7. God the Father

 

 

I. The distinction of the personalities within the Blessed Trinity depends on the interior relations which spring out of the action of the divine intelligence and will. There are various aspects hence arising, which do not belong to the Divine Essence as such, but are peculiar to one or other of the Persons and not common to all. These are the only differences between the Persons. They are not differences of substance or of the essential divine attributes; so they mark, not a multiplication of the Godhead, but of the personalities in the one Godhead. The chief characteristic peculiarity of the First Person is Inascibility; i.e. He is unbegotten, unborn, and does not in any way proceed from any other. This belongs to the Father alone; for God the Son proceeds from God the Father, and God the Holy Ghost from the Father and Son jointly. The Divine Essence is in the Father without being communicated by any other; and the infinite intelligence whose activity constitutes His relation to the Son is from no other source. On the other hand, the Divine Essence is in the Son and Holy Ghost by way of communication; and Their relationships to the Father and to one another are in Them by way of production (or procession). In view of this personal quality we speak of the Eternal Father, appropriating the term to Him as if it were predominantly His; although the Son and Holy Ghost are equally eternal. Adore profoundly this singular and supreme quality in God the Father. No other being has even a resemblance to it.

II. A second peculiarity constituting the First Person of the Blessed Trinity is His Paternity. It belongs to Him alone to be the eternal Father of God the Son. God the Holy Ghost does not share it with Him. This is the supreme glory of the Father, by reason of the infinite superiority of the Divine Son and the intrinsic action producing Him, over the external productions of divine action in creation. All the universe, including the angels, does not amount to an adequate reflection of the divine infinity, as does God the Son; nor does it render infinite homage and love to its first principle, as the Son does. The divine paternity is the original and model paternity, the source and exemplar of all production of life, whether by God Himself or by His creatures. So St. Paul refers to “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named” (Eph. iii. 14, 15). So jealous is the Father of this prerogative that He would not allow the Divine Son coming on earth to have a father according to the flesh, but only a mother. He is the only Father, Jesus is the only Son. Rejoice that this paternity has given us a Redeemer, and a first-born of our race who is infinite. It is a glory to us as well as to the Father.

III. God the Fathr is also in a special way the first principle or source of all being, and it is attributed to Him by appropriation. The Son and Holy Ghost are, equally with the Father, the principle of creation; the Son is further, with the Father, the principle of the Holy Ghost: but the Father is alone the principle of the Son. St. Dionysius calls the Father the principle of the Divinity; not that He produces the Divinity, but because He communicates it to the Son and Holy Ghost. For these reasons we speak of the Father as if He were more especially the final end of all being, although the Son and Holy Ghost are equally our end and beatitude. All things must rise to the height of their source; so all being cries aloud with St. Philip, “Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us” (John xiv. 8). God is really your Father, by creation, by His love, and by communicating to you His own supernatural life by grace. Live as His son, and love Him as a son.

6. The Attributes of The Divine Persons

 

 

I. The three supreme perfections of the Divinity are Power, Wisdom and Goodness. To these three may be reduced all the other attributes of God. For instance, under the head of Power may be classed strength, immortality, immutability, universal dominion; to Wisdom belong omniscience, knowledge, the sight of all things, providence or the guiding of all things; and Goodness comprises mercy, love, patience, clemency. These perfections are qualities of the Divine Essence, and with it they are equally present in each of the three Persons. Father, Son and Holy Ghost possess in all respects the same power, wisdom, and goodness; and they operate equally in all external action in the world and in the souls of men. These same perfections are communicated to men in the finite form of qualities or virtues. But no one of us possesses them perfectly, or even simultaneously. One is distinguished by power, but he may be wanting in wisdom: another one may be wise but deficient in goodness. How miserable you are as compared with these infinite perfections in God! Glorify Him on account of them. Ask Him for some participation in each of them, and the grace to use it well.

II. Although these three great perfections are common to all the Divine Persons, yet we attribute them specially, “by appropriation,” to the different Persons respectively. According to our ways of thinking, each perfection seems to have a particular appropriateness to the personal characteristics of the Father, Son, or Holy Ghost. Thus, the Father, as the first principle in the Trinity, is spoken of as if He were, more than the other Persons, the first principle and Creator of the universe; and we call Him the Almighty.

The Son, as proceeding by an act of the intelligence, is named the Wisdom of the Eternal; all things are said to have been made through Him; and to Him are attributed the governing and the judging of the world, as if these functions were exclusively His. The Holy Ghost, as proceeding by an act of the will and being the mutual love of Father and Son, is spoken of as Goodness or Love; and we attribute to Him all holy inspirations and the operations of divine grace, and particularly the mystery of the Incarnation. You have already the special sign of each of the Divine Persons on you. You are immortal henceforth like the Eternal Father, you are adopted into sonship through the Second Person, you are the temple of the Holy Ghost. Ask each Person to bestow on you His own appropriate quality according to the duties on which you are engaged.

