11. The Special Endowments of The Angels

 

 

I. “Star differeth from star in glory” (1 Cor. xv. 41). There are differences between the heavenly spirits; they have received various kinds and various degrees of grace from God. Amongst them, no doubt, as amongst men, their Lord has singled out some for special favour and for higher place. To some He has assigned a peculiar vocation, and duties which require greater capacities and graces. Some, possibly, like some of us, have responded with greater ardour, generosity and love to the advances of God, or may have used their opportunities to better effect than others. To all this must correspond a more abundant outpouring of divine favour. Moreover, the angels are arranged in different orders and choirs, and this involves differences of dignity, activity and glory. Your present sanctity and future reward depend partially on the free generosity of the Almighty, partially on the task and position assigned to you here, partially on your own efforts and fidelity to grace. Be content with God’s arrangements for you, and strive to do the best with such graces as you have. The last often becomes first; the humblest and the least endowed have risen to high spiritual perfection and glory, above those who seemed to be the wise and the strong according to nature and even according to grace.
II. With their difference of vocation and difference in correspondence to grace, the angels are also distinguished by a different perfection of virtue. The ardour of the Seraphim, the knowledge of the Cherubim, the submission of the Thrones, the other virtues of the blessed choirs, these are peculiarities special to each, which constitute their particular service towards God. So it is among the Saints. Each has his own character of holiness. Noah is noted for perseverance, Abraham for faith, Job for patience, Joseph for chastity, Moses for meekness, David for fervent devotion; and, in the Christian Church, St. Francis of Assisi for poverty, St. Peter of Alcantara for austerity, St. Ephrem for holy fear, St. Francis of Sales for sweetness, St. Thomas Aquinas for learning, St. Vincent of Paul for organized charity. So it should be with you. There is some form of usefulness in the service of God and man for which you have a special facility. There is some attribute of God or aspect of the life of Jesus which you have to manifest as your contribution towards the total exhibition of God in mankind. There is some particular virtue which God wishes to dominate your life. Pray to know what it is, and to have grace to fulfil your destiny.

III. It is to be remembered that each angel, although excelling in a particular virtue, possesses all others, and is not deficient in any one. Every possible virtue and excellence is common to them all. A perfection which is distinctive of one choir by its special brilliance is not therefore absent from other angels; nor is its possession by one angel a cloak or excuse for the want of other perfections in him. Your special virtue must not be your only one; your principal duty must not make you forget minor ones. Do not rely on any good work of yours, however meritorious, but remember that you have many great deficiencies known not to you but to your friends and enemies. Do not trust to one virtue as making you completely just, but fear lest by the violation of one commandment you make yourself guilty of all. You may, however, practise one virtue especially, and this will bring in the others and co-ordinate them round itself. This virtue may become the key-note of your spiritual life, tuning all the others into harmony, and giving them a special character. But it has an opposite pole, your predominant passion, which may easily become a key-note of evil and a source of other sins. Beware of it.

10. The General Endowments of The Angels

I. The Old Testament speaks of Lucifer under the figure of the King of Tyre, and makes known to us something of the first state of the angels. “Thou wast the seal of resemblance, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Thou wast in the pleasures of the paradise of God. . . . Thou wast a cherub stretched out and protecting, and I set thee in the holy mountain of God. Every precious stone was thy covering. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day of thy creation, until iniquity was found in thee” (Ez. xxviii. 12-15). It may be reasonably presumed that the case of Adam was parallel to that of the angels; and God created him in grace, spoke with him familiarly, and communicated to him both natural and divine knowledge. Hence has arisen the opinion prevalent in the Church and supported by the Fathers, that the angels were not created in an imperfect state, and on a lower level than the one they were destined to occupy; but that they were from the first placed on the supernatural level, clothed with sanctifying grace, and adorned with the infused habits of faith, hope, charity, and the other virtues required of them. How magnificent is the generosity of God to His rational creatures! It is far beyond the lavishness with which, as we know, He endows the material creation. It is beyond all our claims and desires. He so equips us for our career that we cannot fail except by the fault of our own malice.

II. The graces bestowed on the angels must have comprised the illumination of their primary faculty, the intellect, by the revelation of great truths and mysteries. St. Augustine thinks they can never have been in a state comparable to darkness or ignorance, but must have been from the first as full of the light of knowledge as they were of sanctifying grace. What that revelation consisted of we cannot know; probably it was much more than has ever been made known to men by the light of faith, but not amounting as yet to the Beatific Vision. They must have known much of the greatness and goodness of God, of their duties of love and obedience towards Him, of the future designs of His Providence, of His rewards and punishments. We may suppose that among these things were the mysteries that have been revealed to us, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Creation of the world. The illumination of your intellect with divine truth is the chief foundation of your spiritual life and salvation. God has accorded this to you. He has not left you to be carried about by every wind of doctrine, but has given you a fixed certainty. It is one of the most precious of His gifts. Return Him thanks for it.

III. The Creator also must have given the angels the graces which belong to the will and which move it to action; and thus they were able from the first to co-operate with God’s action, to elicit acts of various virtues, and to merit an increase of the divine communications. Their first impulse would necessarily be one of movement towards God; for the essential qualities of a being assert themselves spontaneously, as the voice of nature always makes itself heard, and the faculties seek for that object which they are made to exercise themselves upon. This impulse was an attraction and not a compulsion; for, as rational beings, the angels were free, and so were able to conform themselves or not to the law of their being. As Adam loved and served God before the trial and rebellion and fall, so it is possible that even the angels who afterwards revolted may have aspired to God supernaturally before the trial was proposed to them. The good angels corresponded to grace from the first and persevered to the end. Be faithful to every call or grace from God. One step leads on to another. A small initial divergence from the straight line may continue till it becomes a gulf over which no man can pass.

 

9. The Creation of The Angels

 

 

I. The angels were created by God in the beginning. They were not from all eternity; they could not be, for none is eternal except the One Infinite, i.e. God. They were created therefore, and they had a beginning. We know that their creation took place before the sin of Adam, for it was a fallen angel that tempted him. Whether they were created in time, or outside of time and in eternity, we cannot say; nor whether their creation was an instantaneous act of God or extended through successive periods; nor whether these periods were moments or numberless millions of years. All we can do is to bear in mind, without drawing any inferences, the enormous magnitude of the scale on which God carried out those works which we have been able to investigate. It may be, as some have thought, that the celestial spirits are a component part of the cosmic system, created contemporaneously with it, more or less, and exercising functions connected with it. Others think of them rather as belonging to a higher order, supermundane or supernatural; as being of a different creation, the products of an anterior and generically distinct creative impulse emanating from the Divinity; as constituting in fact another universe of being, and only connected with this of ours by the duties assigned to some as messenger and guardian angels, and by the junction effected with us in our elevation to their supernatural plane. So, the creation of the angels would be intermediate in order and character between the infinite productive activity of God within His own being, and the external material production of our universe. Here are wondrous treasures of science, impenetrable to us now, but reserved for our knowledge in the kingdom of God.


