Section 3. The Properties Of Sanctifying Grace
By a property (proprium, ἴδιον) we understand a quality which, though not part of the essence of a thing, necessarily flows from that essence by some sort of causation and is consequently found in all individuals of the same species.[1155] A property, as such, is opposed to an accident (accidens, συμβεβηκός), which is neither part of, nor necessarily attached to, the essence, but may or may not be present in the individual. Thus the ability to laugh is a property of human nature, whereas the color of the skin is an accident.
How do the properties of grace differ from its formal effects, and from its supernatural concomitants? The formal effects of grace, as we have seen, are the elements constituting its nature, the properties are determinations necessarily flowing from that nature, while the supernatural concomitants are free gifts superadded by God.
According to the Protestant theory, justification is absolutely certain, equal in all men, and incapable of being lost. The Catholic Church, on the contrary, teaches that justification [pg 379] is (1) uncertain, (2) unequal, and (3) amissible. We will explain this teaching in three theses.
Thesis I: No man knows with certainty of faith whether he is justified or not.
This proposition is de fide.
Proof. The Tridentine Council rejected the “fiduciary faith”[1156] of Luther as “an empty heretical confidence,”[1157] and in three distinct canons denied the properties attributed to faith by the early Protestant dogmaticians.[1158]
a) Holy Scripture again and again warns us that we can never be sure of our salvation. St. Paul, though himself “a vessel of election,” freely admits: “I am not conscious to myself of any thing, yet I am not hereby justified; but he that judgeth me is the Lord,”[1159] and declares: “I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway.”[1160] He exhorts the faithful to work out their salvation “with fear and trembling.”[1161]
b) The Fathers also teach the uncertainty of justification in the individual, and attribute it to the fact that, while we know that God pardons penitent sinners, no man can be entirely certain that he has complied with all the conditions necessary for justification.
“Our fate,” says St. Chrysostom, “is uncertain for a number of reasons, one of which is that many of our own works are hidden from us.”[1162] St. Jerome, commenting on Eccles. IX, 1 sq.,[1163] observes: “In the future they will know all, and all things are manifest to them, that is to say, the knowledge of this matter will precede them when they depart this life, because then the judgment will be pronounced, while now we are still battling, and it is now uncertain whether those who bear adversities, bear them for the love of God, like Job, or because they hate Him, as do many sinners.”[1164] Pope St. Gregory the Great said to a noble matron who asked him whether she could be sure of her salvation: “You ask me something which is both useless and difficult [to answer]; difficult, because I am unworthy to receive a revelation; useless, because it is better that you be uncertain with regard to your sins, lest in your last hour you should be unable to repent.”[1165]