly, ignorance, dullness of mind, hardness of heart, and the rest. Consequently the gifts of the Holy Ghost, which make us docile to His promptings, are said to be given as remedies for these defects.” 3?
30 Ibid. 31 The gift of wisdom makes this possible. 82 Ibid., a.2 ad 3 um.
In this sense they are necessary to salvation, as sails are on a vessel that it may be responsive to a favorable wind, although it may advance also by means of oars. These two ways of advancing are quite distinct, although they may be united or simultaneous.
“By the theological and moral virtues,” says St. Thomas, “man is not so perfected in respect of his last end as not to stand in continual need of being moved by the yet higher promptings of the Holy Ghost.” 33 ‘This need is permanent in man; for this reason the gifts are in us a permanent, infused disposition.**
We make use of the gifts somewhat as we do of the virtue of obedience in order to receive a superior direction with docility and to act according to this direction; but we do not have this superior
33 [bid., ad 2um. Some theologians, as Abbé Perriot (Ami du clergé, 1892. p. 391), basing their argument on the text of St. Thomas that we have just quoted, have thought that in his opinion the gifts intervene in every meritorious work. Father Froget, O.P. (De habitation du Saint-Esprit dans les âmes justes, Part IV, chap. 6, pp. 407-24) and Father Gardeil, O.P. (Dict. théol. cath., art. “Dons,” col. 1779) have shown that this is not at all the true thought of St. Thomas. To say that the gifts of the Holy Ghost must intervene in every meritorious act, even though it be imperfect (renzissus et quantumvis remissus), would be to confound ordinary actual grace with the special inspiration to which the gifts render us docile. In the text which we have just quoted, St. Thomas means that man is not perfected to such a degree by the theological virtues that he does not always need to be inspired by the interior Master (senper not pro-seniper), as we say: “I always need this hat,” not however from morning until night, or from night until morning. Similarly a medical student is not so well instructed that he does not always need the assistance of his master for certain operations. The need we experience is not transitory but permanent; all of which goes to show that the gifts should be not transitory inspirations, like the grace of prophecy, but permanent infused dispositions.
Moreover, it is certain that man can make a supernatural act of faith with an actual grace, without any assistance from the gifts of the Holy Ghost, without penetrating or tasting the mysteries to which he adheres. This is the case with the believer who is in the state of mortal sin, and who, on losing charity, has lost the seven gifts.
But, on the other hand, it is commonly admitted that the gifts of the Holy Ghost frequently influence us in a latent manner without our being aware of it, in order to give our meritorious acts a perfection which they would not have without this influence. In like manner, a favorable breeze facilitates the work of the rowers.
As St. Thomas teaches, Ia Iae, q.68, a.8, the gifts are in this way superior to the infused moral virtues. Although the gifts are less elevated than the theological virtues, they bring them an added perfection, that, for example, of penetrating and delighting in the mysteries of faith.
inspiration whenever we wish.5 In this sense by means of the gifts we are passive in regard to the Holy Ghost that we may act under His influence. This will explain more clearly why, like obedience, the gifts are a permanent disposition in the just man.°
This great fitness, and even this necessity of the gifts, 1s better seen if we consider the perfection which each of them gives either to the intellect, or to the will and to the sensible part of the soul, as St. Thomas points out.?7
The following synopsis explains the statement just made:
E = for the penetration of truth........ understanding | faith
Z a wives : : ‘ s2 divine things s0000 sevens wisdom charity fe a | : Slos to judge < created things........... knowledge hope 3 | -5 2| yop Our -ACTIONS «6.05 40.%404 counsel prudence S nET S: “= V = i GQ 2 = sonny) ; ; i es a z &.2 relative to worship due to God... .piety religion a e 8
© § d -against the fear of danger.......... fortitude mY) 2 oe =e disorderly concupiscences. . fear temperance wee)
We see that those gifts which direct the others are superior; among them the gift of wisdom is the highest because it gives us a quasiexperimental knowledge of God, and thereby, a judgment about divine things which is superior even to the penetration of the gift of understanding (which belongs rather to first apprehension than to judgment).
86 St. Thomas (Ia Hae, q.68, a.3) and his commentators, in particular John of St. Thomas, show clearly that it is highly fitting that the gifts should be permanent dispositions in us (habitus) in order to render us habitually docile to the Holy Ghost, who always remains in the just soul, as the moral virtues are permanent dispositions to render the will and the sensible part of the soul habitually docile to the direction of right reason.
If it were otherwise, the organism of the life of grace, which is the ercatest of the gifts of God, would remain imperfect. It is not fitting that, according to the plan of Providence, which disposes all things suaviter et fortiter, the a of the supernatural life in the just soul should be in this respect less perfect than that of the acquired virtues directed by reason. Finally, according to tradition, habitual Eats is called “the grace of the virtues and gifts.” Cf. St. Thomas, lila, q.62, a.
The gift of knowledge corresponds to hope in this sense, that it makes us see the emptiness of created things and of human help, and consequently the necessity of placing our confidence in God in order to attain to the possession of Him. The gift of fear also perfects hope by preserving us from presumption; but it corresponds also to temperance to aid us against temptations.’8 To these seven gifts correspond the beatitudes which are their acts, as St. Thomas so well shows.?°?
Finally, from the necessity of the gifts for salvation it follows that they are connected with charity, according to St. Paul’s words to the Romans (5:5): “The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us.” The H oly Ghost does not come to us without His seven gifts, which thus accompany charity and which, consequently, are lost with it by mortal sin.
