Grace, Actual and Habitual: A Dogmatic TreatisePohle, Joseph
Religion
Grace, Actual and Habitual: A Dogmatic Treatise
Pohle, Joseph
Grace (Theology)
When are the three theological virtues infused into the soul? This is an
open question so far as faith and hope are concerned. Of charity we know
that it is always infused with habitual grace. Suarez contends that, when
the soul is properly disposed, faith and hope are infused before
justification proper, that is to say, in the process leading up to it. St.
Thomas and St. Bonaventure, on the other hand, hold that faith and hope,
like charity, are infused at the moment when justification actually takes
place in the soul. This last-mentioned opinion is favored by the
Tridentine Council.(1118)
Mortal sin first destroys sanctifying grace together with the habit of
charity that is inseparable from it. Faith and hope may continue to exist
in the soul, and if hope, too, departs, faith may remain alone. But the
loss of faith invariably entails the destruction of hope and charity.
*Thesis II: Together with sanctifying grace there are also infused the
supernatural moral virtues.*
This proposition may be characterized as _sententia communior et
probabilior_. Though denied by some theologians, it can claim a high
degree of probability.(1119)
Proof. The infused moral virtues (_virtutes morales infusae_) differ from
the theological virtues in that they have for their immediate formal
object, not God Himself, but the creature in its relation to the moral
law.
The moral virtues may be reduced to four, _viz._: prudence, justice,
fortitude, and temperance. These are called the “cardinal” virtues; first,
because they perfect the principal faculties of the soul; secondly,
because all the other virtues may be scientifically deduced from
them.(1120) In the supernatural order the infusion of the cardinal virtues
and of the other virtues subordinate to them has for its object the
government of intellect and will in their relation towards created things
and the guidance of these faculties to their supernatural end.
a) The existence of supernaturally infused moral virtues is intimated in
Wis. VIII, 7: “And if a man love justice: her labors have great virtues;
for she teacheth temperance, and prudence, and justice, and fortitude,
which are such things as men can have nothing more profitable in
life.”(1121) The teacher of the three cardinal virtues here mentioned is
“Divine Wisdom,” _i.e._ God Himself, and we may assume that He inculcates
them by the same method which He employs in infusing the theological
virtues of faith, hope, and charity.
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