III. We are allowed to consider each of the perfections separately, and to glorify each of the Divine Persons separately on account of the perfection specially appropriated to Him. We may worship the Divinity in its Unity, or the Trinity in its completeness, or any one Person alone. God Himself has manifested His three Persons separately. In the early times mankind knew only of one Person, the first principle and Creator. After long centuries God the Son was made known in the person of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and received due homage and adoration. In turn He revealed to us the Holy Ghost, and sent Him upon us to consolidate the work of redemption. We may worship the Father as Creator, the Son as Redeemer, the Holy Ghost as Sanctifier; or we may consider the three Persons as our Father, our Brother, our Beloved. Again, when we feel conscious of our weakness and misery, we may ask the Father to strengthen us; when we are oppressed by the sense of ignorance and blindness and folly, we may ask the Eternal Wisdom to enlighten us; when we tremble for our malice and perversity, we may ask the Spirit of Sweetness and Holiness to enkindle in us His heavenly flame. 

5. The Relations of The Divine Persons

I. The distinction of the personalities in the Trinity is constituted by the relations resulting from the intrinsic activity of the One God. Life, in modern language, is responsiveness to environment; or, action produces relativity. How is this? Action is a kind of movement; movement involves a thence and a thither; it must have a subject, an object, and a point of communication between them. Thus human activity is composed of our relations to God, men, and things. Relation is the connecting together of distinct things. A complete drawing together would be unity; a complete separation would be plurality; perfect relation consists of the two things; it is plurality in unity. For instance our bodily life is unity of action in plurality of organs; intellectual life is unity of consciousness with plurality of thoughts; a State is unum e pluribus. The relation becomes more perfect as the unity is founded on a fuller similarity of nature between the two things related. The internal activity of God involves internal relationships, and those of the most perfect kind, i.e. with the most perfect community of nature. God is Life; the highest activity of life is fecundity; and this is the chief source of plurality in unity. God is Goodness; and goodness, communicating itself, involves unity and plurality. God is Beauty; and beauty arises from harmony in multiplicity. All this involves that there be in God some form of supreme plurality in unity. Your relations are with God and your neighbour. Religion is the regulation of these. Charity is your highest activity, binding you to God and men.

II. The perfection of the divine life and activity involves the existence of relations within the Godhead itself, that is, plurality in unity. God must be supremely one and indivisible. There cannot be two infinite beings; the fact of multiplication would be in contradiction to the idea of supremacy and infinity. What kind of plurality, then, is possible simultaneously with this unity? Only a plurality of relationship arising from the action of the one Being within His own substance. We must not then conceive of the Trinity as resulting from the coalition of three separate individuals into a higher unity, but as a supreme unity which produces within itself the terms of its operations. Such a plurality, far from being a contradiction of unity, requires for its perfection that there be absolute unity of substance. There is a sort of parallel in nature. A body has three dimensions, length, breadth, thickness. These are distinct from one another; they are not, however, separate beings combined into one; they are relations existing in the one substance. The plurality of relations requires the unity of the one solid body. So in the Divinity, a supreme unity is necessary in order that there be an intrinsic activity producing relationships within it. Adore this incomprehensible mystery and thank God for granting you some indication, however obscure, of the grandeurs of His Divine Nature.

III. The relations arising from the activity of the divine intellect and will result in three distinct conscious personalities. There are terms or objects of the activities, and reciprocal relations between those terms making them separate, though within the same unity of substance. Each of the terms is a Person conscious of His individuality. The Divine Essence communicates all its attributes in its intrinsic productive action, and each Person therefore is God. The Divine Essence, as the source of the activity and the relations, is the Father; the same Divine Essence, as the term of the action of the divine intellect, is the Son; the Divine Essence, as the term of the love of Father and Son, is the Holy Ghost. There are parallels to this in man. Man generates a son, who is a separate personality; he generates an idea, and this exists in the unity of his substance. God’s one activity combines the two things. Its term is separate as a personality and is one and the same substance. Adore and admire.

4. The Procession of The Divine Persons

I. All that the universe has it derives from God, and in every one of its elements it represents some quality that exists in God. The great fact in the universe is life. Life is fecundity, each living creature producing further life of its own kind. There is no sterility except in death. Visible life witnesses to life in God, and fecundity therefore witnesses to His fecundity. Fecundity of life is a higher quality than sterility and loneliness; it must exist therefore in God in an infinite form as a perfection. The world manifests the extrinsic activity of the divine energy; there must be a greater, an infinite activity, within the being of God, and this activity cannot end in sterility. The Almighty Himself asks: “Shall not I, that make others bring forth, Myself bring forth? Shall I, that give generation to others, be barren? saith the Lord thy God” (Isa. lxvi. 9). The supreme exemplar of all fecundity must then be found in God. The persons of the Blessed Trinity are the accomplishment of the divine life, and action, and fecundity. Our souls are gifted with fecundity by God; they should produce divine thoughts and good deeds. Too often they exhibit a fecundity as to frivolities and sins, and a sterility as to spiritual fruits. Reverse this order in yourself; strive to be dead towards the world and self, but alive towards God.

II. God is supreme life. Life is activity. Every being acts with the fulness of its energies. God, therefore, must have in every way an infinite action; and this, from the fact of being infinite, must be intrinsic and within the substance of God; because there can be no infinity but that which is in God and is God. Now, action is movement; and the most adequate movement of a being is that by which it produces something equal to itself and of the same nature. There must then be a procession (or a production), of the same nature as God, and within the Godhead. God is supreme goodness. Now, “goodness is diffusive of itself.” Although creation manifests an incalculable goodness and diffusiveness from God, this is not infinite; and from that fact it does not amount to a full and adequate exercise of the divine goodness and diffusiveness. There must be an infinite communication of goodness, and this, of necessity, must be within the Godhead. This is accomplished in the procession of the Divine Persons. You have activities and good gifts from God. Exercise them in their fulness, and diffuse them for the benefit of others. Your spiritual life is death unless it manifests itself by active charity and production of good.

