Category: Religion

       The Catholic Doctrine of Grace is a book by Father George Hayward Joyce, S. J. originally published in 1920 by Burns Oates and Washbourne and carries a Nihil Obstat, by J. Jarvis, Censor Deputatus and an Imprimatur from FRANCISOUS, EPUS MENEVENSIS. Seeing it on Abe Books, a used old and rare book retailer that offers reasonable priced books, I was able to purchase 2 copies of the original.

        A reprint of this book is available from amazon.com and on the internet, for free, at https://archive.org/details/catholicdoctrine00joyc/page/124/mode/2up.

        This book offers, by far, in my opinion, the best and most complete explanation of what I consider the theological bedrock of the Roman Catholic Faith – Grace.  There are 2 main types of grace: 1) Sanctifying grace which is alluded to in the Bible but is not necessarily called by that name and that is the life of God given to humankind through baptism and the other of the catholic religion’s sacraments and 2) actual grace which is direct assistance from God to see the truth of the Catholic faith and which comes in two types which are explained in the quote in the latter part of this review.

        The long quote follow will also point out the flaw in Martin Luther’s main theological pillar of salvation faith alone by support from actual New Testament quotes. Also using references from the bible it shows that any man or woman, even if he or she has never heard of Jesus Christ, if he lives is life completely as Jesus Christ would have him or her, as a follower of true pure love personified – Jesus Christ, he or she has the real possibility of salvation.  We find the above assertions find support in the following quote:

“    From what has been said it might perhaps be concluded that until baptism is actually administered, justification is altogether unattainable.  This however, is not the case.  Baptism undoubtedly is, ordinarily speaking, the means by which the man who believes Christ’s revelation and deplores his past sins, receives the gift of sanctifying grace. But if the believer is moved even before baptism not merely  to repentance but to the pure love of God, if, that is, his sorrow is the sorrow of pure contrition then grace is forthwith conferred upon him, and his soul is justified antecedently to the administration of the sacrament.  Our Lord’s words are clear on this point: “If anyone love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him; and We will come to him, and will make our abode with him” (John xiv, 23).  This, of course, does not imply that those who attain justification in this way can dispense with baptism.  The reception of the sacrament remains necessary by reason of God’s command, because it is the gate leading to the reception of the other sacraments, and because it is the external sign of incorporation into the Church.  But the Church has always recognized that where actual baptism is impossible, its place may be taken by “the baptism of desire.”  If a man believes Christ’s revelation and has a genuine love of God and a desire of receiving baptism, them, even though he should be cut off by death before its reception, his soul will be among the saved.

