The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit In The Souls Of The Just. Part 26.

According To The Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas

PART SECOND

GOD'S SPECIAL PRESENCE OR THE INDWELLING 

OF THE HOLY GHOST IN THE SOULS 

OF THE JUST

CHAPTER I

The Fact of God's Special Presence in the Just. 

The Sending and the Bestowal of God the 

Holy Ghost; His Indwelling 

in the Soul

"Over and above the ordinary and common manner in which God is present in all things (namely, by His essence, His power, and His presence, as the cause is present in the effects which are a participation in His goodness), there is another and a special presence which is appropriate to rational nature, a presence by which God is said to be present as that which is known is present to the being who knows, and as that which is loved is present to the being who loves. And because a rational and a loving creature by its operation in knowing and loving is placed in contact with God Himself, for that reason it is said that God by this special manner of presence is not only in a rational creature, but also that He dwells in it as in His temple. No other effect than sanctifying grace can be the reason why of this new manner of presence of the Divine Person. It is therefore solely by sanctifying grace that the Divine Person is thus sent forth and proceeds temporarily. . . . And always, together with grace, one receives also the Holy Spirit Himself, Who is thus given and sent.''

Despite their brevity, these words of St. Thomas contain a wonderful summary of the question we are studying. Here we find clear mention of, first, the! fact of this special presence of God in the soul which is in the state of grace; second, the nature of this presence; it is a substantial, that is to say, a most real presence; God is present not merely by His favors, but in: Person; third, the mode of this presence: He is there no longer in the capacity of an active or efficient cause, but as a Guest and a Friend, as an object of knowledge and love; fourth, the subjects who alone can benefit by such a gift, must be rational beings; fifth, the condition for this presence is the state of grace.

To be well understood, these considerations should each be deeply pondered; they shall receive a treatment proportioned to the difficulties each may present, and to the degree of their importance. We shall devote our attention first to the fact of this special presence of God in the souls of the just.

The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit In The Souls Of The Just. Part 25.

According To The Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas

What are we to conclude from all this, save that God is present in all beings and in all places, not as the liquid in the vessel that contains it, since God cannot be contained by creatures, but rather that it is He Who contains them by preserving them; nor as a constituent element of these creatures as the soul is present to the body, for this would be Pantheism; but as the cause and as the active principle is present to the object upon which it exerts an immediate influence. He is present everywhere, not directly and immediately by His substance, although there is no space from which the latter is absent, but rather by His operation and the contact of His power; for the Divine substance being absolute needs no relation with beings existing in time, and being simple and without parts, it, in order to be present any and everywhere, does not have to extend itself through space. Yet since operation, operative power, and substance are not really distinct one from another in God, we must affirm that wherever there is an immediate effect due to the Divine causality, there God is really and substantially present. And as there is not a single creature on which God does not exert His activity to preserve and to move it, it follows that God is present everywhere, not only by His action or power, but also by His essence.

When, therefore, Scripture speaks of God as filling heaven and earth: "Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?"  these words are not to be taken in their literal meaning any more than the other anthropomorphisms found so plentifully in Holy Writ. God's immensity, as we have often insisted, must not be understood in the sense of extension, and we cannot liken it to a boundless ocean containing in its depths all existing things, interpenetrating each portion of the created world and overflowing on all sides. It is to commentators and to theologians that we must appeal for the true meaning hidden under the expressions the Holy Spirit has employed in order that He might be understood by all. Such was the attitude of St. Thomas toward the above text.

And since being and the other perfections are communicated to creatures in degrees that vary amazingly —from the grain of sand up to that highest of heavenly spirits—the presence of God as efficient cause has also innumerable degrees, according to the measure in which each creature shares in the Divine perfection.

The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit In The Souls Of The Just. Part 24.

According To The Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas

IV

Although, therefore, God is everywhere and wholly present in every place, He is not equally present everywhere. There are certain places where He dwells in such a particular manner that one might call these places the home or dwelling house of God. It is in these privileged spots, according to St. John Damascene, that the Divine operation is most manifest. Such was the spot, in days of yore, where Jehovah was pleased to reveal himself to Jacob in wondrous visions, and called by him "the house of God and the gate of heaven." Again, at the sight of the miracles performed in his favor, and of the mystical ladder between earth and heaven which he beheld in a dream, as well as in the marvelous promises made to him by the God of his fathers, the holy patriarch recognized a special presence of the Divinity even in the heart of the desert. Under the old law, God dwelt in a special way in the tabernacle built by Moses, and later in the temple of Jerusalem, where His presence was made manifest under the form of a mysterious cloud.