III. A spiritual being has two faculties, intelligence and will; and by these it develops, according to its capacity, knowledge and love. In God these faculties produce infinite personified Wisdom, the Divine Son, and infinite personified Love, the Holy Ghost. Each Person proceeding, as being the term (or effect, speaking incorrectly) of infinite action, is infinite, is within the Godhead, and is God; and hence they do not constitute three infinities or three Gods. Thus God is not solitary, wrapped in a sterile contemplation and love of the Divine Essence. There is plurality in Him, as to the Persons; yet there is no division, no substantial separation of the Persons. There is a most perfect Unity, and not a mere union of three infinities. The Persons exist together, and in one another, in the indivisible infinite Godhead. How marvellous is this revelation of the secret of existence of the Divinity! All the wisdom of the world cannot arrive at the discovery of it; but it is the inheritance and firm possession of those little ones who possess the divine gift of faith. As to those from whom it is hidden, how inadequate and worthless must be their merely human notions of the divine nature! 

3. Means of Honoring The Trinity

 
I. There are many motives for our paying particular honour to God as made known to us in the mystery of the Trinity. Consider 1. Its sovereign grandeur and excellence: nothing is so majestic and so deserving of our homage.

2. The goodness and liberality shown to us by each of the Divine Persons. We have been predestined to eternal life, created to the image of God, endowed with all that we have, preserved by continual care, redeemed, and sanctified, and raised to the supernatural life.

3. The utility which will accrue to us from honouring the three Divine Persons. Although our gratitude and service should be something more than the expectation of future favours, we are permitted, with David, to take account of the recompense: this will help us to value God’s graces more, and we shall receive of them in greater abundance.

4. The example of others; of Our Lord Jesus Christ first of all; then of His most Blessed Mother, whose soul magnified the Lord; of the Seraphim who exclaim continually, Holy! Holy! Holy! and of all the saints of the Church. Regret that you are able to do so little for the glory of the three Divine Persons in return for all that they have been to you and have done for you. Regret your past negligence and forgetfulness. Praise each Person separately for His special benefits to you.

II. There are various ways in which you may honour the Holy Trinity.

By correcting all habits of mortal sin which destroy the indwelling of God with you, and all venial sins which diminish the divine influence.

By refraining from all unprofitable employments and unnecessary recreations which waste the precious time in which you might glorify God.

By invoking the Holy Trinity, and in particular by making the Sign of the Cross frequently and reverently.

By humbling yourself before this great mystery, and recognizing your vileness and unworthiness, and veiling your face, as it were, before God.

By rejoicing at the infinite greatness and excellence of the Trinity in each of its magnificent perfections.

By promoting the knowledge, and love, and service of the Blessed Trinity among the ignorant and the sinful. Resolve to carry out some or all of these practices of devotion. Above all assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in which you can unite with the Adorable Victim in rendering to God an adequate adoration, and gratitude, and reparation for your sins.

III. The best foundation we can lay for a life of devotion and honour towards the Holy Trinity is to meditate profoundly on its marvels in its different aspects, and on the great attributes of God. This is the most sublime of all matter for meditation, and it belongs especially to those who have risen high in spirituality. It is more akin to the contemplations of the blessed in heaven than many of the other subjects on which we are obliged to exercise ourselves while in this land of darkness and sin. It raises our minds at once into a more lofty and tranquil sphere of thought, that is not only superior to our material surroundings and our infirmities, but also to the highest level of our natural powers.

In the purgative way we dwell on our sins and their consequences; in the illuminative way we contemplate the virtues befitting our present state as shown in the earthly life of the Son of God; but the consideration of God in His Essence, of the perfections manifested by Him in the higher life, belongs to the unitive way. Such meditation ought to have a very pronounced effect on our thoughts and on our lives. It should move us to a great contempt of the world and its vanities, a great appreciation of the beauty and grandeur of the Divinity, an ardent desire to see the face of God, generosity of self-sacrifice and labour, and familiarity in advance with the occupations of our future life.

2. The Knowledge and Love of The Trinity

 

I. The mystery of the Blessed Trinity far transcends the intelligence of man, yet it is not, on that account, altogether beyond his reach. He is able to apprehend it in some degree even during this life. And it must needs be so. Man is made by the Holy Trinity; he is made for the glory of the Trinity; and he is to be made happy by the possession of the Trinity hereafter. Therefore he is adapted by his constitution and his faculties to possess a certain understanding of it here and hereafter; and he can accommodate himself to it in this life if he will. Man’s knowledge of the Trinity at present is obscure, it rests upon faith, and not upon sight or complete evidence; but in the next world it will rest on direct vision and perception. In view of this, man has been made in the image and likeness of the Trinity; and the vestiges of that mystery have been imprinted on various parts of creation for his instruction. Although those indications are hardly such as to suggest the nature of God’s being apart from revelation, still they corroborate the doctrine and illustrate it when it has once been made known. Angels and men alone out of creatures are able to recognize the Triune God. It is the special distinction and dignity of intelligent beings. This knowledge, scanty as it now is, is of far higher import to you than all the science of mundane things. Let it be always the light and consolation of your life.

