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1. The distinction between the two orders of nature and
grace appears more clearly from the fact that the mystery
of the Trinity is entirely indemonstrable. Indeed, as
has been said, the possibility or repugnance of this
mystery cannot be proved or disproved; it can only be set
forth as plausible. If the possibility of this mystery
could be proved, by this very fact the existence of the
Trinity would be proved, because the existence of the
Trinity is not contingent but necessary.
By the revelation of the Trinity the dogma of the freedom
of creation is confirmed, and a clear solution is offered
to the objection presented by the absolute optimism of
Plato, Leibnitz, and Malebranche. This objection is
clothed in the following syllogism: good is essentially
diffusive of itself; but God is the highest good;
therefore He is essentially diffusive of Himself by
creation, which is, therefore, at least morally
necessary so that the actual world must be the best
possible world. Leibnitz said: "If God had not
created, He would not be good or wise." To which
Bossuet replied: "God is not any greater for having
created the universe."
The Vatican Council defined the absolute freedom of
creation in these words: "By His most free counsel God
created all things. . . . not for the sake of
increasing His happiness or acquiring it, but to manifest
His perfection by the good things which He bestows on
creatures."[695] Therefore creation is an
expression of God's most voluntary liberality and
generosity.[696]
To the objection based on the principle, "good is
diffusive of itself," we reply by making a distinction:
good is diffusive either according to nature, as the sun
diffuses its light, or according to the will and
liberality. "Since the goodness of God is perfect and
can exist without any other, and since nothing of
perfection accrues to Him from others, it follows that it
is not absolutely necessary for God to will other things
besides Himself."[697]
This reply is confirmed by the revelation of the mystery
of the Blessed Trinity, for in this mystery is verified
completely and necessarily the aforesaid principle, "good
is essentially diffusive of itself." This principle is
verified in the infinite fecundity of the divine nature.
In the Contra Gentes St. Thomas states: "The
higher a nature is the more that which emanates from that
nature is intimate to the nature."[698] Thus in
generating the Son, God the Father communicates to Him
not only His ideas as in the creation of things, not only
grace and charity as in our justification, but His entire
nature.[699] If the necessary diffusion or the
necessary fecundity is such in the Trinity, it follows
that creation, which is diffusion ad extra, is free and
in no way necessary, since the principle, "good is
diffusive of itself," is verified in God before the
creation. And the principle is verified on a plane which
is above the order of causality whether efficient or final
by the communication of the entire divine nature to the
Son after the manner of intellection and likewise to the
Holy Ghost after the manner of love.
2. This mystery shows that the intimate life of God is
the perfect life of intellection and of love.
It is the perfect life of intellection, in which not only
a multiple and accidental word is conceived but in which
the unique and substantial Word is conceived, in whom in
one instant all possible and future things are known. The
reason is that in God intellection is not an accident but
the same as substantial being, and the terminus of the
intellection, the Word, is likewise
substantial.[700] In this perfect life of
intellection the three divine persons live by the one
intellection out of the same infinite truth in the perfect
comprehension of their own intimate life.
The mystery of the Trinity also shows that God's
intimate life is the perfect life of love, so that the
three persons, by one and the same essential love, love
the supreme good, with which they are identified. In
this love there is a perfect union of the three persons
without any inordination of love, without any egoism;
indeed the entire personality of the Father is the
relation to the Son, the entire personality of the Son
is the relation to the Father, and the entire personality
of the Holy Ghost is the relation to the Father and to
the Son.
This mystery may be summed up as follows: the Father is
God, the Son is God, the Holy Ghost is God, but
the Father is not the Son, because no one generates
himself, and the Father and the Son are not the Holy
Ghost. All this remains hidden to us, but in speaking
of the mystery we avoid contradictions, although we are
unable to demonstrate the possibility or non-repugnance of
the mystery. This possibility is neither proved or
disproved; it is only set forth as plausible, as is the
fitness of the Trinity or the fecundity of the divine
nature ad intra. Again and again we can return to the
study of the reasons for the fitness of the Trinity since
these reasons are most profound, although they are not
demonstrative; they tend to the evidence not of
demonstration but of the beatific vision, as the polygon
inscribed in a circle tends to the circumference of the
circle as its sides are multiplied in infinity.
