Need Question Answered - Grace/catechism/etc...

[fides' Jack]

It's been about 25 years since I learned about actual grace and sanctifying grace.  I can still define them, but a question came up.

 

Can a person receive actual grace when he is not in a state of sanctifying grace?

 

I would think the answer is yes, since otherwise Catholics who commit mortal sins would never repent and come back to the Church.  However, I seem to recall learning at that time that a person cannot receive actual grace if his soul is not in a state of sanctifying grace.

 

Does anyone have a good resource to share on the topic?

[Nihil Obstat]

I believe we also need to distinguish between efficacious and sufficient grace. My understanding is that sufficient grace is universally offered, but efficacious grace is not.

 

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06689x.htm
 

We come to the second class, that of Christian sinners, among whom we reckon apostates and formal heretics, as these can hardly be placed on a par with the heathen. In their valuation of the distribution of grace, theologians distinguish somewhat sharply between ordinary sinners (among whom they include habitual and relapsing sinners) and those sinners whose intellect is blinded, and whose heart is hardened, the so-called obdurate sinners (obcaecati et indurati, impaenitentes). The bestowal of grace on the former group is, they say, of a higher degree of certainty than its concession to the latter, although for both the universality of sufficient grace is beyond any doubt. Not only is it said of sinners in general: "I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live" (Ezekiel 33:11), and again: "The Lord . . . . dealeth patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance" (2 Peter 3:9), but even the obdurate and impenitent sinners are energetically summoned by the Bible to dutiful penance or at least are most vehemently are reprimanded because of their wickedness (Isaiah 65:2; Romans 2:4; Acts 7:51). Now where a duty of conversion exists, the necessary grace must be at hand without which no conversion is possible. For, as Augustine (De nat. et grat., xliii, n. 50) affirms: "Deus impossibilia non jubet" (God does not give impossible orders). Obduracy, however, forms such a powerful obstacle to conversion that some ancient theologians embraced the untenable opinion that God finally completely withdraws from these sinners, a withdrawal due to His mercy, which desires to save them from a more severe punishment in hell. But St. Thomas Aquinas (De verit., Q. xxiv, a. 11) stated that "complete obduracy" (obstinatio perfecta), or absolute impossibility of conversion, begins only in hell itself "incomplete obduracy", on the contrary, ever presents on earth in the enfeebled moral affections of the heart a point of contact through which the appeal of grace may obtain entrance. Were the rigorist opinion of God's complete abandonment of the obdurate correct, despair of God's mercy would be perfectly justified in such souls. The Catholic catechism, however, presents this as a new grievous sin.

[Nihil Obstat]

Frankly it all gets well beyond my own abilities. :sweat:

[fides' Jack]

Thanks Nihil!  This explains why I have something of a 'duality' of understanding on the issue.  Clearly a deeper topic than I anticipated in starting this thread.

[Nihil Obstat]

My priest has mentioned the difference in a homily before, but you have to keep it simple for the average Catholic. The above-average Catholic too.

[Credo in Deum]

Sanctifying Grace: http://www.catholicbook.com/AgredaCD/MyCatholicFaith/mcfc039.htm

Actual Grace: http://www.catholicbook.com/AgredaCD/MyCatholicFaith/mcfc040.htm