II. Further, the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity is the distinctive mark of Christianity, separating it from the systems of the Jews, Mohammedans, Unitarians. Without this there can be no proper knowledge of the character of Jesus Christ as Son of God, no comprehension of His great work as Redeemer, no real and efficient belief in Him. It must be known and accepted fully in order to membership in the kingdom of God on earth. The Trinity is the object proposed for our attainment in the future life. To attain it, man needs to know whither he is going, to direct his efforts accordingly, and to prepare himself intellectually and spiritually. So the Trinity is one of the great truths which must be accepted as a matter of rigorous precept together with the Unity of God, the future life, and the Incarnation and Death of Our Lord. Meditate on this great doctrine, and try to fathom its secrets as far as may be granted to you on earth. How lamentable it is that so many millions should be absolutely ignorant of it, and that so many others, nominally Christians, should practically neglect it! Make it your duty to extend the knowledge of it.

III. It is more important to love the Blessed Trinity than to understand it, to honour it than to scrutinize it. We are bidden to love the Lord Our God with all our heart, and soul, and strength, and mind; there is no command to comprehend Him thoroughly, to investigate deeply, to speak learnedly. On the contrary, we are told that if we search too far into His majesty we shall be overwhelmed by the glory (Prov. xxv. 27). Difficulties increase with greater knowledge, at the outset. A moderate knowledge suffices to furnish the basis of an exceedingly great affection. In this life at least, the illumination of the intelligence need not necessarily keep pace with the inflaming of our will. By knowledge we draw the object towards our minds, which are not capacious enough to contain it; by love we are drawn into the divine object, and it is great enough to contain and to satisfy our hearts. Rejoice that you have at least one faculty which is capable of entering into intimate union with the Blessed Trinity. If your curiosity is thwarted, at any rate you can give full rein to your affections. Your love here will be the measure of your understanding of divine things in the next world. Seek always for knowledge, but with the practical object of increasing your love.

1. The Excellencies of The Trinity

 

 

I. Comparing infinity with infinity, so far as such a thing is possible, we may say that the Blessed Trinity surpasses all other mysteries in that it is more incomprehensible, and further removed above our capacities, and beyond the attempts of our curiosity. It is like the sun, which blinds the eye that gazes on it; like a boundless ocean which an infant looks at from the shore. We know so little, after all, of this world, of the structure of our being, of our fellow-men, of the productions of the human mind; how can we fathom the mysterious mode of existence of the Maker of all? The angels, pure spirits, of immense natural powers, and supernaturally illumined, although always exercising themselves in acts of knowledge, will never succeed in comprehending the secret of the infinite life. And men, living but a short space here, only just beginning to read the secrets of this world, occupied much with material things, blinded by conceit and sensuality, presume to criticize and pass sentence on the most recondite mysteries of God, and to deny the existence of anything that they have not seen and touched. From the incomprehensible nature of the Trinity learn humbly to acknowledge your incapacity. Be thankful to God for revealing it to you, and for according you the infused habit of faith which enables you to perceive the truth and believe it. This is the first step towards the clear knowledge of it in eternity.

II. Antiquity and unchanging stability always command our wonder and respect. The Blessed Trinity is the most ancient of all mysteries. The other mysteries, the Creation, the Incarnation, the Redemption, the Immaculate Conception, the Blessed Sacrament, have taken place in time, so long ago, and at a definite date. Not so with the Blessed Trinity. It existed before time was. It goes back to the depths of eternity. It always was. It never began nor ended; it is in action now, and is not a past event. It is the mode of God’s existence, a vital action always subsistent. “O beauty ever ancient and ever new” (St. Aug.), never beginning, never ending! How modern and temporary are all things else! What are the kingdoms of the world, the beginnings of history, the epochs of geological time, the first formation of this earth, the remote commencements of the stars when they slowly consolidated themselves out of the nebular mists of scattered atoms—what is all this to the antiquity of the mystery of the Trinity? How miserable is your short life compared with this! Confess your insignificance and glorify God.

III. As, in the natural order, God is the source whence all things proceed and to which they will all return, so, in the supernatural order, the Blessed Trinity is the central point of all mysteries and divine operations. In the work of creation a special function is attributed, by appropriation, to each of the Divine Persons, and so also in the system of grace and supernatural life by which mankind are brought to God. Thus the Trinity may be called the source of these mysteries. It is also their object, or the end to which they all return; for the purpose of them is the exhibition of the divine operations, and the manifestation externally of the glory of the Holy Trinity. The Second Person, as man, made known the Father and the Holy Ghost. He communicated them to us. He instituted the eternal sacrifice commenced on Calvary, to restore to them the dominion which had been overthrown by sin. The Trinity constitutes the beatitude of God and the final end and beatitude of all creatures, angels and men. It is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. So it is with you personally. You are on earth for a very brief interval to work out your return to the God whence you proceeded. Never deviate from this, your one and sole object.

