Good Works, Grace and Merit

[MysticMissMisty]

Greetings.

It seems that it has been the constant teaching of the Church through councils and other forms that good works are ALWAYS inspired by/accompanied by God’s Grace and cannot be done and merit apart from thie Grace.

However, it is clear that the natural man, i.e., the unconverted, is frequently capable of doing good works out of charitable motive (the motive of Charity).

Then, how is it said that God’s Grace is ALWAYS necessary for EVERY good work to be done and to merit?

I have always understood Grace as a kind of “help” but not one that is ALWAYS required to perform EVERY good work, based on my argument about the unregenerate above. I have always thought that that, therefore, even in the Christian, there can be works done from purely natural reason/motives and that that reason/those motives can be based in true Charity, even at a purely natural level, i.e., even without any supernatural intervention of Grace.

How is it, then, that the Church insists that EVERY. SINGLE. GOOD. WORK. Must have as its origin the inspiration of Grace, in order to be carried out, in order to merit and even in order to be thought/inspired? Can both Christians and others not be inspired by purely natural (good/pure) motives without any help of Grace in some cases, even though the assistance of Grace may be needed in many cases to do this?

Please help me to understand this. I am very confused right now.

Thanks.

 

[SeekSalvation]

God’s Grace is his gift to us. God gives Grace even to those who’ve turned away. Therefor a person who hasn’t come to Christ or has fallen from Christ can still receive God’s Gift of Grace.

 

[po18guy]

It is whether or not that person seeks to know the source of that grace - and act on it. Otherwise, what impels a person to do good? The very concept of good has a source, and it is not of this earth.

 

[MysticMissMisty]

So, then, doing good with truly good motives is never purely natural? If I am not a Christian and yet I say, “I will do good because I know it is right and because it helps me and my neighbor”, and, for this reason, decides to do this, is not the act purely of human (I mean by this, non-supernatural) origin? And, what if a Christian, motivated by this same logic from his own mindset, does a good work? Can this, too not also sometimes be purely natural? Or, do we always have to say that every good work motivated by good intentions is necessarily aided by supernatural Grace and has no origins at all in human thought/wisdom (i.e., the human thought/wisdom of a particular person as expressed above)?

Yet, several councils have stated (infallibly?) that every. good. work. has its origin in divine Grace and, as I said, I am having trouble coming to terms with/understanding this.

Why would a human being, Christian or not, if he be capable of doing a good work entirely on his own, require a seemingly superfluous origin in divine Grace?

And, of course, I agree that very often we do need this assistance, but, ALWAYS AND EVER?

And I agree that Goodness ultimately derives from God and that God has implanted this desire in us to some extent or other, whether saved or not. So, in some sense, when we do good, whether graced or not, its ultimate source is in God, but my question concerns the specific intervention/influence/role of God’s Grace in an individual human life.