Salvation by an act of perfect love

by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

Part One : Chapter V :: Grace in the Old Testament

Justification in the Old Testament. Justification may be described simply as the acquisition of sanctifying grace (or of infused justice). If a man is in the state of sin (original or mortal) justification will mean for him a transition from the state of sin and injustice to the state of sanctifying grace and justice. Justification is all-important for salvation, for only the just – those in sanctifying grace – at the moment of death will be saved and reach the love and enjoyment of the Beatific Vision.

Could men be justified in the Old Testament after the fall of Adam? Yes. From the moment God promised a Redeemer, the grace of Christ began to flow out, so to speak, in view of His future merits and by its help men could achieve justification. This meant concretely that there was a remedy for original sin, open to all men, whereby they could gain remission of original sin, infusion of sanctifying grace and the right to the Beatific Vision, its love and enjoyment.

This remedy, according to many theologians, took two forms, that of “sacrament” and that of an interior act – or perfect love or contrition. The Old Law “sacraments,” however, were not the cause of sanctifying grace, as ours are, but only conditions. Still, sanctifying grace did come to men when they received these “sacraments.”

1. Infants

“Sacrament of Nature.” How could infants be justified before the institution of the sacrament of baptism? They would be born in original sin, they would need sanctifying grace. How would they get it? Who will do what to get it for them, since they can do nothing for themselves? They could get sanctifying grace, according to theologians, through a so-called “sacrament of nature,” and “remedy of nature” (not a cause but a condition – occasion of sanctifying grace). What was this “sacrament of nature?” Probably a sensible sign, an exterior rite by which parents (or others) manifested their desire of salvation for the infants and their faith in the Redeemer to come. Perhaps the rite consisted in an offering of the child to God, an invocation, a blessing, a purification.

Circumcision. From the time of Abraham there was another remedy for original sin, the “sacrament of circumcision,” applicable to Jewish boys (and men). For all other infants the remedy continued to be the “sacrament of nature,” until the New Law of Baptism was sufficiently promulgated.

The Illumination Theory. Is usually applied only to infants of the New Testament, but perhaps it could also be applied to infants of the Old Testament. Whether this theory has any validity, we shall try to indicate later, when we consider infants in the New Testament.

2. Adults

“Sacraments.” How would adults be able to achieve justification in the Old Testament? By way of the Jewish “sacrament” it seems, or by an act of perfect contrition or love.

That there were “sacraments” in the Old Testament, different from those in the New Testament, is clear from the Councils of Florence and Trent. As such “sacraments” among the Jews, many theologians cite “circumcision,” the “paschal lamb,” “ablutions and ablations,” “rites for consecrating priests and levites.” A few theologians say “the sacraments of the Old Law possessed a moral causality, and Circumcision at least conferred grace ex opera operato passive (cf. The Thomist, July, 1955, p. 355).” But more generally they hold that these “sacraments” did not cause sanctifying grace ex opera operato as ours do, but only an external, legal sanctity; however, on the occasion of their reception, the faith and piety of the recipients obtained for them sanctifying grace.

Act of Perfect Contrition. Most adults were not Jews. How could they (and Jews – in certain cases) be justified? The way to salvation for them was substantially the same, it seems, as that outlined by the Council of Trent. To be justified, to receive sanctifying grace, they had to prepare themselves – with the help of actual grace – by salutary acts of faith, hope, fear, love, contrition. If they prepared themselves properly, they would be given sanctifying grace, the infused virtues, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the Indwelling Trinity.

If they then elicited condignly meritorious acts of these virtues, they would increase in habitual grace. And if they prayed humbly, confidently, perseveringly they would infallibly impetrate the grace of final perseverance – and die in the state of grace; then they would go to the Limbo of the Fathers, to wait until the Redeemer would release them and take them with Him into heaven.

No natural act, then, would bring them to sanctifying grace – would dispose them for it; no natural act of prayer or faith or contrition. Only a salutary act – one flowing out of actual grace – would remotely or proximately dispose them for sanctifying grace.

And among the salutary acts required for an adult’s justification, one stands out; the act of perfect contrition (or love). For this act is the proximate disposition for justification: as soon as this act is elicited God infuses sanctifying grace into the soul. It is a most powerful act for it brings (but not as a sacrament does) sanctifying grace.

An act of perfect contrition involves an act of perfect love: of love of God above all things, for what He is in Himself: “I want God above all things,” “I love God above all things.” Even the angels’ test was fundamentally this: “Do you love me above all things?” An act of perfect love really must go out to God as above all things, or it does not go to Him as He is in Himself: for He is above all things. Such an act must flow from actual grace and must presuppose salutary faith: assent to revealed truth on the authority of God Who reveals it. For such faith, natural reason and natural revelation – that take us only to God as reflected in nature – are not enough. There must be actual grace and supernatural assent to at least two supernaturally revealed truths: one must believe “that God exists and is a rewarder to those who seek Him” (Heb. 11:6).

Could adults in the Old Testament elicit such an act of perfect love or contrition? Yes. But would they not need actual grace for this? Yes. And God would give them actual grace sufficient for them to pray – to believe – to be perfectly contrite – if they cooperated properly. What would be the first actual grace God gave them? We do not know; for every one it may have been a different grace. But many think it was an actual grace to pray, perhaps to say: “God, I need You.” For the grace of prayer seems to be the grace most commonly given to each one. For us in the New Testament, who are in sanctifying grace, it is ready and waiting all the time. If we need help in temptation, regularly, it seems, we first get the grace to pray.