II. Scripture gives us to understand that the angels were created in heaven. This heaven may be simply the supermundane state outside the domain of time and space; or it may imply a sort of preliminary admission to the antechamber, so to speak, of the Divine Presence. They are supposed to have been created in the state of supernatural grace, with some degree of knowledge of God and communication with Him, but not such as would amount to the Beatific Vision and their final perfection. This last constitutes the state of reward and confirmation in grace, and is incompatible with the state of trial and its possibilities of failure. The angels, then, although not perfectly possessed of heaven, were in the supramundane world, which is that sphere where their duties lay, and with grace they possessed the first stage of the heavenly life. You are in a similar state; you have grace and divine charity; you can enter into corporal union with Our Lord in the Holy Sacrament; the Church, to which you belong, is called in the Gospel “the Kingdom of Heaven.” Praise God for this.


III. The angels were created for the service of God, and for glory and happiness in His presence. God made them naturally adapted for this end, and for grace and sanctification, by the use of which they might merit the Beatific Vision. He gave them a great variety of endowments and powers, so that they might, by their activities, represent the divine attributes and glorify them. He also made them in vast numbers, so as to increase by multiplication the exhibition of His perfections. From the depths of His eternity God had desired to communicate happiness and glory to the angels; He devised such a trial and such means as would most conduce to that object; He foresaw the different results, and selected His own from among them for their rewards and glory. The greatness of God and His goodness merit that He should be adored and glorified by innumerable creatures; and this service rendered to Him constitutes their perfection and happiness. You have been made for this noble object. Take care not to fall short of it. Every negligence towards God is so much loss to yourself. 

8. The Movements of The Angels

I. Some of the heavenly spirits have the special function of being the messengers of God. This is signified by the word Angel, and Scripture tells us of their being sent to execute the decrees of God and to convey revelations and graces to men. Jacob saw them in vision ascending and descending constantly between heaven and earth. They are spoken of in Scripture as having wings, and so we represent them in pictures: this figure represents to us the instantaneous promptitude with which they obey the commands of God. In a sense we may say that the angels move from place to place, and we may speak of the rapidity of their flight. But this is speaking according to the material conditions of our lives. In reality the angels are not subject to the laws of space and to the three dimensions of length, breadth and thickness. They do not pass through intervening spaces, nor, strictly, do they pass from place to place. They become present here or there by acting or appearing in such a place or places. As forces are more immaterial they move with greater velocity. Sound is rapid; light, electricity and nerve impulsions are much more so; gravitation acts instantaneously, it has no rate, and cannot be said to travel between two bodies. The angels are much more immaterial. Learn hence to be prompt in acting on the inspirations of grace. When God makes known His will, it must be carried out at once, whatever the cost. If you attempt to choose your own time He may withdraw from you His inspiration, or the grace or strength or opportunity to carry it out.

II. The angels do not possess immensity, like God; they are not present simultaneously in several places. Each one has a finite action, which cannot, like the action of God, operate everywhere at once. An angel acts or speaks in a definite place, like those so often mentioned in Holy Writ; he is therefore in a certain place rather than in another, although he has no extension which can be measured as space. We may compare an angel to a human soul. The soul is in the body and not elsewhere; it is in every part of the body, and yet, although the body has dimensions, the soul has not. In some sense an angel moves from place to place, inasmuch as he acts now in one place and now in another. More we cannot say, as our mind and language are only adapted to the conditions of space and its dimensions. Endeavour to keep your soul on a higher spiritual level even though you have to live on the material plane. Keep it removed as far as possible above the ordinary conditions of sensual, worldly, selfish, sinful life.

III. It appears likely that the functions of the angels as ministers of God’s will on earth, include some amount of physical power over material things. Thus an angel conveyed Habacuc from Judea to Daniel in the lions’ den; Satan also transported Our Lord to the pinnacle of the temple. Angels slew the first-born in Egypt, destroyed the army of Sennacherib, and scourged Heliodorus when he intruded into the temple. It is the way of God’s Providence to carry out His designs through created agencies, through the powers of nature or human energies. No being is useless, or without its special function in carrying on the life and motion of the universe. By analogy those mighty spirits of God must have their uses, and duties proportioned to their great powers. We know that they help us, even in our physical necessities. What else they do we know not; but we can place no limit to the possibilities of their action whether in the spiritual or the material sphere. Lead a life of holiness and prayer like that of the angels, and God will give you great powers and great duties; even material nature will be in some sense subject to you. 

7. The Will and Love in The Angels

 

 

I. The angels, having intelligence or knowledge of truth and goodness, have necessarily the correlative power of the will by which they choose and adhere to that which is good. There are four ways in which things gravitate towards that which suits their nature and their wants.

     1. Dead matter is moved by external compulsion without having any source of motion in itself. The stone is drawn downwards by the force of the earth’s attraction.

     2. Organized beings without consciousness are moved by certain molecular changes in their substance. So the flower opens to the sun, and the roots of a tree travel underground towards water.

     3. Animals perceive what they want by their senses, and blind instinct makes them seek the gratification.

     4. Intelligent beings perceive by the senses and the mind, they reason and deliberate, choose or reject, take measures to carry out their determination, adhere to it and delight in it. The angels possess this power of free-will, as do men, but in a more perfect manner. Their intelligence is not obscured, partially enlightened and partially blinded like ours; their will, in proportion, is deliberate in its motions and firm in its determination. They know clearly, resolve firmly, and abide for ever by their decision. You too have this great power; it is not perfect in you; it needs to be carefully cultivated. You can increase its force and its propension to good. You can neglect it till it becomes impotent. You then fall under the dominion of the primary bodily appetites: you reject the restraining influence of grace; reason alone does not suffice as a check; you have not the restraint of instinct like the animals: and your perverted will carries you headlong to destruction.

II. The angelic will has an innate propension towards God. God is the supreme good, and is supremely desirable and lovable when He is known, as He was known and recognized by the angelic intelligence. As was Lucifer at the first, so each angel was “full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.” The prophet might have said of each, “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day of thy creation, until iniquity was found in thee” (Ez. xxviii. 12, 15). The angelic nature, unlike ours, had not received any perversion or inherited tendency towards depravity: it was in each one apt and fitted for its destiny, union with God by intelligence and love. The angels could fully appreciate the delights and the sweetness that are in God, and the enormity of the sin committed by transferring their love to self or creatures. Therefore the sin of the angels was more deliberate and less excusable than ours. Therefore God gives us peculiar opportunities of renewing ourselves by penance. So we have good compensation for all our sad inheritance of ignorance and sinfulness.

III. The love of God involves the love of creatures made by Him in His image; and the second precept of charity follows close on the first. So the angels have a natural tendency to love and communicate good, one to another.Their intercourse is marked by perfect peace and harmony, by perfect love for all others, by delight in their advantages, by happiness in their company. It is believed that there are offices of charity amongst them, consisting in the communication of illumination and enjoyment from the higher to the lower choirs; God making use of all the angels, as He does men on earth, to be His instruments, and the channels of truth and grace, and representations of His perfections towards others. So amongst them there is love of superiors without jealousy, of equals without a spirit of rivalry, of inferiors without contempt or condescension. You will not be fit for the kingdom of love unless you have practised it here. If your neighbour does not deserve love for himself, love him for the sake of God. 

