Vatican II ABOUT FACE! - Chiesa viva

and the “causes” for this, the Decree, in Chapter 7, states:
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«(Justification) (…) is not merely remission of sins,
but also sanctification and renewal of the inner
man (…) whereby unjust man becomes just, and an
enemy, a friend, so that he may be an “heir” according
to hope in life everlasting. (Tit. 3,7).
Of this Justification the causes are these: the final
cause indeed is the glory of God and of Jesus
Christ, and life everlasting; while the efficient
cause is a Merciful God who “washes” and
“sanctifies” gratuitously (1 Cor. 6,11), signing
and anointing “with the Holy Spirit of promise,
who is the pledge of our inheritance” (Ef. 1, 13
s.); but the meritorious cause is His most
beloved only-begotten, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who, “when we were enemies” (Rom. 5,10), “for
the exceeding charity wherewith He loved us”
(Ef. 2,4), merited Justification for us by His
Most Holy Passion on the wood of the cross,
and made satisfaction for us unto God the Father;
the instrumental cause is the sacrament of
baptism, which is the “sacrament of faith”,
without which no man was ever justified. Lastly,
the alone formal cause is the “justice of God,
not that whereby He Himself is just, but that
whereby He maketh us just” (St. Augustine), that,
to wit, with which we being endowed by Him, are
renewed in the spirit of our mind, and we are not
only reputed, but are truly called, and are, just, receiving
justice within us, each one according to
his own measure, which “the Holy Ghost distributes
to every one as He wills” (1 Cor. 12,11)».
A key concept in the Catholic doctrine on justification, is
that everything that Man has within himself, in terms of justness,
was given to him by the grace of God. Everything is