They thus belong to the spiritual organism of sanctifying grace, which is therefore called “the grace of oie virtues and the gifts.” +° Since all the infused virtues grow together like the five nee of the hand,*! the same must be said of the seven gifts. Hence we cannot conceive of a Christian having that high degree of charity which is proper to perfection, without at the same time having the gifts of the Holy Ghost in a proportionate degree, although perhaps in him the gifts of understanding and of wisdom may be exercised un-
39 See Ia Iae, q.69, a.3, c. and ad 3um; Ha Hac, q.8, a.7; q.9, 4.4; 9.45, 2.6; Q10; 2.02 q: 121, A025 C. 130, aed,
Following St. Augustine, St. Thomas shows that the gift of wisdom corresponds to the beatitude of the peacemakers, for it gives peace and allows the soul possessing it to give it to others, at times even to the most troubled. The gift of understanding corresponds to the beatitude of the clean of heart; for those who possess this cleanness of heart begin here on earth, in a certain way, to see God in all that happens to us. The gift of knowledge, which shows us the gravity of sin, corresponds to the beatitude of those who weep for their sins. The gift of counsel which inclines the soul to mercy, corresponds to the beatitudé of the merciful. The gift of piety, which makes us see in men not rivals, but children of God and our brothers, corresponds to the beatitude of the meek. The gift of fortitude corresponds to that of those who hunger and thirst after justice and never become discouraged. Finally, the gift of fear corresponds to the beatitude of the poor in spirit; they ossess the holy fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom.
40 See lIa, q.62, a.2: “Whether sacramental grace confers anything in addition to the grace of the virtues and gifts.” St. Thomas says here that habitual grace is so called because from it proceed the infused virtues and the gifts, as so many functions of the same organism.
der a less contemplative and more practical form than in others. This was the case with St. Vincent de Paul and many other saints who were called to devote themselves to their neighbor in the works of the active life.*?
We shall treat later of docility to the Holy Ghost and of the conditions it demands,** but we see even now the value of this spiritual organism, which is eternal life begun in us. This life is more precious than sight, than physical life, than the use of reason, in this sense, that the loss of the use of reason does not deprive the just man of this treasure, which death itself cannot snatch from us. This grace of the virtues and gifts is also more precious than the gift of miracles or of tongues or of prophecy; for these charismata are, so to speak, only exterior, supernatural signs, which can point out the way that leads to God, but cannot unite us to Him as sanctifying grace and charity can.**
To see more clearly how the diverse functions of this spiritual organism should be exercised, we must speak of the actual grace necessary to the exercise of the virtues and the gifts.*
APPENDIX
THe SUPERHUMAN MODE oF THE GIFTS OF THE Hoty Guost
Since we have treated this question of the superhuman mode of the gifts of the Holy Ghost in other works, we shall briefly recall
#2 Pursuing the comparison we have already used, we note that among sailing vessels equally responsive to the wind, the brig differs from the schooner; the form and arrangement of the sails vary; in certain places one type of sail is better than another. Something similar is found in the order of spiritual navigation toward the port of salvation.
44 See Ia Iae, g.111, a.5: “Whether gratia gratum faciens is nobler than gratia gratis data.” St. Thomas answers with St. Paul (I Cor. 13:1) that sanctifying grace, which is inseparable from charity, is far more excellent than graces gratis datae.
#5 The theological virtues, which unite us to the Holy Ghost, are superior to the seven gifts, although they receive a new perfection from the gifts; thus a tree is more perfect than its fruit. These virtues are the rule of the gifts, in the sense that the gifts make us penetrate more deeply and taste with greater delight the mysteries to which we adhere by faith; but the immediate rule of the act of the gifts is the special inspiration of the Holy Ghost.5
the exact meaning of what we have previously written on this point and add some new and exact statements.
IN WHAT SENSE CAN THE GIFTS HAVE TWO MODES, THAT ON EARTH AND THAT OF HEAVEN?
We have several times recalled this incontestable truth, namely, that one habitus cannot have acts whose formal object is distinct from that of the habitus, and we have admitted that in the specifying object of the habitus two different modes of acting may be found, as, for example, in the case of the infused virtues and the gifts, their mode of acting here on earth and their mode in heaven. But we have emphasized the fact that one and the same habitus cannot be the principle of acts that have distinct modes, such as that of earth and that of heaven, unless the first mode is ordained to the second and thus falls under one and the same formal object.
A recent work offering an entirely contrary opinion ? states that the gifts of the Holy Ghost would, according to St. Thomas, have even here on earth two specifically distinct modes, the one ordinary, the other essentially extraordinary; the latter would be required for the infused contemplation of the mysteries of faith. Consequently contemplation would not be in the normal way of sanctity.
We replied to this opinion.? The essence of our reply, which should not be overlooked, was as follows: “If there were here on earth two specifically distinct modes for the gifts of the Holy Ghost, one of which would be ordinary, and the other not only eminent, but intrinsically and extrinsically extraordinary, the act characterized by the human mode would not be ordained to the act characterized by a superhuman and essentially extraordinary mode. (It would not be ordained to it any more than to the acts which suppose graces gratis datae, such as prophecy.) On the contrary, the act of the gifts exercised on earth is essentially ordained to that of heaven. They are, as St. Thomas insisted in the Quaestiones disputatae, ‘in eadem serie motus, in the same series of operations, and the last must be placed, otherwise all that precede fail to attain their end.6
“This text from the Quaestiones disputatae * in no way contradicts what we have said. It does not state that the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost have on earth two specifically distinct acts, one ordinary, the other essentially extraordinary. It states quite the contrary; for it demands that for one and the same habitus the less perfect act should be ordained to the second, just as the foundation of a building is to the superstructure, as Christian life on earth is to that of heaven.” We even underlined (zbid., p. 76) in the text of St. Thomas invoked against our opinion, the word ordinetur, which the writer had neglected to consider.