6. Things Unknown to The Angels

 

I. God alone is omniscient. Every creature is finite, and feels this in its intelligence; so the knowledge of the angels, extensive as it is, is subject to limitations. God alone, for instance, holds the wonderful power of reading futurity. His future acts, and the future acts of the liberty of man are known to Him alone. Our Lord tells us that the date of the day of judgment is unknown even to the angels in heaven; many other things must also be hidden from them, including probably the ultimate destiny of individual men. So far as they know such things, we must suppose that they are revealed to them specially by God, when the knowledge is necessary for our utility and for their service. It is surmised that after their creation and before their trial they did not fully know what the result would be in the way of reward or punishment. As to affairs on earth their natural powers would often enable them to conjecture truly as to future events, proceeding as men do from past experience and the knowledge of antecedent causes. We may safely assume that the bad angels would be less likely to receive any knowledge of the future from God, and they could only form a judgment about it from their observation of natural laws. Do not be astonished that God has imposed limitations on your knowledge and curiosity. Accept them humbly, and do not be so arrogant as to suppose that you ought to share with God in His omniscience.

II. The angels cannot read the secrets of our hearts, and still less can the evil spirits do so. They may indeed discover them, as our fellow-men do, by the indications which we give either consciously or unconsciously, but not otherwise. God has given us complete mastery over our wills and thoughts. He alone, the absolute Lord of all, has the power and right to penetrate into the secret recesses of our interior: according to the words, “Thou alone knowest the hearts of the children of men” (2 Par. vi. 30). If we keep our determinations strictly to ourselves, no one is able to intrude within our domain. The knowledge of thoughts, like the knowledge of the future, is peculiarly the sign of divine power. As God has allowed no other but Himself to penetrate into the domain of your thoughts, you in like manner should exercise your dominion by preventing any other from ruling there but God. He has made it your sanctuary; do you make it also His.

III. The angels are further unable fully to sound the deeps of the perfections of God and His great mysteries. Even to them His judgments are incomprehensible and His ways unsearchable; and no one but the Spirit of God knoweth the things of God (Rom. xi. 33; 1 Cor. ii. 11). The angelic intelligence, vast as it is, still is as incapable as ours of taking in infinity; and it is no more than a small mirror held up to reflect the whole expanse of the heavens. It may be that the whole of the revelation made to man was not known beforehand to the angels, and that they only learnt of certain of the mysteries of God when they were made known by Our Lord Jesus Christ. From Scripture we learn that at least the evil spirits did not know of the Divinity of Jesus, inasmuch as they tempted Him so as to ascertain in what sense He was the Son of God. There remains much for the good angels yet to learn concerning the infinite abysses of wonder in the Divinity. For them, as for us, there is an inexhaustible store from which they will be satiated in ever-increasing measure for all eternity. Life for them and for us will be an unending progress in new activities and new attainments of intellect and will. You have to open that path of progress while living here. Sin stunts and destroys your spiritual activities, and cuts you off from future progress.

5. The Intelligence of The Angels

 

I. The angels, being pure spirits, have an activity that is spiritual; their first faculty therefore is that of the understanding. As they are so much superior by nature to men, so is their intelligence more acute and their knowledge more extensive. The first and chief object of their knowledge is the supreme truth, God, and the truths of the divine sphere of existence. They live in the immediate presence of God, they see Him clearly, face to face, and they penetrate more thoroughly than we can at present into the understanding of His attributes, His power, His works. Seeing God, they see all things in Him. The image and model of all things is reflected in the consciousness of God; all events past, present, future, are for ever present to the thought of God. The beatific vision of God is found in the immediate communication of the created mind with the divine mind; the vision of divine truths thus made manifest involves the vision of created truths; so are all things seen in God by the heavenly spirits, whether angels or human souls. The angels thus have a knowledge of created things, of the course of events, of the secrets of nature, which is far superior to that of men; they can anticipate the contingent future more surely than we, and can even foresee some future free acts of men by the permission and assistance of God. Endeavour to lead the life of the angels on earth, and you will acquire an insight into the things of God beyond what study can communicate. This will furnish you with practical guidance for the conduct of life, and promote your happiness more than any mundane attainments.

II. Angelic intelligence surpasses the human, not only in knowing more, but in the manner of acquiring and holding knowledge.

1. We gather our knowledge of things by our contact with them through our senses: the angels see things in their cause, in God, with all their relations to environment.

2. We learn by long application to study and trains of reasoning, by slow degrees and with much labour; the angels see at a glance, intuitively, all that they wish to know.

3.We spend much of our time in unconsciousness. The material medium through which our intelligence works grows weary and ultimately wears out. The angelic mind is for ever in a state of unwearied activity.

4. The angel sees things in their dependence on God, sees God reflected and expressed in them, and glorifies God by this knowledge: we see creatures or self apart from God, not understanding their relations to God, to His laws, to our happiness; and we often turn our knowledge to our own hurt. Look at all things with the eye of faith and religion, and you will read in them a significance which is hidden from the worldly and unbelieving.


III. The fallen angels retained their natural faculties, powers of intellect, and knowledge; but they use these great gifts to raise themselves up in arrogance against Him who is the source of all truth. As St. Paul says: “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth” (1 Cor. viii. 1). St. Augustine likens that science of men which is without the grace and charity of God to the science of the devils and the reprobate. St. Bernard compares it to meats which cannot be digested for want of the proper secretions, and which afflict the body instead of nourishing it. The good angels enjoy their knowledge in dependence on God, and pay Him the homage of humility on account of their own advantages and greatness. The knowledge and love of God is more precious to them than all their natural powers or command over created science. Value knowledge most highly, but value the grace of God infinitely more. Knowledge accompanied by depravity is like a poisoned sword in the hand of a madman. It does more harm even than ignorance.

 

4. The Numbers and Orders of The Angels

 

I. This world, as we know it, is distinguished also by the immense variety of the different kinds and forms of beauty, and grandeur, and ingenuity, and utility. The representation of the multitudinous perfections of God has to be carried out by innumerable classes of creatures as well as by innumerable examples of each. This must be the case in the angelic world, as it is here. Among those blessed spirits there may well be differences in the character of their intelligence or love, and in the functions of their service, much more varied than the species of living creatures on earth, or the countless forms assumed by dead matter. What these may be we are unable to picture to ourselves. Our ideas are limited by the narrow surroundings in which we live. From revelation and the sense of the Church we may gather a few indications as to the classification and the functions of the heavenly spirits. The exploration and investigation of this mere corner of the world in which we live is more than enough to furnish occupation for millions of men during thousands of years. What will it be when we are admitted to the full knowledge of the whole abundance of the future world! Prepare for it now. Let the science of nature lead you to the science of God; and do not dwell so exclusively on the lowest of God’s wonders as to forget the existence of the higher ones.

II. Ancient speculation on Holy Scripture deduced therefrom the notion of a certain order among the angels, and this has obtained general currency in the Church. This classification bears the impress of the Holy Trinity. There are three hierarchies among the angels, and each of these consists of three choirs. These are the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones; the Dominations, Powers and Virtues; the Principalities, Archangels and Angels. The tradition of these nine choirs was also current among the Jews from the remotest times. These hierarchies constitute three great empires of spiritual beings, each divided into three kingdoms or provinces, and perhaps each of these again into countless classes of spirits. All these gradually rise in perfection and beauty as they approach more nearly to the throne of God. We have reason to believe that some saints have been placed among the highest angels for their love and their labours on earth. Is your devotion such as to entitle you to rank with any class of the angels?

