Grace Question -

[timber501]

Does everyone receive enough grace to make it to heaven?

People go to heaven because the cooperate with Gods grace. People go to hell because they don’t cooperate with that grace.

People can only cooperate with Gods grace if they are given it.

So what about the people who are never given the grace to cooperate with? Wouldn’t this be predestining people to Hell.

 

[Jesuslover]

Not everyone receives the grace required to get to heaven. When the Catechism says that God predestines no one to hell, what it is saying is that God does not force anyone to go to hell because we all have free will. However, He is omniscient and exists oustide of time, so he already knows everyone’s eternal fate. This means that “before” God created us, (I put before in quotes because God does not experience time like we do) He knew exactly who will go to heaven and who will go to hell. St. Thomas Aquinas describes it well when he says “Predestination itself is not a property of those predestined but something in God: the plan in his mind destining some to eternal life.” The uncomfortable truth is that God knows some people will turn away from him but he does not give them the grace necessary to turn back. We all deserve hell, due to original sin and the further sins we commit, but God chooses to rescue some of us from that predicament but not others. I recently read about a satanic high wizard, Zachary King, who converted to Catholicism after a miraculous encounter with the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is wonderful that he was converted, but I also thought about all the other satanists who will never receive that kind of grace and will probably end up in hell. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing we can do about it. Pray incessantly for the conversion of sinners. Pray the Rosary regularly, it is immensely powerful. Also pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet. If there’s anything that will save droves of sinners from the fires of hell, it’s God’s endless Divine Mercy. Hope this helped answer your question. Peace!
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[porthos11]

Does everyone receive enough grace to make it to heaven?

Yes. This is not in dispute, and is non-negotiable. It’s called sufficient grace.

So what about the people who are never given the grace to cooperate with? Wouldn’t this be predestining people to Hell.

Which makes this question spurious, since it is to be accepted without question that God provides sufficient grace to everyone to attain salvation.

 

[Jesuslover]

This is not in dispute

How so? The Church taught for centuries, and continues to teach, that some people go to hell. If everyone is going to be saved, then what is the point of trying to live a virtuous life?

 

[porthos11]

porthos11:

This is not in dispute

How so? The Church taught for centuries, and continues to teach, that some people go to hell. If everyone is going to be saved, then what is the point of trying to live a virtuous life?

Because sufficient grace is not the same as efficacious grace.

Man’s free response is required for grace to be efficacious. Not everyone will cooperate with God’s grace, but that does not mean God has not given sufficient grace.

Sufficient grace is a must because if we deny it, then we are effectively confessing double-predestination, and is contrary to Scripture. 1 Timothy 2:4.

 

[timber501]

where is the teaching that everyone receives sufficient grace?

 

[Dan_Defender]

St Thomas Aquinas taught this:
There are two kinds of actual graces, sufficient and efficacious. If God sends a sufficient grace, it gives the full and complete power to do something good; but it is infallibly certain we will not do good, but will sin. If He sends an efficacious grace, it is infallibly sure we will do good.
At first sight this seems folly. Yet it is not entirely so: the efficacious grace is the application of the sufficient grace. Compare a fire which has the full power to cook food, but never cooks anything unless a cook applies the fire to the food.

 

[Wesrock]

One of the things grace does is enable a person to choose God. That is, a capacity that was lacking is given. Sufficient grace means a person has been given that capacity even if he said no. My understanding is that every human (who reaches the age of reason I think I’m required to concede, though not to say grace can’t be received before, it’s just that before the age of reason one lacks that ability knowledge and deliberateness to sin) receives at least sufficient grace in their life such that they really are able to and do have an active role in their choice. This may not always be an explicit “convert to Catholicism and be perfect,” for it’s quite obvious people have lived and died without being exposed to Christianity, but the choice to conform to a moral life is provided. Those who die before the age of reason have committed no personal sins.