CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Who is Thomas Aquinas?
3. Chronology of His writings
4. The Nature of Grace in Aquinas
5. Our Need of Grace
6. Divisions of Grace
7. The Causes of Grace
8. Our Awareness of Grace
9. The Effects of Grace
10. Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
The subject of our paper is grace, a term quite familiar to
the Christian tradition. It denotes the action of God in dealing
with his rational creatures. In one sense an elusive term expressing
the mysterious; in another sense a revealing term pointing to
the profound relationship, the abiding kinship, God has established
with his creatures; in further sense, an endearing term speaking
to us of the merciful love of God, of the compassionate heart
of God towards those who have wandered from the way set before
them.(1)
The word, 'grace' itself has many meanings. It expresses beauty
of form or action as when we say, 'Mary has a graceful figure'
or 'John moves with grace.' It may refer to the status of one
person with another as in the expression, 'I stand in the good
graces of the teacher.' It can designate a form of petition, or
a method of prayer; for instance, 'Grace me with your presence,'
or, 'Say the grace before meals.' It may signify also the special
gift of God helping individual men and women to holiness. So the
angel addressed Mary, 'Hail, full of grace.' (2) So the Lord said
to Paul, 'My grace is sufficient for you.' (3) This is the sense
which we employ in this paper.
The subject of grace, in the sense used here, is vast and varied,
historically as well as theologically. We cannot, then, in the
space allotted to us trace its full dimensions. Accordingly we
have restricted ourselves to the subject, grace, as it is developed
in the thought and writings of Thomas Aquinas. And even under
such a restriction we do not intend to present an exhaustive expose
of his doctrine. Rather we shall try to give its essential traits
in the hope that those who wish to pursue it more exhaustively
may have a guiding line and a sound basis upon which to proceed.
WHO IS THOMAS AQUINAS?
Thomas Aquinas was born the year 1225 in the Italian town of
Rocca Secca, the seventh and youngest son in a family of ten;
his father was Count Landulf of Aquino, his mother Countess of
Teano. Sent at the age of five to the Benedictine School of Monte
Cassino, he went from there in 1240 to Naples to complete his
arts course. Drawn to an intellectual apostolate and attracted
to the newly founded Order of St. Dominic, he, though vigorously
opposed by his parents, sought entry into this Order and joined
it in April 1244, after a 15-month imprisonment in his family
home. In 1245 he was in Paris where he came under the influence
of Albert the Great who introduced him to Aristotle. In 1248 he
left with Albert for Cologne to work in its newly established
Studium Generale.
In 1255 he returned to Paris and began to lecture at the Dominican
Convent of St. Jacques. There he wrote his Contra Impugnantes
Dei Cultum in defense of the Mendicant Orders under attack by
the secular doctors of the University of Paris.(4) He became Master
of Theology in 1256. Sent to Italy in 1259 he taught as 'lector
curiae' at Anagni and Orvieto until 1265; then at Santa Sabina
and the Studium Generale in Pome from 1265 till 1267; next at
Viterbo from 1267 till 1269. In this last year 1269 he returned
to Paris where he combatted the doctrines of Siger de Brabant,
John Peckham and Stephen Tempier. In 1272 he went back to Naples
to set up a Studium Generale. While there he worked on the Summa
Theologiae. He died on 7 March 1274 at the Cistercian Monastery
of Fossa Nuova while on his journey to the Council of Lyons. The
Dominican Order in its General Chapter of 1278 officially imposed
his teaching on the members of the Order. John XXII canonized
him in 1323. His body presently rests at Toulouse. (5)
His writings are numerous. A Commentary on the Sentences of
Peter Lombard; commentaries on various works of Aristotle; commentaries
on the Liber de Causis, on the Divine Names of Dionysius the Areopagite,
on the De Hebdomadis and the De Trinitate of Boethius; on the
Gospels (Catena Aurea); on the Letters of St. Paul; on the Prophet
Isaiah, on the Prophet Jeremias, on the Book of Job and on the
Psalms. We have in addition the Quaestiones Disputatae on Truth,
on the Power of God, on Evil, on the Separated Substances, On
Charity, and the Quaestiones Quodlibetales. Besides there are
the works titled Being and Essence. the Compendium Theologiae,
the De Unitate Intellectus, the De Regimine Principium. Finally
there are his monumental works: the two Summae, the Summa Contra
Gentiles written as a text book for missionaries at the suggestion
of Raymond of Pennafort, and the Summa Theologiae written for
beginners in Theology but left incomplete by his death in 1274
(6).