III. “In the multitude of people is the dignity of the king” (Prov. xiv. 28). God’s magnificence is shown by the enormous multitude of the works of His hand. Consider the thousand millions of men actually living on this planet, and the uncounted numbers who have lived or have yet to live. Consider the teeming abundance of animal, plant, and insect life. Look up to heaven, and remember that God alone “telleth the number of the stars and calleth them by their names” (Ps. cxlvi. 4). The fixed stars, or suns, are perhaps as numerous as the whole number of living men on earth; each of these is surrounded by its attendant planets and satellites; and each of these is perhaps as full of life as our globe. And yet this is only the outer court of God’s palace. Heaven itself, the special realm of God’s magnificence, must exceed the universe in the multitude of its inhabitants as it does in splendour. A momentary glimpse of the heavenly vision was granted to the prophet, and he tells us that about the throne of God “thousands of thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before Him” (Dan. vii. 10). We are impressed, or at times overwhelmed, by the strange influence that emanates from a great crowd, in the streets of a city or in the ranks of an army. How wonderful the effect of the mere numbers of that spiritual world that surrounds the throne of God! How thrilling the moment of your entrance among them!

3. The Spirituality of The Angels

 
I. Each ascending class of beings begins, in its highest specimens, to assume the characteristics of the class next above it; and so might serve, if need were, to indicate the peculiarities of the next higher group of creatures. Man, the last and most perfect in the line of material beings, is much more than mere matter. There is in him a higher element, not compounded of chemical substances or the subtle forces of matter. This enjoys faculties not belonging to other beings—intellect and will; it has an apprehension of moral goodness, of the true, of the beautiful; it has cravings, sometimes half unconscious, for something higher than this universe and more enduring. Above all there is in mankind an ineradicable tendency towards the supernatural, towards God and religion; and this is for ever asserting itself in various forms as one of the most energetic forces in human nature. All this is an indication of an actual higher state; for no impulsion exists in the universe without its corresponding object or cause. It is further an indication of a higher class of beings, endowed with more perfect spirituality, less encumbered by matter, more free in the exercise of mind and will, standing nearer to the throne of the Almighty Ruler. Progress is the law of being. Everything points upward through a higher class to God. Cultivate, not those appetites which you share with the beasts, but those aspirations which raise you towards the angels.

II. The spirituality of the angels is much more perfect than that of men. We are not pure spirits, but a compound of the spiritual with the material. The soul has a natural and permanent affinity for those atoms of the slime of the earth which constitute the body; just as oxygen tends to enter into combination with all the coarser elements. Further, the soul is too often enslaved by the prepotent influence of the body, and is dragged down by it to the material level, instead of raising it to spiritual heights. Hence the finer element in man is often submerged under the rush of the body’s coarser interests and appetites and pleasures, and falls from its high estate into degradation. The angels are free from all such influences. Being without bodies they have nothing to drag them down from their proper level; they are not drawn two ways at once by opposing forces; there is no veil to obscure their direct vision of God’s face; there is no deception to make error look like truth; there is nothing to tarnish their purity and sanctity. This spiritual life is to be yours one day. All other creatures, even our material frames, having run their course return whence they came—living beings into dead matter, compounds into their primary elements. The soul of man alone remains, and, united to a spiritualized body, it rises to a higher existence. But to fit ourselves for this our life on earth must be spiritualized.

III. The spirituality of the angels is, however, infinitely inferior to that of God, while generally resembling it. So perfect and transcendent is God that, as compared with Him, the substance of the angels is coarse, and, as it were, material. They are still but a dim and imperfect reflection of the unparalleled brightness and purity of the Divine Essence. So does a light, which in the darkness is a brilliant illumination, grow pale and invisible in the full glare of the noon-tide. “Behold among His saints none is unchangeable, and the heavens are not pure in His sight. Behold even the moon doth not shine, and the stars are not pure in His sight. How much less man that is rottenness, and the son of man who is a worm?” (Job xv. 15; xxv. 5, 6). You are the lowest of all spiritual beings, the feeblest of all that possess intellect and heart. If you are so poor as compared with the angels, how inferior you are before the unapproachable spirituality of God. Humble yourself before Him that you may be found worthy to be raised to His kingdom. 

2. The Existence of The Angels

 

I. All creation is arranged in a regular sequence of stages. So much so, that science has on occasion asserted the existence of some species of animal that seemed needed to fill up a gap in the series: and that species has subsequently been discovered. Life is found everywhere, and in every conceivable form. Scientific men have observed that any form of life which is possible, considering the analogy of the rest of creation, is also probable. So we might have inferred the existence of angels if it had not been revealed to us. Tracing creation towards its source we come to more and more simple forms of life. Solid matter may be traced back to liquid and gas, and at last appears under forms of extreme tenuity. It is conjectured that the lightest of known substances, hydrogen, may be the primal form of matter out of which all the chemical elements have been made up. Then we arrive at immaterial, intangible forces, ether, heat, electricity, and the still more mysterious force of gravitation. As beings grow refined we find that they have a greater range, and greater power, and that they are able to pass through the substance of more solid beings. Analogy would lead us to surmise that there must be a still more refined class of existences, spiritual beings in fact, endowed with enormous powers. Adore in silence the marvellous possibilities of the power and wisdom of God.


II. In man we have what is manifestly the last term of material development on this earth. In him matter is raised above its natural level and associated with the nobler forces of mind and will. His further development is of necessity on the higher plane of the intellectual, the moral, the social, the spiritual. This points to boundless possibilities, not only in the way of further human progress, but in regard to the existence of other classes of beings more perfect in mental and spiritual qualities, who begin where man leaves off, and carry on the chain of existence by more degrees than fill the interval between the jelly-fish and man. It is evident that the full height of created being is not attained in man. There is room yet for innumerable grades between him and God. The work of the Almighty would be justly considered as incomplete, as abruptly broken off and frustrate, if it ended in humanity as the summit of all creation. As reasoning compels science to assume certain things which can never be proved, such as the ether, atoms, gravitation, so would it force us, without other evidence, to conjecture the existence of such beings as angels. How wonderfully revelation completes our knowledge! How necessary is faith in addition to science!


III. The extraordinary abundance of life around us argues at least as great a variety and wealth of life in the boundless realm beyond our senses where the Almighty dwells. Comparing small with great, we feel that there must be courtiers and guards innumerable in the halls of the Eternal, and that they must be high beyond conception, in rank, in energies, in duties, in splendour of endowments. There are ministries for such beings as well as for us. God’s works are not limited to the range of our experience or even of our imagination. His attributes require a much greater space for their manifestation than is afforded by the whole of the visible universe. God has therefore, as the Scripture tells us, made a whole universe of noble spirits to stand before Him, and minister to Him in duties far superior to ours. Great as you are in the material creation, you are weak and miserable compared with the higher world. Strive to raise yourself to it; above all do not fall lower than your already lowly position.

