2/27/23 Chapter 4: Man as a supernatural organism I

➢ Relation between the natural and supernatural orders

o Recall that, in creating all things, God did not only give being to all things; but He also
gave them a nature. Likewise, God did not only give us our being, but He also gave a
nature. (See CCC#301 for how God creates and guides creation in a way that should lead
us to confidence and joy in God)
natural operation • This nature (or essence) makes us what we are and also gives us the capacity to act

in a certain way that befits our being. These are called natural operations.
✓ Nature answers the question, “What?” and thus determines how a thing should
act. Things act according to their nature.
✓ Beings have nature; nature determines action.
natural order:
• These natural operations are ordained (oriented) the natural end of each creature.
it is about our • The natural order is “the ordination (or orientation) of all creatures to the end
purpose about
why God proper to each one’s nature, together with the provision of the means necessary to
created us. to reach that end.”1
love serve
know him ✓ The nature of a thing thus determines how the thing should act so as to attain
the end or purpose for which it was created.
✓ This means that the end or purpose is inscribed in the very nature of a thing by
God, not by man or by society. Man can know this purpose by reason.
➢ For rational (intelligent) creatures (men and angels), the natural end is to know and love
God.
o Hence what perfects us in the natural order includes:
• The natural knowledge of God (from created things) See Chapter 1 of Romans.
• Ordering our will towards Him (by following the light of conscience); Form
conscience first before following it.
• Having a right order in our relationship with oneself, others and with creation.
➢ In the supernatural order,
o The supernatural last end of all rational creatures, man included, is participation in the
very intimate life of the Triune God.
• This last end consists in the face-to-face vision, immediate vision of God, called the
super natural: beatific vision.
✓ St. Paul describes it such, “For now we see God as in a mirror dimly, but then face
it is about our
participation in to face.”(1Cor 13:12) Our imperfect seeing of God now (mediated) will be perfect
triune God. when we see Him face to face without any mediation.
✓ St. John asserts, “For we shall see Him as He is.”(1Jn 3:2)
• This end is a gift that exceeds man’s nature; it is essentially a gift of divine goodness.
o We must note the following points:
• The supernatural order is infinitely above and different from the natural order.
• It is impossible for creatures like man to enter into this beatific face-to-face vision of
God through its natural power alone.

1
Faith seeking understanding, Vol 1, 231.
 ✓ It is impossible for us to know, desire and, or reach our supernatural last end
without God raising us to the supernatural order by the means of divine grace.
• Only by the gratuitous grace of God is human nature raised to participate in
supernatural order. This is why grace is necessary for rational creatures to be
elevated to the supernatural order.
✓ Because man and angels already have the operative potencies (faculties/powers)
of intellect and will, divine grace can elevate them to the supernatural order
without them having to change their nature.
✓ By divine grace, we still remain human, but we are elevated to participate in the
divine life and to have our intellect and will operate in a supernatural level.
✓ Stones and inanimate objects must change their nature and receive intellect and
will first if they are going to be elevated to the supernatural order.
✓ Both angels and men are naturally capable of receiving grace because of their
spiritual souls.
• Remember that grace is a pure gift from God, it is purely gratuitous.
✓ Nature is not ordained to receive grace; God offers it through our prayers and
sacraments.
• Nothing in nature can ascend to the supernatural without the aid of the
supernatural condescending to elevate nature.
✓ The God who creates us also acts to elevate us rational creatures to the
supernatural order.
✓ This elevation to the supernatural order belongs to the order of grace.
✓ The order of grace (supernatural order) is distinct from the natural order.

➢ Grace and Nature

o The supernatural elevation presupposes and perfects human nature.
• Grace (supernatural order) does not suppress or destroy nature (natural order); on
the contrary, grace presupposes, perfects, and elevates human nature.
• This implies that we cannot ignore our human nature and the natural order in our
lives and expect to receive grace fruitfully.
o Through elevation to the supernatural order, the faculties/powers (operative capacities)
are confirmed, increased, and perfected.
• The intellect is strengthened by the light of divine faith in this life and the light of
glory in the beatific vision.
• The will is confirmed and strengthened as divine charity moves it to love God above
all things and all things in God alone.