Our principal sources for his teaching on grace are the Summa
Theologiae and the Summa contra Gentiles, supported, when illustrative
or explanatory, by references to his other writings.
THE CHRONOLOGY OF AQUINAS' WRITINGS
A chronology of Aquinas' writings help us to trace the development
of his thought. Such a complete and up-to-date chronology is easily
obtainable from various sources. To suggest One, I. T. Eschmann,
O.P., A Catalogue of St.Thomas' Works: Bibliographical Notes found
in the Appendix to Etienne Gilson's The Christian Philosophy of
St. Thomas Aquinas. Random House, NY. 1956. (7) The works which
concern our subject were written in the following order: the Compendium
Theologiae 1260-1263; the Summa Contra Gentiles 1261-1263; the
Summa Theologiae 1265-1273. The latter represents his mature thought
on his teaching on grace. Notice that the first two overlap somewhat
while the last is later in time.
In these writings Aquinas deals with the grace of Christ(8),
the grace of the Angels (9), the grace of the First Man(10), the
grace of his offspring (11), the grace of the sacraments(12).
Our investigation deals directly with the grace of fallen and
redeemed man. But since Christ was truly man, and as man the fountainhead
of all grace for fallen humanity, he enters into our consideration
as the head and source of redeeming grace for the human race.
THE NATURE OF GRACE IN AQUINAS
Grace, in general, for Aquinas is a favor of God, the action
of God's merciful and gracious disposition towards his creatures
created in his own image and likeness. Of course the very creation
of men and women is a favour of God. But when we speak of grace
as a favour we are referring to that special status in which God
created them, giving them such gifts and privileges as enabled
them to share in the life of God himself, the life of the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit. They possessed these gifts originally
in the state of integral nature but lost them in the original
fall. This loss meant that they no longer had the means to attain
the end for which God had made them, as well as to reach the plenitude
of those desires implanted in the depths of their being, i.e.,
the blessed vision of God as He is in Himself. However, God in
his merciful love undertook the task to restore the loss through
the sending and work of his only-begotten Son. So the Word became
flesh and dwelt amongst us, full of grace and truth. Through Him
our fallen and corrupt nature is enabled to return to its integral
state. We call this enabling grace.
All rational and intellectual creatures have a natural desire
to see God. While they can reach a knowledge of God commensurable
with their natural capabilities it is simply beyond the reach
of these natural capacities to know Him in his essence. For this
they need divine help. This help God freely and gratuitously offers
them; we name it grace. For Aquinas the angels needed this help
if they were to be converted to God and to be beatified by Him
through the vision of his essence.
Christ in his human nature possessed the fullness of grace,
and possessed it totally and perfectly: totally in that his human
nature is united to the person of the Word; perfectly in that
while he possessed it as a quality of his human nature yet he
possessed it in a manner which is beyond our human comprehension,
that is, as divine Person. This fullness befits him as the only
Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Furthermore Christ is head of the Church. The Church is his
body. From him as its head flow into it and into all and each
of its members those graces necessary for their salvation, for
their offices in the Church, as well as those graces necessary
for the preservation, order and well being of the body as a whole.
Let us now look more particularly at grace as found in us and
for ourselves. Our final end is, as also that of the angels, beatitude.
It is the beatific vision, the vision of God in his proper essence.
While we have a natural inclination to this end, we cannot reach
it by our own powers. God offers us divine help; a help freely
offered which we may freely accept or refuse; a responsible acceptance
or refusal. This grace is first of all an elevating grace by which
we perform actions and accomplish deeds oriented to our final
blessedness; but also since the Fall a medicinal grace healing
the wounds, or the corruption we have inherited or inflicted upon
ourselves through our sinful and rebellious actions. It is one
and the same grace which does both. So grace, as we have said
is for Aquinas a favour of God, the manifestation of his merciful
and gracious concern for his rational creatures.