1. Creation in General

I. God was under no obligation to create anything. It is only His intrinsic activity in producing the Persons of the Trinity that is necessary; all other action might or might not be, according to His will. God did not require the world or any creatures. He was rich in all good, perfectly happy, powerful, enjoying immovable repose and perfect activity in His own being. That which was, before creation, was not a dead solitude; but the three Divine Persons formed a kind of society in Their unity. There was a manifestation of infinite perfections by each to each, a mutual understanding and appreciation of the attributes of each, and action, proportioned to the greatness of the divine nature, rendering glory to each. No further witnesses were required of the divine glory, no audience for the celestial communications between the Persons. Indeed no created being could give and take, by the action of its intelligence and will, in anything like the same measure as do the Divine Persons. God has no need of you. You can do nothing that is of any use to Him. “I have said to the Lord, Thou art my God, for Thou hast no need of my goods” (Ps. xv, 2). When you have exerted all your talents and done all that you can, you may say with most perfect truth, “I am an unprofitable servant.”

II. We, on the other hand, cannot do without God. So many million centuries ago, man, and the earth, and the whole universe were not. They were in an abyss of nothingness whence only the command of God was able to bring them forth. No creature could have drawn out a developed being from non-being, even if any creature had been pre-existent. The mode in which something is created from nothing is absolutely inconceivable to us. Only a being of infinite intelligence and omnipotent power could do such a thing. A creature could not have acted before it existed so as to produce itself, or develop itself by its own energies. And the whole universe of things was as powerless to evolve itself as a single atom or a degree of force. What a vast difference between God and creatures! They were once in nothingness, He was always existent; they began a definite time ago, He had no beginning; they are dependent and imperfect, He is absolute uncontrolled Master, all powerful and all perfect. What an enormity it is, and how ridiculous, when any of God’s creatures dare to deny His authority, and disobey His commands, and raise their heads in pride, and say “I will not serve!” This you do when you commit sin.

III. The number of the possible worlds and beings is absolutely without limit, which God might have made after the model of His ideas, and as reflections of His perfections. God determined on certain series of forces and substances, both in spirit and matter; and, by some incomprehensible projection of His infinite activity beyond Himself, He produced the commencements of force and motion and matter, endowed with enormous energies and latent powers of transformation and development. God thus inaugurated a new order. Outside of, or anterior to creation, God was the ocean of the supernatural only; at creation things were produced which had a thitherto unexampled relation to God. He became then the source and author of the natural order as well as of the supernatural, acting freely on two different planes, carrying out two different series of laws. Those two orders were separate and independent, till God united them in man as raised to the life of grace and participation with God. Admire God’s wonderful dispositions. He unites the natural and supernatural orders as being the source of both; here below the two are united again in you.

 

20. The Glory of The Blessed Trinity

 

I. “There are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost” (1 John v. 7). The Divine Persons give testimony to one another eternally. It is Their essential glory that each is thoroughly comprehended in all His infinite perfections by the other two Divine Persons, and is appreciated and valued accordingly, and is praised and glorified, therefore, to an adequate and infinite extent. Compared with this, all the appreciation and praise of creatures and glory from them is but as a grain in the balance. As God has wrought all His mighty operations in Himself, anteriorly to creation, and without the assistance of creatures; so the Divine Trinity glorifies Itself infinitely, within Itself, and has no need of us. Jesus Christ speaks to His heavenly Father of “the glory which I had, before the world was, with Thee” (John xvii. 5). And again: “I have glorified Thee on earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And now glorify Thou Me, O Father, with Thyself” (John xvii. 4, 5). The glory given by the Divine Persons to one another in Their revelations and works on earth is but a faint presentation of the glory which They render to one another within the Divine Essence. Rejoice and praise God for the fact that He receives the full glory which is His due, that He does not depend upon man for it, and that our offences and blasphemies do not impair that infinite glory which is of His essence.

II. There is another praise and appreciation and glory rendered to the Blessed Trinity. This comes from the enormous hosts of the angelic spirits. It is a secondary, inferior and finite glorification, but it surpasses immeasurably all the glory of the service and praise that the whole of mankind could render. We read frequently of this in Holy Scripture: “The morning stars praised Me together, and all the sons of God made a joyful melody” (Job xxxviii. 7). The prophet describes to us the Seraphim standing with veiled faces before the throne of the Most High: “and they cried out one to another and said, Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of His glory” (Isa. vi. 3). Again, at the birth of Our Lord there was “a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God, and saying: Glory to God in the highest” (Luke ii. 13, 14). St. John shows us how the hosts of heaven for ever give praise and honour and benediction to their Lord, prostrate before His throne, and never resting day or night (Apoc. iv. 8-11). When you see this world so full of iniquity, and refusing to accord to God the belief, the worship, the obedience, the love that He deserves, think of the still greater universe of spirits with all its rich endowments giving glory to God, without exception, without any alloy of infidelity, and without cessation.

III. Even this world renders much glory to the Holy Trinity. Apart from the manifestation of God in the natural order and the praise given to Him on that account, there is the supernatural glory rendered by the great sacrifice which, from age to age, is offered unceasingly from the rising to the setting of the sun, in the presence of millions of devout worshippers. There is the perpetual worship before the tabernacle of Jesus, going on in every Church throughout the world; and the recitation of the Divine Office day and night with its hymns, and psalms, and special versicles of praise at the end of each of them. And further, in this unfaithful and apostate world, there are many times over in every land the seven thousand who have not bowed their knee to Baal, but who have dedicated their whole being to glorifying God by copying His attributes in their lives. Your life must be one of two things; either you will join yourself with those named, in glorifying God, or you are necessarily on the side of Satan, engaged in dishonouring God and blaspheming His name.

19. The Divine Persons as Given to Us

   

 

I. The greatest wonder in the Divine temporal missions is that, not merely the grace and aid of God, but the Blessed Persons Themselves are given to us for our elevation and our comfort. Thus, in the Incarnation, the actual Person of God the Son, the Word of God, was bestowed on humanity, and became man and the Son of the Blessed Virgin. Further, our individual souls receive not only light in the intellect and ardour of love in the heart, but the Holy Spirit Himself personally. “The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us” (Rom. v. 5). “He that abideth in charity abideth in God and God in him” (1 John iv. 16). The supernatural likeness of God in us and our aspirations of love towards Him exercise such an attraction on the Divine Persons, that They become united with our souls, and cannot be separated from them except by mortal sin. They are present with souls that are in the state of grace, not simply by the immensity or ubiquity which causes Them to be in every place, but by a special personal indwelling, so that the human body becomes really the temple of the Holy Ghost, and of Christ and the Father too. Thus there dwell in you the Eternal Word produced by the infinite thought of God, and the Spirit produced by infinite love. How this surpasses all the gifts of the natural order, all bodily delights, all pleasures, dignities, sciences!

II. The Divine Persons are bestowed on us in different ways.

1. They come to us as the principle of the supernatural works done by us, works of virtue and of energy which are beyond our natural abilities. Without the divine presence we should be feeble, unspiritual, ungenerous, imprudent, unstable; with it we can believe all, do all, and suffer all things. 