The place of divine grace in salvation history

Before the Fall, Adam and Eve were created in a state of original holiness and justice. This
means:
➢ God created them and, out of His love for them, He gave them supernatural gifts also.
o He elevated them to the supernatural order by giving them sanctifying grace before the
Fall.
state of Grace

•
They were thus created in a state of grace i.e.
✓ They were pleasing to God and could do the will of God with conviction.
✓ Free from anything that separates them from God, especially mortal sin.
✓ Friends of God, enjoying the indwelling of the Triune God within.
✓ They enjoyed a forestate of heaven even while in the earthly paradise of Eden.
• In the divine plan, our first parents were to participate in the intimate life of God
here on earth and enjoy it perfectly in heaven.
o By this supernatural elevation, there is an elevation of the human realities.
• Man is elevated in his relationship with God to become, not just another creature,
but a true son of God.
• Human nature is elevated by sanctifying grace, which is a supernatural habit. (Habit
is a quality that disposes one to act in a certain way more easily)
• The powers and potencies of the soul elevated by the supernatural virtues and the
gifts of the Holy Spirit.
• The human acts of the intellect are elevated by the light of actual grace.
• The acts of the free will are elevated by the motion of other actual graces.
➢ There is also integrity of nature and preternatural gifts.
o The integrity of nature means that the senses and sensuality submitted to the dictates of
reason, the body submitted to the soul, and human will submitted to the Creator. There
was interior harmony.
• Notice that when the human will conforms to the will of God, we live in integrity and
there is harmony.
• By the integrity of nature, there is absence of concupiscence as the will and passions
are thus rightly ordered by reason.
• There was both internal and external freedom in man in this state of grace.
o Preternatural gifts: The integrity of nature is also accompanied by what is called
preternatural gifts.
• The preternatural gifts are favors, privileges, or benefits granted by God to human
nature through Adam and Eve which are “above and beyond the powers or
capacities of the nature that receive them but not beyond those of created nature.”2
✓ These gifts perfect nature but they do not carry nature beyond the limits of
created nature i.e. they do not bring human nature into the supernatural realm.
(Only the grace of God, a supernatural reality, can elevate human nature above
the natural and bring it to participate in the supernatural order while remaining
human)
✓ The gifts are adequate to the human condition but exceed its proper end. Thus,
they are not due to us by right but are merely privileges.
✓ They are due to the preternatural intervention of God in creation; human nature
has no right to them.
• Preternatural gifts include the following privileges.

2
See entry “Preternatural gifts” in Modern Catholic Dictionary by John Hardon, SJ.
 ✓ Bodily immortality: This means that man was meant to pass from the life to the
happiness of heaven without having to pass through death and experience the
separation of body and soul.
Death remains a punishment for sin (Gen 2:17)
✓ Impassibility: This means that man was immune from all suffering and misery.
No physical or moral suffering. Man was able to work without effort and without
fatigue.
✓ Infused knowledge
Our first parents possessed knowledge suitable to their state without having
to labor strenuously to get it.
God directly instructs them on the meaning and value of things.

➢ Adam and Eve were meant to enjoy these privileges and transmit them to us as they
transmit life to us.

➢ Need to discern preternatural occurrences

o Preternatural means that something is beyond the natural, but it is not strictly
supernatural.
o Preternatural occurrences must be carefully discerned to know their sources. They can
have two sources:
• Preternatural events can occur when God uses natural forces to produce effects
beyond the native capacity.
• Preternatural events can also occur when forces above the human forces, angelic or
demonic, are active in the world of space and time.

➢ By the Fall, our first parents experienced the consequence of their disobedience.
o The consequence of original sin for our first parents were:
• The loss and privation of sanctifying grace and the other supernatural gifts. This
deprivation of sanctifying grace is the essence of original sin.
✓ Thus, they also lost their last end – intimate communion with God.
✓ Original sin is the “death of the soul” by losing the sanctifying grace that God
willed for it. It is thus dead with regard to the supernatural order.
• Loss of friendship with God and became enemies of God. They thus lost original
holiness and justice.
• The loss of the preternatural gifts, along with their accompanying integrity. They
thus allowed death and mortality to enter the world.
• Subjection to the devil and domination by him.
• They thus failed to transmit to us these gifts and privileges.
➢ The consequence of the Fall for us (CCC 404-406).
o How did the sin of Adam become the sin of all his descendants?
• There is a “unity in the human race” in Adam such that we are all implicated in his
sin just as we are all implicated in the justice of Christ, the new Adam, “Therefore as
sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death
consequence of Fall of Man:

death through sin.

