Summa Theologiae Moralis, vol. I: De Principiis

S. Th. I-II, q. 51, a. 3 et 4 ; q. 110, a. 2 ; q. 62, a. 1 et 2 ; q. 63, a. 2, 3, 4 ; De Virt., q. 1, a. 9 et 10 ; q. 5, a. 4.

618. Thesis. Supernatural operative habits are infused in us by God.

It is proved :

1°) No one perfectly tends and operates toward an end except through a permanent principle of operation, by which he is intrinsically inclined toward it ; whence for natural things God not only moves them to their acts but has given them permanent principles of operating toward their end¹, by which their movements become connatural and easy. Therefore also for our supernatural end (about which God certainly provides no less) He has given us supernatural habitual and permanent principles, that we might perfectly operate and tend toward it ; otherwise we would be moved not connaturally but as it were violently.

« It is not fitting that God provide less for those whom He loves for obtaining a supernatural good, than for creatures whom He loves for obtaining a natural good. But for natural creatures He so provides, that He not only moves them to natural acts, but also grants them forms and certain virtues, which are principles of acts, that according to themselves they incline themselves to such motion ; and thus the motions by which they are moved by God become connatural and easy to creatures. Much more therefore, for those whom He moves toward obtaining an eternal supernatural good, He infuses certain forms, or supernatural qualities, according to which they are moved sweetly and promptly by Him toward obtaining the eternal good » (q. 110, a. 2).

2°) Which is certain, because it is clearly deduced and is the obvious sense of the Council of Trent, sess. 6, although it is not expressly defined : for it says that grace and charity inhere in us (can. 11), and that man is justified through the susception of grace and gifts (c. 7), and receives infused : faith, hope and charity (c. 7) ; all of which indicate habitual principles, especially because it grants the same justification to infants (sess. 5, can. 4 ; sess. 6, c. 2) who are not capable of acts and movements to act.

3°) Whence the Scriptures say that the seed of divine life remains in us (I John III, 9), and they describe justification as regeneration ; which indicate the granting of a permanent principle.

619. What is the essence of infused habits. — Supernatural entities properly are not in the categories of natural entities, in the same way as God Himself whose participation they are ; yet they are reduced to the categories according to a certain analogy more or less, and thus sanctifying grace, since it is a spiritual and permanent accident, is reduced to quality, as an entitative habit. Similarly supernatural operative principles are reduced to quality and indeed as operative habits, although they do not have all in common with them. For they are neither pure habits nor pure potencies, but have something of potency and something of habit. For :

1°) In some respect they fall short of the notion of habit, because they do not give an all-around facility for operating : they indeed confer an intrinsic inclination, aptitude and promptitude for good, even greater than acquired habits, but not an extrinsic one, because they do not remove from us all the obstacles of good, as is clear from the converted sinner who does not experience a notably greater facility for good than before ; whence they are not habits properly so called².

2°) But they make it that man can operate supernaturally, which habit does not do, in which therefore they agree not with habit but rather with operative potency.

3°) But in all other respects they agree with habits, for a) like habits, they reside in natural operative potencies which they raise and with which they operate : for they do not give simply the ability to act, but the ability to act better and supernaturally ; b) man, if they are active, uses them when he wishes and to whatever degree he wishes, intensely or remissly, and can use them only for good ; c) they can be increased and corrupted. All of which do not belong to potency properly so called. Therefore they have more of the notion of habit than of the notion of potency, and so supernatural habits are usually so called.

620. Supernatural habits and virtues differ from natural ones in many ways :

a) On the part of essence : natural ones are habits properly so called, whence they do not give potency but facility of acting ; supernatural ones give potency of acting supernaturally, but not such an all-around facility.

b) On the part of efficient cause : natural ones are acquired from the principles of nature and from our acts, supernatural ones must be infused by God (q. 51, a. 4 ; q. 63, a. 1).

c) On the part of nature and of the end to which they are ordered : by the natural ones man is well disposed in relation to human things and to natural acts befitting human nature ; by the supernatural ones man is well disposed in relation to this, that he be an adoptive son of God, destined for eternal life, and that he exercise supernatural acts befitting the divine nature (q. 54, a. 3 ; q. 63, a. 4).

d) On the part of the formal object : in the natural ones the good is according to the rule and light of human reason, or conformity to the natural end ; in the supernatural ones the good is according to the rule and light of the supernatural law divinely revealed (which exceeds human reason), or conformity to the supernatural end. Therefore they are nobler than acquired virtues (q. 63, a. 4).

621. Observation. — By exercising supernatural virtues man will overcome and remove extrinsic obstacles to the habit, and thus will acquire an all-around and perfect facility for good. For acts produced from a supernatural habit can be considered in two ways :

1°) as supernatural, or as tending toward something precisely as supernatural, exceeding human nature, and thus they cannot produce habits of the same species, or supernatural ones, which are infused by God alone (n. 639) ; but

2°) supernatural acts, while they tend toward the supernatural end or good and object, at the same time tend in some respect toward the natural end and good befitting natural reason, both because the natural faculties are simultaneously exercised, and because the supernatural act and good eminently contain and include the natural act and natural good : thus however they can produce natural habits of the same species as that object insofar as it is natural and conformed to reason, and through this overcome and remove the obstacles opposed to this act and object, in the same way as was said about acquired virtue (n. 567). And thus an all-around facility is acquired, which however is not of supernatural virtue, as not proportioned to the supernatural end, but a natural habit : e.g. while one believes in God, exercises chastity or justice with a view to eternal life, he also does something conformed to reason. Cf. De Verit. q. 10, a. 10, ad 1 ; Quodl. VIII, q. 2, a. 2.

Others say that habits are not produced, but only the impediments are removed ; whence all difficulty in acting ceases.