35. The Beatitude of God

I. Following the order of our thought, we come at last, after describing nature, faculties, and action, to what we consider as their completion and fruition. This, both in God, in angels, and in men, is beatitude, or perfect happiness. This happiness requires 

1. The possession of all that is good. Our experience is that, if anything remains unattained or unattainable, we are unquiet and unhappy. God has in Himself the totality of all good, and every perfection and virtue. 

2. The absence of all drawbacks. Nothing is wanting to God. There is no imperfection or deficiency in Him, and sin cannot approach Him. Nothing of His can deteriorate, or be injured, or be taken from Him. 

3. The attainment of all desires. God suffices for Himself. The infinite possession and enjoyment of Himself leave no desire unfulfilled. The possession of God is the universal beatitude of all beings, it fills up the measure of their happiness. As the source and cause of all this, God possesses it infinitely in Himself. The miseries of this life, surpassing its good and happiness often, are a trial to us. It is a satisfaction to know that they are transient, and that the one thing which will survive all others and be predominant for ever is infinite happiness. Many indeed will never enjoy it; but it is there for all who care for it, and who will but stretch forth their hands to grasp it. This is the solution of all the mysteries of this life; this is the remedy for all its evils.

II. The active enjoyment by God of supreme happiness consists not in material and sensible satisfactions, but in the perfect exercise and satisfaction of the divine intelligence and will. These faculties must of course be exercised upon the Divinity itself, which is supreme reality, truth and goodness, and independently of which no good thing exists. In order that the excellencies and perfections of a being may be a source of enjoyment to it, there must necessarily be this reflex action of the mind on itself and on its internal perfections. The contemplation and possession of an infinite object, Himself, is the source of the infinite satisfaction and beatitude of God. This same infinite object will be offered to your contemplation and love some day, and will be the source of a corresponding enjoyment. You will live with the divine supernatural life, and taste of God’s own beatitude. “They shall be inebriated with the plenty of Thy house, and Thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of Thy pleasure. For with Thee is the fountain of life, and in Thy light we shall see light” (Ps. xxxv. 9, 10). None of the pleasures of earth are comparable to this. Desire this alone. Do not be so foolish as to barter it away for the sake of the brief, insufficient, and degrading satisfactions of sin.

III. The beatitude of God is infinitely beyond all the beatitude of creatures, even beyond that which they will receive from the possession of God. He indeed is infinite, but their capacity is finite, and they apprehend Him according to that measure. In God there is the double infinity; the object of the beatific enjoyment is infinite, and the subject—the faculties which apprehend it—are infinite. The Saints have sometimes been admitted, while on earth, to see, as it were, the skirts of God’s glory as He passed by; and the sight has ravished them out of their senses into ecstasy. The splendour of God’s glory is so intense that man shall not see Him, in the flesh, and live. How great will be the happiness of those whose lives shall be such as to merit for them the full sight of God’s face! And how much beyond this must be the happiness of God in the enjoyment of His own Divinity! Rejoice with Him that He possesses this supreme beatitude. He is worthy of it all for His infinite perfection in Himself and His infinite goodness to you. Pray earnestly to be admitted one day to the contemplation of this glory. Prepare yourself carefully so as to enjoy it in the fullest measure. 

34. The Power of God

I. According to our methods of conceiving the Divine Essence, we attribute to it science as understanding all things, foresight or providence as guiding the world, will as commanding, power as executing or producing what has been determined. The power of God is the supplement to all the other perfections, as giving outward effect to them. All beings possess some degree of power; man possesses much; God possesses it perfect in kind, universal in extent, infinite in its capabilities. He is for ever exercising this power. We perceive but small exhibitions of it, relatively speaking. In its completeness it is infinitely beyond all that we have seen of it in nature, or are able to imagine. God alone is worthy of all power: none other is capable of using it rightly. How well it is for you to be in the hands of God! How terrible will be the lot of those who have placed themselves under the power of the evil one! Pray to be preserved from this. Render all your submission to God, and none to any other power except in obedience to the will of God, and so far as it represents Him. “O Adonai Lord, great art Thou, and glorious is Thy power, and no one can overcome Thee. Let all Thy creatures serve Thee . . . there is none that can resist Thy voice” (Judith xvi. 16, 17).

II. Compare the power of God with the power of men. 

1. Human power is always abused, it runs to excess and unreason. Consider what power has come to in the hands of tyrants, of the proud, of the covetous, of the lustful, of the intemperate. How seldom has power been used beneficially by rulers, by the rich, by the talented, by the learned! How different it is with God! 

2. Human power in even the best-intentioned hands is a failure. It operates always with difficulty; it is thwarted by the opposition of others; it is turned into wrong channels through error; it does not produce the effects expected of it; it cannot long maintain its vigour, it dwindles and disappears. How different the power of God in each respect! 

3. Earthly power is always dependent on the co-operation of others and on favourable circumstances: the greater it is, the more it requires of aid from other sources, and the more numerous are its chances of failure. God is independent; He can do all things alone; He makes use of us but He does not require us. Whether we live or die, succeed or fail, it is of no consequence to the infinite power of God. Whatever power you possess is from God. Endeavour to employ it according to His example. This is necessary if you would succeed. The neglect of this is the source of the strange intricacies of difficulty that so often appear unexpectedly and neutralize our best endeavours.

III. “According to His greatness so also is His mercy with Him” (Eccli. ii. 23). The exhibition of God’s mercy is the occasion of the chief exercise of His power. 

