Between merit (_meritum_) and prayer (_oratio, preces_) there is this great difference, that merit appeals to God’s justice, prayer to His mercy. If man were able to merit final perseverance by good works (_meritum de condigno_), God would be in justice bound to give him this precious grace. But this is plainly incompatible with the Catholic conception of final perseverance.
It may be asked: Is God determined by the _meritum de congruo_ inherent in all good works to grant the gift of final perseverance as a reward to the righteous? Theologians are at variance on this point. Ripalda(401) thinks that this is the case at least with the more conspicuous good works performed in the state of grace. Suarez modifies this improbable contention somewhat by saying that prayer alone can infallibly guarantee final perseverance.(402) Our prayers are infallibly heard if we address the Father through Jesus Christ, because Christ has promised: “If you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it you.”(403) To insure its being infallibly heard, prayer for perseverance must be made in the state of grace and unremittingly. True, Christ did not make sanctifying grace a necessary condition of efficacious prayer. But, as Suarez points out, prayer cannot be infallibly efficacious unless it proceeds from one who is in the state of grace, because the moral conditions that render it efficacious are found only in that state.(404) As to the second point, if we say that prayer for perseverance must be unremitting, we mean, in the words of the same eminent theologian, that it must continue throughout life and must be made with becoming trustfulness and zeal, especially when there is a duty to be fulfilled or a temptation to be overcome.(405)
READINGS:—Suarez, _De Gratia_, 1. I-II.—*Tricassin, O. Cap., _De Necessaria ad Salutem Gratia_.—Byonius, _De Gratiae Auxiliis_, in Becanus, _Theologia Scholastica_, Rouen, 1658.—Scheeben _Natur und Gnade_, Mainz 1861.—IDEM, _Dogmatik_, Vol. III, § 292-298, Freiburg 1882.—*Palmieri, _De Gratia Divina Actuali_, thes. 19-29, Gulpen 1885.—Oswald, _Lehre von der Heiligung_, § 9-11, 3rd ed., Paderborn 1885.—Tepe, _Institutiones Theologicae_, Vol. III, pp. 8-51, Paris 1896.—*Heinrich-Gutberlet, _Dogmatische Theologie_, Vol. VIII, § 396-416, Mainz 1897.—Chr. Pesch, _Praelectiones Dogmaticae_, Vol. V, 3rd ed., pp. 32 sqq., Freiburg 1908.—Schiffini, _De Gratia Divina_, disp. 2, Freiburg 1901.