Aquinas develops his theory of grace by using the analogy of
nature. As we explain the operations of nature so in similar fashion
we may explain the operations of grace. The ultimate principle
of operation in creatures we call their nature. This nature operates
through the various powers and faculties which creatures possess.
Through these operations they grow, develop and reach their term
of completion. To think I must actuate my intellectual power;
to will I must actuate my power of will; to see, to hear, to feel,
to touch, I must activate these faculties. The proper and orderly
exercise of these functions leads to the final completion, the
fulfilment of their ultimate perfection.
As, then, in the order of nature so in the order of grace,
God has destined us for the vision of Himself as he is in Himself.
To this orientation and direction our conscious desire for blessedness
testifies. Yet this objective is beyond our natural capacity to
attain; the power to do so God gives us and this power is grace.
Grace, then, is like a second nature to us, an ultimate principle
within us elevating us to perform those operations and actions
which lead us to our final goal, the vision of God.
As a way of being, a determination of what we are, as a sort
of second nature this grace is called habitual or sanctifying.
As enabling us to perform actions beyond our natural capacities
it is called elevating grace; as healing us of the wounds caused
by sin it is called medicinal grace.
Besides this habitual or sanctifying grace there is also actual
grace. Actual grace is that grace which empowers us to perform
actions and operations proportionate to our ultimate end, the
vision of God in his proper essence. By its means we build up
within us the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity,
the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance,
and the moral virtues. Since all of these are the fruit of grace
they are called infused virtues.
We may gather from what has been said that grace builds on
nature, It does not destroy it. Rather it enhances it, enabling
it to attain what by its own powers it cannot.
We have taken for granted in our explanation that grace posits
something in our soul. No scholastic theologian, as far as I gather,
questions this. In this they are holding to the teaching of the
Catholic tradition. This granted, we may ask, Is grace a quality
of the soul, or a habit in the soul, or a virtue of the soul,
or something rooted in the essence of the soul or one of its powers?
Grace is an effect flowing from the free will of God. Inasmuch
as we are moved by God to think, will or act, grace is in us in
the manner of a motion moving us to these operations; inasmuch
as a habitual gift given and disposing us to these operations,
grace is in us in the manner of a form or quality enabling us
to act agreeably and promptly. Now if grace is some quality in
the soul, is this quality there as a virtue or habit? It would
seem so, since grace disposes and perfects our being to act well
in keeping with its supreme goal, as natural virtues and habits
enable it to act more perfectly. Yet we must remember that grace
makes us sharers in the divine Nature (13) and so raises us to
a higher order making us new creatures.(14)
Grace then is more like the natural light of reason which is
other than the acquired virtues. As the acquired virtues enable
us to act fittingly according to the light of our natural reason
so the infused virtues enable us to act fittingly according to
the light of grace. Grace then is as a light which suffuses the
essence of our being, more than a simple quality or habit, rather
like a new nature from which flow out into the powers of our being
the instilled virtues, theological, cardinal and moral.
There are in us, then, since there are two ends, one natural,
one supernatural, two sets of virtues, two sets of habits, two
sets of gifts, the one set natural the other supernatural. But
through the influx of these supernatural gifts, the natural gifts
are not diminished or destroyed, they are enhanced and empowered
to effect what is beyond their natural capacities and natural
operations. They become graceful operations ordered to an end
beyond our natural end, an end which totally fulfils our innate
desire and unquenchable longings.
OUR NEED FOR GRACE.
The need for grace arises from our nature. We always need God's
help to will or to do any good whatever, for He is the initiator
of all activity. In the state of integral nature we could will
and do what was by nature's standard good for us (e.g., the goodness
arising from the exercise of the acquired virtues) and with grace
we could will or do a good beyond that (e.g., the goodness arising
from the exercise of the infused virtues). In our fallen nature
we fall short even of the goodness natural to us and cannot wholly
achieve it by our own natural abilities. We can perform particular
good actions in virtue of our nature but we fall short of the
total goodness suited to our nature. We are like the sick who
can make certain movements by themselves but cannot do what those
in perfect health do. We need medicine to heal us. So the need
for grace arises from our ordination to a higher end, eternal
life and from our weakened or corrupted nature.