R. Dalbiez, writing in the Etudes Carmeélitaines, April, 1933 (pp. 250 ff.), made the same observation that we did. He placed in parallel columns the integral text of St. Thomas and the quotation that Father Chrysogonous had taken from it, although the latter failed to cite these significant words: “Si autem non accipiatur unum in ordine ad aliud, tunc non erunt eaedem virtutes, nec secundum actum nec secundum habitum.” © Father Dalbiez adds (zbid.): “The passage which I have underlined and which Father Chrysogonous did not quote is quite unfavorable to his thesis. . . . The idea of finding in this so-called definitive text the slightest support for the thesis of the two modes, human and superhuman, of the terrestrial acts of the gifts of the Holy Ghost must be abandoned.”
P. Peérinelle, in the Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques, November, 1932 (p. 692), makes a like observation on the central argument of the thesis. He adds that Father Chrysogonous was mistaken in saying that according to St. Thomas there are three infused intellectual virtues (understanding, knowledge, and wisdom) parallel to the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and that it is only since the Fall that the gifts are necessary.
What most interests us here is that the author did not at all succeed in proving the principal point that he wished to establish: namely, that the gifts have here below two specifically distinct modes of operating, one ordinary, the other essentially extraordinary, which would characterize infused contemplation.
- Quaestio unica de virtutibus cardinalibus, a.4: “Utrum virtutes cardinales maneant in patria.” 5 Quaestio unica de virtutibus cardinalibus, a.4, in corp.
THE SPIRTTUAL ORGANISM 81
WHETHER THE SUPERHUMAN MODE OF THE GIFTS CAN BE LATENT
We have often affirmed that ordinarily the superhuman mode of the gifts is at first quite hidden, that is, in the ascetical life, and that this mode becomes more manifest in the mystical life, at least for an experienced director. We may express this teaching more exactly by stating that in the ascetical life the influence of the gifts 1s either latent and quite frequent (it makes one think of the breeze which only facilitates the work of the rowers), or manifest but rare (in certain striking circumstances), whereas, on the contrary, in the mystical life the influence of the gifts is both frequent and manifest. It is not, however, always striking, as in the case of the great contemplatives, but occasionally diffuse, very real nevertheless, as is the case in saints who have an active vocation, such as St. Vincent de Paul.”
Some may object: “The operation belonging to the superhuman mode could not remain hidden; the soul necessarily perceives it from the very fact that this operation deviates from the natural mode of the subject.” This assertion springs from the preceding one which, we have seen, has not been proved. It would be true if the gifts had here on earth two specifically distinct modes, and if the superhuman mode were extraordinary to the point of requiring infused ideas or a manifestly supernatural arrangement of our acquired ideas. But this is not so. Even in the case of prophecy, which is an extraordinary grace, there may be, says St. Thomas, a prophetic instinct hidden even from him who receives it; by it he can, like Caiphas, prophesy without knowing it. “The prophet’s mind is instructed by God in two ways: in one way by an express revelation, in another way by a most mysterious instinct ‘to which the human mind 1s subjected without knowing it,’ as Augustine says (Gen. ad lit., II, 17).” 8
Since this is true for prophecy, which is an essentially extraordinary grace, with even greater reason is it true of the special inspiration of the Holy Ghost, to which the gifts, present in all the just, should render them docile. All spiritual writers admit that this e Cf. Christian Perfection and Contemplation, pp. 282-85; 324 ff.; 328.
8 See Ha Hae, q.171, a.5. Cf. ibid., q.173, a.4, where St. Thomas gives the example of Caiphas, who prophesied without knowing that he did so.
special inspiration, which resembles the breeze that comes up at the right moment, is ordinarily latent and almost imperceptible at first, and that, if it is not resisted, it generally becomes stronger and more urgent. Innumerable passages from Scripture, from the fathers, from St. Thomas, and St. John of the Cross could be quoted on this point. They make this statement in particular when commenting on Christ’s words: “The Spirit breatheth where He will, and thou hearest His voice; but thou knowest not whence He cometh and whither He goeth: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” 9 The inspiration, at first latent and obscure, becomes more manifest, luminous, and compelling if one is faithful.
St. John of the Cross expresses the same idea in The Ascent of Mount Carmel: “Tt is indispensable to possess this knowledge proper to contemplation before leaving discursive meditation. But it is to be remembered that this general knowledge .. . is at times so subtle and delicate, particularly when most pure, simple, perfect, spiritual, and interior, that the soul, though in the practice thereof, is not observant or conscious of it.” 1°
The special inspiration which we should receive with docility through the gifts of the Holy Ghost is undoubtedly often quite hidden. According to spiritual writers, we must establish ourselves in silence that we may be attentive to this inspiration, hear it, and then distinguish between it and one that might lead us astray. This is the whole question of the discernment of spirits. This admonition is frequently expressed in The Imitation of Christ: “Consider these things, O my soul, and close up the doors of thy sensual desires; that thou mayest hear what the Lord thy God speaketh within thee.” 1 Moreover, there are certainly many degrees of docility to the Holy Ghost, from our first response to the attraction of our vocation up to the last moment when we give up our souls to God.
ARE THERE DEGREES IN DETACHMENT FROM CREATURES?
Is detachment from creatures the same for the greatest saints and for souls that have reached a lesser perfection? To formulate the question is to solve it; we have never had the slightest doubt on this point.
