Lesson 10
ON THE EFFECTS OF THE REDEMPTION

102 Q. Which are the chief effects of the redemption?
A. The chief effects of the redemption are two: the satisfaction of
God's justice by Christ's sufferings and death, and the gaining of grace
for men.

An effect is that which is caused by something else. If you place a
danger signal on a broken railroad track the effect will be preventing
the wreck of the train, and the cause will be your placing the signal.
Many effects may flow from one cause. In our example, see all the good
effects that may follow your placing the signal--the cars are not
broken, the passengers are not killed, the rails are not torn out of
their places, etc. Thus the redemption had two effects, namely, to
satisfy God for the offense offered Him by the sins of men, and to merit
grace to be used for our benefit.

103 Q. What do you mean by grace?
A. By grace I mean a supernatural gift of God bestowed on us, through
the merits of Jesus Christ, for our salvation.

"Supernatural," that is, above nature. "A gift"; something, therefore,
that God does not owe us. He owes us nothing, strictly speaking. Health,
talents, and such things are natural gifts, and belong to our nature as
men; but grace is something above our nature, given to our soul. God
gives it to us on account of the love He has for His Son, Our Lord, who
merited it for us by dying for us. "Merits." A merit is some excellence
or goodness which entitles one to honor or reward. Grace is a help we
get to do something that will be pleasing to God. When there is anything
in our daily works that we cannot do alone, we naturally look for help;
for example, to lift some heavy weight is only a natural act, not a
supernatural act, and the help we need for it is only natural help. But
if we are going to do something above and beyond our nature, and cannot
do it alone, we must not look for natural, but for supernatural help;
that is, the help must always be like the work to be done. Therefore all
spiritual works need spiritual help, and spiritual help is grace.

104 Q. How many kinds of grace are there?
A. There are two kinds of grace: sanctifying grace and actual grace.

105 Q. What is sanctifying grace?
A. Sanctifying grace is that grace which makes the soul holy and
pleasing to God.

"Sanctifying," that is, making us holy by cleansing, purifying our
souls. Sin renders the soul ugly and displeasing to God, and grace
purifies it. Suppose I have something bright and beautiful given to me,
and take no care of it, but let it lie around in dusty places until it
becomes tarnished and soiled, loses all its beauty, and appears black
and ugly. To restore its beauty I must clean and polish it. Thus the
soul blackened by sin must be cleaned by God's grace. If the soul is in
mortal sin--altogether blackened--then sanctifying grace brings back its
brightness and makes it pleasing to God; but if the soul is already
bright, though stained or darkened a little by venial sin, then grace
makes it still brighter.

*106 Q. What do you call those graces or gifts of God by which we
believe in Him, hope in Him, and love Him?
A. Those graces or gifts of God by which we believe in Him, and hope in
Him, and love Him, are called the divine virtues of faith, hope, and
charity.

"Virtues." Virtue is the habit of doing good. The opposite to virtue is
vice, which is the habit of doing evil. We acquire a habit bad or good
when we do the same thing very frequently. We then do it easily and
almost without thinking; as a man, for instance, who has the habit of
cursing curses almost without knowing it, though that does not excuse
him, but makes his case worse, by showing that he must have cursed very
often to acquire the habit. If, however, he is striving to overcome the
bad habit, and should unintentionally curse now and then, it would not
be a sin, since he did not wish to curse, and was trying to overcome the
vice. One act does not make a virtue or a vice. A person who gives alms
only once cannot be said to have the virtue of charity. A man who curses
only once a year cannot be said to have the vice of cursing. Faith,
hope, and charity are infused by God into our souls, and are therefore
called infused virtues, to distinguish them from the virtues we acquire.

107 Q. What is faith?
A. Faith is a divine virtue by which we firmly believe the truths which
God has revealed.

"A divine virtue" is one that is heavenly or holy. Faith is the habit of
always believing all that God has revealed and the Church teaches.
"Firmly," that is, without the slightest doubt. "Revealed," that is,
made known to us. Revelation is the collection of all the truths that
God has made known to us. But why do we believe? Because we clearly see
and know the truth of what is revealed? No, but because God reveals it;
we believe it though we cannot see it or even understand it. If we see
it plainly, then we believe it rather because we see it than because God
makes it known to us. Suppose a friend should come and tell you the
church is on fire. If he never told you lies, and had no reason for
telling you any now, you would believe him--not because you know of the
fire, but because he tells you; but afterwards, when you see the church
or read of the fire in the papers, you have proof of what he told you,
but you believed it just as firmly when he told you as you do
afterwards. In the same way God tells us His great truths and we believe
them; because we know that since God is infinitely true He cannot
deceive us or be deceived. But if afterwards by studying and thinking we
find proof that God told us the truth, we do not believe with any
greater faith, for we always believed without doubting, and we study
chiefly that we may have arguments to prove the truth of God's
revelations to others who do not believe. Suppose some person was
present when your friend came and said the church is burning, and that
that person would not believe your friend. What would you do? Why,
convince him that what your friend said was true by showing him the
account of the fire in the papers. Thus learning does not change our
faith, which, as I have said, is not acquired by study, but is infused
into our souls by God. The little boy who hears what God taught, and
believes it firmly because God taught it, has as good a faith as his
teacher who has studied all the reasons why he should believe.

