Grace is a mystery. When we speak of grace, we can only speak about it.
The economy of salvation, God willing and working for my salvation, is God’s work, God’s free gift, and God’s grace in me. Grace is the power of God in me that enables me to express his goodness. My response to this grace within me is a free response. I can choose to negate the effect of grace, and this is sin.
Christ teaches me that salvation is primarily a transformation of my attitude, a change of heart. My attitude drives my affections, and my affections drive my behaviors.
If I, through grace, can transform my attitude to be Christ-like, then my affections and behaviors will also be Christ-like. My transformation begins by denying the voice within that calls me to self-centeredness, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness" (Mark 7 20:22).
Grace is God’s self-communication [the “supernatural existential”], a fundamental dimension of being human, affecting all people at all times. If we deny grace, the impetus to be and do good, then we sin. The source of sin, like grace, is a mystery. When presented with a moral decision, a decision that has good or bad outcomes, how free are we to choose? There are three possibilities and three theologies. In the presence of a decision to do good or evil, humans are 1) free to choose, neither being influenced by grace or evil (Pelagius), 2) not free, but propelled to evil (Augustine), and 3) not free, but overpowered by grace (Rahner).
St. Augustine’s response to Pelagius’ doctrine that humans freely choose evil, is that human beings do not ever enjoy a condition of pure indifference in the exercise of freedom. Rather the corruption of human nature by sin entails a predisposition to evil, a bias toward it, which precedes and forms choice.
Karl Rahner argues that the indwelling grace inherent in our nature is the stronger force. For Rahner, original sin is a reality, but it is never equal to the lure of transcendence. Original grace is more powerful than original sin. The theologies contradict.
A sinful act, according to Rahner, is all the more culpable because we are not completely free to sin, but must, in the first moment, overcome the overpowering “supernatural existential” impelling us to do good. Having rejected natural grace, we are now at Pelagius’s free-to-choose location, and then, in the second moment, we choose to sin. Rahner would have us struggle to sin, whereas Augustine has us struggle to be good. Pelagius says it is an even bet.
The Church agrees with Augustine.