One must be possessed of a certain juvenile daring to write: “De-
tachment from creatures ought to be the same for all perfect souls: that is, total, absolute, universal. It is impossible to find a mean between having and not having defects. Now perfection by its nature excludes all defects, whether directly or indirectly voluntary. The interior fervor exercised in detaching oneself from everything will vary in the subject according to the degree of the grace received, which is the seed of more or less striking victories, but objectively speaking, the renunciation of everything, no matter how small, which is opposed to the divine will, must be total and without any exception.”
The logical formalism which halts at the formula: “Tt is impossible to find a mean between having and not having defects,” ought not to make us forget the concrete order of things, or the great difference that exists among perfect souls, from the least elevated up to the holy soul of Christ. In concrete reality, renunciation, even objectively considered, progresses together with the fervor of will of the subject in which it exists. In fact, an already perfect soul can undeniably still progress, and in that soul detachment from creatures increases with union with God. These are two aspects of the progress of the life of grace, which continues in the unitive way. Thus many indirectly voluntary defects, the result of a practically unheeded negligence, are progressively eliminated in proportion as the depth of the soul is purified and more intimately and continually united to God.
Moreover, it is certain that a just man, even though perfect, cannot continually avoid all venial sins, although he can avoid each venal sin in particular. As he grows in charity, he avoids them more and more, so that in the transforming union, as St. ‘Teresa explains,1” the soul is practically freed from the trouble of the passions; as long as it is under the actual grace of the transforming union, it does not commit deliberate venial sins. Outside of these moments, it may still commit some venial fault, which is quickly atoned for. Though some perfect souls are confirmed in good, this is not true of all of them.
Finally, we must not forget that detachment from creatures was far greater in the Blessed Virgin than in the greatest saints, since she never committed the slightest venial sin. It was even greater still in the holy soul of Christ, who not only never actually sinned, but who was, even here on earth, absolutely impeccable. Therefore it is truly an exaggeration of simplicity to say: “It is impossible to find
12 The Interior Castle, seventh mansion, chap. 2.
a mean between having and not having defects.” What is true, is that there is no mean between being or not being absolutely impeccabie, between continually avoiding or not avoiding every venial sin, between wishing or not wishing to strive henceforth to avoid them more and more. According to St. Thomas, “man (poenitens) needs to have the purpose of taking steps to commit fewer venial sins.” 13 According as this will is more or less intense or fervent, he will actually avoid them more or less. Detachment from creatures will increase with the progress of charity or of attachment to God. Father Chardon strongly insisted on this point in his beautiful book, La croix de Jésus.
From all evidence, there are many degrces in what St. Thomas expresses in this manner: “Perfection can be had in this life. . . by the removal from man’s affections not only of whatever 1s contrary to charity, but also of whatever hinders the mind’s affections from tending wholly to God.” 14 In this detachment there are many degrees even in regard to the exclusion of venial sins: “Those who are perfect in this life are said to offend in many things with regard to venial sins, which result from a weakness of the present life.” 13 This statement is not exaggerated in its simplicity; it is rather the simple expression of Christian good sense.'®
ARE THE PASSIVE PURIFICATIONS NECESSARY TO ELIMINATE MORAL DEFECTS?
Our opponent writes in one of his replies: “We think that the defects pointed out by St. John of the Cross in The Dark Night
16 These last texts quoted from St. Thomas demonstrate, in spite of what may have been occasionally said on the subject, that he would by no means condemn the teaching of spiritual writers in regard to the mortification of activity that is called “natural,” that is, not sanctified, which develops to the detriment of the life of grace. St. Thomas insists here that in order to reach perfection one should will to exclude “whatever hinders the mind’s affections from tending wholly to God.” If a person does not oblige himself by vow to practice the three evangelical counsels, he ought at least to have the spirit of these counsels in order to be perfect (Ila Hac, q.184, a.3). To attain this end, it is thus recommended that a person should not be too much concerned with earthly things, but should use the goods of this world as though not using them. In this renunciation there is evidently a progress even in those who are already perfect.
under the name of capital sins, are all voluntary and that consequently the soul can, with the help of ordinary grace, free itself from them. Does Father Garrigou-Lagrange believe that the soul! cannot purify itself of spiritual gluttony, spiritual laziness, spirituas pride, and other defects of this type . . . by the exercise of asceticism? We repeat here what we wrote elsewhere: that, if it could not free itself from them, these defects would no longer be voluntary and consequently would not hinder perfection.”
We answer that St. Thomas avoids this excessively simple and superficial manner of considering things, when he teaches the necessity of the gifts of the Holy Ghost and of the corresponding inspirations for salvation and perfection.!7 We have seen in the course of this study that he by no means admits that the gifts would have here on earth two specifically distinct modes, one ordinary, the other essentially extraordinary, such as that of graces gratis datae.
The soul can free itself of certain moral defects only by docility to the special inspirations of the Holy Ghost. It would be entirely false to say that if the soul cannot deliver itself from them without these special inspirations, “these defects are no longer voluntary and therefore do not hinder perfection.” The gifts of the Holy Ghost are given to all the just precisely to enable them to receive with docility these special inspirations, whose superhuman mode, that is at first latent, grows progressively more manifest if the soul is docile. St. Thomas says in fitting terms: “Whether we consider human reason as perfected in its natural perfection, or as perfected by the theological virtues, it does not know all things, or all possible things. Consequently it is unable to avoid folly and other like things mentioned in the objection. God, however, to whose knowledge and power all things are subject, by His motion safeguards us from all folly, ignorance, dullness of mind, and hardness of heart, and the rest. Consequently the gifts of the Holy Ghost, which make us amenable to His promptings, are said to be given as remedies for these defects.” 18
We hold, therefore, that the special inspirations of the Holy Ghost are necessary that the soul may be purified of a certain rudeness or harshness, of dullness, of spiritual folly, and other similar defects, which are not only opposed to a certain psychological purity,
but to moral purity. Without progressive docility to these special inspirations of the Holy Ghost, the depth of the soul will not be purified of its more or less unconscious egoism which mingles, under the form of indirectly voluntary negligence, in many of our acts and in many more or less culpable omissions.
