While perusing a used bookshop in Philadelphia this week, I stumbled upon a theological dictionary compiled by Karl Rahner and Herbert Vorgrimler.  Titled Kleines Theologisches Wörterbuch in the original German, I happened upon the Herder and Herder English edition from 1965.  Out of curiosity, I quickly made my way to the entry on “sanctifying grace.”
The Catholic doctrine of sanctifying grace is contained in the declarations of the Council of Trent. Â Here it is stated, against the Reformers’ conception of justification, that justification truly blots out a man’s sins, so that he ceases to be a sinner and becomes just, and that solely by God’s deed in the grace of Christ which can never be exacted and never merited… This forgiveness effects an interior transformation and sanctification of a man; grace and the gifts really become his own (which does not mean that he can do what he will with them), so that this grace is called “infused”, “inherent”, and this *justice of God is the only formal cause of justification… Â The theological *virtues are either identical with sanctifying grace or connected with it. Â Being truly “infused” into man and gratuitously produced by God’s “efficient causality” it is considered to be a “created” quality and is thus contrasted with uncreated grace.
I found it interesting that Rahner and Vorgrimler use the language of “effecting” when relating the forgiveness found in justification to the grace of sanctification.  Though the undergirding conception of grace is vastly different from the reformed, it seems that even post-Vatican II theologians were interested in discussing their relation.
I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naïve. (Romans 16:17-18)