Habitual grace is a divine gift infused by God into the soul and by its nature permanent. Habitual grace, in a narrow sense, it is that infused in the essence of the soul and is also called sanctifying and justifying grace, as it confers holiness and makes those who were sinners righteous. In a broader sense, habitual grace, in addition to sanctifying grace, it also includes the virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are like a ramification of sanctifying grace and invest the faculties of the soul. The Scholastics, starting from the data of Revelation, they had developed a copious doctrine around habitual grace, with the help of the Aristotelian theory of clothes. Ma (the perverse) Luther, he opposed this theory due to his nominalistic mentality, he rejected all traditional doctrine, reducing sanctifying grace to an extrinsic divine favor or to an extrinsic imputation of Christ's holiness to the sinner, which remains intrinsically corrupt and incurable (v. Lutheranism). Protestants follow the path of the master up to our times (…). bath (v. Bayanism) conceives grace dynamically, i.e. only actual, and identifies it with morally good and healthy activity, i.e. with the observance of divine precepts, That, according to him, it is only possible with grace, integrative element of the creature. The Church has condemned both errors (Conc. You want, sess. VI, can. 11; DB, 821; Prop. 42 of Baio; DB, 1042), appealing to Revelation (especially St. Paul and St. John), which presents grace as a regeneration, a new life, a divine energy diffused by the Holy Spirit and inherent in the soul. Hence the true Theology of sanctifying grace, which is a divine quality (Catech. Conc. You want) or entitative habit inherent to the soul, which gives a divine way of being, a participation in the divine nature, according to St. Peter (v. Consortium), the filiation of vine adoptive (Rom. 8, 15; Gal. 4, 6; la lett. of Giov. 3, 1), and the right of inheritance to eternal life (Rom. 8, 17). The Tradition, especially eastern, it is rich in motifs and developments on sanctifying grace, boldly called the divinization of man (Irenaeus, Origen, Cirillo Aless.). Sanctifying grace is lost with mortal sin (Conc. You want, DB, 808), it is preserved and increased with good works, made under the influence of grace, and through the Sacraments duly received (Conc. You want, DB, 834 e 849).
dal Dictionary of dogmatic theology, Piolanti, Relative, Garofalo – peace to their souls! – Studies, Roma, 1952.
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