To say that the passive purifications are not necessary to perfect moral purity would be to deny the necessity of the passive purification of the will, which frees the acts of hope and charity from all human alloy.’ In this connection we may profitably recall what St. Teresa wrote in her Life: “For instance, they read that we must not be troubled when men speak ill of us, that we are to be then more pleased than when they speak well of us; that we must despise our own good name, be detached from our kindred, . . . with many other things of the same kind. The disposition to practice this must be, in my opinion, the gift of God; for it seems to me a supernatural good.” 2° The meaning which the saint gives to this last expression is well known. Moreover, she remarks more than once that the progress of the virtues normally accompanies that of prayer, and that profound humility is ordinarily the fruit of the infused contemplation of the infinite grandeur of God and of our own wretchedness. This growth in virtue is not something accidental; it is the normal development of the interior life.
St. John of the Cross clearly holds that the passive purifications are necessary for the profound purity of the will. It will suffice to recall. what he says of the defects that necessitate the passive purification of the senses and that of the spirit. In The Dark Night of the Soul (Bk. I, chaps. 2-9, and Bk. H, chaps. 1 f.) he speaks, especially in the last two chapters named, of the “stains of the old man” which still remain in the spirit, like rust which will disappear only under the action of an intense fire. Among the defects of proficients which require ‘ ‘the strong lye of the night of the spirit,” he mentions rudeness, impatience, secret pride, unconscious egoism which causes some souls to use spiritual goods in anything but a detached manner, with the result that they fall into illusions. Evidently they lack not only psychological but moral purity. Finally, in the opinion of St. John of the Cross, these passive purifications (which belong to the
19 We treated this subject at considerable length in L’amour de Dieu et la croix de Jésus, Il, 597-632; “The Passive Purification of Hope and of Charity.” 20 Life, chap. 31, § 21.
mystical order) and infused contemplation of the mysteries of faith are indubitably in the normal way of sanctity since he wrote the two following propositions, which are of primary importance in his work: “The passive purification of the senses is common, it takes place in the greater number of beginners”; being passive, it belongs not to the ascetical but to the mystical eae 21 “The soul began to set out on the way of the spirit, the way of proficients, which is also called the illuminative way, or the way of infused contemplation, wherein God Himself teaches and refreshes the soul.” 2? St. John of the Cross most certainly wished to note here not something accidental, but something that is produced normally in the way of sanctity when a soul that is truly docile to the Holy Ghost does not recoil in the face of trial.
We maintain, therefore, what we have always taught on this point. Moreover, the Carmelite theologians have taught the same doctrine. Philip of the Blessed Trinity ** and Anthony of the Holy Ghost ** state very clearly: “All ought to aspire to supernatural contemplation. All, and especially souls consecrated to God, ought to aspire and to tend to the actual union of enjoyment with God.” (These theologians assign the same meaning to the words “supernatural” and “infused” when they apply them to contemplation.) Finally, as we have more than once remarked, Joseph of the Holy Ghost wrote: “If infused contemplation is taken in the sense of rapture, ecstasy, or similar favors, we cannot apply ourselves to it, or ask it of God, or desire it; but as for infused contemplation in itself, as an act of contemplation (abstraction being made of ecstasy which may accidentally accompany it), we can aspire to it, desire it ardently, and humbly ask it of God, although we cannot certainly endeavor to have it by our own industry or our own activity.” 7° Joseph of the Holy Ghost even says: “God usually raises to infused contemplation the soul that exercises itself fervently in acquired contemplation. This is the common teaching.” °°
We have never taught anything else. ‘This is truly the teaching of
°4 Directorium mysticum (ed. 1733), tr. II, disp. MI, sect. IV; tr. IV, disp. I, sect. Vi.
26 Thid., disp. VIIE
St. John of the Cross, and it conforms fully to that left us by St. Thomas on the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, which are connected with charity and which, as infused habits, grow with charity. The full perfection of Christian life is inconceivable without them and without the special inspirations to which they render us docile.
ARTICLE V ACTUAL Grace AND [rs Divers Forms
We shall recall here: 7 the necessity of actual grace; 8 its divers forms; and (3) the general nature of fidelity to grace.
THE NECESSITY OF ACTUAL GRACE
Even in the natural order, no created agent acts or operates without the cooperation of God, first Mover of bodies and spirits. In this sense, St. Paul says in his discourse on the Areopagus: “Although He (God) be not far from every one of us; for in Him we live and move and are.” + With even greater reason in the supernatural order, that we may produce acts of the infused virtues and of the gifts, we need a divine motion, which is called actual grace. It is a truth of faith defined against the Pelagians and the cone Pelagians,’ that, without this grace, we can sane dispose ourselves positively to conversion, nor persevere for a notable time in good, nor above all persevere until death. Without actual grace, we cannot produce the slightest salutary act, or, with even greater reason, reach perfection. This is what Christ meant when He said to His disciptes: “Without Me you can do nothing.” * St. Paul adds with regard to the order of salvation: “Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves,” 4 and that “It is God who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish,” ° by actualizing our liberty without violating it. It is He who gives us to dispose ourselves to habitual grace and to act meritoriously. When He crowns our merits, t See II Cor. 3:5.
