The answer
St. Jerome says, “For our parts we gladly embrace this freedom, but we never forget to thank the Giver; knowing that we are powerless unless He continually preserves in us His own gift … To will and to run are mine, but they will cease to be mine unless God brings me His continual aid. … And in the Gospel the Saviour says: ‘my Father works hitherto and I work’ (John 5:17). He is always a giver, always a bestower. It is not enough for me that he has given me grace once; He must give it me always. I seek that I may obtain, and when I have obtained I seek again. I am covetous of God’s bounty; and as He is never slack in giving, so I am never weary in receiving. The more I drink, the more I thirst. For I have read the song of the psalmist: ‘O taste and see that the Lord is good’ (Ps. 34:8). Every good thing that we have is a tasting of the Lord.”1080
He also says, “Now where there is grace, this is not given in return for works but is the free gift of the giver … And yet it is ours to will and not to will; and all the while the very liberty that is ours is only ours by the mercy of God.”1081
When St. Clement of Alexandria discusses faith and human freedom, he points out that both human freedom and human intellect are divine gifts that cannot bring a person into a life of communion without divine aid. While faith is the product of free will, it is also a gift from God.1082 This resembles a football player who is free to kick the ball or to refuse to do so, but he cannot make this choice at all unless the ball is passed to him in the first place.1083 Likewise, we can embrace faith or reject it, but we need the hand of God to offer it to us in the first place.
This same line of thought is taken up by his disciple, Origen, who discusses in detail the free grace of God, saying, “I can hardly convince myself that there could be any work which would demand from God repayment as something due. For even the fact that we are able to do anything at all, to think and to speak, we do through his gift and generosity.”1084 At the same time, he emphasizes, “If you take away the spontaneity of virtue, you destroy its essence.”1085
Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty
Notes
1080 St. Jerome, Letters 133.6 (NPNF II/6:276) amended.
1081 St. Jerome, Letters 130.12 (NPNF II/6:267).
1082 St. Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, or Miscellanies 2.3 (ANF 2:349).
1083 Cf. St. Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, or Miscellanies 2.6 (ANF 2:353–354).
1084 Origen of Alexandria, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Books 1–5 4.1.14 (FOTC 103:243).
1085 Origen of Alexandria, Against Celsus 4.3 (ANF 4:498).