2. They are given to us as the object of our knowledge and our love, for the exercise of our intelligence and will. So we possess God as the object which occupies our thoughts and our affections. 

3. They are given also as the treasure and chief possession of the soul; so that in the midst of the tribulations and bitterness of life we find God within us, and there enjoy, within natural limits, the possession of the supreme good. This is what Our Lord promises us: “If any one love Me he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him” (John xiv. 23). In so many ways you are dependent on God; in so many ways He is useful to you, necessary to you. Without Him you can do nothing. Be careful never to lose that divine presence.

III. It follows that when we commit mortal sin we lose, not only the favour of God, His love, and our title of children of God, but we actually lose God Himself. The personal presence of God is extinguished in our soul; God is driven forth. Our finite action has inflicted an infinite loss. God is present with us still by His immensity, as He is present in physical space and with the lower animals; He is also present by the grace which calls us to repentance; but He is no longer with us as the source of supernatural life, virtue, and merit, nor as the treasure of the soul and the object of its love. Further God is not with the sinner as the source of future glory. If then the sinner passes out of this life unrepentant, he begins his new stage of existence without God, and will never recover the possession of Him. It is a terrible punishment of crime to be deprived absolutely of one of the smaller gifts of God, light, or companionship, or freedom, or the minor comforts of life. How much worse it would be to lose all the sum of material gifts. The loss of supernatural gifts is much more terrible; and worse still is the loss of God, who is the totality of all that is good, desirable, beautiful. This is what mortal sin deprives us of. It is impossible to realize the full greatness of this calamity even with the help of faith; but your faith will suffice to save you from it.

18. The Mission of The Divine Persons

 

I. Our Lord several times spoke of His being sent by the Father, and of His sending the Holy Ghost into the world.This is called the external mission of the Divine Persons. It corresponds externally to the internal production of the Persons within the Godhead. It is the divine processions of the Trinity continued on the lower plane of the world of human souls, making the Divine Persons present in a new way with us, and producing in us an infusion of divine charity and various operations of grace. The Mission, then, consists of two elements, the eternal procession of a Divine Person and the temporal production of grace. As in the eternal processions there is a person producing and a person produced, so in the temporal mission there is a person sending and a person sent. The Father proceeds from none, He therefore is sent by none. The Son proceeds from the Father, and so is sent by the Father. The Holy Ghost, who proceeds from Father and Son, is consequently sent by Father and Son jointly. As in the Trinity, so in the mission of the Divine Persons there is no separation of Person from Person, but They abide in one another, and all are bestowed when one is sent. Thus there is an unbroken chain of action binding all being together from God down to the smallest atom. There is a supreme infinite action in God which produces the Divine Persons. The reverberations of that action pass on into creation, and produce the Divine Persons in the souls of men. Their presence and Their grace lead to the production of virtuous acts in us; and we in turn act upon the lower creation.

II. There are two forms of the temporal mission of the Divine Persons; one is visible and one invisible. The sending of God the Son as man into the world to preach, to labour, and to suffer visibly, was the first form of divine mission. Such also was the coming of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles in flames of fire. Generally, however, the grace of God works in secret; for “the kingdom of God cometh not with observation” (Luke xvii. 20). The Divine Persons come invisibly and softly into the soul to work in it Their powerful effects; according to the word of Job: “If He come to me I shall not see Him; if He depart I shall not understand” (Job ix. 11). This exercises our faith and humility. We possess God, and yet we cannot be puffed up by the certainty of possessing Him; we still have to work in fear and trembling; we walk by faith in God’s word, and not with the assurance of sight. But while we fear, we have no reason for discouragement, but rather for trusting blind confidence in God.

III. Wonderful must be the effects produced in the soul by such messengers as the Eternal Son and the Holy Ghost. These effects are not the effects of nature. When we speak of the divine missions we do not mean the operations carried on by the Divinity as head and source of the natural order of the world. The mission spoken of is that which is supernatural, and which makes God to be present with us in special and more than natural ways. The Divine Mission has as its object to produce sanctifying grace in our souls and increase it, to withdraw us from sin and eternal loss, to enable us to produce acts of virtue or render special services to God and His Church. You really receive at times a special influx and presence of the Divine Persons in your soul; you are aided by Them and act with Them and by Them. How splendid this is! But you need always to watch with anxiety lest the human spirit, or the spirit of the world, or even the spirit of Satan, should intrude itself into your mind and become the motive power of your actions. Humility, obedience, and the love of God will be your preservatives.

17. The Mutual Indwelling of The Divine Persons

I. The three Divine Persons of the Holy Trinity, although differing as to personality, are inseparable as to the Essence or Substance of the Divinity, which is absolutely one in Them. So They are said to dwell with one another and in one another. St. John says: “The Word was with God,” and “The only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father” (John i. 1, 18). In the same Gospel Our Lord says: “The Father who abideth in Me, He doth the works. Believe you not that I am in the Father and the Father in Me?” (John xiv. 10, 11). Therefore wherever the Father is, the Son, or the Holy Ghost, there are also the other two Persons. The Divine Essence which is in the Father is fully in the Son and the Holy Ghost; for the Divinity, or the Divine Essence, is Father, Son and Holy Ghost. No one of the Persons can exist apart from the whole of the Divine Essence; nor apart, consequently, from the other Persons, who are fully in the Divine Essence. The personal relations and productions are not external but are immanent. The Father generates the Son, not as a separate entity, but by an intrinsic intellectual action within Himself; the Father and Son also produce the Holy Ghost by an interior action of mutual love, which is entirely within Themselves. This indwelling is called the circumincession. You are also substantially in God and God is substantially in you when you are in the state of grace; and the three Divine Persons are with you, as Our Lord promised: “If any one love Me . . . My Father will love him, and We will come to him and will make Our abode with him” (John xiv. 23).

II. The Persons of the Blessed Trinity also dwell in one another intellectually, by the fact that each has the fullest perception, knowledge and consciousness of the others; or, as we may express it, they are inseparable in their thoughts. This mutual consciousness of one another may be called a communication of minds, or a divine conversation between the three Blessed Persons. There is nothing else like to this. Intellectual communication is imperfect, at its best, between different men. As between God and man, God bears us always and most completely in His mind, but our feeble, wandering, frivolous, sensual minds can only with great difficulty fix themselves for a short time on God. In the next life we shall have a much closer union of intelligence with God; we shall contemplate Him without distraction; we shall see all things in Him and in His knowledge of them; but yet we shall never see and understand Him as Father, Son and Holy Ghost do, in Their mutual indwelling. Aspire to this union now; it is necessary for the perfecting of man’s intellectual life on earth.

III. There is also an inseparable indwelling of the Divine Persons on account of Their mutual love. Love is an attracting and uniting force. The soul is wrapped up, as we say, in that which it loves, and dwells in it by the delight felt in it. “Where thy treasure is, there is thy heart” (Matt. vi. 21). Each Divine Person perceives the infinite goodness, beauty and delight of the Godhead that exists in the others; and They are drawn together by a unifying attraction and love each for the other, such as would tend to make Them a unity if They were not already in the strictest sense such. Let nothing separate you from the love of God. This completes your union with Him in this life and in the next. The love of God is also the uniting force required by mankind for social harmony and progress. Other combining influences are not strong enough to resist the forces of isolation and disintegration. Even human love itself is transient though violent; it is little more than sensual and animal, unless refined, directed, and made permanent by resting on divine love.