1. By pardoning our sins so promptly and easily, and remitting their punishment, God shows His absolute control over the sequences of cause and effect. 

2. By transferring us from the natural order and leading us to supernatural life through so many obstacles, He proves that all creatures are plastic in His hands, that His resources are infinite, and that the impassable barriers between the two orders yield at His word. 

3. The mercy of God is the source and the motive of all the great mysteries of power wrought in the Incarnation, and the Church, and the Saints, and the Sacraments. God communicates to us both His mercy and His power. He calls upon us to be instruments of His work, and to help Him by co-operation in the advancement of His glory, resistance to evil, the salvation of souls. For this purpose He places some of His power in our hands as His delegates. Use it well, and thank Him for fulfilling in you the promise made of old: “They that fear Thee shall be great with Thee in all things” (Judith xvi. 19).

33. The Discrimination of the Good and the Bad

I. During our present state God’s visible dealings are much the same towards the elect and the reprobate, so that we have no means of distinguishing one from the other. “Man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love or hatred: but all things are kept uncertain for the time to come, because all things equally happen to the just and to the wicked” (Eccles. ix. 1, 2). If the secret of the future were once made known, it would be equivalent to determining that future and leaving it no longer within man’s choice. On the part of the elect, ignorance as to the future keeps them in humility, and urges them to greater holiness so as to make their election sure; and their merit is all the higher for labouring in uncertainty and in hope. The same thing is necessary for the reprobate in order that they may feel that their liberty is not impaired; it stimulates zeal for their conversion; it prevents others from despising them and exalting themselves above them, as they may yet, for all one knows, attain to a high degree of grace and glory. Submit humbly to this curtailment of your curiosity and your knowledge. Work out your salvation in fear and trembling, hoping always for the best, but never presuming upon it.

II. There are certain signs which afford us a reasonable presumption that we are in the grace of God and predestinate, subject, however, to our persevering until death. 1. Some of these are interior. One is the consciousness of a deep longing for the sight of God. Remorse of conscience following immediately on the commission of any sin is a proof that we are not in the state of obduracy. Profound humility; this carries with it a submissiveness to the ordinations of God and His Church, which is a great security, and is also the groundwork of all the virtues. If we have a tender devotion and love towards the Blessed Virgin, we know that in one important respect the same mind is in us that was also in Christ Jesus. 2. External signs. Among these are austerity of life and being deprived of the pleasures and advantages of this world; for Our Lord has laid it down that we cannot expect to make the best of both worlds, and that, as a matter of equity, the abundance of enjoyment in the one life must be balanced by a lack of it in the other. So also the patient endurance of trials, losses, disappointments, and especially of persecution for our religion, is an important sign. Another one is charity, which covers a multitude of sins; its chief forms are love of our enemies, forgiveness of injuries, and works of beneficence towards those in want. Consider those individually in yourself; see where you fail; resolve to practise them all.

III. Deficiency in some, or even in all these signs, does not, however, afford any presumption as to one’s final reprobation; and we must not on that account despair of our own or of others’ salvation. The grace of God and prayer are continually working wonders in the supernatural order, and God is for ever raising up stones to be children of Abraham. The power and goodness of God are such as to justify the wildest hopes; discouragement is an insult to Him; despair, even under the most adverse circumstances, is a sin against the Holy Ghost. It is folly to disturb oneself about remote uncertainties and the possible evils of a future day. Your certainties and your duties are quite sufficient to occupy all your thoughts. Dwell rather on the past bounties of God, the assurances of His love, the prodigality of the efforts made by Our Lord to redeem you, the infallible efficacy of persevering prayer, the impossibility of being lost without your deliberate consent. There must always be ground for holy fear when you consider your weakness and fickleness, and the failures of many who had begun well; but confidence should predominate, and God promises that it shall never be confounded.

32. The Books of Life and Death

I. “There shall not enter into it anything defiled . . . but they that are written in the book of life of the Lamb” (Apoc. xxi. 27). Certain states used to keep a “Golden Book,” in which were written the names, the pedigree, the titles, the services of their distinguished citizens. God has such a book; it is the book of life; and one day it will be opened before all the world. At present no one knows all the names that are written in it. This book is God’s consciousness, it is His knowledge of those who are His and will be His for all eternity. The first name is that of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the first-born of mankind. Then follow the names of all the redeemed; first the name of the Virgin Mother of God, who is blessed among women; then the great saints and servants of God; then a “great multitude whom no man can number of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues” (Apoc. vii. 9); and lastly the baptized infants. This book is written outside as well as in. Many names have been written there temporarily; for many have served God for a while with all fidelity, and when they have grown older or encountered temptation they have fallen away and become reprobate, and their names have been erased from that roll of glory. Here are written many names that have never appeared in the catalogues of honour of this world; here are the poor, and the meek, and the mourners, and the persecuted, many whose footprints we should kiss if the secrets of that book were now made known to us. Desire no honour but this: “Rejoice that your names are written in the book of life” (Luke x. 20).

