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St. Thomas' argument is an explanation of the doctrine
of faith and not a theological conclusion; or it may be
said to be a deduction of an explicitly revealed
proposition from two truths of faith.
A person is sent inasmuch as He exists in a new way in
another and is possessed by that other.[657] But a
divine person, already present in the ordinary way in all
things as the efficient cause (preserving their being)
does not exist in man in a new way except inasmuch as He
is known and loved by man, by an operation which attains
to Him and which cannot take place without habitual grace
and charity. Therefore a divine person is not sent
invisibly except according to grace gratum faciens, which
is connected with charity. The reader is referred to the
article.
The whole force of this explanation of the doctrine of
faith lies in the distinction between the general presence
of immensity, by which God is present as the efficient
cause (preserving the being of creatures) by the
continuation of the creative action, which is immediate,
namely, without any instrument (thus there is an
immediacy of power and the suppositum), and that special
presence by which God is present in the just man, not
only as an efficient cause but also as the object that is
known and loved.
The difficulty arises because the humanity of Christ and
the Blessed Virgin Mary are known by the just through
faith and they are loved by charity and yet they are not
said to be really present in the just; indeed they are
physically distant, for according to their natural being
they are in heaven. The humanity of Christ is not really
present except in heaven and in the Holy Eucharist. In
the Eucharist it is really present sacramentally.
God is not said to be especially present in the
philosopher who in the state of mortal sin knows the
existence of God and some of His attributes by
demonstration. Neither does God dwell in the Christian
who preserves faith and hope without charity.
To solve this difficulty, St. Thomas, in the body of
the article, says that it is by the knowledge and the love
of God that the just man attains to God Himself. These
words require explanation, and St. Thomas seeks to
throw light on them from the words of Sacred Scripture.
This supplementary explanation is found in the last
paragraph of the body of the article and in the replies to
the objections.
In the second paragraph we read: "Similarly, we are
said to possess only that which we can freely use and enjoy
(we use creatures and enjoy God). The possession of
the power to enjoy a divine person is vouchsafed only
according to grace gratum faciens (and charity). But in
the very gift of grace gratum faciens the Holy Ghost is
possessed and through it He dwells in the soul. Hence it
is the Holy Ghost Himself who is given and sent. It
follows from this that we are dealing not with any kind of
knowledge of God but with a quasi-experimental
knowledge, by which we enjoy God really present within us
and not removed from us. That is to say that natural
philosophic knowledge, or the knowledge of faith,
especially unformed faith, or prophetic knowledge, is not
sufficient; the knowledge of a living faith, of a living
faith endowed with gifts, is required, as we shall
explain below.
That the three persons be present in a special way in the
just man it is not necessary that this knowledge be
actual; it is sufficient that it be habitual, because the
indwelling perdures as long as the just man remains just,
even in sleep. But it is necessary that God be in the
just man not only as the efficient cause preserving his
being but also as an object that is experimentally knowable
(if not actually known) and lovable (if not actually
loved) and enjoyable. St. Thomas states these truths
more explicitly in the replies to the objections. In the
reply to the third objection he says: "Although the Son
can be known by us by certain other effects (besides
habitual grace), He does not dwell in us nor is He
possessed by us by these other effects." St. Thomas is
speaking here of that knowledge and love by which we enjoy
the divine person.
In another place St. Thomas said: "Not every kind of
knowledge is sufficient for this mission (of a divine
person) but only that knowledge which is received from
some gift appropriate to the person, that is, from the
gift by which the conjunction with God is effected in us,
and this must be according to the proper mode of that
person. Thus, when the Holy Ghost is given, it must
be according to love, and hence this knowledge is
quasi-experimental."[658] This is the basis of
mystical contemplation, which is experienced as something
eminent on the normal road to sanctity.[659]
Experimental or quasi-experimental knowledge concerns an
object that is not absent or distant but that is really
present, not only effectively, as an efficient cause,
but also as an object experimentally known.[660]
Commenting on the words, "For the Spirit Himself
giveth testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of
God,"[661] St. Thomas says that He gives
testimony through the effect of filial love which He
produces in us, that is, as the soul experimentally knows
itself through its acts, so proportionally the soul
quasi-experimentally knows God present within itself
inasmuch as God is the principle of filial love, which
proceeds under God's special inspiration. This is
expressed in the words of the disciples on the way to
Emmaus, "Was not our heart burning within us, whilst
He spoke in the way?"[662] Although the just man
does not have absolute certainty that he is in the state of
grace, under God's special inspiration he knows
quasi-experimentally that God is present within him.