Finally, how can we fail to recognize a special presence of the Divinity (were it only as the efficient Cause), in the prophets to whose minds the Holy Ghost unveiled the future, and in the other inspired writers, as well as in the Apostles whom He assisted and enlightened; in the saints, who_receive more abundant graces; in the Church, which He safeguards from error, sanctifies and defends against her enemies: in a word, wheresoever His operation is more plainly felt, wheresoever His favors are distributed more lavishly, in the natural order as well as in the order of grace. And because it is in heaven that God's action displays itself with the greatest splendor, because it is there that His Divine bounty becomes, as it were, forgetful of all limitation— it is there, according to St. Bernard, that God is present in so special a manner, that by comparison in other places He is not present at all. This is why we pray in the Lord's prayer: "Our Father, Who art in heaven"

The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit In The Souls Of The Just. Part 23.

According To The Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas

St. Prosper: "It is not in passing over space that we come nearer to God or go farther from Him, but it is by similarity or dissimilarity to Him." 

Our own soul may furnish an analogy. While it is in its substance entirely present in the whole body and in each part, it is nevertheless more specially and fully and perfectly united to the head, the seat of all the senses, than to the rest of the organism. This is easily explained. In order to perform the functions of the many faculties with which it is endowed, the soul needs a variety of organs, all of which are not met with throughout all the body, but are found united only in the head. In all truth, we can say that, although "the soul is present entirely and substantially in the whole body, and in each part, it is, however, by its power, more chiefly and excellently present in the brain," as St. Bernard has said.

It can now be understood how, notwithstanding His perfectly indivisible simplicity, God can be here more than there; and how His presence as an efficient cause, though formally and specifically the same everywhere, can, when considered in its extension, vary, so to say, infinitely according to the very measure of the Divine activity. In this sense His presence is more complete, more excellent, and more perfect where the results of His activity are more multiplied and of a higher nature, while it decreases in the same measure as the effects of His Divine power are more remote from the perfection of the cause which produced them. This accounts for the saying, that some beings are near to God while others are far from Him. Here it is question not of a material or local relation, but of a likeness or unlikeness of nature or of grace. Thus, the angels—brightest mirrors of the Divinity, mundissima Divinitatis specula, as St. Dionysius calls them—dwell, as it were, in the very vestibule of the adorable Trinity, because, being the most perfect of creatures, they are nearer to God. Material beings, on the contrary, are relegated to the lowest grade of creation, and thus are further away from God because of the unlikeness of their nature to His. Man, being made of both spirit and matter, holds the middle place between these two classes of beings. Although less united to God than the pure spirits, he having a soul, is incomparably nearer to Him than are irrational creatures who have not the power to lift themselves up to their Creator by knowledge and love. This is why it is said that man was created to the image and likeness of God, whereas only a vestige of the Divinity is to be found in animals, plants, and inorganic beings.

Still further below the material world is the place occupied by the sinner, because of his moral unlikeness to God. Of him alone does Holy Writ speak when it says that the Lord is far from the wicked.  St. Augustine, speaking of his sinful life, says of his own previous state of sinfulness: "I was then far off in the region of unlikeness." Such words have become current in Christian speech. Talking about a person, who, for a long time has been neglectful of his religious duties, and who wallows in sin, we say: "He lives far from God." But let him begin to show better dispositions, and then we say: "He is drawing nearer to God." These expressions are most appropriate; for, according to St. Prosper: "It is not in passing over space that we come nearer to God or go farther from Him, but it is by similarity or dissimilarity to Him." 

The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit In The Souls Of The Just. Part 22.

According To The Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas

III

After the foregoing explanation it will not be difficult to understand the Angelic Doctor, when he says that God is in all things, as the cause is in the effects which participate in the causal goodness. This is but another way of saying that God is present to creatures as efficient cause, first, by His operation, for it is requisite that every principle or cause of action shall enjoy immediate contact with the object of its action;, and then by reason of His benefits, which constitute the purpose of His operation; namely, by the created, finite contingent, communicated perfection which He communicates to creatures of this world as so many remote imitations, imperfect copies or analogical participation's in the Divine Essence. Indeed, it is the peculiar quality of an efficient cause to communicate more or less of the perfection of its own self with its effects, and to be not only in forceful contact with them at the first moment and during the continuance of its operation, but even to transmit to them its own similitude. It is even natural to an efficient cause to produce something which resembles itself, and the perfection of the effect is none other than a reproduction of and participation in and resemblance to the perfection of the cause. "That which is in God perfectly, is found in other things by a certain deficient participation."

God, then, is the universal Cause of all existence, for all the beings of the world are the effects of His power. "All, then, must possess something of God within themselves, not any portion of His substance, but a likeness of and participation in His goodness," after the manner of a foot-print or image.  Moreover, since the effects of the Divine activity are different in different creatures, and the Divine benefits are far from being equally distributed—whether we consider the order of nature or of grace—it follows that those which have a greater share in the blessings of the Creator are by that very fact nearer and more united to God and richer in their possession of Him. In turn, "God as active principle, exists more perfectly in those creatures which are more indebted to His munificence, for as He is present directly and immediately by virtue of His activity, He is consequently more closely united to the beings in whom He has worked the greatest things." 16 If God's substance, so simple and single and indivisible, knowing neither separation nor division, cannot be anywhere unless it be there entirely, it is not the same with His operation and His all-embracing power, which, while free to realize itself externally in the measure it judges right, is brought by a multitude of ways into contact with different creatures.