it is still His gifts that He crowns, says St. Augustine. The Church has often recalled this idea in her councils.®
This explains why we must always pray. The necessity of prayer is founded on the necessity of actual grace. Except for the first grace, which is gratuitously given to us without our praying for it, since it is the very principle of prayer, it is a thoroughly established truth that prayer is the normal, efficacious, afd universal means by which God wishes that we should obtain all the actual graces we need. This is why our Lord inculcates so often the necessity of prayer to obtain grace. He says: “Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone that asketh, receiveth: and he that seeketh, findeth: and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.” * He recalls this necessity of prayer to obtain actual grace, especially when temptation is to be resisted: “Watch ye, and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 8 In prayer we ought to recognize that God is the Author of all good; and therefore all confidence not founded on prayer is presumptuous.®
Thercfore the Council of Trent declares in St. Augustine’s own words: “God never commands the impossible, but in commanding He tells us to do what we can, to ask for that which we are not able to do, and He helps us in order that we may be able.” 1° By His actual grace He even helps us to pray. There are, consequently, actual graces which we can obtain only by prayer.”
We could not insist too strongly on this point, for many beginners, unwittingly impregnated with practical naturalism, as the Pelagians and the Semi-Pelagians were, imagine that everything can be attained with will and energy, even without actual grace. Experience soon shows them the profound truth of Christ’s words: “Without Me you can do nothing,” and also that of St. Paul’s statement: “It is God who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish.” Therefore we must ask Him for the actual grace ever more faithfully to keep the commandments, especially the supreme precept of the love of God and of our neighbor.
10 Session VI, chap. 11 (Denzinger, 804). 11 Catechism of the Council of Trent, Part IV, chap. 1, no. 3.
THE DIFFERENT ACTUAL GRACES
Actual grace, the necessity of which we have just recalled, presents itself under many forms which it is highly useful to know in the spiritual life. It will be well at this point to review the principles as clearly as possible, without failing to recognize the mystery they express. It is one of the most remarkable partly clear and partly obscure mysteries of Christian doctrine.
Actual grace is often given to usasa light or interior illumination. For example, while reading the Epistle or Gospel of the day at Mass, an interior light is given to us that we may better grasp its meaning. We are struck by these words of Christ to the Samaritan woman: “Tf thou didst know the gift of God,” 1? or by those of St. Paul: “The Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself for me,” 13 and we consider that He continues to offer Himself for us in the Mass and that, if we wish, He will give Himself to us, especially in Holy Communion. This light constitutes a grace of interior illumination.?* It is followed by a grace of inspiration and attraction, for, in thinking of the generous and disinterested love of the Savior, we feel ourselves strongly led to return Him love for love. This is an actual grace which acts on the will and leads to love and to action. At times it even brings one to will to give oneself fully to God, to suffer, and if need be, to die for Him. Then it is not only a grace of attraction, but a grace of strength, which, though often received without our being at all aware of it, makes it possible for us in aridity to endure and to wait.'®
How does actual grace, which moves the will, influence it? It does this in two ways: either by proposing to it an object which attracts it, or by a motion or interior impulse which God alone can
14 Sometimes a very elevated luminous grace gives the impression of obscurity: the obscurity i is transluminous, like the excessively strong light of the sun which dazzles the weak eyes of an owl.
15 Many of these graces are not felt at all when received; they are of an entirely spiritual anid supernatural order and consequently surpass our natural means of knowledge. Some of them are felt by reason of the repercussion they have on our sensibility, for example, under the form of sensible consolations. Of others, which do not have this repercussion, we may, nevertheless, be conscious, in the sense that God, especially by the gift of wisdom, makes
Himself spiritually felt by us as the principle of the filial love for Him which He inspires in us. Cf. St. Thomas, In Ep. ad Rom., 8:16.
THE SPIRITUAL ORGANISM QI give.1® God can evidently incline our will toward good by proposing an object to it, for example, by the promise of eternal beatitude, or of progress in love. Thus a mother inclines the will of her child to good, either by proposing to him a sensible object which attracts him, or by persuading him to conduct himself in a becoming manner. Our guardian angels can do this also by suggesting good thoughts to us. What God alone can do, is to move our will to good by an interior motion or impulse, for He is closer to us than we are to ourselves. He preserves in existence our soul and our faculties, of which He is the Author; and, without doing violence to them, He can move them from within according to their natural inclination by giving us a new energy. An example will help to make this understood: In order to teach her child to walk, a mother takes hold of him under his arms and helps him not only with her voice by showing him an object to attain, but by her gesture, by lifting him up. What the mother does thus in the corporeal order, God can do in the spiritual order. He can lift up, not only our body but our will itself, to lead it to good. He is the very Author of our will; He has given it its fundamental inclination to good, and in consequence He alone can move it from within according to this inclination. He acts thus in us, in the very inmost depths of our will, to make us will and act. The more urgently we ask Him to do this, the more strongly does He act to increase in us the love that we should have for Him.
Moreover, actual grace is called prevenient grace when it arouses a good thought or good feeling in us, when we have done nothing to excite it in ourselves. If we do not resist this grace, God adds to it a helping or concomitant grace, which will assist our will to produce the salutary act demanded and to realize our good designs. Thus, as St. Paul says: “God works in us both to will and to accomplish.”
Finally, we must note that God sometimes moves us to act by deliberation according to the human mode, and at other times by special inspiration to act in a superior manner without deliberation on our part. The following is an example of the first case: I see that the habitual hour to recite the Rosary has come, and of my own accord ĮI am led by deliberation to recite it. I do so under the influence of a common actual grace, called cooperating, for it cooperates in my action according to the human mode of deliberation.