As John of St. Thomas explains,[663] this
knowledge proceeds from a living faith illumined by the
gift of wisdom, as St. Thomas says:[664] "From
the quest of reason about divine things a right judgment
may be reached which leads to wisdom, which is an
intellectual virtue. But reaching a right judgment about
divine things through a state of being connatural with them
belongs to that wisdom which is the gift of the Holy
Ghost, as Dionysius said, 'Hierotheos is perfect in
divine things, not only learning them but also
experiencing them (that is, by being connatural and
sympathetic with them under the special inspiration of the
Holy Ghost). This sympathy or connaturality with
divine things takes place through charity, which unites us
to God, according to the words, But he who is joined to
the Lord, is one spirit.'"[665] This gift is
possessed by all the just.[666]
In the reply to the third objection, St. Thomas says
that the prophetic spirit is not enough, because it does
not unite us to God and to His inner life; it only
manifests something announced by God. With regard to the
reply to the second objection, it should be noted that
grace and charity are, as it were, the disposition for
receiving the Holy Ghost Himself, and that the Holy
Ghost is the efficient cause of grace. Thus in the same
moment in the order of efficient causality the Holy Ghost
first infuses charity, and in the order of material
causality charity is first in disposing the soul to
receiving the Holy Ghost. Thus charity is the
disposition for the form, and later it becomes the
property of that same form.
Doubt. Does this special presence of the Holy Trinity
as an object necessarily presuppose the other presence of
God as the efficient cause that preserves us in being;
and even if it presupposes this other presence, is the
special presence real of itself like an accident, which is
real of itself although it presupposes a substance, or is
it only representative, as when something physically
distant is represented?
According to the common opinion of the Thomists,
especially John of St. Thomas, this special presence
of God as an object necessarily presupposes the other
presence of God as the efficient cause that preserves us
in being. But even of itself this special presence is
real and not merely representative as of some distant
thing. To explain this reply we present two mutually
opposed interpretations, proposed by Vasquez and
Suarez.
According to Vasquez,[667] God's special mode of
existence in the just by grace does not of itself require
the real presence of God, so that, if God were not
really present by His general presence, He would not be
really present by charity but He would be present
affectively, as a distant friend, or as the humanity of
Christ or the Blessed Virgin, who are physically
distant. Vasquez lost sight of the fact that the Blessed
Trinity is in the just as an object that is
quasi-experimentally knowable, namely, as an object
really present and not distant.
Suarez,[668] on the other hand, held that the
mission of the divine persons so gives the divine persons
that they are really present in the just even if God were
not present in them causally and physically present as
preserving them in being. And this real, special
presence of God in the just, according to Suarez, is
based on that exigency of created charity of the just,
even here on earth, which demands that God be really
present as a friend and not only affectively present.
The reply of the Thomists given above appears to be
between these two mutually opposed opinions. For, in
opposition to Vasquez, the Thomists hold that this
special presence of God is not only the affective presence
of a loved and distant friend, but that it is the presence
of God quasi-experimentally knowable as present, and as
sometimes experimentally known in act.
To depart from this view is to minimize the words of
Scripture and depart from their obvious sense. Our Lord
said: "If anyone love Me, he will keep My word, and
My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and
will make Our abode with him,"[669] that is, we
will really come. This would not be true of a person who
is distant and who becomes present only affectively and by
representation as by a letter or by memory. Again the
sense of St. Paul's words would not be preserved:
"The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by
the Holy Ghost, who is given to us,"[670] but who
is not given to the unjust, in whom God is already
present by His general presence. Again, St. Paul
would not be speaking the truth: "Know you not, that
you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God
dwelleth ill you?"[671] that is, really dwells in
you. This is not said of the Blessed Virgin, although
she is venerated by the faithful as their spiritual
mother.
Finally, in opposition to Vasquez we should say that,
if his opinion were true, this special presence,
minimized in his sense, would be verified not only in the
just but also in believing sinners, in whom God, already
present by His general presence, is present as the known
object of unformed infused faith and as the object of hope
and of inefficacious love. According to Vasquez'
opinion we would not be able to explain St. Thomas'
texts: "The invisible mission takes place according to
the gift of grace gratum faciens, and yet the divine
person Himself is given," and "the just man enjoys the
divine person Himself."[672]
St. Thomas also says: "Besides grace, no other
perfection added to the substance makes God to be present
in another as the known and loved object, and therefore
grace alone brings about this singular mode of God's
presence in creatures."[673] Therefore, according
to St. Thomas, by grace and charity the Trinity is not
only objectively and affectively present as a distant
friend, but the Trinity is also really objectively
present as an object quasi-experimentally knowable and as
sometimes actually known in some such manner as the soul is
really and objectively present to itself, as an object
quasi-experimentally knowable through its actions. Hence
we cannot admit the opinion of Vasquez.
What are we to think of Suarez' opinion? According to
him the charity of the Christian here on earth requires
not only the affective but the real presence of God, who
is therefore really in the soul even if He had not already
been present as the efficient cause.
In reply many Thomists, especially John of St.
