God The Holy Ghost part 6.

By Henry Aloysius Barry

From the beginning of the world, men, who stood in the sanctuary of creation and erred have been blamed for not having seen God in them. Today God might say of their successors or religious descendants, "They probably err, seeking God, and desirous of finding Him," yet finally conclude as follows :—" How did they not more easily find out the Lord thereof?" They have fallen slain in the vestibule of heaven. The lens they employed was not of the right quality. "Unhappy are they and their hope is among the dead." (v, 10.) Men do not seek God in life,— "They liked not to have God in their knowledge,' (Rom. i, 28.) "Holding these things for God's, which are the most worthless among beasts, living after the manner of children, without understanding." (Chap, xii.) "Professing themselves to be wise," says St. Paul, "they become fools." (Rom. i, 22.) All this deadly ignorance and idolatry of life evinces a radical blunder, something wrong. When Ignatius surveyed the starry beauties, he saw with a proper lens. The Holy Ghost was in him. He photographed God's works in the right light, from the proper position—the end of man:

To know, love, praise, reverence and serve God, in this life, so as to be forever happy with Him in heaven; he smoked the glass of his lens in the flames of his christian love. Withdrawing, he developed out of the view, not in his studio, but rather oratory, the lineaments of Godhead. There he "searched out the wisdom, that goeth before all things." (Eccl. i, 3.)—the power and goodness of their Maker. The plate he used was spiritual and not merely intellectual; and God the Creator became engraven upon his soul, a breathing, living force, transforming and uplifting; for' he studied the lines of Godhead so revealed and built his own life along these lines. He studied God in the direct purpose of inflaming his will and heart with love. He got interior views of Christ. "And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what the Spirit desireth, because He asketh for the saints according to God. And we know that to them that love God all things work together unto good, to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints.' (Rom. viii, 27:8.) The spirit of man is the divine element within him, as Tertullian puts it;— "limum in Deum Solidatum " —God turned a little God out of the slime. The breath of God raised the human creature above the mere slime. This breath imparted to the mind a moral and intellectual power. So far, however, man is no more than human, though, divinely-human. He can as yet, not enter the hidden counsels of Divinity and be free to go behind the veil. Something more than nature gives him is required. Darkness and mystery of Godhead is as yet his lot— "Wisdom is from the Lord." (Eccl. i, 1); "He created her in the Holy Ghost, and poured her out on all flesh according to His gift" (v. 10) "to them that love Him." This love is rooted in reverent fear:—"The fear of the Lord is the religiousness of knowledge," (v, 17.)—not indeed disturbance and terror, but reverent, calm awe, what the Breviary observes, on the feast of St Linus, to be "the fear of Saints." This keen perceptiveness of Divinity and true knowledge of love emanates from the Holy Ghost. The world at large is blind toward heavenly knowledge; it is carnal, animalistic or, at most, purely human. God-head is still hidden from them. The Holy Ghost does not illuminate where thrives the germ of darkness; the Prince of Gloom must be forced to furl his banner. Sin must fold her tents. This is the secret of the heart's intellectual and moral darkness, spiritual ignorance, vanity, idolatry and despair:—"Son, if thou desire wisdom, keep justice, and God will give her to thee." (v. 33.)

The Holy Ghost makes the creature, that is merely human, humanly-divine; it becomes, thenceforth, man's right to cast his mind among the stars, for, his end is there, by virtue of the spirit's touch— starward! In the new economy all things are made convergent thereunto, in value and motive—"I will not hide from you the mysteries of God." The prophet trembled at the thought of such spiritually intellectual and moral darkness and crouched from spiritual ignorance touching Godhead; he feared, deeply, the alternative idolatry, which millions commit on earth every day, namely, that of living only for the world and being blind, in whole or in part, to supernatural destiny. The prophet shuddered at a possible lapse into this frightful source of human blunders— the unaided light of reason, —naturalism: "to worship the vilest creatures;" (Wisdom, xv, 18); "to have fled from the grace of God and from His blessing." (v. 19.) Shrill and loud and sustentato, his cry arose, "Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me." (Ps. 1, 12, 13.) Hear the bugle note, with its quivering, far-reaching tones! But the prophet realized that the Holy Ghost, the Source of Light, must be removed from his soul, and night dews must needs gather and lie heavy on his life, unless his heart were constantly bent upon God and riveted to Him, above all His creatures. —"Create a clean heart in me, O God." This prayer clearly shows us that the prophet accepts God's invitation to come and dwell in Him; sin is to be stringently barred out; idols are to be speedily deported; images of sensuality, of money, of honors,—all are to be struck from their niches and crushed to the dust—"For two things shall they be punished, because they have not thought well of God, giving heed to idols." (Wisdom, xiv, 30.)