 spread to all men because all men sinned.”(Rom 5:12) Because of this unity in the
human race, we too can say that “Christ died for all.”(2Cor 5:15) Human nature is
unchanging and the same.
• The transmission of original sin is also a mystery that we cannot completely
understand.
• We know that the original holiness and justice that Adam received was not for
himself alone; he was meant to pass it to all human nature by transmitting life.
✓ By choosing to sin, they committed a personal sin, a sin that would affect the
human nature that they would then transmit in a fallen state.
✓ Original sin is “thus a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all
mankind, i.e., by the transmission of a human nature deprived of original justice
and justice.”
✓ Original sin is thus “contracted” and not “committed” by us, it is a state and not
an act. It is communicated to all men by propagation and not by imitation.
✓ Original sin is transmitted and received when the nature deprived of grace is
transmitted and inherited through propagation.
✓ Lesson: our sins affect our (human) nature first and foremost; it does not
primarily affect other natures but our own nature.
➢ Man as a “fallen creature.” We must have a right understanding of the effects of original sin
if we are going to understand what it means to say that we are “fallen creatures.”
o Original sin is proper to each individual i.e., it is in each descendant of Adam as his own;
but it does not have the character of a personal fault in us as descendants of Adam.
o It is essentially a deprivation of original holiness and justice.
o Man is also completely deprived of the supernatural and preternatural gifts, as well as
the friendship of God and the happiness of heaven.
• All supernatural gifts are lost by original sin e.g., charity, infused virtues, gifts of the
Holy Spirit, and the supernatural graces needed to achieve our supernatural last end.
• Without grace merited and applied to us by Christ, we cannot direct our actions to
our supernatural end.
o Human nature remains essentially good as created by God, “It has not been totally
corrupted.”
o What does it mean for human nature to be good but wounded?
• Human nature is essentially good. It is wounded but not totally corrupted by
original sin.
• Human nature is wounded in the natural powers proper to it i.e., the deterioration
caused by original sin consists only in the weakening of the natural powers of the
body and the soul.
• It is subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death.
• It is inclined to sin – an inclination to evil that is called concupiscence.
➢ Two extreme attitudes to be avoided when dealing with the transmission of original sin.
o Pelagianism: For Pelagius,
• Adam’s sin was only a bad example to the rest of humanity; Adam’s sin did not
wound his nature or his descendants.
 • Thus, Pelagius believed that without the necessary help of divine grace, man can
actually use his reason and free will alone to live a truly morally good life.
• He exaggerated the role and power of human free will.
o Early Protestant reformers:
• They believed that original sin has “radically perverted man destroyed his freedom.”
• For them there is no difference between the original sin we inherited and our
tendency to evil (concupiscence); by making original sin essentially equal to
concupiscence and denying the fundamental goodness of human nature, the
Protestants make this concupiscence something that we could not overcome.
• For them, they had a very negative and poor view of human nature and freedom.
• In their pessimistic view of humanity, due to original sin, human nature is
effect of Original sin: completely corrupt and depraved and our free will is useless (or completely lost)
when it comes to doing battle with concupiscence.
➢ Right attitude towards original sin and how to evaluate our wounded nature.
o Original sin and its effect “do not completely destroy free will or the ability to know the
truths of natural religion.”3
o What original sin really does is to weaken the natural powers of the body and the soul. It
does not destroy or remove them.
o There are thus four wounds in the human nature from original sin. 4
4 wounds of • The wound of ignorance affects the intellect, which is darkened, making the search
human nature for truth difficult. This wound is opposed to the virtue of prudence.
from original
sin • The wound of malice affects the will, which is inclined to sin and weakened in the
face of temptation. This wound is opposed to the virtue of justice.
• The wound of weakness affects the irascible appetite, which, as a result, avoids
exerting effort and shuns difficulties. This wound is opposed to the virtue of
fortitude.
• The wound of concupiscence affects the concupiscible appetite. The object of this
appetite is the sensible good but, weakened by concupiscence, it escapes from the
dominion of reason. This wound is opposed to the virtue of temperance.
➢ We must never ignore the reality that “Ignorance of the fact that man has a wounded
nature inclined to evil gives rise to serious errors in the areas of education, politics, social
action and morals.”(CCC 407)
o The consequences of original sin and of all men’s personal sins lead to “the sin of the
consequence world” (CCC 408) and makes the world to “lie in the power of the evil one.”(CCC 409)
of original
sin o This makes the spiritual life a constant battle.