16. The Equality of The Divine Persons

 

I. The three Divine Persons are perfectly equal in all things inasmuch as They are perfectly one. The Divine Essence is not divided amongst Them, but They are of identically the same nature and the same substance. No one, and no two of Them, can be greater than another nor can the three together possess more or do more than any one of Them. Even considering Them separately in Their personalities, with the differences of Their mutual relationships, there is still perfect equality between Them. The Sonship and the procession of the Third Person are as perfect and as necessary in the Divinity as the Paternity. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are eternally simultaneous constituents of the activity of the One Godhead within Itself. The reception of the Divine Essence is as infinite and noble as the communication of it. It is an equal dignity and glory to the Father to be without first principle or source, to the Son to be produced by the infinite Father, and to the Holy Ghost to be the termination and completeness of the divine action without producing another person. Take a comparison. A ray of bright sunlight was long supposed to be a unity only: now it is proved to be a trinity of three rays, each having a different colour and a different effect on vegetation. These act as one principle. They occur in a certain order, but one does not exist before the other nor apart from another. Each is equally sunlight, and is equally necessary to constitute the glowing unity of the sunbeam and to maintain life on earth. Attach great importance to right thinking about doctrines. But this requires right living and right worship. Each of this trinity is essential to make up the unity of full religiousness.

II. The three Persons are also equal in their attributes and powers: for these, though spoken of as separate qualities, are but the one immovable, unchangeable, Divine Essence. The three Divine Persons have the same sovereign supremacy over all things, the same eternity, the same goodness and love and justice, the same knowledge and wisdom. Their actions, too, are inseparable. They have not made different worlds or originated different religions; all combined equally in creating all the universe, and in establishing the two dispensations of the Old and New Testament. What Our Lord said of Himself applies equally to the other Persons: “The Son cannot do anything of Himself but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doth, these the Son also doth in like manner” (John v. 19). So do you strive in all things to think and act with God. Do nothing without Him, still less in opposition to Him. So His likeness will be perfected in you until it grows into an intimate union.

III. The three Divine Persons are equal in Their right to the adoration, service and love of all creatures, on account of the equality in Their greatness and holiness, in Their love and Their operations towards us. What we worship in one we worship in all; what we see in one we see in all. It is true that the Second Person has brought Himself into closer relations with us by becoming man; and that His human life and virtues and His presence in the Blessed Sacrament appear rather to reveal the Second Person to us than the Father and the Holy Ghost, and rather to draw out our tenderness towards Him. But yet we must remember that the mystery of the Incarnation and Redemption is the joint work of the whole Trinity, only manifested differently on account of the relative differences of the Persons; and that the revelation of the one Person of Our Lord is the revelation of all, according to His words, “Philip, he that seeth Me seeth the Father also” (John xiv. 9). So when Our Lord comes to you He brings with Him the Father and the Holy Ghost. Love and worship each Person separately and all three in Their supreme unity.

15. Jesus Christ and The Holy Ghost

I. Jesus Christ, as man, was abundantly glorified by the Holy Ghost, who was poured out upon Him in infinite measure. Of old the Holy Spirit had inspired the prophets who foretold Our Lord’s coming: He effected the mystery of the Incarnation in His chaste Spouse, the Blessed Virgin Mary; He guided the Sacred Humanity, as when He led Our Lord into the desert and descended on Him in the form of a dove. Jesus Christ declares part of the function of the Holy Ghost where He says, “He shall glorify Me” (John xvi. 14). And this the Holy Spirit does, demonstrating by miracles that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, and moving men by inspirations of grace to believe in Him. In return Our Lord glorified the Holy Ghost, revealing Him to mankind in the august mystery of the Holy Trinity, communicating Him to the Apostles and the Church, speaking of Him with profound respect, teaching men their duties towards the Spirit of God and the enormity of sinning against Him. You should imitate Our Lord in this. Contemplate the qualities of the Holy Ghost, the modes of His manifestations to us, the functions appropriated to Him in the external operations of the Trinity both in the natural and in the supernatural orders; and from all this conceive a special veneration and love for Him.

II. Proceeding to particulars, we find Our Lord applying terms of respect and titles of honour to the Holy Ghost. In the Old Testament He says: “Come over to Me, all ye that desire Me, and be filled with My fruits; for My spirit is sweet above honey” (Eccli. xxiv. 26, 27). To the woman of Samaria He speaks of the Holy Ghost as the “Gift of God,” and says that this will be “a fountain of water springing up unto life everlasting” (John iv. 10, 14). Again He tells the Apostles of the great effects which will be wrought by the Holy Spirit. “When the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send you from My Father, the Spirit of Truth who proceedeth from the Father, He will give testimony of Me” (John xv. 26). And instructing them as to their speech before their persecutors He says: “It is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you” (Matt. x. 20). Our Lord further magnifies the Holy Ghost above Himself, and values His honour even more than His own. “Whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him: but he that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him either in this world or in the world to come” (Matt. xii. 32). Be careful not to commit the dangerous sin of resisting the Holy Ghost, and His inspirations to action or suggestions of truth. Beware of self-will and obstinacy in sin, lest they lead you to final impenitence.

III. Our Lord further magnifies the Holy Ghost by sending Him on the Apostles and the Church to complete His own work of Redemption. He says that the Holy Ghost was necessary for their work, and they were not to venture to begin it until He endued them with His power from on high (Luke xxiv. 49). The Holy Ghost is the great treasure of the Church, His presence will confer upon it an indestructible life, and that presence will never be withdrawn. Our Lord seems to imply that the presence of the Holy Ghost is more to the Apostles than His own. “It is expedient for you that I go: for if I go not the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go I will send Him to you” (John xvi. 7). That which the Holy Ghost is to the Church, the same He is to you. In the words of the sacred liturgy He will be to you rest in labour, coolness in the heat, consoler in anguish, strength in conflict, sweetest refreshment, and most blessed light.

14.Three Specialities of the Holy Ghost

 

I. It is a special peculiarity of the Holy Ghost that He is the bond of union between the Father and the Son, Their harmony, Their peace, and Their love. This is the case inasmuch as the Father and Son become one principle in the production of the Holy Ghost; They have one and the same relation towards Him; and He has one single relation towards Them. This peculiarity does not belong, for instance, to the Father. He is not the bond of union between the Son and the Holy Ghost, because He stands in different relations towards Them; viz., in the relation of generation towards the Son, and of spiration towards the Holy Ghost. In another way also the Holy Spirit is the bond of union, as being the personified propension, or inclination of the Father towards the Son, and of the Son towards the Father. He is the love of each for the other, and so binds the Blessed Trinity into a special union of Persons over and above the unity of their essence and nature. It is the peculiarity of love to unite different objects; and the Holy Ghost, as being eternal, uncreated, infinite Love, is the accomplishment of the most wonderful of unions. Beseech this Spirit of love to be the bond of union between you and the Godhead, and between you and all your brethren.

