“Everything is grace,” declared Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, and Thomas Aquinas observed that grace perfects human nature. These two statements provide the point of departure for this essay.
This article will examine the relationship – if there is one – between nature and grace. Specifically, how does grace perfect nature, and what are the consequences if that grace is rejected?
To examine this question, we must understand what is meant by nature and grace.
Nature And Grace
The term nature can connote many things depending on the context in which it is used.
Science refers to the laws of nature, which describe the physical universe. Philosophy and theology refer to natural laws or principles that guide morality and behavior. Finally, we can speak of human nature, which refers to traits and dispositions unique to human beings in general.
Grace, as it is used in a religious context, is usually defined as the unmerited favor of God. This is a minimalist concept of grace, however.
Broadly defined, there is a common and special grace. Common grace sustains creation in existence. That is, God is not only the cause of creation, but His grace maintains His creation from moment to moment.
Special grace is specific to the soul. As such, Catholic theology identifies two types of special grace.
Sanctifying grace is the life of the soul. It is that principle that infuses the soul with supernatural life. Only through sanctifying grace is one considered holy and worthy of being a child of God. Without sanctifying grace, the soul cannot hope to obtain eternal life.
The second type of grace is called actual grace. If sanctifying grace is intrinsic to the soul, actual grace is extrinsic. It can be understood as prompting one’s conscience by acting on the individual’s intellect and will. For this reason, John Henry Newman speaks of the conscience as “The aboriginal vicar of Christ.”
Both sanctifying and actual grace presuppose that human nature is so construed to know and cooperate with God. This presupposition is hardly self-evident.
Do All Desire God?
Approximately four percent of the United States population identify as atheists, and recently, a group of Satanists sought to conduct a “black mass” inside the Kansas Statehouse. (See CNN story) In light of such statistics and events, it seems clear that many have no desire to know God. Certainly, there appear to be sufficient numbers of nonbelievers to discredit the presupposition that humans are religious by nature.
Moreover, such evidence appears to contradict the claim that “everything is grace” and brings into question the claim that “grace perfects nature.”
However, this is only true if one accepts a limited or constricted definition of God. If we widen and subjectify the definition of God to the summum bonum, or the highest perceived good, then God can become anything we deem to be the greatest good. The true God is replaced by the gods of our own devices, such as money, power, or pleasure.
The point is that humans naturally seek God but frequently get “lost” in finding Him. Why is this so?
The State of Human Nature And The Need For Grace
When we speak of human nature, we are normally not referring to its original or idealized state. Rather, we are speaking of human nature in its “fallen” state.
The term fallen can be used in two ways. First, it can refer to original sin, in which man plunged into sin. Owing to the effects of original sin, humanity exists in a state of corruption and separation from God.
Original sin has so wounded human nature that we do not do the good we want but the evil we do not want (See Romans 7:19). In a sense, original sin has created a conflict between good and evil in the heart of every soul.
In the second way, fallen can refer to the fall from grace. This, too, can be understood in two ways. First, it can refer to the loss of the original holiness and justice that existed in the Garden of Eden. In the second way, fall from grace can connote the committing of a mortal sin, the result of which places the person’s salvation at risk.
Ultimately, sin is a rejection of God’s grace. If Aquinas is correct in claiming that grace perfects nature, what are the consequences of that rejection on human nature?
I want to couch the problem in Leibniz’s principle of sufficient reason. This principle argues that everything has a cause or reason for the way it is. Applying this principle to human nature, it can be inferred that human nature has a cause and a purpose or reason for being so construed.
A thing can be said to be perfected to the extent that it fulfills the purpose for which it was created. If humans are created for fellowship with God (1 Corinthians 1:9), then human nature can only be perfected when this fellowship occurs.
Because original sin caused God to withdraw His special grace, humans are subject to concupiscence and death. Concupiscence is the improper ordering of desire and reason. A properly ordered soul is one whose desires are ruled by reason. Concupiscence inverts this order, with desires controlling reason.
Perhaps even more significant, the withdrawal of special grace means that human beings cannot obtain the purpose for which they were created: fellowship or communion with God. In a sense, human beings cannot be human without grace.
Conclusion
When Saint Thérèse states that “everything is grace,” she correctly points to the common grace that sustains the universe. When Thomas Aquinas argues that “grace perfects nature,” he points to the necessity of grace in guiding human nature toward its created purpose: communion with God.
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