➢ Need for baptism:

3/6/23 o Baptism erases/removes original sin, destroys all that is truly and properly sinful, imparts
the life of Christ’s grace, turns a man back towards God, and reunites Him with God.
o Baptism does not remove the consequences of original sin for human nature.
• Recall that the essence of original sin is the privation of sanctifying grace.

3
Faith seeking understanding I, p. 248.
4
Ibid., 248.
 • Baptism restores this sanctifying grace; but the material element of original sin, i.e.
the habitual disorder of concupiscence remains.
• We still remain weakened and inclined to evil. This is why we are called to unceasing
spiritual battle.

The supernatural organism

➢ Recall that the vital powers – rational, sensitive, and vegetative – constitute the natural life
of man.
o Like plants, we can be nourished, reproduce, and grow (vegetative powers); like animals
we can sense knowledge and appetites (passions) and can move (sensitive powers); like
angels we can know spiritual truth and be drawn to spiritual good (rational/spiritual)
o These powers are not superimposed one on the other; but they compenetrate and
mutually complement one another to lead to the natural perfection of the whole person.
This means that we must be maturing in all these powers for a healthy spiritual life.
➢ Also recall that the supernatural order completely surpasses the natural order and there is
nothing in the natural order that is close to, deserving or meriting of the supernatural order.
o God gratuitously raises the natural order to the supernatural order by means of His
grace.
o This grace does not destroy nature but builds on nature and perfects nature.
o But there is also an analogy between the life of supernatural organism and the life of
the natural organism.
• Though grace is an accident and not a substance in the human soul, it plays a role in
the supernatural life of man similar to the role played by the human soul which is a
substance.
• This analogy is depicted below.

How the supernatural organism operates:

➢ Sanctifying grace:
o What is grace in general?
• In biblical language, grace is an unmerited gift that God offers to human race out of
Grace His benevolence (kind generosity); it is completely gratuitous in the sense that we
can never claim it as a right. This gratuity is the essence of grace.
• In Church language, grace is more than the gifts of nature e.g., creation and the
bodily health.
✓ Grace is “supernatural gift that God, of His free benevolence, bestows on rational
creatures for their eternal salvation. Note the purpose of grace.
✓ The gifts of grace are essentially supernatural, surpassing the being, power and
claims of created nature.”5

5
Modern Catholic Dictionary, entry “Grace” on p. 236.
 ✓ The gifts of grace include sanctifying grace, infused virtues, gifts of the Holy
Spirit, and actual grace.
✓ Without these gifts of grace, we cannot reach the beatific vision of heaven.
Because no creature has the right to the beatific vision, it too is in itself a gift of
grace.
o What is sanctifying grace?
• “Sanctifying grace is the supernatural state of being infused by God, which
permanently inheres in the soul.”6
✓ It is a vital principle of the supernatural life, just as the rational soul is the vital
principle of the human being’s natural life.
✓ It is not a substance but a real quality that becomes part of the soul’s substance.
• Sanctifying grace is the grace that grants us a participation in the very nature of God
i.e., in the divine nature.
✓ We do not become divine but we participate in the divine nature. (2 Pet 1:4).
✓ It is called sanctifying grace because it makes holy those who possess it by virtue
of granting them a participation in the divine life.
• Sanctifying grace also elevates us to the status of the children of God and heirs of
heaven, “We are children of God. But if we are children, we are heirs as well; heirs of
God, heirs with Christ.” (Rom 8:16-17; see also Acts 17:29)
• By grace, some operations proper to a superior nature (God) become connatural to
lower nature (man) by the lower nature’s participation in some way in the superior
nature. Action follows being.
➢ Nature of sanctifying grace: “Sanctifying grace is a supernatural quality, inhering in the
soul, which gives us a physical and formal participation, although analogous and
accidental, in the very nature and life of God.”7
o Sanctifying grace is supernatural quality because it alone is the formal principle that
elevates us and constitutes us in the supernatural life.
• Once again, sanctifying grace excels all things of nature and brings us into the order
of the divine.
o Sanctifying grace inheres in the soul from the moment of baptism.
• Protestant reformers deny this and posit only an extrinsic justification. They believe
that God simply inputs justification over us without any inner renewal.
• The Church believes in an inner renewal because it holds that grace inheres in the
soul to elevate the quality of the soul.
✓ Grace does not just cover the soul (extrinsic justification).
✓ This is because of the following principles:
I. “The love of God infuses and creates goodness in things.” In our case, we
love something because we perceive good in that thing which we love; but
God’s love, being a supernatural love, creates goodness in a thing by merely
loving that thing. God’s love for us makes us both interiorly and exteriorly
good.