3. In the revelation of the Blessed Trinity the
intimate life of God appears as the supreme exemplar of
the life of grace, especially since our adoptive filiation
is an analogical likeness participating in the eternal
natural filiation.
As God communicated to His Son His entire nature so
He communicates to us a participation of His nature, or
the principle of operation by which we are able to see God
directly as He sees Himself and to love Him as He loves
Himself. Speaking of the similarity of these two
filiations, St. Thomas said: "The adoptive filiation
is a certain likeness participating in the natural
filiation; but it takes place in us as appropriated to the
Father, who is the natural principle of filiation, and
through the gift of the Holy Ghost, who is the love of
the Father and the Son."[701] St. Thomas refers
to this adoptive filiation in explaining the following
texts: "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to
be made conformable to the image of His Son; that He
might be the first-born among many brethren";[702]
"That which we have seen and have heard, we declare unto
you, that you also may have fellowship with us, and our
fellowship may be with the Father and with His Son
Jesus Christ";[703] "Be you therefore perfect,
as also your heavenly Father is perfect."[704]
The procession of the Holy Ghost is also a supreme
exemplar of our charity, for, as St. Thomas says,
"The Son is not any Word but the Word that spirates
love."[705] Therefore all our knowledge of God
should spirate charity toward God and our neighbor. St.
Thomas defines a devil as "one who does not love."
This similarity between Gods love and ours was expressed
by our Lord Himself: "Holy Father, keep them. .
., that they may be one, as We also are. . . . As
Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee; that they also
may be one in US."[706] That is, as the Father
and the Son are one in the unity of nature and as they
love each other in the Holy Ghost, who is personal
love, the terminus of notional love, so Christians
should be one in God and among one another by grace,
which is the participation of the divine nature.
In this way the image not only of the one God but of the
triune God will be perfected in the soul, for as God the
Father knows Himself in the Word and loves Himself and
the Son in the Holy Ghost so the Christian soul should
not only know itself but God Himself
quasi-experimentally and continuously and to love Him
always. In heaven this image of the Trinity will be
definitively perfected, for there the blessed continually
and directly know God as He knows Himself and they love
Him as He loves Himself.
With regard to the special relations of the sons of God
with each divine person, it should be noted: 1. that
the three persons are one principle of operation ad
extra,[707] because they operate through the
intellect, the will, and the omnipotence, which are
common to all three; further, the adoption of men belongs
to the entire Trinity, and therefore in the Our
Father, "Father" is predicated essentially and not
personally of the first person alone;[708] 2.
nevertheless the adoption is appropriated to the Father as
the author, to the Son as the exemplar, and to the Holy
Ghost as to the one who imprints the character on the
soul. St. Thomas says: "The adoptive sonship is a
certain likeness participating in the (divine) natural
filiation, but it takes place in us as appropriated to the
Father, who is the principle of natural filiation, and
through the gift of the Holy Ghost, who is the love of
the Father and of the Son";[709] "Although this
adoption is common to the entire Trinity, it is
appropriated to the Father as the author, to the Son as
the exemplar, and to the Holy Ghost as the one who
imprints on us the likeness of the exemplar."[710]
This adoption is imperfect by grace in this life and
perfect in glory. God, dwelling in the saints, in the
one immobile instant of eternity generates the Son in the
saints and spirates in them the Holy Ghost, and He
assimilates the saints to Himself by preserving in them
consummated grace, the light of glory, and charity that
can never be lost, so that the prayer of Christ will be
verified in them: "That they all may be one, as Thou,
Father, in Me, and I in Thee; that they also may be
one in Us; that the world may believe that Thou hast
sent Me."[711]
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