ng
him to perform salutary acts; or, somewhat more succinctly, as a
supernatural help bestowed for the performance of salutary acts,
in consideration of the merits of Jesus Christ.

Actual grace is (1) a _help_ (_auxilium_), because it consists in a
transient influence exercised by God on the soul. (2) A _supernatural_
help, to distinguish it from God's ordinary providence and all such merely
natural graces as man would probably have received in the state of pure
nature.(26) (3) It is attributed to the merits of Jesus Christ, in order
to indicate that the graces granted to fallen man are all derived from the
atonement both as their efficient and their meritorious cause. (4) Actual
grace is said to be given for the performance of salutary acts to show
that its immediate purpose or end is an act, not a state, and that the
acts for which it is given must be in the order of salvation.

7. THE TWOFOLD CAUSALITY OF ACTUAL GRACE.--If grace is a supernatural help,
mere nature cannot, of its own strength, perform salutary acts.
Consequently, actual grace exercises a causal influence without which man
would be helpless in the matter of salvation.

The causality of actual grace is both moral and physical.

a) As a moral cause grace removes the obstacles which render the work of
salvation difficult. Besides this negative it also has a positive effect:
it inspires delight in virtue and hatred of sin.

This mode of operation manifestly presupposes a certain weakness of the
human will, _i.e._ _concupiscence_, which is an effect of original sin.
Actual grace exercises a healing influence on the will(27) and is
therefore called _gratia sanans sive medicinalis_. "Unless something is
put before the soul to please and attract it," says St. Augustine, "the
will can in no wise be moved; but it is not in man's power to bring this
about."(28) Concretely, this moral causality of grace manifests itself as
a divinely inspired joy in virtue and a hatred of sin, both of which
incline the will to the free performance of salutary acts. These
sentiments may in some cases be so strong as to deprive the will
temporarily of its freedom to resist. The sudden conversion of St. Paul is
a case in point. Holy Scripture expressly assures us that God is the
absolute master of the human will and, if He so chooses, can bend it under
His yoke without using physical force. Cfr. Prov. XXI, 1: "The heart of
the king is in the hand of the Lord: whith