Yes, more on gradualism
Garrigou-Lagrange reminds us in
Reality, that
sufficient grace is given to all men, otherwise sin would not be sin.
The freedom of the will chooses either sufficient grace to avoid sin
and do good. One may look up the many, many posts on this blog on
grace and free will.
Grace to make come to pass the excellence of the Catholic life is
called efficacious grace, again discussed here many times.
The choice is ours., whether to follow the urging of efficacious
grace or not. If one refuses sufficient grace, one refuses
efficacious grace as well.
Gradualism denies grace, as noted in earlier posts under the label
synod. God gives us the movement of the will to do good actions, and
also brings about the good action itself, as nothing good can be done
without God's direct will.
However, one forgets, and Garrigou-Lagrange reminds us that
impediments stop the flow of grace. We set up these impediments, and
one is adultery, or the living in sin with another person rather than
one's lawful, sacramental wife or husband. Justice, states
Garrigou-Lagrange, demands that God will not give efficacious grace
if sufficient grace is refused.
The
great Dominican quotes Thomas Aquinas on this interaction of will and
grace. “The will
is related to things as they are in themselves with all their
particular circumstances. Hence we will a thing simply (simpliciter)
when we will it with all its concrete circumstances. This will we
call the consequent will. Thus it is clear that every thing which God
wills simpliciter comes to pass.”
Now,
until one is in the illuminative
state, that state
described by the great saints who wrote about this, such as Teresa of
Avila, John of the Cross, and Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, one
does not know for sure if one is a child predestined by grace to be
saved. One of the torments of the Dark Night is the doubt of one's
own salvation. Again, see my many, many posts on the illuminative
state. I refer to it
here again because of the confusion in the synod on the nature of
grace and free will.
Garrigou-Lagrange, thankfully, as backup for all of us who have
written on the synod, writes, “God does not command the
impossible.” God has His efficacious consequent will and His
antecedent will, the source of sufficient grace.
Here
is G-L: “All that God
wills, He does. This principle has no exception. All that God wills
(purely, simply, unconditionally) comes to pass without our our
freedom being thereby in any way forced, because God moves that
freedom sweetly and strongly, actualizing it, not destroying. He
will efficaciously that we freely consent and we do freely consent.
The supreme efficacy of divine casuality, says St. Thomas, extends to
the free mode of our acts.”
We does not have to marry someone outside of sanctifying grace. We do
not have to stay in an irregular marriage. We do not have to succumb
to the pressures of work to compromise our Faith. We do not have to
become bitter, unforgiving, angry with God or His Church, and so on.
God's
will allows us to respond to grace. Here is Garrigou-Lagrange again
on the decisive statement from the Council of Thuzey (860): “Whatever
He has willed in heaven or on earth, God has done. For nothing comes
to pass in heaven or on earth that He does not in mercy bring to pass
or permits to come to pass in justice.
The teaching of the Church tells us God's Will. What God gives us for
salvation and beyond, for perfection comes in and through the
Catholic Church. Grace is necessary, and gradualism denies this,
relying on false ideals of modern psychology and false ideas of cheap
grace, that one can flaunt the laws of God in the Church and still be
saved.
Does this mean that everyone caught up in irregular marriages cannot
be saved? Of course not. Some people choose to live and brother and
sister for the sake of the children, not taking part in receiving
Holy Communion. Some do make the brave decision to separate, to take
themselves out of the way of further temptation to sin.
What is missing from the synodal discussion, besides this necessary
teaching of the ages on grace is the nature of real love. The
previous posts on St. John Paul II's encyclical reveal what true love
is-sacrificial, hard, leading to perfection.
By the way, we do not merit our predestination, it is given. It is
grace. Holiness is gratuitous, not earned.
Some people never commit mortal sin in their lives, and this is a
mercy, a gift from God.
And, an extremely important note from G-L on disorder. As
there is much disorder, or chaos, in the world regarding marriage and
so-called ssm, one must know that God does not cause disorder or
chaos. The disorder of sin is caused by man himself. God permits
human beings to use their free will daily. We choose daily His way or
not.
I repeat a bit here, but the gradualists forget four important things
about grace and free will.
One, a person wills to be in an irregular marriage, or to leave such.
Free will may be clouded by the passions, but God gives to all
sufficient grace to control the passions.
Two, grace trumps nature. If one cooperates with grace, with the
mercy of God, one will have clarity of mind and discernment as to
what to do in a disordered situation, and the first things would be
to repent.
Three, no one in mortal sin can receive any merit or any subsequent or sanctifying grace. One's
soul is dead and incapable of receiving grace except for the completely gratuitous prevenient actual grace, which moves one to metanoia. A person must decide
to leave the path of mortal sin when offered the grace of conversion.
Four, God is not passive. He gives us opportunities for conversion
over and over again.
More later...