2) From the 2nd Council of Orange (A.D. 549):
According to Catholic faith we also believe that after grace
has been received through baptism, all the baptized, if they
are willing to labor faithfully, can and ought to accomplish with
Christ's help and cooperation what pertains to the salvation
of their souls. We do not believe that some are predestined
to evil by the divine power; and, furthermore, if there are
those who wish to believe in such an enormity, with great
abhorrence we anathematize them. We also believe and profess
for our salvation that in every good work it is not that we
make a beginning and afterwards are helped through God's
mercy, but rather, that without any previous good merits on
our part, God himself first inspires us with faith in him and
love of him so that after baptism, with his help, we may be
able to accomplish what is pleasing to him. Therefore, we
evidently must believe that the remarkable faith of the thief
whom the Lord called to his home in paradise (see Luke 23:43),
the faith of Cornelius the centurion to whom an angel of the
Lord was sent (see Acts 10:3), and the faith of Zacchaeus who
merited to receive the Lord himself (see Luke 19:6), was not a
gift of nature but a gift of God's generosity.
3) From the Council of Trent (A.D. 1545-1563)
The result is that, when God touches the heart of man with the
illumination of the Holy Spirit, the man who accepts that
inspiration certainly does something, since he could reject
it; on the other hand, by his own free will, without God's
grace, he could not take one step towards justice in God's
sight. Hence, when it is said in Sacred Scripture, "Turn ye
to me, and I will turn to you" (Zach. 1:3), we are reminded of
our freedom; when we answer, "Convert us, O Lord, to thee, and
we shall be converted" (Lam. 5:21), we acknowledge that God's
grace prepares us.
4) From the 1st Vatican Council (A.D. 1869-1870):
However, even though the assent of faith is by no means a
blind impulse, still, no one can "assent to the gospel
preaching" as he must in order to be saved "without the
enlightenment and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who gives
all men their joy in assenting to and believing the truth."
Hence, faith itself is essentially a gift of God, even should
it not work through charity (see Gal. 5:6); and the act of
faith is a work that has a bearing upon salvation. By this
act man offers to God himself a free obedience inasmuch as he
concurs and cooperates with God's grace, when he could resist
it (see 561 f.;73, can. 5).
Sincerely in Christ,
Father Mateo
- Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit -
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