The mysterious character of Christian justification must be revealed especially in its product, Christian justice. For in accordance with the product it is determined the mysterious character of the process by which is brought about, and of the causes that work together for its production.
I) ...If the Catholic theologian does not wish to shatter the whole mysterious organism of Christianity, he must conceive Christian justification as an essentially supernatural, mysterious work.
In Christian justification he discerns particularly the restoration of that justice which Adam possessed prior to sin. But this was supernatural justice, infused into Adam's heart by the Holy Spirit. It was the justice of sanctity, an outpouring and reflection of the divine sanctity; it was a divine justice, and not merely a human or creaturely justice. The last shred of this justice had been lost; but it was to be given back to us in Christian justification. Therefore justification must be a work no less great than was the infusion of the justice of paradise. Like the latter, it must place man in a supernatural relation to God, put him in the right state for the attainment of his supernatural end, and equip him for the life he has to lead as adoptive child of God, worthy of his heavenly Father. But this cannot be accomplished unless man is raised above his nature and placed in the state of divine sonship; in the Holy Spirit he must, in an ineffable manner, be reborn of God as His child, and thus be made to share, like the first man, in the divine nature. In a word, Christian justification as the restoration of original justice does not endow us with a mere natural, human justice, but recovers for us the supernatural justice of the children of God, along with all the sublime privileges which were either included in that state or resulted from it.
Thus the mysteries of the original state leads us on to the mystery of the state of grace characteristic of Christianity.
But for that very reason Christian justification must be considered in terms of its opposition to the mystery of sin. However, the sin that Christian justification is meant to destroy cannot be regarded simply according to its natural side, as the derangement of the natural order. Sin must here be regarded according to the mysterious character it possesses in its opposition to the supernatural order of grace, particularly the grace of the original state. In this connection the state of sin is more than a disorder of the will. It is a complete estrangement and separation of man from God as his supernatural end, and is met with on God's part not by a simple displeasure- involving disfavor in the moral sense- but by a forcible ejection from the state of the children of God, a stripping away of the supernatural raiment of grace.
To join together again the severed strands of the supernatural bond with God, no mere change of the direction of man's will can suffice. If man is to be reunited to God as his Father, God Himself must raise him up again to His side, and through the Holy Spirit must pour forth a filial love for Himself. If the sinner is to be freed from God's disfavor, it will not suffice for God to cover up the sinful deed with the cloak of forgetfulness, and simply to remit the guilt in response to the sinner's repentance. To forgive the sin fully, God must again confer on man that favor and grace which he has bestowed upon him before he sinned. God must again draw man up to His bosom as His child, regenerate him to new divine life, and again clothe him with the garment of His children, the splendor of His own nature and glory. Only thus can justification completely and perfectly exterminate the sin as it exists concretely in its mysterious character. Therefore justification itself, which does away with so mysterious an evil, must be recognized as a supernatural mystery. Accordingly the mystery of sin, as also the mystery of original justice, looks to justification as the third mystery, which destroys the first and restores the second.
2) ...Thus the justification of the sinner necessarily comprises two factors, one negative, the remission of guilt, the other positive, the restoration of supernatural union with God. The result of this process is freedom from guilt and the possession of sanctifying grace. ... The infusion of supernatural justice...produces in the sinner something more than another moral relation to God. It produces a new, ontological quality, which inheres in his soul not only morally but physically. ...For the renovation in question is a true miracle, greater even than the raising of a dead man to life; man ...recovers the seed of a new, divine life that had completely died in him. He is transformed in all his higher faculties, to the uttermost depths of his being. He is re-created to a new existence, in which he draws near to God, and God to him, in a way that defies description.
...Under no circumstances is the remission of guilt following upon personal sin thinkable without a certain interior renewal and conversion of sinner. The doctrine originally taught by Protestants about the non-imputability of the still-present sin was an utter absurdity, although it was given out as a mystery. But once we admit an interior renewal, at least by the adoption of a new and correct orientation of the will, the absurdity vanishes. A certain remission of guilt is then possible...(but not only a change of will,) but it also consists in a transformation and elevation of the will through the infusion of the theological virtues...And this transformation of the will is essentially bound up with the inner elevation of our entire being by the grace of divine sonship and participation of the divine nature. ...Thus in Christian justification remission of sin is involved in the renovation and transformation brought about by grace...(an) instrinsic, real supernatural quality we call sanctifying grace.
...We must look upon the infusion of grace as the real, intrinsic cause that actually brings about the removal of the guilt of sin. 3) Thus the remission of guilt, and the subsequent state of freedom from sin, cannot fully be understood unless we revert to the grace of divine sonship which is infused into the justified person, and perceive that the remission is rooted in this grace. Nor , on the other hand, can the mysterious character of our union with God, which is the positive side of justification and its effect, be fully appreciated apart from its relation to this same grace of divine sonship...which is a participation in the divine nature and holiness.
4) What do we conclude from all this? That both factors comprised in justification- the remission of sin and the assimilation to our supernatural end- are rooted in the grace of divine sonship and are based on that grace.
For this reason the Council of Trent, when propounding the true nature of justification, could confine itself to the statement that it is:"a transference from the state in which man is born a son of the first Adam, to the state of grace and adoption of the sons of God, through the second Adam, Jesus Christ our Savior."

...JohnD'Arcy darcyj@ix.netcom.com

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