     2. Faith repentance, fear of God and hope of God are very far from being mere conditions, the fulfilment of which God demands of us as a preliminary to our justification, but without any internal connection with grace. They are a positive preparation of the soul for the reception of that gift.  Faith in God’s promise of salvation through Christ is the soul’s first step toward its supernatural end, and fear and hope and repentance are the next steps in the same great journey.  In theological terminology they are all of them works conducing to salvation (opera saluaria).  Now it is a truth of revelation that man’s natural powers are wholly incompetent to do anything towards the attainment of celestial beatitude.  Man viewed apart from grace was destined, as we have seen, for a happiness of a less exalted character.  His faculties without a supernatural elevation, are not such as to enable him to pursue a supernatural aim. Even faith, the first step of all, is God’s gift.  Thus St. Paul writes to the Ephesians: “By grace you are saved through faith: and that (i.e., your salvation through faith) not of yourselves: for it is the gift of God” (Eph. ii. 8): and elsewhere: “unto you it is given for Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him” (Phil. i, 29). Precisely the same teaching is found in the Gospels, where our Lord says to the Jews: “No man can come to Me except the Father who hath sent Me draw him . . . There are some of you who believe not . . . therefore did I say to you that no man can come to Me unless it be given him by My Father” (John vi. 44, 65, 66). Similarly, when St. Luke tells us in the Acts of the Apostles of the conversion of the woman Lydia at Philippi, he says: “Whose heart the Lord opened to give heed unto the things which were spoken by Paul” (Acts xvi. 14, R.V.)  What is true of faith is true of the other acts which lead on toward justification.  St. Paul tells us in general terms: “It is God who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish” (Phil. ii. 13).  This truth has been explicitly affirmed by the Church on several occasions. In the fifth century it was maintained by St. Augustin against the Semi-pelagians of Marseilles.  These men repudiated the heresy of Pelagius that man can save his soul without grace; but they contended that the first step toward salvation, faith or at least the desire for faith, is purely our own act. The great African doctor showed that such a view was contrary to the teaching of revelation. Since then the doctrine has been defined in more than one council.  It will be sufficient for our purpose to quote the canon in which the opposite error is condemned by the Council of Trent: “If any one shall maintain that without the prevenient inspiration of the Holy Ghost and without His assistance, man can believe or hope or love or repent, as is required in order that he should receive the grace of justification: let him be anathema” (Sess. VI.m can. 3)  The aid thus conferred upon us belongs to the order of grace: for like sanctifying grace itself, it elevates our actions to the supernatural plane. Since, however, it is not the gift of an abiding state, but simply of a particular activity of the soul, and is temporary in its character, it is distinguished by the name of actual grace.  It will be observed that in the decree just quoted, the Church does not teach the belief as such is a impossibility without this supernatural assistance.  Had it done so, it might be argued that, by the Church’s own admission, there must be some want of cogency in the arguments for Christianity as they are presented to us: since otherwise they would be capable of convincing the intellect and producing belief even without a special assistance on God’s part.  The Church has ever maintained that the evidences for the truth of Christianity are amply sufficient for all minds.   But it declares that belief produced without the aid of grace would not be such as to help to the attainment of justification.  It would be of no more avail for that end tan is that of which St. James speaks when he tells us that “the devils also believe and tremble” (Jas. ii. 19).

       The immediate effect of actual grace is, as we have seen, to produce in the soul those acts of the mind and the will which are the preliminary to sanctifying grace. Revelation does not inform us in what precisely it consists: and the point has given rise to some discussion.  Some theologians hold that it is wholly constituted by the acts themselves. But weightier arguments, as it would seem, can be advanced for the view that it is a positive endowment temporarily infused into the soul elevating it to the supernatural order and determining it to the production of the acts in question.

     Under the influence of actual grace the mind and will are are moved, as it were, spontaneously to faith and repentance.  Apart from any deliberate choice on its own part, the soul finds itself turning towards God.  But God does not force us to accept His gift.  In the moment when a man becomes conscious of these motions of his soul, he may, if he so chooses, refuse his consent to them, and choose the path of disbelief and impenitence.  On the other hand, he may welcome them: in which case they are brought to completion no longer as indeliberate acts, but with the full and deliberate consent of the will.  During the former stage, the supernatural assistance is termed gratia exitans: after the recipient has yielded his consent, it is termed gratia adjuvans. [footnote: Gratia excitans signifies literally “arousing grace.” It is so called because its office is to arouse the quiescent faculty to supernatural action.  But we have no generally accepted rendering for the term in English. Gratia adjuvans signifies “assisting grace.”]  Actual grace, it will be observed, differs from sanctifying grace in this important point: that its reception is not dependent on any preparation on our part.  The sinner is not bound to produce certain definite dispositions in himself before he can hope to receive any actual grace. God gives His actual graces even to the greatest sinners, that He may bring them to repentance.  Doubtless they are given more abundantly to those who pray and take the other means to which the Church exhorts men.  But every step of this kind presupposes the gift.  Were it not for the influence of actual grace within him, the sinner could do nothing to return to God.

