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I. In order that men may be able to merit a condign reward from God by their good works, several conditions are necessary. The first condition is on the part of God. It is necessary that He should have given us a claim upon Himself by promising a reward for good deeds. The Almighty Lord of all has no duties towards His creatures, no obligations of any sort towards us, except such as He has Himself created. Our claim to a reward does not rest on the excellence of our works even when done in a state of grace, nor on their value to God, nor on our good intentions, but solely on the divine promise. Without such a promise the infinite generosity of God would undoubtedly recompense a thousand-fold any service done to Him, as He rewarded the humanity of the Egyptian midwives (Exod. i. 20), and the service done by Nabuchodonosor (Ez. xxix. 18-20). This is indeed fitting or congruous, or harmonious with the infinite goodness of God and with the universal law of His Providence as seen in nature, that every cause should have its proper effect. Scripture speaks of the rewards of God as His promises. "Do not lose your confidence, which hath a great reward. For patience is necessary for you, that doing the will of God, you may receive the promise" (Heb. x. 35, 36). It is encouraging to know that every good act will meet with its reward; such is the promise of God, and it will not fail. "I know whom I have believed and I am certain" (2 Tim. i. 12). Therefore you may so run and so fight, not as at an uncertainty or as one beating the air (1 Cor. ix. 15), but with a most definite result.
II. The conditions of merit on the part of man are two.
1. Merit is limited to the time of his probation on earth. When this is over the tree has fallen to the North or the South, and there it will lie forever. "The night cometh when no man can work" (John ix. 4). As the parable of the ten virgins teaches us, we must make due provision before the bridegroom arrives at the moment of death. After that, the elect can earn no further reward, the wicked can no more make atonement, and the desires and sufferings of the souls in Purgatory are not, strictly speaking, meritorious.
2. In order to merit in the supernatural order the soul must be in the state of grace, living with the supernatural life, and united with Our Lord, through whom men merit. Without this grace, and faith which is its basis, all actions, however good of their kind, are of the natural order, and are dead works as far as the supernatural is concerned. Hence St. Paul says that, though a man should have all knowledge, and the faith that moves mountains, and extremest self-devotion, yet if he be without charity, or the state of grace, he profiteth nothing (1 Cor xiii. 2, 3). Make the most of your present opportunities, do not trust to the uncertain future; time is short and very precious.
III. There are certain conditions of our works themselves which are necessary in order that these be meritorious.
1. Only our conscious deliberate actions are of any avail; mere physical motions are not "human acts," or supernatural.
2. The actions must be positively good ones; but those which have no definite moral or spiritual character may become good actions, and even supernatural, under the influence of our intention.
3. The actions must proceed from an impulse of divine grace; that is, God must work them in us.
4. The motive force in man from which these actions proceed must also be supernatural. If the motive be some merely natural one which does not take account of God, it does not suffice for supernatural meritoriousness. Our intention must be directed in some way, explicitly or implicitly, towards Him. Therefore, whatever you do, do it all in the name of God, and for His sake alone, and not in the name of the world, or of pleasure, or of passion, or of nature. "Take heed that you do not your justice before men that you may be seen by them: otherwise you shall not have a reward from your Father who is in heaven"
(Matt. vi. 1).
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