Choose a topic from Part 2A:
1. A man is justified by the remission or removalof the guilt of sin.
2. This removal or remission of sins is effected in man bythe in-pouring of supernatural grace.
3. God gives the grace which justifies; he also gives tofree will the grace to accept justification. God moves all thingsaccording to the nature he gave them in creating them; to man'snature he gave free will; hence, by grace he moves man's willto accept freely the justifying or sanctifying grace whichremoves the guilt of sin from the soul.
4. To move the will to accept grace, the mind or intellectis moved; for free will follows in its choice the ultimatepractical judgment of the intellect. Now, the intellect is heremoved by being turned to God by faith. Hence, a movement of faithis required for the justifying of a sinner.
5. Since free will cannot choose to turn to God unless italso chooses to turn away from sin, there are two will-actsrequired for justification: the repudiating of sin, and theembracing of God's justice.
6. Four things are required for the justification of asinner: (a) the infusion of grace; (b) the movement of the freewill towards God; (c) the movement of the free will to reject sin;(d) the remission of sins.
7. The justification of a sinner, which is the change fromthe state of sin to the state of grace, is not a gradual change butan instantaneous one. The effective factor in this change is theinfusion of grace, and this is an instantaneous act. Sometimes,indeed, the soul is gradually disposed, by successive influences,to receive justification. But the actual justification does notconsume time, or admit of successive degrees or steps.
8. In the actual justification of a sinner, all fourrequisites-grace, faith, hatred of sin, remission-concur in thesame instant. But in their own nature there is priority among theserequisites for justification. Thus considered, first comes theinfusion of grace; then, the will's movement towards God byfaith and love; then, the will's rejection of sin; finally, theremission of guilt.
9. The justifying of sinners by grace can be called thegreatest work of God. Not only is this work great in itself; it isgreat in the fact that it is done for those unworthy of it. Psalm144 says that God's tendermercies are over all his works.And the work of justifying a sinner is a work of most tendermercy.
10. Apart from wondrous and unusual manifestations, as in theconversion of St. Paul, the justifying of a sinner is not called amiracle. For a miracle, taken in its widest meaning as a wondrouswork divinely wrought, is always something outside the usual courseof God's proceeding with men. Now, justification regularlyproceeds by the same course: grace, faith, rejection of sin,remission.
"God gives us some things, as the beginning of faith, even when we do not pray. Other things, such as perseverance, he has only provided for those who pray."
St Augustine
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"When the devil has failed in making a man fall, he puts forward all his energies to create distrust between the penitent and the confessor, and so by little and little he gains his end at last."
St Philip Neri
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"A person who rails at God in adversity, suffers without merit; moreover by his lack of resignation he adds to his punishment in the next life and experiences greater disquietude of mind in this life."
St Alphonsus de Liguori
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