A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics

More from St. Augustine on works and Grace May 30, 2013

The following excerpts from St. Augustine on works and how hey relate to merit, Grace, and salvation, from his “Various Questions to Simplician” extracted in Faith of the Early Fathers Vol III (pp. 47-48):

In many passages St. Paul often bears witness to this, putting the Grace of faith before works, not as if he wanted to put an end to works, but so as to show that works are the consequences rather than the precedents of Grace.  Thus, no man is to suppose that he has received Grace because he has done good works, but rather that he would not have been able to do those good works if he had not, through faith, received Grace. [An important point then becomes….what is good?  Define a good work?  Many things that say, an atheist might do, might be good in the eyes of the world, but not so in the eyes of God. Irrespective of the work done, much depends on the motivation. If a good work is done in expectation of a reward, be it money, acknowledgement, some quid pro quo, or whatever, the merit is minimal, perhaps nil. Truly good works that are efficacious of salvation, would be difficult for atheists to attain, since they specifically reject the source of Grace.]

…….Election, however, does not precede justification, but justification precedes election. For noe one is chosen unless he is already quite different from him that is rejected. With this in mind, I do not see how it could be written: “God chose us before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4) except in view of foreknowledge of salvation.

No one, therefore, who is not called believes; but not everyone believes who is called. [For belief, or faith, contrary to protestant claims, is a work]  For many are called, but few are chosen (Matt 20:16): the chosen, certainly, are those who were not contemptuous of HIm who called them, but believed in Him and followed HIm, who believed in Him without doubt because they willed to do so. What is to be said of what follows: “Therefore it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy?” (Rom 9:16) Does it not mean that we cannot even will unless we be called, and that our willing avails nothing unless God assists us to perform it?

In another place St. Paul says “In fear and trembling work our your salvation. For it is God who works in you both the will and the work for His own good pleasure” (Phil 2:12-13). There he shows that the good will itself is produced in us by the working of God…..because the will of man does not alone suffice for us to live justly and righteously, unless we be aided by God’s mercy……so that St. Paul could have also said “It is not of God, therefore, who has mercy, but of the man who wills it,” becasue the mercy alone of God does not suffice, unless the consent of our will be added.  It is clear that we will in vain, unless God have mercy; but I do not know how it might be said that God has mercy in vain, unless we will. For if God does have mercy, we do also will; for the fact that we will pertains to the same mercy. For it is God who works in us both the will and the performance, for His good will……..The saying therefore, that “it is not of him who wills nor of him that runs, but of God who has mercy” cannot be taken to mean that without God’s help we cannot achieve what we will, but rather that without His call we cannot even will.

…..We are commanded to live righteously, and the reward is set before us of our meriting to live happily in eternity. But who is able to live righteously and do good works unless he has been justified by faith?

——————————End Quote—————————-

And that’s it in a nutshell. Pelagius, the archheretic, said that man could work his way to salvation irrespective of salvation.  He said that God created man with a basic goodness sufficient to obtain salvation outside of Baptism, the other Sacraments, and a life of prayer, penance, and conversion. And while some protestant sects have gone way off the rails in the other direction, imputing to all creation damnation, and claiming that no one can do any work at all to save themselves, that salvation is simply gratuitously given to all those who “have faith,” the Church has believed that works done under the aegis of Grace (in the state of Grace) are both meritorious and normally necessary for salvation.  Atheists who are able to “work themselves” into some “meeting place” with the Church through their “good” works, would then seem to be a rather rare species.