II. In like manner there is a terrible book of death, a book of repudiation and divorce of miserable souls from their heavenly Spouse. The first in this book is Lucifer, “the king over all the children of pride” (Job xii. 25), then Antichrist, the great leader of the last days against the kingdom of God on earth; then the princes of the army of wickedness, heresiarchs, persecutors of the faith, seducers of the people, leaders of anti-Christian thought, corrupters of innocence, and many whose names have been held in honour by men, and have figured for centuries in history. Then come the ordinary run of sinners, the malicious, the worldly, the avaricious, the careless, and those who have made the most of this life and have not laid up treasures for the next. This book also is written on the outside, inasmuch as many who have held a prominent position there as enemies of God, of the Church, of souls, have repented, and have been transferred by God to the Book of Life. Your name may have once been in this book. Is it there still? O Lord, “see if there be in me the way of iniquity, and lead me in the eternal way” (Ps. cxxxviii. 24).

III. These facts must not discourage us, or make us think that our fate has been already settled, and that it is useless to try to alter a foregone conclusion. Although God knows what will happen, His knowledge does not determine the event; it is still undecided, and depends on our efforts. In like manner God knows whether a ship will ride out a storm, or whether the fields will yield a harvest: but for all that, the result depends on the captain’s efforts or the farmer’s labour. To renounce all effort is to force God to foresee the failure. Moreover God has said: “If I shall say to the wicked, Thou shalt surely die, and he do penance for his sin, . . . none of his sins which he hath committed shall be imputed to him . . . he shall surely live and not die” (Ezech. xxxiii. 15, 16). The foresight of God is practically as if it did not exist: it does not make labour superfluous. Your destiny still depends on yourself, aided by God. Do your best, persevere to the end, and you will certainly be saved.

 

31. Repbrobation

 

I. Reprobation is the decree of exclusion from heaven passed by God on those who, as He sees, will be obstinate in sin and die impenitent. It is not that it pleases God to condemn the creatures whom He loves; it is not that He exercises a right of excluding creatures from that which they have no claim to. “God made not death, neither hath He pleasure in the destruction of the living” (Wis. i. 13). God is unable to do wrong, to be a source of evil, to be unjust, harsh, arbitrary. Only Calvinism has dared to assert such a thing. Reprobation is this, that God, who foresees all things, foresees also from eternity the wilful self-destruction of some of His creatures. He foresees their revolt, their turning from Him, and His turning from them which is involved in it. He permits this determination of the free-will; and the prevision and ratification of it is called the decree of God. He cannot do otherwise. He cannot but foresee according to facts, as we cannot see differently from the facts that occur before our eyes. God’s foresight no more necessitates the event than does our remembrance of a past event. Our remembrance is unalterable, but it is not that which makes the past event unalterable. This terrible secret God knows about you. He sees you at this moment as you will be a hundred years hence. Pray that it be a prevision of eternal life and not of death. “My lots are in Thy hands” (Ps. xxx. 16).

II. The decree of reprobation is not passed in consequence of our fall in Adam; for that we are not responsible and deserve no punishment. Nor is it decreed against us simply for our sins; for the present dispensation is a system for regenerating all sinners, whatever they may have done. God loves us for our very weakness; the quality of sinners is one that touches His heart more than that of innocence even; and He desires our salvation the more earnestly, if it be possible, as we deserve it less. We have the proof of this in the parable of the Prodigal Son. Judas might have found a place in heaven as well as St. Peter, the bad thief as well as the penitent. Reprobation is the consequence only of obduracy, hardness of heart, persistence in refusing the pardon which is offered even up to the last instant of life. In fact many a lost soul has enjoyed more abundant and greater graces than some now in heaven; and among the blessed are some who have been more grievous sinners than some of the lost. But “a hard heart shall fear evil at the last, and he that loveth the danger shall perish in it” (Eccli. iii. 27). Take care not to harden your heart; it may easily grow to a final and fatal hardening.

III. Why has God allowed the reprobate to come into existence? To prevent their existence would be to carry on the natural order by a series of supernatural interferences; and no one would object more to such a thing than the enemies of God themselves. Miracles are rare events; they too occur in accordance with law, and require an adequate cause to produce them, such as prayer, the merits of a holy life, the need of proving a word of God. The reprobate do not furnish an adequate cause for miracles. Fidelity to small graces induces greater ones; obstinate resistance to abundant grace and evidence tends to dry up the stream rather than to promote a more copious flow. It is surely enough for the obstinate sinner that he has the power of escaping from the sentence of reprobation, and that God is ready to help him if he only cares for help. It is for him to accommodate himself to the general laws of being, and not for the whole course of nature to be continually modified in deference to his perversity. The ways of God are inscrutable to your limited vision. Do not expect to penetrate them in this life. Wait with humble faith for the revelation of God’s secrets, and say, “I shall be satisfied when Thy glory shall appear” (Ps. xvi. 15).

30. Predestination

  

I. Predestination is the eternal decree of God to bestow the glory of Paradise on certain souls who, He foresees, will correspond to the grace they receive and work out their salvation. These are God’s elect; He regards them with special favour, and promotes the result by His superabundant grace. “He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. i. 4). “Whom He foreknew He also predestinated … and whom He predestinated, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified” (Rom. viii. 29, 30). How that decree is formed no man knoweth. How that result comes about through the interworking of the all-powerful grace of God with our complete liberty even we who are most concerned cannot know. No single soul can say that he is predestinate. “Man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love or hatred” (Eccles. ix. 1).

