Conferences on the Virtues

By Fr. Bruno Cocuzzi, ocd

Number 7

At the very beginning, in Number 1 of this series, we said we would eventually speak of the infused [therefore supernatural] virtues. That time is now.

For a full appreciation of what these are, we must keep in mind the adage: Grace builds upon Nature. As you know, the infusion of Sanctifying Grace at Baptism elevates our humanity above the mere natural and transforms us into children-of-God-by-adoption. Thus we understand that Sanctifying Grace also infuses into the appetitive faculties of our souls, where the natural moral virtues reside, a supernatural element that enables the appetitive faculties to be home to virtues that operate on a level consistent with our newly acquired status as children of God. Because we share (by created participation) in the Life of God, it becomes necessary for our human faculties to practice the moral virtues in a manner fully consistent with the Divine Life in our souls. So the correct way to understand the word infused in the expression infused moral virtues is NOT that these virtues themselves are poured, whole cloth, into the appetitive faculties of our souls, but rather that our appetitive faculties themselves have had infused into them, that supernatural element mentioned above that makes it possible for the moral virtues to operate on a Divine, that is, supernatural level.

Again, as you know, the goal and destiny of the natural man consists in the possession of created truth, beauty and goodness, which when fully possessed, confer a natural happiness or beatitude upon the human person. When the natural virtues reach perfection in a human person, orderliness and harmony among his/her appetitive faculties are restored, and thus they gain possession of those aspects of truth, beauty and goodness that are their proper object. The orderliness and harmony stem from the fact that the lower, sensory component of our humanity, with its appetitive faculties, is perfectly subordinated to the higher, rational component, with its appetitive faculties. To be more specific: the sense appetites obey and sub-serve reason, and the reason obeys and sub-serves the Will. In reverse order, the goodness, truth and beauty sought by the will in human relationships takes precedence over the truth, beauty and good sought by the will for oneself alone in regard to both spiritual good things, and physical and material good things. And in regard to an individual’s personal good, where human relationships are not a factor, the good sought by one’s will in spiritual things, takes precedence over physical and material things.

But with the infusion of Sanctifying Grace, the goal and destiny of the human person is no longer mere created truth, beauty and goodness, but supernatural Truth, Beauty and Goodness, which is God Himself. Thus, while living in this world, the human person must conduct himself in all things, and in particular in his relationships with others, in a manner that partakes of the Divine Truth, Beauty and Goodness that effects and partakes of the Life of God Himself. Thus all the powers and faculties of the human soul that previously were at home in a purely natural world, must now also be changed and elevated so that they may be at home in the realm of the supernatural.

To be more specific: Sanctifying Grace confers upon the human intellect the capacity to know supernatural Truth (God as He is in Himself), on the one hand, and to perceive the supernatural Beauty (harmonious inter-relationship) of all the Supernatural Truths concerning God and the Works of God. Sanctifying Grace confers upon the human will the capacity to embrace the Supernatural Goodness that is God, in particular that which is inherent in LOVING as God Himself Loves. Sanctifying Grace also confers upon the human soul the capacity confidently to hope for everlasting union with the Infinite Good which is God (Eternal Life) by keeping ever in mind and relying upon the supernatural means to attain it that God has promised us, and which we know of by Faith.

And that is where the infused or supernatural virtues fit in. It is by operation of those virtues that our deeds and activities bring us into conformity with the supernatural Truths known by the intellect. It is by the operation of these virtues, again, that our deeds and activities give evidence that our wills are united to the Divine Will in choosing and embracing the Goodness inherent in God’s LOVING WAY of entering into relationships with all creatures, especially our fellow human beings. Likewise it is through the operation of the infused virtues that our deeds and activities give evidence of our reliance upon the God-given powers and means to achieve our eternal happiness, to wit, possession of Him Who is the Supreme, Infinite, Eternal Truth, Beauty and Goodness.

We have also stated in previous conferences that the natural moral virtues are habits that we acquire by dint of personal effort, and by which we sweetly and spontaneously conform ourselves to the rule of right reason. But whatever we acquire is something that once upon a time we did not have. Those of us who were baptized as babies, certainly, did not have the natural moral virtues when we received that Sacrament. Hence there were no virtues residing in our souls that could be elevated to the supernatural level by the inpouring of Sanctifying Grace. As newly baptized babies we were not able to function according to right reason as illumined by supernatural Faith (as children of God by adoption) because our reason had not yet developed to the point that it could provide a rule according to which we were to act. And so it becomes clear that as the natural moral virtues gradually are acquired and begin to guide the baptized toward natural human perfection, so also the infused supernatural virtues are acquired and gradually lead them to their supernatural perfection (as humans living divinely.) This again is an illustration of the saying Grace builds on nature. It does not destroy nature; it elevates nature.