DIVISIONS OF GRACE
We have already seen one division of grace. Grace can mean
God assisting us to will and to act or it can indicate the gift
of a disposition implanted in us by God. In each of these we can
distinguish grace working in us and grace working with us. An
effect is attributed to the agent. If we are incited to activity
without any action on our part, God alone being the activator,
we attribute all activity to God alone and speak of his grace
as working in us. But if we, while activated by God, also activate
ourselves we speak of the action as being done by God and ourselves
and of the grace as working with us. The clue to this division
is given us by St. Augustine who writes in his work Grace and
Freedom, 'God by his cooperation perfects in us what by his operation
he begins.'(15)
Grace may also be prevenient or subsequent. This arises from
the order found in the effects of grace. These are five; to heal
the soul, to will the good, to act efficaciously, to persevere
in good, to attain glory. When grace heals, it is called prevenient
since it prepares us for the second; when it wills the good it
is subsequent since this follows on the healing. We find this
division in Augustine's Nature and Grace, 'Grace precedes that
we be healed, once healed it follows in assisting us to bear fruit.'(16)
We do not find in Aquinas the division into sufficient and
efficacious grace. This is a later division arising out of the
controversy on grace and free will. Nor do we find the division
into external and internal grace. We do find the division into
elevating grace and healing grace; for in our fallen state we
must needs be healed of deadly sin in order to be enabled to perform
graceful actions.
I think that we should remember that, granted these divisions
of grace, grace itself remains one as the action of God upon us,
one in its cause but manifold in its effects. Then too grace is
the first and fundamental internal principle of our supernatural
actions as our human nature is the first principle of our natural
actions. Rooted as I have already said in the essence of our being
and flowing out into its powers and faculties we speak of it as
a quality and accidental modification of our human nature. But
this is the result of our effort to understand and to express
in words this mysterious reality.
It is interesting to note that the CCC (Catechism of the Catholic
Church) does not speak of grace as a quality, or as an accident,
or as a modification of our being. It speaks of it as 'conferring
upon us the righteousness of God,' 'as a help God gives us to
respond to our vocation of becoming his adopted sons,' as that
which 'responds to the deepest yearnings of human freedom,' as
that which 'can confer true merit upon us,' as the 'gratuitous
gift which God makes to us of his own life.' In this way the Catechism
avoids technical language and employs descriptive categories.
The result is a greater appeal to our imagination and affectivity
rather than to our reason and systematic understanding.(17)
THE CAUSES OF GRACE
Since grace exceeds the power of created nature, being a participation
in the divine, only God is its first cause in us for only He can
divinize us. This does not deny that the sacred humanity of Christ,
the Church, the sacraments, prayer, suffering rightly borne, accidents,
disasters, the good example of others are sources of grace. They
are so as instruments, tools, objects which God takes up and uses
to incite and to draw his creatures into his love and friendship.
This granted still, there is required on our part some disposition
for grace, not for grace which incites us to act but for grace
possessed as an habitual gift. We have heard the expression, 'To
the one who prepares himself or who does what in him lies, grace
is given.' (18) There is no necessity on the part of God to do
this. In our preparing to receive grace God incites us to the
preparation. On the part of our will there is no necessity that
God respond to this and on the part of God there is no necessity
except in so far as He has so ordained.
OUR AWARENESS OF GRACE
While some texts of Scripture seem to suggest that we are aware
of having grace, others appear to deny this. For instance, we
read, 'We have not received the Spirit of this world, but the
Spirit which is from God, that we may know what is given us by
God,' (19) and, 'No one knows whether he is worthy of hate or
love.' (20) which in the JB (Jerusalem Bible) reads, 'We do not
understand either love or hate.'
We can know by revelation that we possess grace as did Paul
to whom the Lord said, 'My grace is sufficient for you'. (21)
Otherwise we cannot know with certitude since such certitude comes
from the knowledge of conclusions drawn from first principles.
God is the first principle of grace and of its object, who by
reason of his transcendence is beyond our comprehension so does
not supply as a known first principle of our knowing. However
we may know conjecturally that we possess grace, or stand in God's
friendship through signs indicating so. For we may perceive ourselves
loved by God, we may experience a distaste for worldly things,
we may be conscious of not being in serious sin, we may feel consoled
in time of trouble, we may have peace in serious difficulties.