The second mode may be illustrated by the following example: It may happen that in an unexpected way while doing absorbing work, I receive a special inspiration to say a short prayer, and I immediately do it. This special inspiration is called an operating grace, for it operates in us without deliberation on our part, not however without vital, free, and meritorious consent.!7 In the first manner, God generally moves us to act according to the human mode of the virtues; in the second manner, He moves us to act according to the superhuman mode of the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Our ship then advances no longer solely by dint of rowing, but by the superior impulse of a favorable wind.
All that we have said about the different modes of divine motion may be summed up in the following table, which should be read upward.
above deliberation, by special inspiration to which the gifts of the Holy Ghost render us docile.
in the after deliberation, to will a definite act supernatural of a specific infused virtue, for ex- God order ample, of religion directed by prumoves dence. our before deliberation, to will efficaciously mind the supernatural last end.1® and our above deliberation, by special inspirawill tion, for example, in the poetic in the order. natural after deliberation, to will a definite act order of a specified acquired virtue.
before deliberation, to will good in general and happiness.
17 See Ia Iae, q.111, a.2. Under cooperating grace, the will moves itself deliberately in virtue of an anterior act. It is thus that, already willing the end, it is led to the choice of means; whereas under operating grace it is moved not by virtue of an anterior act, but of a special inspiration.
18 Here there is certainly deliberation. It is not, however, by virtue of deliberation and of an anterior act that the sinner, at the moment of his conversion, is moved efficaciously to will the supernatural last end, for every anterior act is inferior to this efficacious will, and can only dispose to it. Consequently a special operating grace is necessary here. This grace is not required when, already efficaciously willing the end, we are led of ourselves to will the means. Then, only cooperating grace is required.
Under operating grace, we are more passive than active, and our activity consists especially in consenting freely to the operation of God, in allowing ourselves to be led by the Holy Ghost, in promptly and generously following His inspirations.'® But even under cooperating grace all our salutary action is from God as from the First Cause, and it is all from us as from the second cause.
FIDELITY TO GRACE
Fidelity to grace is of the utmost importance, and especially so is increasing fidelity to the actual grace of the present moment, that we may correspond to the duty of that moment, which manifests the will of God in our regard. St. Augustine says: “God who created you without yourself, will not sanctify you without your-
19 Wie treated this subject at greater length 1 in Christian Perfection and Contemplation, pp. 285-310; “The special inspiration of the Holy Ghost and common ael grace.” According to a number of texts from St. Thomas, and following several great Thomists, in particular Father del Prado, we showed in that article that God moves the will, either before deliberation (when He leads it to will beatitude in general, or also the supernatural last end), or after deliberation, or with it (when He moves it to determine by discursive deliberation to will the means in view of the previously willed end), or above deliberation (by special inspiration, in particular by that to which the gifts of the Holy Ghost render us docile).
St. Thomas enumerates these three modes of motion in various passages: Ja Iae, q.9, a.6 ad 3 um; q.68, a.2 f.; q. 109, a.1, 2, 6, 9; g.111, a.2; De veritate, q-24, 4.15.
It sufhices here to quote the classic text of Ia Ilae, q.111, a.2, on the distinction between operating and cooperating grace: “The operation of an effect is not attributed to the thing moved but to the mover. Hence in that effect in which our mind is moved and does not move, but in which God is the sole mover, the operation is attributed to God, and it is with reference to this that we speak of operating grace. But in that effect in which our mind both moves and is moved (virtute prioris actus), the operation is attributed not only to God, but also to the soul; and it is with reference to this that we speak of cooperating grace.” The operating grace mav, however, presni itself under several forms: (1) it may be only exciting, leading to a salutary good thought, which, as a matter of fact, remains sterile; (2) it may lead even to a salutary act of faith or hope, without there be: ing the influence of th gifts of the Holy Ghost, as happens in the believer in the state of ee sin; (3) it may lead even to a salutary and meritorious act of the gifts of the Holy Ghost. In this last case particularly, there is a special inspiration, not only before deliberation but above it. We can either be moved, or we can move ourselves to an act of faith (although it may be simple and not discursive), whereas we cannot of ourselves move ourselves to an act of the gifts.
self.” 2° Our consent is needed and likewise our obedience to the precepts. God’s help is given us, he says again, not that our will should do nothing, but that it may act in a salutary and meritorious manner. Actual grace is constantly offered to us for the accomplishment of the duty of the present moment, just as air comes constantly into our lungs to permit us to breathe. As we must inhale in order to draw into our lungs the air which renews our blood, so we must will to receive with docility the grace which renews our spiritual energies in the journey toward God. A person who does not inhale will die of asphyxiation; he who does not receive grace with docility will eventually die of spiritual asphyxiation. This is why St. Paul says: “And we helping do exhort you that you receive not the grace of God in vain.” ?! We must correspond with it and cooperate generously with it. Were this elementary truth put into practice daily, it would lead to sanctity.
Without a doubt, God takes the first step toward us by His prevenient grace, then He helps us to consent to it. He accompanies us in all our ways and difficulties, even to the moment of death. On our part, we should not forget that, instead of resisting His prevenient graces, we should be faithful to them. How can we do this? First of all, we can do so by joyfully welcoming the first illuminations of grace, then by following its inspirations with docility 1 in spite of obstacles. and finally by putting these inspirations into practice no matter what the cost. Then we shall cooperate in the work of God, and our action will be the fruit of His grace and of our free will. It will be entirely from God as First Cause, and entirely from us as second cause.