Actual Grace. We might well pause here and ask; What is actual grace? We know it is necessary for a salutary act (one that positively conduces to salvation), and that a salutary act of perfect contrition (or love) brings sanctifying grace.

Where is actual grace? It is in the faculties – in the mind and will; sanctifying grace is in the essence of the soul. Actual grace can come from God in different ways. It can come directly into the mind, in spite of complicated thought processes. It is not dependent on them. The mind can be occupied with many things; then “out of the blue” may come a holy thought which has no connection with the matter agitating you at present. God is acting most directly, right here and now, divorcing Himself from the normal psychological procedure. However, most actual graces seem to come in very quietly, as part and parcel of the picture. The supra-discursive, supra-deliberative actual graces, the interior actual graces that are entirely disconnected from preceding external graces, these are rather more unusual. The “supra” types go with very special activity of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They relieve one of the task of reasoning and deliberating: the Holy Spirit leads and directs; in fact, you do not bother to reason (or cannot) for fear that you will spoil it. But this is the “easy way;” normally one gets to this easy way only by traveling the hard way a long time.

Actual graces regularly seem to involve a salutary thought of and desire (aversion) for something; a thought of praising, thanking, loving, obeying God or Christ or parents, superious; a thought of being sorry for sin and amending, etc. Suppose you wanted to produce an act of contrition in someone: you would first try to put into him the thought of being sorry, then try to move him to desire to be sorry. An act of contrition could then follow, but it might not. For he is quite free to assent or dissent to the “pressure” you are putting on him to be sorry. In much the same way God can give us the (supernatural) thought and desire of an act of contrition: and these would be actual graces of the mind and will. But man stays free to assent or dissent to the “push or pull” of God’s actual grace.

There is no such thing (ordinarily) as grace that “compels” or forces us. But there is such a thing as efficacious grace, but it does not force or necessitate the will to consent to it. God gives sufficient motion and power to the mind and will to place this act: if the will freely consents, the act is placed by the grace-moved will, and the grace is called efficacious (from eternity God foresaw this grace, if given, would effect this act). If, however, the will dissents, the act that could have been elicited is not elicited, and the grace is called merely sufficient. It is a matter of dogma that grace leaves one free: one can dissent to it, resist it. This was defined against the Reformers and Jansenius who said that efficacious grace necessitated the will to consent to it. Jansenius distinguished between two delights, the celestial and the terrestrial. The celestial pull (of grace) and the terrestrial pull (of concupiscence) are such that man will inevitably go according to whichever has the greater attractive power, greater intensity: and he will go thus by a necessitating traction. Besides being condemned and wrong dogmatically, Jansenius is even wrong psychologically. He said that man necessarily acts according to the strongest pull, the greater delight. But experience often show the contrary. With the gift of integrity gone, material sense pulls and delights are at times very strong: yet often grace wins out with its tiny spiritual pull. We must remember this in dealing with souls.

Essentially or partially (according to many theologians) actual grace is a supernatural motion or promotion of the mind and will to a certain salutary act. God takes the initiative physically. If I say “yes,” God “moves along with me” and I (my grace-moved will) produce the act under God, so that the act proceeds from God and from me moving under God. God starts the process in my mind and will. I assent. God and I produce the act. The salutary value of it is due to God: He is acting with an eye to the Beatific Vision.

God is the God of the present, and He uses things which move me now. Often His starting point is a prayer, but not always. Sometimes it is love of mother, sickness, death, or any apparently fortuitous event. God works in many ways. He appeals to people in different ways and to the same person in different ways at different periods of life. We outgrow certain things. So He calls, draws us in another way.

External Actual Graces. Actual grace can be internal or external (to one’s mind or will). External grace alone is not enough for salvation; there must be rectitude in the will (transiently and/or permanently) and for this internal grace is necessary. But God normally seems to use external graces as occasions for giving the much more important internal (salutary) graces. Of course, He can give such internal graces independently of external graces, but He usually seems to use external graces to “prepare” the way for internal graces. Hence external graces can be very important as “leads” to internal (salutary) graces.

What are some of the external graces of the New Testament? We may divide them into persons, places, things. The greatest external grace is, of course, Our Lord – His life, His example, His Cross, His Book (the New Testament); Our Lady, parents, priests, teachers, friends – all can be an external grace. How can I be a potential external grace? By being what I am meant to be, and doing what I am supposed to do. Among places, some churches stand out, for God seems very near to us in them and very active. Home, retreat houses, shrines can be strong external graces. Among things, the Mass looms very large, and sacraments, and the Rosary, and often Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament is a very powerful external grace for non-Catholics, exerting a very “tangible” pull on them.

External graces in the Old Testament would be similar to ours: persons, places, things that would help stir up in adults good thoughts and desires, help dispose them for the reception of their “sacraments” or for a salutary act of perfect contrition. Such persons might have been prophets, parents, children, friends. Places might have been temples, shrines; things might have been sickness, pain, suffering. Over and over, it seems, God has tied some of His greatest graces to such things: some of His finest interior illuminations and inspirations. Often He plays the contrasts – light following on desolation. He breaks man’s pride by sorrow, suffering; loss; then He works in him and pours grace that points to the salutary act and gives the power to place that act.

Summary. For Old Testament adults generally the way to sanctifying grace was an act of perfect contrition or love. For Jewish adults certain “sacraments” were also available. For Old Testament infants generally the way to sanctifying grace was the so-called “sacrament of nature,” an outward sign serving as a condition or occasion for internal grace. For Jewish boys there was the “sacrament of circumcision.”