To help us get a better grasp on the truth that human nature is not harmed by Divine Grace when, at Baptism, a person becomes a new creation, we can consider the Truths about Himself and His Inner Nature that God has revealed to us. Namely, that He is a Trinity of Persons, but One God. That the Father is the First Principle in the Trinity, uncreated and unbegotten, that the Son is Begotten, NOT created and is distinct from the Father, and that the Holy Spirit is the Third Person, who is distinct from and Proceeds from the Father and the Son, being neither created nor begotten. Also, God has revealed that Each of the Divine Persons possesses the Divine Nature as completely and as perfectly of each of the Others, and that They are equal in every respect: equally Infinite, equally Eternal and equally possessed of all the Divine Attributes. That is, they are distinct, but NOT different from One Another. Though we do not understand how this can be, yet try as we may, we cannot find justification to say that acceptance of these Truths contradicts or violates reason in any way. In fact, the more we think about them, firm in our Faith, the more they seem to make eminent good sense to our intellect and reason. The same is true of all the Mysteries of our Faith: The Immaculate Conception; the Virginal Conception; the Incarnation and Birth of Jesus; that Jesus is One [Divine] Person in two Natures; that in His human nature Jesus truly died and then rose from the dead in a Glorified Human Body; the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament; the existence of Sanctifying Grace; the Mystical Body of Christ; that the Sacraments truly confer divine Grace and signify the Graces they confer; Heaven; Purgatory; Hell; and so on.

Furthermore, neither does Grace do violence to our human nature by conferring on us the ability to accept these Truths (which we know about but don’t understand) on the revealing authority of God alone. It is quite typical of us human beings to accept, as true, facts and events which we did not get to know about by personal experience. We accept them because we rely on the trustworthiness of those who do have personal, first-hand knowledge of them. This is so true, that it has become the basis of our judicial system. Witnesses in courtroom trials and hearings are expected to make known to the judge and the jury facts of which the latter have no personal knowledge. The latter put their human faith in the veracity of the witnesses, provided, of course, they have picked up in various non-verbal ways the fact that the witnesses are worthy to be believed. With the help of Grace we put our [supernatural] Faith in the veracity of God, Who, being All-knowing and All-good, cannot deceive nor be deceived.

Although it is true that Grace does not do violence to our intellect, reason and other human powers when it elevates them and enables them to function on a higher, transcendent level, nevertheless, those who do not have the gift of Faith perceive the lives, conduct and behavior of those living a divine life as weak and foolish. Those, who, like Jesus, for example, consistently return good for evil, are thought to be the most weak and foolish of all by worldly people. But rather than cause alarm, this is a source of deep joy and profound inner peace to one considered so by the world, since St. Paul tells us that God chooses the weak ones here on earth to confound the physically strong, and the foolish ones of this earth to confound the worldly wise. But to the firm believer, it is Divine Power and Divine Wisdom at work in and through him. I find it interesting to think that, just as the enemies of Jesus NEVER SAW HIM in His Glorified Risen Humanity, now also, those who refuse the gift of Faith and find Christians weak and foolish, CANNOT SEE that someone living a divine life of Faith, Hope, Charity and the supernatural virtues IS participating in His risen, glorified life here and now.

Since we have been speaking of the infused, supernatural virtues in a general way, I think it is appropriate now to say something about the other gifts infused into our souls at Baptism. They are the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit.

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit are various kinds of sensitivity to the inspirations and movements of the Holy Spirit. For that reason they are both passive and active powers: passive in that they enable the soul to sense the presence of something, and active in that they enable the soul to respond to that presence. In this way the Christian soul can be moved and led by the Holy Spirit. Hence we can think of them as spiritual senses. They are to the soul constituted a new creation what the physical senses and instincts are to the human body. In other words, they are faculties of perception and spontaneous response. The Gifts of the Holy Spirit also reside in the Intellect, the Will and the Rational and Sensory Appetites, as do the infused virtues. Just as we need senses and instincts to live a natural, human life, so also do we need senses and instincts to live supernatural lives as God’s true children by adoption. And just as our perception of a particular human situation is what triggers the exercise of the natural moral virtues, so also it is by the Gifts of the Holy Spirit that we perceive a particular situation in the light of Faith that in turn triggers the exercise of the infused moral virtues. The following considerations are helpful, I think, in getting an idea of the mechanism by which the Gifts of the Holy Spirit function.