The first grace of light, which efficaciously produces a good thought in us, is sufficient in relation to a voluntary good consent, in this sense, that it gives us, not this act, but the power to produce it. However, if we resist this good thought, we deprive ourselves of the actual grace which would have efficaciously led us to a good consent. Resistance falls on sufficient grace like hail on a tree in bloom which promised much fruit; the flowers are destroyed and the fruit will not form. Efficacious grace is offered us in sufficient grace, as the fruit is in the flower; moreover, the flower must not be destroyed if the fruit is to be given to us. If we do not resist suf-
ficient grace, actual efficacious grace is given us, and by it we advance surely in the way of salvation. Sufficient grace thus leaves us without excuse before God, and efficacious grace does not allow us to glory in ourselves; with it we advance humbly and generously.”
We should not resist the divine prevenient graces of Him who has given us sanctifying grace, the infused virtues, the gifts, and who daily draws us to Himself. We should not be content with living a mediocre life and with producing only imperfect fruits, since our Savior came that we “may have life, and may have it more abundantly,” 23 and that from within us “shall flow rivers of living water,” ?t that we may eternally enjoy His beatitude. God is magnanimous; let us, too, be so.
22 Herein lies the great mystery of grace; its two aspects, which are to be harmonized, may be expressed in the following manner: this mystery contains a striking light and shade: the light is expressed in two principles, the shade is their intimate harmonization. On the one hand, God never commands the impossible (that would be neither just nor merciful); but out of love, He makes the duties to be performed really possible for all. No adult is deprived of the grace necessary for salvation unless he refuses it by resisting the divine call, as did the bad thief dying beside the Savior. On the other hand, “since the love of God for us is the cause of all good, no one would be better than another if he were not more greatly loved by God,” as St. Thomas says (Ia, q.20, a.3). In this sense, Christ said: “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5); and in speaking of the elect, He added: “No one can snatch them out of the hand of the Father” (John 10:29). St. Paul also asks: “For who distinguisheth thee? Or what hast thou that thou hast not received?” (I Cor. 4:7.) What more profound lesson in humility could be taught?
As a council of the Middle Ages states: “If some are saved, it is by the gift of the Savior; if others are lost, it is through their own fault.” (Denzinger, Enchiridion, no. 318.) Resistance to grace is an evil which can come only from us; non-resistance is a good which springs from the Source of all good. These formulas reconcile the two aspects of the mystery, and the principles that we have just recalled are incontestable. Each of these two principles taken separately is absolutely certain. That salvation is possible to all is a principle as certain as that “no one would be better than another if he were not more loved by God.” “What have we that we have not received?” But how can these two incontestable principles be intimately reconciled? No created intellect can see this harmony before receiving the beatific vision. In fact, were we to see it, we would see how infinite mercy, infinite justice, and sovereign liberty harmonize in the eminence of the Deity. We explained this problem in its relations to the spiritual life at greater length in Christian Perfection and Contemplation, pp. 80-113; Providence (English translation), pp. 334-40; Predestination (English translation), pp. 221 ff., 335 ff.
This fidelity is required, first of all, that we may preserve the life of grace by avoiding mortal sin. The life of grace is incomparably more precious than that of the body, than the power to perform miracles; it is of such worth that our Savior delivered Himself up to death in order to restore it to us. If it were given to us to contemplate unveiled the amazing splendor of sanctifying grace, we should be ravished. Moreover, fidelity is required to merit and obtain the increase of the life of grace, which ought to grow until our entrance into heaven, since we are travelers on the road to eternity and since we advance toward our goal by growing in the love of God. Thence comes the necessity of sanctifying each and every one of our acts, even the most ordinary, by accomplishing them with purity of intention, for a supernatural motive, and in union with our Lord. If we were thus faithful from morning until evening, each of our days would contain hundreds of meritorious acts, hundreds of acts of love of God and of neighbor, made on every pleasant or painful occasion, and when evening came, our union with God would be more intimate and much stronger. It has often been said that to sanctify ourselves there is no more practical and more efficacious means that is more within the reach of all, than thus to supernaturalize each of our acts by offering them in union with our Lord, to God for His glory and the good of souls.?5
25 Some have thought that the special inspiration of the Holy Ghost diminishes the liberty of our act and that the act immediately caused by it, is not meritorious. This special inspiration no more diminishes our liberty than the absolute impeccability of Christ diminished His perfect liberty of obedience to the precepts of His Father. He could not disobey; He obeyed infallibly, but freely, the precept to die, for He preserved the indifference of judgment and of choice in the face of the painful death of the cross, which did not invincibly attract His will, as did the immediate vision of the divine goodness. We have explained this at length elsewhere (Le Sauveur, pp. 204- 18).
Footnotes
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Nevertheless these persons, being in the state of grace, do have the infused moral virtues always united to charity, but their attention is not suffi- ↩
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See Ia Iae, q.65, a.2. Thomists generally admit this proposition: “Without charity there can be true acquired moral virtues, but imperfect ones, as there were actually in many peoples.” Cf. John of St. Thomas, Cursus theol., De proprietate virtutum, disp. XVII, a.2, nos. 6, 8, 10, 11, 14. Salmanticenses. ↩
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The Hebrew text does not mention the gift of piety, but the Septuagint and the Vulgate do. Since the third century, tradition affirms this sevenfold number. Moreover, in the Hebrew text of Isaias, fear is named a second time ↩
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Denzinger, Enchiridion, no. 83. ↩
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Cf. Christian Perfection and Contemplation, pp. 272-77, 324 ff. ↩
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P. Chrysogonous, O.C.D., La perfection et la mystique selon les principes de saint Thomas, Bruges, 1932. 3 Cf. La vie spirituelle, November, 1932, suppl., pp. [77] ff. ↩
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Acts 17:27 f. ↩
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Cf. The Council of Orange (Denzinger, Enchiridion, nos. 176-200) and also St. Thomas, Ia Iae, q. 109. ↩
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