According To The Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas
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.
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.
