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Question
Dear Father Angelo,
I would like to know if we are capable of doing some good with our own will or if we always need the help of grace to avoid sin.
Best regards,
Angelo
Answer from the priest
Dear Angelo,
1. After the original sin, man has lost God’s grace and has weakened his own natural faculties which are inclined towards evil.
Consequently, he finds himself like a sick person who can perform some actions, but can no longer do everything he wants because he is prevented by the disease.
2. It is a dogma of faith that after the original sin man cannot do all that is good without the help of grace. The Magisterium of the Church made this declaration above all in opposition to Pelagius, who had proclaimed that even after original sin man could do all that is good and reach perfection solely with his own strength.
Here is what the Council of Carthage declared against this theory in 418: “If any man says that the grace of justification was given us in order that we might the more easily fulfill that which we are bound to do by the power of free will, so that we could, even without grace, only not so easily, fulfill the Divine commands, let him be anathema”.
In fact, the Lord spoke of the fruits of the commandments, not saying “without me it is more difficult for you to fulfill them”, but “without me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5)” (can. 5, DS 227).
3. The same doctrine is reaffirmed by the Council of Trent in the canons on justification:
“If anyone says that a man can be justified before God by his works alone, performed by the forces of human nature, or by the teaching of the law, without the divine grace of God which is given to him through Jesus Christ, let him be anathema” (can. 1, DS 1551).
4. And: “If anyone says that the divine grace obtained through the merits of Jesus Christ is given to man only that he may more easily live in righteousness and merit eternal life, as if by free will, without grace, he can obtain both of them, albeit laboriously and with difficulty: let him be anathema” (can. 2, DS 1552).
5. Saint Thomas, when asked whether man can do good without grace, replies: “In the state of integrity (before the original sin, Ed.), as regards the sufficiency of the operative power, man by his natural endowments could wish and do the good proportionate to his nature, such as the good of acquired virtue; but not surpassing good, as the good of infused virtue (because of a supernatural order, Ed.).
Instead in the state of his corrupted nature, man falls short of what he could do by his nature, so that he is unable to fulfil it by his own natural powers. Yet because human nature is not altogether corrupted by sin, so as to be shorn of every natural good, even in the state of corrupted nature it can, by virtue of its natural endowments, work some particular good, as to build dwellings, plant vineyards, and the like; yet it cannot do all the good which is connatural to it, so as to fall short in nothing; just as a sick man can of himself make some movements, yet he cannot perfectly move with the same movements of someone in health, unless by the help of medicine he is cured.
And thus in the state of perfect nature man needs a gratuitous strength superadded to natural strength for one reason, in order to do and wish supernatural good; but for two reasons, in the state of corrupted nature, in order to be healed, and furthermore in order to carry out works of supernatural virtue, which are meritorious.” (Summa theologica, I-II, 109,2).
6. Likewise St. Thomas, when asked whether man without grace cannot sin, replied: “We may speak of man in two ways: first, in the state of perfect nature; secondly, in the state of corrupted nature. Now in the state of perfect nature, man, without habitual grace, could avoid sinning either mortally or venially; since to sin is nothing else than to stray from what is according to our nature—and in the state of perfect nature man could avoid this. Nevertheless he could not have done it without God’s help to uphold him in good, since if this had been withdrawn, even his nature would have fallen back into nothingness.
But in the state of corrupted nature man needs grace to heal his nature in order that he may entirely abstain from sin. And in the present life this healing is wrought in the mind—the carnal appetite being not yet restored. Hence the Apostle (Romans 7:25) says in the person of one who is restored: “I myself, with the mind, serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin.” And in this state man can abstain from all mortal sin, which takes its stand in his reason, as stated above (I-II:74:5); but man cannot abstain from all venial sins on account of the corruption of his lower appetite for sensuality. For man can, indeed, repress each of its movements (and hence they are sinful and voluntary), but not all, because whilst he is resisting one, another may arise, and also because the reason is always alert to avoid these movements” (Summa Theologica, I-II, 109, 8).
Wishing you that with the help of God’s grace you may always be happy in Him and never commit any grave sin, I remember you in my prayer and bless you.
Father Angelo