These point to a right relationship with God and so to being in
his grace.
THE EFFECTS OF GRACE
In summary form: 1. grace works in us to make sinners right;
2. grace works in us to earn heaven. The first is the grace of
justification; the second is the grace aiding us to perform actions
deserving, in God's dispensation, of a recompense. By our daily
thoughts, words and actions done in grace, we can earn eternal
life. And this is because God has so planned it. In the state
of humankind before sin one could not earn eternal life through
one's purely natural abilities. For in God's plan a creature cannot
act beyond its natural capacities and eternal life is out of proportion
to a created nature unaided by grace. The state of human kind
after sin gave an added reason since now it needs grace to have
its sins forgiven and to be reconciled with God whom it had offended.
St. Thomas develops at some length the question of the justification
of the sinner. It involves the remission of sins, a change from
the condition of injustice to a condition of justice. This remission
of sins involving the exoneration of guilt requires the infusion
of grace. For an offender has his offense forgiven by pacifying
the offender. This pacification consists in God's love of us.
Its effect in us, the forgiveness of our sins, is truly grace
making us once again worthy of eternal life from which deadly
sin had excluded us. Once justified and restored to God's friendship
by his grace, we can continue progress towards its possession
in the state of glory.
CONCLUSION
With St. Thomas there comes one of the most deeply decisive
moments in the history of the doctrine of grace. His work represents
a synthesis of the Christian tradition with the resources and
perspectives of Greek philosophical thought. It is also, in a
sense, the doctrine of Augustine rethought and reformulated in
the perspective of Thomas' own theological synthesis, which is
quite properly Thomism. (22) It is this speculative treatment
of Christian thought that has been the common basis for the majority
of theological treatises on grace since the 16th century.
But let us not forget that his teaching on grace is subordinated
to his overall theological synthesis and so dispersed throughout
his Summa Theologiae.
For Aquinas, grace is favour of God, the acting out of his
merciful or gracious disposition. The theme of grace and liberty
is not central to his exposition since these are handled in his
general theorems on causality, instrumentality, transcendence
of God. Absent from his explanation are the correlative terms
habitual and actual grace. More familiar are the terms operating
and cooperating grace. Also absent are separate treatises on justification
and merit. These he deals with under the effects of grace.
Finally, in Aquinas the traditional doctrine coming down through
the Fathers and especially Augustine is rethought and elucidated
in terms of its ontological exigences. This constitutes his unrivalled
contribution to the doctrine of grace in the western Catholic
tradition.
FOOTNOTES:
1. Matthews, J., Actual Grace and the Spiritual Life (Cork: Mercier Press, 1950) pp.15-16.
2. Luke 1:28.
3. 2 Cor. 12:9.
4. Aquinas, Th., Opuscula Theologica cura et studio R.A. Verardo, Vol. II (Romae: Marietti, 1954) No.1.
5. Maritain, J., St. Thomas Aquinas (NY: Meridian Press, 1959) pp. 25-56.
6. Loc. cit. pp.16l-166.
7. Pp.381-389.
8. ST. 111. 7.1-3; 8.1-8; Comp. Theol. C.213-216.
9. ST. 1. 62,1-9.
10. ST.1. 95.1-4.
11, ST, 1/2 109-114.
12. ST. 111. 2.1-6; In 2 Sent. Dist. 26, 28.
13. ST.1/2 ~10.3.c.
14. 2 Cor 5:17.
15. De Natura et Libero Arbitrio. PL.44. 247-290.
16. De Natura et Gratia. PL.44.881-912.
17. CCC. Nos, 1999,2017,2021,2022.
18. Riviere, J. Quelques antecedents patristtiques de la formule 'Facienti quid in se est...' RSR (1927) 93-97.
19. 1 Cor.2:12.
20. Ecclesiastes 9:1, Cf. JB Ecclesiastes 9:1.
21. 2 Cor.12:9.
22. Van Steenberghen, F., Les grandes Syntheses Doctrinales
de 1250 a 1277, in Fliche-Martin, Histoire de 1'Eglise,
13.253.
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