Thus much we know, that God is infinitely just, and that His mercy is above all His works. He therefore does not select some arbitrarily for salvation and abandon others; but He has made every man to be saved. He has prepared a crown of glory for every sinner, upon his repentance, and has not made hell for them. Every man has it in his power to attain to heaven; he will attain it if he strives; and if he is lost, it will be entirely of his own free choice, and it will be in no measure due to God. It depends on you to make yourself predestinate. Resolve that you will be so, and God’s grace will certainly not be wanting.

II. The factors of God’s decree of predestination are these:

God loves infinitely Supreme Truth and Goodness as contained in the Divine Essence, and desires that they be known and loved by all His creatures.

He loves mankind with an infinite love, desires their happiness, and does everything that is possible, consistently with their liberty, to secure it to them.

The satisfaction and merits of Jesus Christ are communicated to mankind to withdraw them from perdition.

Through the promises of God man’s efforts accompanied by divine grace become meritorious of eternal life. Thus, although we cannot strictly merit predestination, it is granted nevertheless in consideration of our works. It is the absolutely free gift of God, and yet our personal co-operation is an essential condition of it. So you cannot save your soul by yourself, and God will not save you by Himself. God’s operation is like the tree, with root, trunk, branches; your co-operation is the foliage; both are necessary in order for the tree to blossom and bear fruit. What confidence this ought to give you in working for heaven! God has done so much for you; so little remains for you to do; and you can do all things in Him that strengtheneth you.

III. There are three chief classes of the predestinate:

Those who are not called upon to contribute any co-operation of their own to the work of God. Such are infants who die after Baptism. As they have incurred sin by the act of another, so the merits of Jesus Christ and the action of the Church are attributed to them by God for their justification.

The ordinary predestinate, who through many deficiencies and infidelities, through renewal unto penance and correspondence to grace, advance slowly, and by God’s mercy work out their salvation.

Those of special favour and distinction, of labour and suffering, who are predestinated for great work and great glory. Of these many have been notable sinners, like David, St. Paul, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Augustine. Thus no class is excluded by outward circumstances from even the highest dignity among the elect. Many of the saints of God have at some time been worse than you. Be faithful to God’s calls, seek that which is most perfect, and God will work wonderful things in you.

 

29. The Permission of Evil

 

I. At an earlier time infidels endeavoured to discredit the Providence of God on account of the existence of noxious animals, natural catastrophes, and the thousand struggles for life that are always in progress. Certain beings they considered as too vile or insignificant to merit the attention of Providence; other things, as unmitigated evils. A fuller science has now taught us that everything has its uses, and is for the general weal although hurtful in some particular. We have learnt too that the lowliest creatures exhibit as fully as the noblest the ingenuities of God’s wisdom, the marvels of His power, the infinite range of His knowledge and prevision. Many mysteries still remain hidden from us; many difficulties will be a trial of faith till new discoveries shall solve them. Do not presume to criticize the inscrutable ways of God’s Providence because of being too ignorant to understand them. One day all things will be made clear to you.

II. A greater difficulty to many is the permission of moral evil, with all its tremendous consequences of physical evil here and the eternal loss of souls hereafter. The solution of this will be completed only at the general judgment, but we may attain to a partial comprehension of it here by the aid of faith and good-will. Man possesses liberty. It is his proudest prerogative. It is not for Providence to do violence to the natural order, to put a free man in moral chains, to exact from him the service of a slave in order to give him a reward that he does not wish for. Man knows the law, he knows the consequences of its violation, he has power to observe it if he will, he deliberately revolts against it and accepts the results. He would be the first to protest against the tyranny if God were to overcome his free will by force. The Providence of God acts on the principle which mankind has of late years arrived at, that the suppression of liberty is a greater evil than tolerating its abuse. The divine wisdom is able to draw a greater good from evil, and is therefore just and holy in permitting it. On this the great mysteries of God’s love are grounded, the Incarnation and Death of Our Lord, and the wonderful economy of redemption in the case of each individual. The goodness of God is shown in the pardon of sin and the rehabilitation of the soul after its fall and corruption. The precious virtue of repentance, the meritorious works of mortification, have been thrown open to the sinner, and the joy of the angels of God has been enhanced by the sight. The just are tried in the furnace and provided with opportunities of practising the noblest virtues. Thank God for all the good that has accrued to you from possessing liberty in all its fulness, and even, indirectly, from your abuse of it.

III. Another difficulty has been felt even by the sacred writers, viz., the afflictions of the just. “What profit is it,” they ask, “that we have kept His ordinances, and that we have walked sorrowful before the Lord of Hosts?” (Mal. iii. 14). We must know that God has two grades of Providence, the natural and the supernatural. It is under His supernatural Providence that He chastens those whom He loves. He deprives them of the good things of life in order that they may merit a greater abundance of the good things of grace and glory. All God’s friends have suffered except Solomon, and therefore, as St Jerome remarks, his heart became depraved and his salvation is uncertain. In the ordinary course no one enters heaven unless he has passed through the school of affliction. It makes men feel the nothingness of this life, it detaches them from possessions and pleasures, it teaches them patience, resignation, fortitude, trust in God; it shows them that nothing is of any value but the service of God on earth and the possession of Him in heaven. Endeavour to learn these lessons.