Thomas, say that the love of friendship, even when it is
supernatural, effects a formal effective union, which
exists between distant friends, but it does not effect a
real union, which cannot be had without experimental
knowledge of the object really present.[674] Thus
St. Thomas says that love formally produces a union
according to affection and desires a union in fact, or a
real union.[675] Moreover, the fact that by charity
we love the humanity of Christ and the Blessed Virgin
Mary does not make them really present in us but only
affectively present.
Finally St. Thomas says: "Bliss, which is the
attainment of the last end, formally consists in the
beatific vision and not in love."[676] He goes on
to say, "The attainment of the last end does not consist
in the act of the will itself. The will is directed to
the end when it is absent, and then it desires the end,
and also to the end when it is present, and then the will
rejoices in the possession of the end. We attain the
end, however, when it becomes present to us by the act of
the intellect, and then the will rests in the fruition of
the end." Hence John of St. Thomas and other
Thomists conclude that the real presence of the three
divine persons is a prerequisite for their special
presence, and that the real presence takes place by
efficient causality, according to which God preserves us
in being (by contact with His power), whether this be
the being of nature or the being of grace.
Nevertheless this special presence is in its own right
real because we are speaking here of God as
quasi-experimentally known. Analogically, an accident,
in order that it be real, presupposes a substance, at
least the accident inheres in a substance according to its
aptitude, and yet the accident in its own right is
something real, that is, being is intrinsically found in
it. Somewhat similar to this is the dependence of the
special presence of God on His general presence, and
both presences are real, although in a different manner.
The general presence is formally the presence of the
efficient cause preserving us in being, whereas the
special presence is the presence of an object
quasi-experimentally knowable and enjoyable and sometimes
actually known and enjoyed.
We may add with the Salmanticenses[677] that, if by
an impossible hypothesis God were not already present in
the soul of the just man as preserving his natural being,
in the instant when grace and charity are infused God
would begin to be really present as preserving grace and
charity, which are His most proper effects, and at the
same time God would be present as the object
quasi-experimentally knowable and sometimes actually known
and loved.
This may be illustrated by two analogies. 1. When God
is clearly seen He is present in the saints in two ways:
a) as preserving them in their natural and supernatural
being; b) as the object clearly seen and experimentally
known and continually loved above all things. 2. Our
souls are really present to themselves, a) as the
radical, physical principle of the soul's own actions;
b) as an object that is not distant and that is
experimentally knowable in its operations. This opinion
of John of St. Thomas has recently been presented again
as the true interpretation of St. Thomas' doctrine by
Father Gardeil.[678] Thus the triune God is the
principle and the efficient cause of our supernatural
life, especially with regard to those acts which are not
produced without God's special inspiration; and thus
sometimes God manifests Himself in the shadows of faith
as an object that is quasi-experimentally known.
Doubt. Does Sacred Scripture speak of this
quasi-experimental knowledge of God dwelling in the souls
of the just? The reply is in the affirmative. Sacred
Scripture frequently mentions it: "For the Spirit
Himself giveth testimony to our spirit, that we are the
sons of God";[679] "His unction teacheth you of
all things, and is truth, and is no lie";[680]
"But you shall know Him; because He shall abide with
you, and shall be in you";[681] "To him that
overcometh, I will give the hidden manna,. . . which
no man knoweth but he that receiveth it";[682] "He
that loveth not, knoweth not God,"[683] that is,
does not know God quasi-experimentally, although he may
know Him by reason or faith.
Doubt. Why does St. Thomas call this knowledge
quasi-experimental?[684] For two reasons: 1.
because this knowledge does not attain to God altogether
immediately but only in the filial affection which God
excites in us;[685] 2. because we are not able with
complete certitude to distinguish this supernatural filial
affection from a similar natural and inefficacious
affection which comes from sentiment. Therefore we have
no absolute certainty that we are in the state of grace.
But still amid the shadows of faith the just man here on
earth under the special inspiration of the Holy Ghost can
sometimes say with the disciples on the road to Emmaus:
"Was not our heart burning within us, whilst He spoke
in the way?"[686] St. Thomas remarks: "He who
truly receives grace knows it by experiencing a certain
sweetness, which he who does not receive grace does not
experience."[687] In this way St. Thomas
explains the words of the Apocalypse,[688] "To him
that overcometh, I will give the hidden manna,. . .
which no man knoweth but he that receiveth it."[689]
Finally the effects and signs of the indwelling of the
Holy Trinity are described by St. Thomas in the
Contra Gentes[690] and also in the following
articles of this question. The signs listed in the
Contra Gentes are as follows: 1. the testimony of a
good conscience; 2. the frequent hearing of the word of
God; 3. an inner taste for divine wisdom; 4.
conversation with God; 5. joy in God by fully
assenting to Him even in adversity; 6. the liberty of
the sons of God, by which the just are freed from
inordinate passions; 7. conversation about divine things
from the fullness of the heart. It would be a great
mistake to confuse these signs with sentiment, which is
nothing more than an affectation of the love of God,
where there is actually no love of God or where it is only
cold and indifferent.
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