     3.  It is a a general principle that the degree in which a perfection can be realized is limited by the capacity of the subject receiving it.  The principle is exemplified in many spheres.  An artist may conceive the ideal of some picture But the realization of the ideal will be conditioned by the materials at his disposal.  He cannot achieve more than they admit of:  if he has only one of two colours, he cannot depict some richly variegated scene.  So, too, if a man sows seed in his garden, the character of the soul exercises a determining influence on the development of the plant.  A perfect plant demands a soil adapted to it.  Or to take our example from another quarter: if a man endeavors to impart some branch of knowledge to a boy, he recognizes that the result must be conditioned by the intellectual capacity of his pupil: if he is concerned to teach him some feat of physical skill, his success will depend on the accuracy of eye and dexterity of hand that his disciple possesses.  Grace, here, the Church assures us, follows the analogy of nature, and shows us the same principle operating in the supernatural order. In the case of those who obtain justification after they have reached the age of reason, sanctifying grace is not given in an equal degree to all.  The amount bestowed depends on the manner in which they have disposed themselves for its reception. If they have used the actual grace given them to the best advantage, if their faith is fervent, their hope ardent their sorrow for sin intense, they will receive it in ample measure.  If on the other hand they have shown but little zeal in preparing themselves for it, and their dispositions scarcely go beyond the minimum, which God requires, they will receive far less.  It is otherwise, of course, with those who receive the gift in infancy through baptism, and who are not called to co-operate in the work of their justification.  It is practically certain that to all of these is given and equal degree of grace in that sacrament.

     4. Such is the doctrine of the Catholic Church as to the mode in which man, if he has reached years of discretion, must attain justification.  It seems necessary to add something regarding the Protestant errors on this subject, since Luther’s teaching on this point is the basis on which the whole of his system was erected.  We have already given some account of his teaching as to justification, and explained how, according to him, it does not involve any change in the soul of the justified but consists of solely in the imputation to him to him of the merits of Christ: that, in other words, God does not make us just, but recons us as just by a juridical fiction.  And we have pointed out that this strange doctrine was the creation of Luther’s own mind: that there is no vestige of support for it in Scripture or in Christian tradition.  As regards the mode in which man secures this imputation of Christ’s merits to his soul, he asserted that one thing only is necessary – namely, faith.  This is the famous doctrine of justification by faith alone, which is still regarded as unquestionably true by the majority of those who adhere to one or other of the Protestant sects.  Faith, however, does not with Luther signify what Catholics understand by the term – viz, belief in God’s revelation. According to him, man has faith when he possesses a confident trust that his sins have been forgiven by God for Christ’s sake.  Thus, in the authoritative Lutheran formulary entitled the Confession of Augsburg, it is laid down as the accepted Protestant teaching that “men are justified for Christ’s sake by faith, when they believe that they are received into God’s favour, and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake who by His death made satisfaction for our sins.” [footnote: Confess. Aug. art. 4 fol.13] As thus used the term signifies confidence in God’s mercy rather than faith properly so called.  A further fundamental difference between the Lutheran and the Catholic teaching is found in their respective teachings as to the function of faith I preparing the soul for justification.  According to Catholic doctrine as we have seen, faith and hope are supernatural acts, produced under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and exercising a renovating influence of the soul, which is thus rendered a fit subject for the reception of God’s gifts. The preparation becomes complete when the soul rises from faith and hope to love.  All this the Reformers denied. According to them there is no amelioration of the soul preparatory to justification.  Faith is the sole condition asked of us: and faith exercises no renovating influence.  It is imply and instrument by which we secure the imputation of Christ’s merits  To use Calvin’s simile, it is comparable to an earthen pot, which, filled with coin, makes a man rich, but has no value of its own.

     The doctrine of justification by faith alone stands or falls with the view that justification is purely external.  The rejection of the one error involves that of the other. When it is seen that justification is not a juridical fiction, but a veritable transformation of the soul, and in all those who have attained to years of discretion a transformation that takes place voluntarily, it follows of necessity that the acts which prepare the way for it are acts by which a man forsakes evil and chooses good, and which thus dispose the soul for God’s gifts.  Moreover, the texts which have been cited as to the need of hope and repentance show how erroneous is the contention that faith alone is required of us.

