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 GRACE

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GRACE

It is apparent that above all Molinisni is determined to throw a wall of security around the free will. The Thoniists maintain that this is done at the expense of grace. Instead of making the free will dependent on the power of grace, it is will which freely determines the success or failure of grace. Thus in the last analy- sis it is human will which decides whether a particidar grace shall prove efficacious or not, although revela- tion teaches that it is (lod, who with His grace gives both the willing and the doing of a good act. Even friends of Molina, notably Cardinal Bellarmine (De grat. et lib. arliitr., I, 12), saw the force of this diffi- culty and declined to follow the extreme Molinism, which, by the wa)', was not taught by MoUna. This explains the Instruction issued by Claudius Acquaviva, the General of the Jesuits in the year 1613, directing all the teaching body of the Society to lay increased stress on the fact that efficacious grace differs from sufficient grace not only ab extrinseco, but also in its moral (not its physical) nature even in adu prima, inasmuch as efficacious grace being a special gift of God has a higher moral value than merely sufficient grace, which according to the infallible foreknowledge of God recoils ineffectively in consequence of the resistance of the will. Thus it remains true that God HinLself effects our good deeds, not that He merely supplies us with the potentiality.

(4) Congruism is based on an unessentially modified form of Molinism, than which it is more carefully worked out in its details. It was endorsed by the Jesuit General Claudius Acquaviva (d. 1615) and by his successors Muzio Vitelleschi (d. 1645) and Picco- lomini (d. 1651), and was made the official system of the Society of Jesus. The system was really origi- nated by Molina himself, but received its definitive form from the labours of Bellarmine, Suarez, Vas- quez, and Lessius. It takes its name from the gratia congrua, that is, a grace suited to the circumstances of the case, which is opposed to the gratia incongrua, a grace namely which is not suited to the circumstances of a certain case. Both of these concepts are purely Augustinian, as a reference to Augustine (Ad Sirapli- cianum, I, Q. ii, n. 13) will show.

It is quite obvious that gratia congrua corresponds with efficacious grace, and gratia incongrua with merel}' sufficient grace. Accordingly the efficacy of a grace depends upon its peculiar agreement or congru- ity with the interior and exterior disposition of the recipient, whereby a certain relationship of choice is established between grace and free will, which at the hand of God in the light of His scientia media becomes the infallible means of carrying out all His designs of grace in great things and small with certain success and without violence. Even a small grace, which by reason of its congruity is attended with success, has an incomparably greater sanctifying value than an ever so much more powerful grace, which by reason of un- favourable circumstances of inclination, training, and environment fails in its purpose, and therefore as a gratia incongrua appears to the Divine foreknowledge as merely sufficient. Concerning the method of oper- ation of the efficacious, or the congruous grace, the Congruists like the Molinists make three divisions: the efficacy of power {efficacia virtutis); the efficacy of union (efjicacia connexionis); the efficacy of infallibil- ity (efficacia injaUibilitatis). The efficacy of the power to will and to do is peculiar to the efficacious and sufficient grace, that is to say, it is derived neither from the human will nor from the Divine foreknowl- edge.

The efficacy of the union between act and grace de- pends upon the free will, because according to the dogma efficacious grace is not irresistible, but can be rejected at any time. The efficacy of infallibility springs not from the physical nature of grace but from the infallible foreknowledge of God (scientia media), which cannot be deceived. After due consideration of

all the various phases of the Catholic doctrine of grace, it would seem that the congruistic remodelled Molin- ism comes fairly near the truth, because it is intelli- gently adjusted between the anti-grace Pelagianism and Scmipelagianism on the one hand, and the anti- free-will Calvinism and Jansenism on the other. Nev- ertlu-loss there are numerous critics who find muth to object to in ( '(5ngruism, and who fail to see in it a clear sohition of the problem of grace and free will. They find it difficult to believe that grace adjusts itself slavishly to all the circumstances of the recipient, when the story of many a conversion shows that grace simply lays hold of man and without much parley leads him whithersoever it would have him go. Thus, grace does not depend for its efficacy on the congruity of the circumstances, but conversely the congruity of the circumstances is shaped and brought about by grace. Like all the other systems Congruism is forced to the confession: "We are standing before an un- solved mystery."

(5) Syncretism. — In the conviction that in each of the four systems we have thus far considered there must be in spite of imperfections many grains of truth, the Syncretic system hopes by proceeding in an eclec- tic manner, by adopting the good points of the various systems and eliminating all that is improbable and secondary, to evolve another or fifth system. The first incitement to the creation of this system came from the Paris Sorbonne (Ysambert, Isak, Habert, Duplessis d'Argentrc, Tournely), whose views received a certain consecration from the fact that St. Alphonsus Liguori, the great Doctor of the Church, endorsed them (" Op. dogmat.", ed. Walter, I, 517 sqq.; II, 707 sqq.). Among recent exponents of this system may be men- tioned: Godfrey a Graun, Schwetz, Cardinal Katsch- thaler, Herrmann. The distinguishing trait of the Syncretic system is found in the acceptance of two quite distinct sorts of efficacious grace, namely, the (Thomistic-Augustinian) gratia ab intrinseco efficax and the (Molinistic-Congruistic) gratia ab extrinseco efflcax. Their respective functions are so apportioned, that the intrinsically predetermining grace of the Thomists (i. e. of the Augustinians, as e. g. in the writings of St. Alphonsus Liguori) is employed in the difficult works, e. g. in the patient endurance of great trials, in the overcoming of severe temptations, in the cnecution of difficult duties, etc. — while on the other hand the non- predetermining grace of the Molinists iz reserved for the less difficult good works, such as a short prayer, a slight mortification, etc. Both these graces are given by God for the performance of their respective func- tions.

Prayer is placed as a link joining the two, and as the proper and practically infallible means of obtaining the Thomistic grace necessary for the performance of the difficult works of salvation. Who prays will secure his eternal salvation; who does not pray will be lost forever. If any one thing is to be specially singled out for commendation in this Syncretic system of grace, it is its insistence on the fact, which cannot be too strongly emphasized, that prayer is our individual duty, an absolute necessity and an infallible means in the attainment of our eternal salvation. Our minds cannot be too thoroughly imbued with the truth of the statement that our present provision of grace is essen- tially and intrinsically a magnificent economy of prayer. Even though Syncretism had performed no other service than the vigorous proclamation of this great truth, it alone were sufficient to rescue the sys- tem from oblivion. The system has not, it is true, solved the real problem of the relation between grace and free will. On the contrary, the linking together of the two kinds of efficacious grace only increases the difficulties found in the other systems. Consequently this system ends like the others in the inevitable con- viction that we are confronted by a great mystery.

For general literature, see article Grace, also: Bellarminb,