Jun 30 Mon
Do I need God’s help to do anything profitable?
The intimate life of God consists in that the Father begets the Son (the eternal generation of the Word), and from the Father and the Son proceeds the Holy Spirit.
God is not someone locked up in his own solitude, but constitutes a family; for He shares within Himself the relations of paternity, filiation, and love, which are of the essence of a family. This love in the divine family is the Holy Spirit.
Here we notice three key notions: paternity, filiation, and love. In a human family, paternity is proper to the parents. In them, paternity is a relation to their children. This relation qualifies or adds a new dimension to the person they are.
Filiation is proper for the children.
The love or affection that unites the members of the family to one another is found in all the members.
God calls humanity to share in the life of the Blessed Trinity. Through his divine action on a creature in the state of grace, God communicates with the person as Father, as Son, and as Holy Spirit. Thus, our salvation is a grace from God. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we share in the Passion of Christ, dying to sin. Through the same power, we share in Christ’s Resurrection and are born to a new life: the life of grace. We become members of Christ’s body, the Church, and living branches united to the vine, which is Christ.
God’s grace is indispensable to carry out every meritorious supernatural action. It requires man’s cooperation, but, at the same time, always precedes it.
Pelagianism and the teachings of St. Augustine represent opposing views regarding this process. Pelagianism emphasizes the power of free will and minimizes the necessity of God's grace, while St. Augustine stresses the importance of grace due to the effects of original sin.
Pelagianism theorizes that humans can lead morally good lives and achieve salvation through their natural powers, without the need for God's grace. Grace, in this view, primarily facilitates salvation but is not essential.
Pelagius denied the doctrine of original sin, asserting that Adam's sin only affected him but did not wound human nature in his descendants.
Pelagianism highly esteems free will, suggesting that humans have the innate capacity to choose good and follow God's law without divine assistance. They can ultimately achieve holiness and impeccability through their own efforts.
In opposition to this heresy, the Catholic view is that of St. Augustine. He taught that we possess a weakened will and a tendency toward sin. Thus, we need a Savior because of original sin.
Augustine emphasized the absolute necessity of God's grace for salvation. He argued that we, due to our fallen nature, cannot perform profitable acts or resist temptation without grace. Grace is not just helpful, but fundamentally necessary.
Augustine strongly affirmed the doctrine of original sin, which is transmitted to all through Adam. This sin corrupts our nature, affecting both the mind (ignorance) and the flesh (concupiscence).
Augustine acknowledged our free will but maintained that it was weakened by original sin. While we have free will, it is insufficient to achieve holiness without the assistance of grace.
Semipelagianism, also an error, emerged as a compromise between Pelagianism and Augustinianism. It suggested that the "beginning of faith," the initial move, can be done with just our natural power of free will, while the increase in faith requires grace.
Pic: The Good Samaritan by Van Gogh