Supernatural Gifts And Original Justice

SUPERNATURAL GIFTS AND ORIGINAL JUSTICE. —

I. NOTIONS

All Catholic theologians admit that the state of original justice, that is, Adam’s state of innocence before sin, entailed, together with human nature, an ensemble preternatural gifts (v.). The former are called supernatural because they are essentially superior to every created or possible nature, human or angelic; because they are a participation in the divine nature, that is, in the intimate life of God; and because they raise us above natural conditions in order to enable us to attain the supernatural end, which consists in the immediate vision of God.

These supernatural gifts are sanctifying Grace (received in the essence of the soul as a divine graft, the seed of eternal life), the infused virtues (the theological and moral virtues), which proceed from Grace to our faculties, and the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which render us docile to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, with the aim of perfecting the action of the infused virtues, especially in difficult circumstances in which the latter alone would not suffice.

II. THE APOLOGETIC PROBLEM

Catholic teaching on the elevation of the first man above the conditions of his nature seems, at first sight, to contradict what prehistory reveals about the more than rudimentary civilization of primitive man. Nevertheless, the most recent studies in the new ethnology, especially those of G. Schmidt (La révélation primitive, Paris 1914, pp. 150–60), Msgr. Le Roy (La religion des primitifs, ibid. 1909), and Th. Mainage (Les religions de la préhistoire, ibid. 1921, chs. 2, 3, 9), demonstrate that, although the earliest men known were at a low level with regard to material civilization, they were not so with regard to spiritual civilization. Indeed, these recent studies have shown that the progress of material civilization directed man increasingly toward earthly things and was accompanied by moral and religious decline. Prehistory demonstrates that this decline began with the earliest beginnings of human history and has never ceased to intensify.

This confirms the dogmas of the state of innocence and original sin, which are found, more or less altered, in the traditions of various peoples concerning a golden age that developed at the origin of humanity. What the earliest indications of history reveal is that, among peoples who had become idolaters, only the monotheism of the Hebrews and Christianity were able to stem this decline and restore to men the right idea of a God who creates and rewards (cf. M. J. Lagrange, Etudes sur les religions sénitiques, Paris 1905, p. 20 ff.). As A. Michel demonstrates (Justice originelle, in DTNC, VIII, col. 2024), the conclusions reached today by prehistory and ethnology in no way prevent us from holding that the first man was capable of receiving from God a supernatural revelation of a religious nature, nor from regarding him as a primitive genius endowed with great moral rectitude. These superior gifts could coexist with an underdeveloped material civilization, prior to the technical progress of the arts, sciences, and law.

S. Tommaso (cf. Sum. Theol., 1ᵃ, q. 79, a. 9) often distinguishes between the higher reason and the lower reason, which is concerned with temporal things. In the first man, the higher reason could have been highly illumined by divine Revelation, while the lower reason was still that of a primitive.

III. THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH AND OF THEOLOGY

Following Scripture and Tradition, the Church, through the Council of Trent (Denz-U, 788, 789), teaches very explicitly that, since «the first man disobeyed God in the earthly paradise, he fell from the state of Grace and holiness in which he had been created... and in this way lost for us, as for himself, the justice and holiness which he had received». The same Council explains further (op. cit., 800) that this justice and holiness consist essentially in the infusion of sanctifying Grace and of the gifts that accompany II. It is given to us by Jesus Christ in place of that which Adam lost for himself and for us through his disobedience.

This doctrine is founded upon the great truth that Jesus is the new Adam who restores what the first had lost (Rom. 5, 9-21; II Cor. 5, 15-21; Eph. 1, 4-12; 4, 22-24; Col. 1, 12-22; 3, 9-10). Since this state of inner justice and holiness consists essentially in sanctifying Grace, it follows that it was given to the first man prior to sin. The supernatural gifts that accompany Grace and derive from Grace are, according to Scripture and Tradition, the infused virtues (theological and moral) and the gifts of the Holy Spirit; sanctifying Grace is therefore also called the Grace of the virtues and gifts (cf. Sum. Theol., 3ª, q. 62, a. 2). Together they form a spiritual organism in the just person. According to the theologians, Grace, «participation in the divine nature» or «second nature», is instead, in the essence of the soul, like a divine graft; from it there derive in the faculties the theological virtues, which are specified by God, the supernatural end; the infused moral virtues, which concern the means; and the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which render us docile to the special inspirations of the Holy Spirit, in order to make up, especially in difficult circumstances, for the imperfection of the virtues (cf. Sum. Theol., 1-2ª, q. 62; q. 63, a. 4; q. 65; q. 67; q. 68; q. 110; q. 111; q. 112).

The Grace of the virtues and gifts is essentially supernatural, as participation in the divine nature or in the intimate life of God; it is the seed of eternal life (iemen gloriae) or of the beatific vision, through which we shall see God face to face, immediately, without the mediation of any creature, as he sees himself.

This essentially supernatural life of Grace far surpasses, for example, the miracle of the Resurrection, which restores in a supernatural manner the natural life (vegetative and sensitive) of the body. Thus the first man certainly possessed sanctifying Grace, infused faith, and certainly believed in God as the ultimate and supreme end and rewarder (Hebr. 11, 6); he possessed supernatural hope, infused charity, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit: the gift of wisdom, of understanding, of knowledge, of counsel, of fortitude, of piety, and of filial fear of God (v. DONI DELLO SPIRITO SANTO).

The theologians have debated whether Adam possessed sanctifying Grace at the very moment of his creation or only at a later time. Contrary to Hugh of Saint Victor and Peter Lombard, St Thomas (Sum. Theol., 1ª, q. 95, a. 1), together with his entire school, holds that Adam received sanctifying Grace at the instant in which he was created. This doctrine has become common because it is more in conformity with Scripture interpreted by tradition; Gen. 1, 26: «Let us make man in our image»; Eccl. 7, 28-30: «God made man upright»; Eph. 4, 24: «You must put on the new man, created according to God in true justice and holiness».

Another controversial question was whether Grace intrinsically belonged to the state of original justice, to be transmitted along with nature, or whether it was distinct from it, as a personal gift granted to Adam. In the Middle Ages, Hugh of St Victor and Peter Lombard, who admitted that Adam had received original justice before sanctifying Grace, regarded them as distinct realities. St Thomas initially granted some probability to this opinion, but later, especially in the Sum. Theol. (1ª, q. 95, a. 1; q. 100, a. 1, ad 2), held that sanctifying Grace intrinsically belongs to original justice as its root. In the De malo, q. 5, a. 2, ad 1, he states: « originalis iustitia includit gratiam gratum facientem ». According to the Angelic Doctor, the rectitude of the will toward God, the ultimate end, comes from habitual Grace and charity from the very moment of creation; Grace is not merely a personal gift granted to Adam, but was granted to human nature as such, to be transmitted along with it, just as humanity is transmitted, although the soul is created directly by God when the embryo is capable of receiving it (Sum. Theol., 1ª, q. 100, a. 1). Moreover, according to St Thomas, original sin (the deprivation of original justice) is erased by Baptism, which restores sanctifying Grace but not the gift of integrity. Thus sanctifying Grace is the first and principal element « della giustizia e santità originale che Adamo perdette per sé e per noi », in the words of the Council of Trent. The Thomist school has generally accepted this doctrine.