II. A second speciality of the Holy Ghost is that He is the final term of the internal processions of the Divine Persons. The Father is the First Person in the Godhead, the Holy Spirit is the last; the cycle is complete; and after that, no further procession is possible or conceivable. The Holy Ghost possesses in full, infinite measure the intelligence and will that belong to the Divine Essence; but these do not produce another Person in the Godhead, for they have already exercised their infinite fecundity with infinite result in the production of the Son and Holy Ghost. The procession of the Third Person is the completion of the divine activity, its last term, its eternal repose and Sabbath. The ending of the productive action does not imply any deficiency or infirmity in the Holy Ghost. His perfection as a Person consists in the fact that He responds adequately to the infinite activity of the divine will and love. Thenceforth nothing more remains but the external operation of the Trinity in the production of creatures outside of Itself. Love, then, is the accomplishment of the law, even of the uncreated law of God’s own being. This great faculty has been given to you for your perfection and happiness. Take care that it does not become corrupted into self-love, the parody and destruction of divine love.

III. The Divine Spirit of love is also a spirit of perfect sanctity. He is the sanctity of Father and Son; His presence is the sanctification of sinners. So effectual is divine love in us, that even in its lowest degree, and in our weak and frigid souls, it instantaneously destroys sin, and communicates to us the supernatural life of God and His actual presence. Therefore Our Lord said concerning St. Mary Magdalene, “Many sins are forgiven her because she hath loved much” (Luke vii. 14). How intense then must be the infinite sanctity resulting from the love of the three Divine Persons in the most Holy Trinity. This is the secret of holiness for you. Endeavour to cultivate a vivid and intense love for God, for the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Without this you cannot have constancy to keep those commandments of God which lead to life. Without this you cannot cast out the engrossing love of self and of creatures, or submit yourself to constant self-restraint, or find pleasure in spiritual things. Give your whole undivided love to God, and He will pour forth the abundance of sanctity and joy into your heart.

13. The Procession of the Holy Ghost

 

  

 

I. The Divine Father, in begetting the Son—equal to Himself and the very Image of His glory—moves by an act of His intellect to love that reflection of His own perfections. The Son, in return, necessarily loves the Father with equal and infinite love. This shared love within the Godhead is itself divine, and is the Person of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost proceeds from both the Father and the Son as from one source, since they are united in will and in love. The Father eternally begets the Son, equal in divinity and power, and included in this is the power to be the principle of the Holy Ghost. It is in this mutual love that the Holy Ghost is produced, forming the relation between Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Without this procession there would be no distinction of Persons. The production of the Holy Ghost is the great glory of the Son with the Father, just as the generation of the Son is the great glory of the Father. Love is the fulfillment of the law, the aim of our souls toward God, and the healing of many sins.


II. This love is infinitely great, because it springs from a Being of infinite capacity, and its object is infinitely worthy of love. Such is the love shared among the Divine Persons. Though it is one simple and eternal act, we may think of it in the ways we know love ourselves:


The love of appreciation, by which the Divine Persons esteem and value each other as the Supreme Good above all else.


The love of good-will, by which They wish to each other the praise, joy, and glory that each deserves.


The love of delight, which is the highest kind of love, expressed by the Father when He said of Our Lord, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. iii. 17).


We too should exercise ourselves in these three acts of love toward each Divine Person. The love of delight is the source of spiritual joy, one of the fruits of the Holy Ghost. True religion is always joyful. Make sure that this is true for you, for it is a sure test of virtue.


III. The love in God that produces the Holy Ghost is also the love of all that is good, which includes His love for His creatures. All creatures, present in the eternal mind of God, are seen by Him in that divine act of knowledge which produces the Son, and loved by Him in the act of will which produces the Holy Ghost. From this comes the infinite and unexpected love God shows for mankind even in their weakness. Though men fall, they still bear a trace of their divine origin. God not only loves all that He has made, but He loves them in the Holy Ghost.

So we too should love the Holy Ghost, the source of every grace and good gift in creation. He is the fountain of spiritual blessings described in the hymn Veni Sancte Spiritus. He brings us charity, joy, peace, patience, faith, modesty, and more. He is truly our Paraclete and Comforter. Too late have you known Him; too late have you loved Him!

12. The Third Person

I. In a spiritual being the fundamental fact is its existence, and from this proceeds a double activity, inseparable from the being but different from it. The first activity is the intellect, which exercises itself on objects as being true, and its exercise is knowledge, reason, wisdom. The next is the will, which exercises itself in love, or a propension towards objects as being good. These are two distinct operations, and are essential to completeness and to one another. The intelligence is the basis; the propension of the will proceeds from this, and constitutes its efficacy. The intelligence brings the object, in a manner, into itself by conceiving its image: love is a going forth and bestowal of self upon the object. Here we have plurality of operations in the unity of one being; they cannot be separated from it or from one another; and they embrace the whole activity of a spiritual being. These faculties represent two great classes of duties in man, the knowledge and love of God, the service of mind and heart. Exercise them both on the only object that can elicit and satisfy all their activity, i.e., on God.

II. These spiritual faculties and actions exist in God and correspond to ours, but they are infinite. The action of the divine will is in several respects similar to the action of the intellect which produces the Second Person, or the Word.

It is not transient or arbitrary, but is a necessity of the divine nature and is eternal; it never begins, it never took place, it is always in progress.

As it is an action in God, and as there is nothing in God that is not God, so this action or love is God. Otherwise, it is God acting in that way, for God is pure activity.

As the Divine Essence with the relations engendered in it by the action of the intellect is Father and Son, so the Divine Essence with the relations engendered in it by the action of the will is the Holy Ghost.

As it is with the action of the intellect producing the Son, so with the action of the will there must be two terms, that from which it proceeds and that towards which it moves. The Father and Son jointly are the term producing, the Holy Ghost is the term produced.

Like the intellect, the will of God has an infinite activity; it communicates the totality of the Divine Essence; and this so perfectly as to produce a conscious personality which is God.

As the Son is the fulness of the divine intelligence and the object produced by its action, so the Holy Ghost is the fulness of the divine love of Father and Son, produced by the action of Their reciprocal love. This completes the interior action of the Godhead; nothing more remains to be done, no other Person to be produced. There can be no more than the personified thought equal to the Godhead, and the personified love equal to the Godhead. Take care that the action of your will corresponds with your intelligence. You know God well. Do you love Him as well? Is your life as divine as your faith?

III. This mysterious productive action has no exact counterpart in creation. While the procession of the Second Person bears the specific name of Generation and its terms are Father and Son, we have to use the generic term Procession for the production of the Third Person, and the general term Holy Spirit for Him. The word Spiration is also used. There is an analogy between the eternal and temporal processions of the Divine Persons. The Son of God was born on earth and became the Son of the Holy Virgin; and He communicated the Holy Ghost by spiration or breathing on the Apostles, and sent Him on the day of Pentecost in the form of a mighty wind (spiritus) as well as of fiery tongues. The Apostle assures you that you are the temple of the Holy Ghost. How great are the privileges and honours heaped upon those who have submitted to the obedience of faith, who strive to live the life of God, and make use of the Holy Sacraments!