Grace
| Category | Dogmatics |
|---|---|
| Depth | Major |
| Article type | local Catholic reference article |
Definition
Grace is God's freely given help and gift by which he draws us into his own life. It both heals the damage of sin and raises us to a communion with God that we could not obtain by natural ability. It is not a reward for first making ourselves worthy of being loved.
Catholic usage
Catholic theology distinguishes actual grace from sanctifying grace. Actual grace is God's help for a particular movement towards good, such as repentance or an act of charity. Sanctifying grace is an abiding participation in divine life, making the person a child of God and capable of living in friendship with him.
The distinction helps explain a convert's experience. God's help can already be moving someone to seek forgiveness; reconciliation then establishes a renewed life in grace. The search itself need not be regarded as a wholly unaided human initiative.
Doctrinal context
Why is grace necessary if human nature is good? Created goodness and the supernatural destiny of seeing God are different. A natural power is proportioned to its natural activity. Communion in God's own life exceeds what any creature could claim as its due. Sin adds a further need for healing, but even an uninjured creature would not possess divine life by its own right.
God's action does not make the person's response unreal. When a person freely repents, it is truly he who repents; grace enables and moves that response. Catholic teaching rejects both self-salvation without grace and the idea that grace reduces the person to a morally irrelevant spectator.
Nor is grace a substance that can be measured by excitement or outward success. A person may be faithfully responding to God in an obscure act of patience while experiencing no special feeling. Conversely, public religious achievement does not by itself prove an interior friendship with God.
Distinctions and safeguards
Natural talents, extraordinary gifts and sanctifying grace must be distinguished. Intelligence or eloquence can serve good purposes but is not identical with holiness. A charism given for the benefit of others does not guarantee the recipient's personal virtue. The test of Christian life includes charity, truthfulness and obedience to God, not merely impressive effects.
Does cooperation with grace mean earning the first gift?
No. Cooperation is already a response made possible by God's initiative. The fact that a gift calls for a real response does not make that gift a wage. Later meritorious acts, in Catholic teaching, belong to the life of grace and to God's generous promise; they are not an independent claim against him.