On justification by Lagrange (banezian)

It is by Justification that our sins are remitted. Because if it were otherwise then God’s love for sinners would equivalent to His love for the Saints and sinners would remain in a state of sin whilst also being worthy of reaching the beatific vision. Now for this remissive justification sanctifying grace is absolutely necessary since justification is an effect of God’s love and His love produces something real in the soul (grace) which is what justifies and sanctifies us. The Council of Trent states that sanctifying grace is the formal cause of justification.

God can’t bring it to pass that mortal sin and sanctifying grace can coexist in the same supposit since the 2 are incompatible meaning that the same person can’t please and displease God at the same time.

The prerequired acts in the adult’s justification are “faith, fear, hope, love, contrition, and firm proposal”. These acts begin with faith in God’s love and justice and consequently out of this faith comes fear and the hope of pardon. Hope will lead to the love of God, the love will lead to the hatred of sin, the hate of the sin is contrition (hence “perfect acts of contrition”), genuine contrition includes the firm proposal to start and lead a new life in holiness. Both faith and love needs to be present explicitly since faith is in the intellect and love is in the will. Contrition needs to be ordinarily present and hope can be contained virtually in charity. John of St. Thomas holds that these acts of contrition and love which are the ultimate disposition for sanctifying grace proceed from actual grace and others say that it arises from sanctifying grace. Fr. Lagrange holds the latter position as he speaks about the subject’s disposition precedes the form in nature and in the order of material causality. But in formal and efficient causality follows the action of the agent which disposes the subject. So the act of free will follows that infusion, formally and effectively even though it precedes materially the infusion of grace. God at one moment by priority of nature infuses grace before dispelling sin and man by another priority ceases to be a sinner before receiving grace. The ultimate disposition precedes materially the form but follows it formally as a characteristic. A consequence of the thesis runs as such:

In the plan of providence under which a state of pure nature never existed, each and every man is either in the state of sin or in the state of grace.

He who by actual grace is disposing himself for conversion will (if he willing fully continues) reach that ultimate disposition which is realized when sanctifying grace is infused.