108 Q. What is hope?
A. Hope is a divine virtue by which we firmly trust that God will give
us eternal life and the means to obtain it.

"Eternal"--that is, everlastings life--life without end. "Means"--that
is, His grace, because without God's grace we cannot do any supernatural
thing.

109 Q. What is charity?
A. Charity is a divine virtue by which we love God above all things for
His own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.

The virtue of charity makes us "love God," because He is so good and
beautiful, wise and powerful in Himself; therefore for His own sake and
without any other consideration. "Above all things," in such a way that
we would rather lose anything than offend Him. But someone may say, he
thinks he loves his parents more than God. Well, let us see. To repeat
an example already given, suppose his parents told him to steal, and he
knew stealing to be a sin; if he would not steal, that would show, would
it not, that he loved God more than his parents, for he would rather
offend his parents than God. That is the kind of love we must have for
God; not mere feeling, but the firm belief that God is the best of all,
and when we have to choose between offending God and losing something,
be it goods or friends, we would rather lose anything than offend God.

"Neighbor." Not merely the person living near us, but all men of every
kind and nation--even our enemies. The people who lived at the time of
Our Lord in His country used to dispute about just what persons were to
be considered their neighbors; so one day they asked Our Lord, and He
answered them by telling them the following. Said He: (Luke 10:30) A man
was once going down from Jerusalem, and on the way robbers beat him,
robbed him, and left him on the wayside dying. First one man came by,
looked at the wounded man, and passed on; then another came and did the
same; finally a third man came, who was of a different religion and
nationality from the wounded man. But he did not consider these things.
He dressed the poor man's wounds, placed him upon his horse and brought
him to an inn or hotel, and paid the innkeeper to take care of him.
"Now," said Our Lord, "which of these three was neighbor to the wounded
man?" And they answered rightly, "The man that helped him." Our Lord, by
this example, wished to teach them and us that everybody is our neighbor
who is in distress of any kind and needs our help. Neighbor, therefore,
means every human being, no matter where he lives or what his color,
learning, manners, etc., for every human being in the world is a child
of God and has been redeemed by Our Lord. Therefore every child of God
is my neighbor, and even more--he is my brother; for God is his father
and mine also, and if he is good enough for God to love, he should be
good enough for me.

"As ourselves." Not with as much love, but with the same kind of love;
that is, we are to follow the rule laid down by Our Lord: "Do unto
others as you would have others do unto you." Never do to anyone what
you would not like to have done to yourself; and always do for another
just what you would wish another to do for you, if you were in the same
position. Our neighbor is our equal and gifted with all the gifts that
we ourselves have. When we come into the world we are all equal. We have
a body and a soul, with the power to develop them. Money, learning,
wealth, fame, and all else that makes up the difference between men in
the world are acquired in the world; and when men die, they go out of
the world without any of these things, just as they came into it. The
real difference between them in the next world will depend upon the
things they have done, good or bad, while here. We should love our
neighbor also on another account: namely, that he is one day to be in
Heaven with us; and if he is to be with us for all eternity, why should
we hate him now? On the other hand, if our neighbor is to be in Hell on
account of his bad life, why should we hate him? We should rather pity
him, for he will have enough to suffer without our hatred.

110 Q. What is actual grace?
A. Actual grace is that help of God which enlightens our mind and moves
our will to shun evil and do good.

"Actual." Sanctifying grace continues with us, but when grace is given
just so that we may do a good act or avoid a bad one, it is called
actual grace. Suppose, for example, I see a poor man and am able to aid
him. When my conscience tells me to give him assistance, I am just then
receiving an actual grace, which moves me and helps me to do that good
act; and just as soon as I give the help, the actual grace ceases,
because no longer needed. It was given for that one good act, and now
that the act is done, the actual grace has produced its effect. Again, a
boy is going to Mass on Sunday and meets other boys who try to persuade
him to remain away from Mass and go to some other place. When he hears
his conscience telling him to go to Mass by all means, he is receiving
just then an actual grace to avoid the mortal sin of missing Mass, and
the grace lasts just as long as the temptation. Sacramental grace is
sanctifying grace--given in the Sacraments--which contains for us a
right to actual graces when we need them. These actual graces are given
to help us to fulfill the end for which each of the Sacraments was
instituted. They are different for each Sacrament, and are given just
when we need them; that is, just when we are tempted against the object
or end for which the Sacrament was instituted.

*111 Q. Is grace necessary for salvation?
A. Grace is necessary for salvation, because without grace we can do
nothing to merit Heaven.

*112 Q. Can we resist the grace of God?
A. We can and unfortunately often do resist the grace of God.

Grace is a gift, and no one is obliged to take a gift; but if God offers
a gift and we refuse to take it, we offend and insult Him. To insult God
is to sin. Therefore to refuse to accept, or to make bad use of the
grace God gives us, is to sin.

*113 Q. What is the grace of perseverance?
A. The grace of perseverance is a particular gift of God which enables
us to continue in the state of grace till death.

"Perseverance" here does not mean perseverance in our undertakings, but
perseverance in grace--never in mortal sin, always a friend of God. Now,
if God keeps us from all sin till the day of our death and takes us
while we are His friends, then He gives us what we call the gift of
final perseverance. We cannot, strictly speaking, merit this great
grace, but only pray for it; so anyone who commits mortal sin may be
taken just in that state and be lost for all eternity.