     What however, it may be asked is to be said as to the passages in which St. Paul appears to attribute justification entirely to faith?  These, as all are aware, have ever been employed a the chief weapon  in the Protestant armory.  Appeal is made to texts such as the following: “We account a man to be justified by faith without works of the law” (Rom. Iii, 28); “By grace you are saved through faith: and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God: not of works, that no man may glory” (Eph. Ii, 8, 9); and  “[Christ Jesus] was delivered for our sins, and rose again for our justification. Being justified therefore by faith, let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. Iv. 25, v.1).  If, it is urged, faith is but the first of several acts which God demands of us, and without them is powerless to procure our justification, the apostle could not speak as he does. Indeed he goes out of his way to assure us that we must not regard our good works as having any power to render us acceptable to God: he blames the jews for this very error, that they did not rely on faith, but believed that their good works contributed to the result.

     It would be idle to deny that St. Paul’s words are open to misconstruction in the Lutheran sense.  From the first, it would appear, some interpreted them in this fashion.  Of some such error St. Peter seems to speak, when he says that in the epistles of his fellow apostle “Are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest as they do the other Scriptures to their own destruction.” (2 Pet. Iii. 16).

      Yet when considered in connection with the remainder of his teachings, St. Paul’s meaning is clear enough.  He was engaged in refuting the teaching of the Jewish Rabbis, according to which man can find acceptance with God on the score of good works performed by his own natural powers.  God had given Israel the law on Mount Sinai. Those who should keep the law – and man, the Rabbis maintained, can do so if he chooses – were just before God.  Their justice was in the strictest sense their own: and for it they could claim a reward, as their due. God inscribed their good works in His book of record, and would most surely pay them that to which they were entitled.  This view St. Paul declares to be utterly false.  We cannot, he affirms, attain justice by our own good works. It must come as God’s free gift through grace: he must renovate us and make us just: and the sole road to this justification is through faith in Jesus Christ.  To the justification earned as a matter of right by works, he opposed this justification by grace through faith.  But he nowhere implies that faith is the sole condition demanded of us.  It is primary and essential requirement which determines the nature of the whole subsequent process.  Whatever else we do, we do in faith: whatever we receive, we receive as Christ’s followers.  Hence the apostle is naturally led to speak of us as being justified by faith.”  In a whole series of passages he makes it clear that the moment at which the gift of justification is actually conferred is the baptism of the convert:  that besides faith repentance is needed as a condition precedent to its reception: and that without the subsequent practice of good works it will infallibly be lost.  Indeed he expressly states that in those who are justified faith must be combined with charity, and must issue in works.  “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision: but faith that worketh by charity.” [Galatians 5:6] To interpret the passages in which he declares that we are justified by faith, as though they signified the faith will effect this result without other conditions of any kind, is wholly to misunderstand their meaning.

     It is worth noting that Luther did not scruple to falsify the text of Scripture in order to provide his doctrine with the support which the words of the apostle refused to give him.  In the verse “We account a man to be justified by faith without the works of the law” (Rom. Iii. 28), he inserted the word “alone,” so that in his version it ran, “We account a man to be justified by faith alone,” etc. The action was characteristic of the man.

     The doctrine of justification by faith alone inevitably led to a widespread neglect of the moral law.  It offered a cheap and easy way to heaven, without the need of the practice of those moral virtues on which the Catholic Church had insisted so strongly.  History bears witness to the appalling moral corruption which followed the adoption of the new religion in those countries which made profession of Protestantism.  Luther himself in later life often complained bitterly that the people who had received the new teaching were in every way worse than they had been before they forsook the ancient faith. [See e.g. Grisar’s Life of Luther (E.T.), iv. C. 24 (1915).] Never was there a case which presented a more striking verification of our Lord’s words: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know them” (Matt. Vii. 15, 16).

            It is my hope that anyone reading the above quote will see the error in salvation by faith alone and possibly encourage one to read this book possibly to prevent them from leaving the faith based on thinking there is a quicker and easier way to obtain salvation than is laid out by the catholic church.  Conversely, if one is searching for the true faith/religion, hopefully this blog will help convince them that the Catholic Church is the true religion, that worshiping in the true religion is required by God and is his due and will read more, consult with a priest or enter catechism at their local traditional Catholic Parish and become a practicing Roman Catholic.