Sect. 151Function of the Supernatural Order in the Divine Plan of the UniverseFunction of the Supernatural Order in the Divine Plan of the Universe
I. The ultimate end of all things created is the glory of the Creator. This is attained in three ways: by the manifestation of the Divine Power and Love, by the worship paid by creatures, and by the creatures’ eternal happiness in the possession of God. In the natural order this threefold glory would be very imperfectly obtained. In the supernatural order, on the contrary, it is brought about with such perfection that nothing short of a hypostatic union of the creature with God could surpass it. The reader who has followed the present treatise will find no difficulty in this statement. In the elevation of the creature to the participation of God’s own life, the Divine Power and Love assert themselves to a degree far beyond their manifestation in the creation of nature. The supernatural worship given by the sons of God is far more perfect than the servile worship of mere creatures. As St. Gregory of Nazianzum says, “God is united to gods, and known by them;” He is properly the God of gods and the Lord of lords. Lastly, the beatific vision is a mode of possessing God, the perfection of which essentially surpasses the perfection of the possession by natural knowledge and love. In this manner, then, the end of all things, that God should be “All in all” (1 Cor. 15:28), is completely fulfilled: creatures are united to God as intimately as if they were one with Him; God, as the principle, the subject-matter, and the final object of all their spiritual life, replenishes, penetrates, and pervades them. The creature is “called back to Him from Whom it sprang,” the infinite distance between it and the Creator being bridged over by the beatific vision. Although the creature and God cannot be “one being,” yet they become one through the most intimate union and fellowship.
II. The supernatural order contributes, in quite a special manner, to the attainment of the highest and final object of the universe by externally manifesting the internal productions in the Blessed Trinity and the communion and fellowship of the Divine Persons.
1. The elevation of creatures to the godlike state of adoptive sons is an imitation and, therefore, a manifestation of the eternal generation of God the Son. Considered as a communication of Divine Nature by love, it is also an image and, as it were, an extension or ramification of the eternal procession of the Holy Ghost.
2. The development of godlike life, through the knowledge and love of God as He is in Himself, is a reflection of the eternal productions of the Logos and the Holy Ghost.
3. Through grace the creature participates in the Divine Nature, and thus enters into fellowship with the Divine Persons (1 John 1:3). This Divine fellowship is subject to the law which also rules human friendship: “Friendship either finds the friends equal or makes them so; all that they have becomes each other’s.” The position which this fellowship secures to the creature is best expressed by the formula generally adopted since Alexander of Hales: the creature is made the Daughter of the Father, the Spouse of the Son, and the Temple of the Holy Ghost.
III. The Glory of God must be attained by intellectual creatures considered as a whole as well as by each of them. The adopted sons are a community of saints, a Church and Kingdom of God. “You are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people” (1 Pet. 2:9; cf. Exod. 19:6, 7). “You are no more strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow-citizens with the saints, and domestics of God” (Ephes. 2:19). The dignity of the chosen people of God is such that God dwells in them and walks among them (2 Cor. 6:16) as in His own heavenly city. Cf. Heb. 12:22; Apoc. 21 and 22, etc.
The union of the “saints” with God leads farther to a most intimate union among the saints themselves, “that they may be one as we also are one” (John 17:22; cf. Ephes. 2:19–22).
The supernatural order of the world culminates in this, that God builds unto Himself, out of His creatures, a Church founded on His Son and filled with the Holy Ghost—a Church which is the body and the bride of our Lord Jesus Christ, and “the fulness of Him Who is filled all in all” (Eph. 1:23).
I. The ultimate end of all things created is the glory of the Creator. This is attained in three ways: by the manifestation of the Divine Power and Love, by the worship paid by creatures, and by the creatures’ eternal happiness in the possession of God. In the natural order this threefold glory would be very imperfectly obtained. In the supernatural order, on the contrary, it is brought about with such perfection that nothing short of a hypostatic union of the creature with God could surpass it. The reader who has followed the present treatise will find no difficulty in this statement. In the elevation of the creature to the participation of God’s own life, the Divine Power and Love assert themselves to a degree far beyond their manifestation in the creation of nature. The supernatural worship given by the sons of God is far more perfect than the servile worship of mere creatures. As St. Gregory of Nazianzum says, “God is united to gods, and known by them;” He is properly the God of gods and the Lord of lords. Lastly, the beatific vision is a mode of possessing God, the perfection of which essentially surpasses the perfection of the possession by natural knowledge and love. In this manner, then, the end of all things, that God should be “All in all” (1 Cor. 15:28), is completely fulfilled: creatures are united to God as intimately as if they were one with Him; God, as the principle, the subject-matter, and the final object of all their spiritual life, replenishes, penetrates, and pervades them. The creature is “called back to Him from Whom it sprang,” the infinite distance between it and the Creator being bridged over by the beatific vision. Although the creature and God cannot be “one being,” yet they become one through the most intimate union and fellowship.
II. The supernatural order contributes, in quite a special manner, to the attainment of the highest and final object of the universe by externally manifesting the internal productions in the Blessed Trinity and the communion and fellowship of the Divine Persons.
1. The elevation of creatures to the godlike state of adoptive sons is an imitation and, therefore, a manifestation of the eternal generation of God the Son. Considered as a communication of Divine Nature by love, it is also an image and, as it were, an extension or ramification of the eternal procession of the Holy Ghost.
2. The development of godlike life, through the knowledge and love of God as He is in Himself, is a reflection of the eternal productions of the Logos and the Holy Ghost.
3. Through grace the creature participates in the Divine Nature, and thus enters into fellowship with the Divine Persons (1 John 1:3). This Divine fellowship is subject to the law which also rules human friendship: “Friendship either finds the friends equal or makes them so; all that they have becomes each other’s.” The position which this fellowship secures to the creature is best expressed by the formula generally adopted since Alexander of Hales: the creature is made the Daughter of the Father, the Spouse of the Son, and the Temple of the Holy Ghost.
III. The Glory of God must be attained by intellectual creatures considered as a whole as well as by each of them. The adopted sons are a community of saints, a Church and Kingdom of God. “You are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people” (1 Pet. 2:9; cf. Exod. 19:6, 7). “You are no more strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow-citizens with the saints, and domestics of God” (Ephes. 2:19). The dignity of the chosen people of God is such that God dwells in them and walks among them (2 Cor. 6:16) as in His own heavenly city. Cf. Heb. 12:22; Apoc. 21 and 22, etc.
The union of the “saints” with God leads farther to a most intimate union among the saints themselves, “that they may be one as we also are one” (John 17:22; cf. Ephes. 2:19–22).
The supernatural order of the world culminates in this, that God builds unto Himself, out of His creatures, a Church founded on His Son and filled with the Holy Ghost—a Church which is the body and the bride of our Lord Jesus Christ, and “the fulness of Him Who is filled all in all” (Eph. 1:23).
Seção 51% da obra, de A Manual of Catholic Theology (Wilhelm & Scannell, sobre a Dogmatik de Scheeben). Ver o original.