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Was the first man created in the state of grace? Did that original
justice include sanctifying grace? Peter Lombard and Alexander of
Hales, followed by St. Albert the Great and St. Bonaventure,
had answered as follows: Adam was not created in the state of grace,
but only with the full integrity of human nature. Thereupon, after
voluntarily disposing himself thereunto, he received sanctifying
grace. From this point of view grace seems to be a personal gift to
Adam rather than a gift to be transmitted to his descendants. Still,
according to these four teachers, these descendants too by the
dispositions given them in their transmitted integrity of nature would
have received sanctifying grace.
What is the position of St. Thomas? We find a development in his
thought. When he wrote his commentary on the Sentences, [686]
after expounding the foregoing view, he goes on to speak as follows:
"But others say that man was created in grace. According to this
view the gift of gratuitous justice would seem to be a gift to human
nature itself, and therefore grace would have been transmitted
simultaneously with nature."
At this time then, around 1254, he does not as yet give
preference to either of these views. But a little later, farther on
in the same work, [687] he says that it is more probable that
Adam received grace at the moment of his creation.
In his subsequent works, he favors this view ever more strongly. In
a work [688] written between 1263 and 1268, he speaks
thus: "Original justice includes sanctifying grace. I do not accept
the view that man was created in the simple state of nature." Later
on, in the same work, [689] he again says: "According to
some authors sanctifying grace is not included in the concept of
original justice. This view I hold to be false. My reason is this:
Original justice consists primordially in the subjection of the human
mind to God, and such subjection cannot stand firm except by grace.
Hence original justice must include grace."
Finally, in the Summa, [690] he affirms without
qualification, that the first man was created in the state of grace,
that grace guaranteed the supernatural submission of his soul to God,
and, further, that this primordial rectitude brought with it perfect
subordination of passion to reason and of the body to the soul, with
the privileges of impassibility and immortality.
Original justice, then, includes grace. This truth St. Thomas
finds in a word of Scripture: [691] God made man right. Thus
this text was understood by tradition, notably by St. Augustine,
who often says that, as long as reason submitted to God, the passions
submitted to reason. Hence St. Thomas holds that the original
justice received by Adam for himself and for us, included, as
intrinsic and primordial element, sanctifying grace, and that this
grace is the root and source of the other two subordinations, of
passion to reason, of body to soul.
Let us hear the saint's own words: "Since the root of original
justice, which made man right, lies in the supernatural subjection of
reason to God, which subjection, as said above, comes with
sanctifying grace, we must say that children born in original justice
would also have been born in grace. Would grace then be something
natural? No, because grace would not be given by seminal transfusion
of nature, but by God, at the moment when God infused the rational
soul." [692] .
And here is another text: [693] "Original justice belonged
primordially to the essence of the soul. For it was a gift divinely
given to human nature, a gift which is given to the essence of the
soul, before being given to the faculties." [694] .
Original justice, then, includes sanctifying grace, received by
Adam for himself and for us. That this is the position of St.
Thomas is maintained by most of the commentators. [695] .
We may add here a word from the saint's teaching on baptism.
[696] If original justice meant merely full integrity of
nature, then original sin would be merely the privation of this
integrity, and hence would not be remitted by baptism, since baptism
does not restore this integrity. But original sin, the death of the
soul, [697] is the privation of grace, and grace is what is
restored by baptism.
This position of St. Thomas, compared to the other view, is much
nearer to the position later defined by the Council of Trent,
[698] which condemned anyone who would assert that Adam's fall
harmed himself only and not his progeny, or that he lost for himself
but not for us that sanctity and justice he had received from God.
The word "sanctity" in that sentence was declared by many fathers of
that Council to mean "sanctifying grace." And while the sentence
underwent many amendments, the word "sanctity" was never expunged.
[699] .
Thus Adam is conceived as head of nature elevated, who, both for
himself and for us, first received and then lost, that original
justice which included sanctifying grace. This truth is thus expressed
in the preparatory schema for the Council of the Vatican:
[700] God raised primordially the whole human race in its root
and head to the supernatural order of grace, but now Adam's
descendants are deprived of that grace.
Original sin, therefore, is a sin of nature, which is voluntary,
not by our will, but only by the will of Adam. Hence original sin
consists formally in the privation of original justice, of which the
primordial element is grace, which is restored by baptism. Listen to
St. Thomas: "The disorder found in this or that man descended from
Adam is voluntary, not by his will, but by the will of our first
parent." [701] .
To say it in a word, the human nature transmitted to us is a nature
deprived of those gifts, supernatural and preternatural, which,
without being gifts of nature, still enriched our nature as if they
were gifts of nature. [702] .
Much light is thrown on the transmission of this sin of nature by the
doctrine of the soul as form of the body. The soul, being the
substantial and specific form of the body, constitutes with the body
one and only one natural unity; [703] hence although the soul,
being an immaterial thing, does not arise from matter but must be
created by God from nothing, still that soul enters into a natural
union with a body which is formed by generation. If human nature is
thus transmitted, then, after Adam's sin, it is transmitted as
deprived of original justice. Were the soul, like a motor, only
accidentally united to the body, we would have no way of explaining the
transmission of original sin. Let St. Thomas speak: "Human
nature is transmitted from parent to child by transmission of a body
into which then the soul is infused. The soul of the child incurs the
original stain, because that soul constitutes with the transmitted body
one nature. If the soul were not thus united to form one nature, but
were only united as an angel is united to an assumed body, then the
soul would not incur this original stain." [704] .
This same doctrine, the soul as form of the body, explains also, as
we saw above, the immutability of the soul, immediately after death,
in regard to its last end. The purpose of the body is to aid the soul
to reach that last end. Hence, when the soul is no longer united to
the body, it is no longer on the road to its last end, but is settled
in its relation to that end by the last act, meritorious or
demeritorious, which it placed during its state of union with the
body. [705] .
Thus all questions concerning man from beginning to end, from
conception unto death and thereafter, are explained by one and the same
set of principles. This is a great step in attaining unity of
theological science.
We have now seen, from the viewpoint of principle, the most important
questions regarding God, and the angels, and man, before his fall
and after. Let us summarize and conclude. God alone is pure act, in
whom alone is essence identified with existence, who alone is not only
His own existence, but also His own action. Every creature is
composed of essence and existence, it has its existence, but it is not
its existence. [706] Here appears the gulf between the verb
"to be" and the verb "to have." Since activity follows being,
every creature is dependent on God for its activity, just as it is
dependent on Him even for its being.
Such is the word of wisdom, which decides all questions in the light
of the supreme cause, God, the source and goal of all creation.
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