The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit In The Souls Of The Just. Part 21.

According To The Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas

In speaking of creatures, then, as entities participating of the deity, we wish to assert two truths: first, creatures do not possess being in all its fullness, but have merely a part of it, varying among themselves in quantity if you will, but essentially limited and restricted; secondly, this limited and restricted being does not accrue to them in any essential manner, even in virtue of their nature, but has been communicated to them by an extrinsic cause—God. In much the same way to the glowing steel has been imparted warmth and brilliancy by the operation of an outside agency, not because its nature demands it, but because it is igneous only by participation.
The Divine being, on the contrary, is not a borrowed being, a being proceeding from another. God holds His being from no one, for He has it by virtue of His nature. "He is, then, self-existent being Ens per se, being by essence, Ens per essentiam, in opposition to being that is contingent and dependent on another— Ens ab alio, ens per participationem. He is also preeminent being, self-subsistent, ipsum esse per se subsistens, and consequently He is infinite being, the very plenitude of being, ipsa plenitudo essendi. And if He is being in all its fullness, nothing can exist beyond Him, which is not traceable to Him as to its source, and which is not present in Him in a supereminent manner. Thus whatever being is outside of Him cannot be called simply being (ipsum esse simpliciter), rather they are beings —that is to say, participations in and imitations of being, entia per participationem." (St. Thomas, Contra Gent., 1, II., c. xv.)

What we have said of being should be applied to all the other perfections as well. All that God is, He is by Himself, by His essence, and consequently without measure. Hence He is not merely intelligent, wise, good, loving, powerful; He is intelligence and wisdom itself, infinite goodness and love and power, the source of all understanding and goodness. On the contrary, the creature can well be intelligent, wise, good and powerful, but is not intelligence itself, nor wisdom, nor love. Its perfections do not constitute its essence, but are simply either its powers, or properties, or operations, distinct from its essence, and limited as is the latter. In a word, these are participated perfections.

The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit In The Souls Of The Just. Part 20.

According To The Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas

To understand the meaning and the force of these words, we must recall a beautiful doctrine borrowed by the Angel of the Schools from the Greek Fathers, particularly from St. Dionysius, who had himself taken it from the writings of Plato.

According to Plato's teachings, and they coincide on this point with the teachings of Faith, every created being is a participation in the Divine being, and every created perfection is in some manner a participation in infinite perfection. Thus our nature is a participation in the Divine perfection; the light of our intelligence is a participation in the uncreated intelligence; our life, a participation in the life of God. Briefly, every particle of goodness, of perfection, of being in any creature whatsoever, is a participation in the being and goodness of God.

We must not conceive this communication of God to His creatures as a division of the Divine essence, just as one divides and distributes the parts of a fruit; rather, the Divine essence preserves its unity and fullness. Nor should we regard it as an emanation properly so-called, or a flowing out, an effusion of the Divine substance as rivulets flow from a single source, or as a warm body sheds its rays and heat upon everything that is near. The Divine goodness externizes itself by producing beings like unto itself, yet without any diminution of the Divine substance; for only its likeness is imparted to creatures. The process is akin to the impression of the seal on the wax, without any communication of the former's substance to the latter.

Hence this participation of creatures in the Divine goodness is not any community of being and perfection. Such a doctrine is pantheistic. Creatures have their own being, and their own goodness, which is at once the intrinsic and the formal cause, making them what they are. They are related to God inasmuch as God is their extrinsic cause, and this in a threefold sense, namely, the ideal according to which they have been created; the efficient cause; and the final and ultimate cause of their creation.

Not without reason then did the Fathers, and, under their influence, St. Thomas, speak of creatures as beings by participation, and of their perfections as participated perfections. In so speaking they had a twofold purpose; first, clearly to establish the profound difference between the Creator and creature, or rather the abyss which separates them; second, to impress upon men the fact, that every created being essentially depends on God as upon its exemplar and its efficient cause of existence. Indeed, the very words, participated being, signify a being that is finite, limited, restricted; for participation in anything, a family heritage, for example, means to take a part and not have entire possession. The same words further imply a borrowed being, a contingent being, a being proceeding from another being, and essentially depending upon some extrinsic cause. From the very fact that a thing is not being itself in all its plenitude—the ocean of being—but a mere rivulet or stream, it follows that what it possesses of being is not its own in virtue even of its essence, but comes to it from without, just as every tiny stream supposes a generating spring or fountain.