SEE PHOTO DETAILS
I. There is another operation of God in the soul besides the transient and occasional impulse to the performance of good works. Graces of action do not accomplish all the work and bring man into close union with God. There is a further grace or rather a state of grace, or a permanent quality infused into the soul by God, or vesting it like a garment; its effect is to render the soul itself holy, just, pleasing, and the adopted son of God and heir to eternal life. It is not precisely the presence of God, although it involves that presence; it is not the moral perfection of the will; it is not virtue, although it conveys the facility or potentiality for certain virtues. It is a gift of God closely associated with Charity, or the state of loving God and being loved by Him. The same powers and effects are attributed to this grace as to Charity. "The charity of God is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us" (Rom. v. 5). It is called habitual, or justifying, or sanctifying grace, or the grace that makes us acceptable to God (gratum faciens). Some actual graces are always anterior to this. They are such as can be bestowed on a man in the state of sin, in order to lead him to the good work of repentance. When these have been accepted and carried into effect, the sinner attains to justification or the state of delivery from sin. Sanctifying grace is the gift by which God operates these effects. Ask God for grace to understand this gift, to value it, and to guard it safely.
II. Sanctifying grace is substantially the privilege which Adam lost for us, and which is now given back to us by Jesus Christ. It is the supernatural state, the higher life and the source of the higher activities of man. It is that which raises him at once above the material level of the universe, and takes him out of the category of things that belong to the temporal order, and work for the present epoch only. It brings with it new sensibilities and faculties for knowing, understanding and possessing God, for practising a higher morality and virtues impossible in the natural sphere, for rising to grander ideas and aspirations. We have probably in several respects received more than we had lost. Instead of holding our supernatural life as an appanage of our nature by inheritance from our parents, we now receive it as a personal gift to each directly from God through Jesus Christ. Our spiritual father now is not Adam unfallen, but better still, the Eternal Father Himself. The words of Solomon describe this infusion of grace. "All good things came to me with it, and innumerable riches through its hands. . . . It is an infinite treasure to men. . . . It is a vapour of the power of God and a certain pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty God. . . . God loveth none but him that dwelleth with wisdom" (Wisd. vii.). Such is the state of all the children of God. How much better than the state of worldliness !
III. Life in the state of sanctifying grace is the highest and noblest thing on earth. A soul in this condition is more beautiful than all the material creation, for it reflects more of the beauty and perfection of God; it is the most useful of all beings, for it does not serve only the purpose of inferior creation, or of man alone, but the highest purposes of God; it is the most wonderful of God's works after the Incarnation, on account of the power and wisdom which are deployed in it; it is a new creation superadded to all the wonders of the material one. All the spiritual machinery of the higher life, all the other graces and gifts of God, are either means and preparations for sanctifying grace or consequences that flow from it. This great gift is within the reach of all. It is far superior to all the advantages of possession, or knowledge, or position that a man can gain during his course on earth. Thus God deals equally with all men; and their different lots are substantially the same. The highest gift is equally for all; and inequalities of fortune, length of life, pleasure, etc., are mere grains that do not disturb the level of the balance.
Read from the Original Book.