6
Ibid, 488.
7
ST, 67. This is the comprehensive definition of sanctifying grace that will guide our discussion henceforth.
 II. “Love makes things similar to itself.” God’s love for us, through His gift of
sanctifying grace, elevates us and deifies us, making us like Him.
• God’s love for us produces grace in us because:
✓ God loves with a supernatural love and His love is the cause of all goodness.
✓ Thus, God produces in the person He loves the supernatural goodness which is
grace.
→ Hence, if we are loved by God, we have His grace within us.
• Sanctifying grace and charity: Because it is rooted in God’s love for us, sanctifying
grace is commonly associated with the possessing of the virtue of charity.
✓ Having sanctifying grace means we also have supernatural charity; practicing
charity increases sanctifying grace in us; mortal sin destroys both charity and
sanctifying grace.
✓ Without charity, there is no sanctifying grace; but faith and hope can exist in a
soul without sanctifying grace.
o God deifies the soul by communicating His divine nature to it through our participation in
His likeness.
• By sanctifying grace, we participate in the very nature of God.
• This participation means that we, inferior creatures, begin to assimilate some
perfections that exist in God, the supreme being.
✓ This is what it means to be deified by God; it does not mean that we become
God. We only participate in the divine nature, “You might become sharers of the
divine nature.”(2Pet 1:4)
o For us to have this sanctifying grace, we must have a physical and formal participation in
the very nature of God.
• Physical (it affects, moves, and impacts us); formal (new way of being); for us to
share in the operations of a superior nature like God, we must first share in the
nature of God. i.e., we must have some connaturality with God. This connaturality
comes from sanctifying grace.
✓ Remember this principle: “As a thing is (nature), so it acts… and the effects
cannot be greater than the cause.”
✓ A soul in the natural order cannot act or operate in a supernatural way without
having a share in the supernatural order by the gift of sanctifying grace.
✓ Only the presence of a supernatural entity in a soul like grace can produce
supernatural operations. This is why the infused virtues, the faculties of
supernatural operations in us, cannot be possessed or exercised with sanctifying
grace in the soul.
• Because through sanctifying grace man participates physically and formally in the
very nature of God, it is possible that some supernatural operations do become
connatural to man through grace.
➢ Some qualities of our participation in the divine nature by sanctifying grace
o It is an analogous participation:
• The divine nature is not communicated to us univocally, i.e., in exactly the same way
that the Father transmits it to the Son through eternal generation.
 •
Analogous participation means that “that which exists in God in an infinite manner
is participated by the soul in a limited and finite manner.”8
✓ Grace is a connatural principle of the operations that relate us to God in His life
and nature.
✓ Sanctifying grace thus first makes us connatural with God (having a certain
participated likeness of the divine nature) and then disposes us to act in a way
that relates with and reaches God as divine.
• By sanctifying grace, we share in the very nature and life of God without becoming
divine. This is just like a mirror capturing reflection of the image of the sun without
acquiring the nature of the sun itself.
o It is an accidental participation.
• Because grace is above all nature, it cannot be the substance or a substantial form of
a soul, but its accidental form.
✓ This means that the soul can lose sanctifying grace and still be a soul.
✓ Sanctifying grace can be lost through mortal sin that kills charity.
✓ “What is substantial in God becomes accidental in the soul that participates in the
divine goodness.”(Aquinas)
• Sanctifying grace is a habitual grace inhering in the soul of man as a supernatural
accident. Recall that only accidents, and not substances, can inhere in another.
• We must still attest to the dignity of grace because it infinitely transcends all created
natural substances. Grace thus remains a supernatural accident that infinitely
transcends all created or creatable nature substances.

8
ST, 69.