REVIVISCENCE OF MERITS. - Merit is the right to eternal reward (the beatific vision), acquired through good works performed in a state of grace (cf. Merit of Man). The works of the faithful, with respect to eternal reward, are called "alive" if they were performed in a state of grace, "dead" if performed in a state of sin, and "mortified" if, though performed in a state of grace, they have lost all connection with eternal reward due to a subsequent mortal sin.
Therefore, the so-called reviviscence (reviviscencia meritorum) of "mortified" works occurs when the Christian, having regained the state of grace through an act of repentance (cf. Penance), is in a position to enjoy the previous rights to eternal reward (merits). The fact of the reviviscence of merits is now commonly accepted because it is founded, at least implicitly, on passages of Scripture (Ezek. 18:21; 33:12; Joel 2:18; Gal. 3:4; Heb. 6:10; especially the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), who is restored to all his previous rights) and on explicit statements of the Fathers who, commenting on the same parable, noted in it a restitutio in integrum of the merits lost through sin, effected by a kind of postliminium, worthy of divine mercy and largesse. Patristic (Epiphanius, Haeres. 50, 2; PG 41, 1049; St. John Chrysostom, In Ep. ad Gal., 3, 2; PL 61, 650; St. Jerome, In Gal., 3, 2; PL 26, 350) and theological (St. Thomas, Summa Theologiae, 3a, q. 89, a. 5) tradition received definitive confirmation at the Council of Trent, sess. VI, cap. 16 (Denz. 809).
There has been a centuries-old controversy regarding the manner and proportion of such restitution. Suárez (Relatio de reviviscencia meritorum, in Opuscola theologica sex, Madrid 1599), followed by numerous theologians (Vasquez, Lugo, Ripalda, Platel, Esparza, Palmieri, Pesch, De Augustinis, Sasse, Galtier), held that the restitution is absolutely integral, with the addition of an increment due to the good act by which the sinner returns to God. St. Thomas, however, maintained (Summa Theologiae, 3a, q. 89, a. 2) that the reviviscence of merits is proportionate to the degree of charity with which the sinner rises again. The thought of the Angelic Doctor has received various interpretations: Billot (De Sacramentis, II, 5th ed., Rome 1927, pp. 115-16) asserts that the reviviscence occurs in proportion to the present fervor but on a twofold basis, that is, not only for the act of rising from sin but also in view of the previous merits, from which the blessed will receive a precocious judgment (praemium accidentale) for having performed them, even though in fact they do not increase his essential glory (praemium essentiale). According to Domingo de Soto (In IV Sent., d. 16, q. 2, a. 2) and Billuart (De Sacramentis, diss. 3, a. 5), the merits are restored in a twofold measure; if, for example, one rises from sin with a degree of 20 fervor, the reviviscence of merits occurs in the proportion of 40 degrees, 20 for the present fervor and 20 for the previous merits. Since these opinions seem foreign to the mind of St. Thomas and the second smacks of a mathematical conception of the supernatural, the interpretation of De Letter (De ratione meriti sec. s. Thomam, Rome 1939, pp. 95 ff.) and Boyer (De Paenitentia, Rome 1942, pp. 282-83) appears more correct, according to which the previous merits, remaining objectively in the acceptance of God (cf. Summa Theologiae, 3a, q. 89, a. 5), influence the moment of justification so that the sinner rises again with a fervor proportionate to the quantity and perfection of the previous merits.