Tuesday, January 29, 2013
422. What is justification? (part 1)
(Comp 422) Justification is the most
excellent work of God's love. It is the merciful and freely-given act of God
which takes away our sins and makes us just and holy in our whole being. It is
brought about by means of the grace of the Holy Spirit which has been merited
for us by the passion of Christ and is given to us in Baptism. Justification is
the beginning of the free response of man, that is, faith in Christ and of
cooperation with the grace of the Holy Spirit.
“In brief”
(CCC 2017) The grace of the Holy Spirit confers upon us the
righteousness of God. Uniting us by faith and Baptism to the Passion and
Resurrection of Christ, the Spirit makes us sharers in his life.
To deepen and
explain
(CCC 1987) The grace of the Holy Spirit has the power to
justify us, that is, to cleanse us from our sins and to communicate to us
"the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ" and through
Baptism (Rom 3:22; cf. 6:3-4): But if we have died with Christ, we believe that
we shall also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead
will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died
he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you
also must consider yourselves as dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus
(Rom 6:8-11). (CCC 1988) Through the power of the Holy Spirit we take part in
Christ's Passion by dying to sin, and in his Resurrection by being born to a
new life; we are members of his Body which is the Church, branches grafted onto
the vine which is himself (Cf. 1 Cor 12; Jn 15:1-4): [God] gave himself to us
through his Spirit. By the participation of the Spirit, we become communicants
in the divine nature.... For this reason, those in whom the Spirit dwells are
divinized (St. Athanasius, Ep. Serap.
1, 24: PG 26, 585 and 588).
Reflection
(CCC 1989) The first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit is
conversion, effecting justification
in accordance with Jesus' proclamation at the beginning of the Gospel:
"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Mt 4:17). Moved by
grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and
righteousness from on high. "Justification is not only the remission of
sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man (Council of
Trent (1547): DS 1528). [IT
CONTINUES]
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