In the prayer that follows the invocation Come Holy Spirit… and its response, there occurs in the Latin the expression …da nobis in Eodem Spiritu RECTA SAPERE…The English translation of those Latin words which we see most often is: …grant us in the same Spirit to be TRULY WISE… Technically speaking, that is erroneous. The word RECTA is in the accusative case (the direct object of the verb sapere) and means all that is right. It is not an adverb. Also, SAPERE is a Latin verb whose primary meaning is to taste, to have a flavor and only in a transferred sense does it mean “means to discern, to be wise, to think, to know”. Hence I prefer the translation: …grant us by the same Spirit to RELISH (have a TASTE for) WHAT IS RIGHT.

Thus the role of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in the spiritual life of Grace would unfold in this way: In each and every situation in which a faithful believer finds him/herself, and in which some kind of response is required of him/her, the soul’s inner computer mysteriously reviews and, in virtue of the passive element in the Gifts, evaluates all the possible, lawful responses to that given situation. Then it singles out that one which has the flavor or fragrance characteristic of Jesus and the Divine Life. Thereupon the active element of the Gifts enables that convinced follower of Jesus to satisfy its taste (or appetite) for it, by fortifying the will to choose and carry out that particular response that smacks of Jesus and Divine Life.

That being the case, the Fruits of the Holy Spirit follow closely upon the heels of the operation of the Gifts. Once the human will has chosen to act and does act in the manner that carries with it the characteristic flavor or fragrance of Divine Life, then it begins to enjoy that flavor or fragrance with its spiritual palate. This is true, even though in his enumeration of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit, St. Paul does not speak of them as flavors or fragrances, but rather enumerates certain virtues, modes of conduct, which are eminently characteristic of the Life of God. According to Galatians, 5:22, 23, Latin version: The Fruits of the Spirit are charity, joyfulness, peacefulness, patience, kindness, goodness, forbearance, meekness (or gentleness), faithfulness, modesty, temperateness and chastity. The spiritual delights that accompany the exercise of these virtues far and away exceed the enjoyment associated with gratification of the sense of the body, or sensory delights.

A word or two now about the expression: children of God by adoption. Useful as it is, it does not capture the full reality of what happens when we are baptized. Clearly, in human adoption, the adoptive parents are NOT the actual source and origin or the human life of the adopted child. By operation of human law, they are merely assigned and granted parental authority over, and responsibility for, the adopted child. The adopted child, in turn receives the name, the obligations and all the rights of inheritance, etc. that go with being the natural child of one’s parents. But in regard to our status as the children of God by adoption, in Baptism Jesus really and truly becomes our Father in Faith and the Church, His Bride and Spouse, truly becomes our Mother. Jointly, then, Jesus and the Church really do confer Divine Life upon us. Saints and Doctors of the Church actually speak of the Baptismal Font as being the womb of Holy Mother Church. Thus we really are begotten of God and are not merely His children by a fiction of law.

Much of the above is implied in the following teaching on Sanctifying Grace which is found in the Textbook on Moral Theology which was used when I was a student for the Priesthood in the early to mid-50’s:

Sanctifying Grace is a created, physical participation in the Divine Nature.

I. Sanctifying Grace renders one’s soul

(a) Godlike, pleasing to God, and worthy of His intimate friendship

(b) Worthy of Eternal Life and Blessedness

(c) Capable of supernatural activity and meritorious of the Actual Graces that move the soul to act and behave divinely.

(d) Just, holy, possessed of supernatural beauty

II. Sanctifying Grace is the root from which spring

(a) The theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity

(b) The infused, supernatural moral virtues

(c) The Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit

III. Sanctifying Grace forges relationships:

(a) With God the Father, making one His child and a member of His Family

(b) With God the Son, making one the brother/sister of Jesus and co-heir with Him of Divine treasures and riches

(c) With Jesus the Bridegroom, making of the Christian soul His Spouse

(d) With Jesus the Head, inserting one into Him as a Member of His Mystical body

(e) With the Holy Spirit, making one His Temple and Dwelling Place

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