Sect. 89The Divine Will as Living Goodness and Holiness—god the Substantial HolinessThe Divine Will as Living Goodness and Holiness—god the Substantial Holiness
I. As Holy Scripture expresses the whole perfection of the intellectual life of God by calling Him “the Truth,” so it describes the whole perfection of the life of His Will by calling Him “Holy,” pure and simple, or the “Holy of Holies.” “I the Lord your God am holy” (Lev. 19:2; cf. 1 Pet. 1:16). The Holiness of God, however, is more than a direction of His Will upon, and conformity with, the good and the beautiful: it is the most intimate effective union with the most perfect objective goodness and beauty. God is “the Holiness” as He is “the Truth.”
The proposition, “God is the Holiness,” implies the three following constituents:—
1. The life of the Divine Will is Holiness pure and simple and pre-eminently, because it is directed entirely, immediately, and exclusively on the infinite Goodness and Beauty of the Divine Essence, and is united with the Divine Beauty and Goodness in every conceivable manner, as complacency, love, and fruition; hence the same attributes—such as simplicity, infinity, and immutability—are applicable to both the life of the Divine Will and the goodness and beauty of the Divine Substance.
2. The life of the Divine Will is essential Holiness, because it is essentially identical with the objective Goodness and Beauty of God, and not merely united to them.
3. It is Holiness by nature; that is, the Divine Nature contains Holiness as its proper energy. Holiness is a constituent element of the Divine Nature, whereas created nature possesses only a capacity for holiness. Thus, the Divine Holiness is a substantial Holiness, and God is Holiness just as He is Truth and Life.
It is evident that the eminent sanctity of God, as above described, is an attribute proper to Him alone.
II. As God is the substantial Holiness and, à fortiori the substantial Goodness, He is the Ideal and the source of all pleasure and love, of all joy and delight, of all the tendencies and appetites of creatures, which only acquire their goodness by adhering to goods outside and above them, and, in the last resort, by adhering to the Creator. Hence God’s Goodness and Holiness, immovable in themselves, are the principle of all motion and of all rest in created life; and the life of creatures is but an exhalation from and a participation of the Substantial Goodness of God. This applies more particularly to the life of spiritual creatures, whose goodness consists in conformity with the life of God, and is the work of the life-giving influence of the Divine Goodness. God’s bounty manifests its power and fecundity most in the supernatural order, by leading His spiritual creatures to a participation of His own life—”partakers of the Divine Nature” (2 Pet. 1:4). That participation, however, by which the blessed spirits see God face to face and are filled with His own beatitude, is but accidental to them; it makes them godlike, but not gods.
I. As Holy Scripture expresses the whole perfection of the intellectual life of God by calling Him “the Truth,” so it describes the whole perfection of the life of His Will by calling Him “Holy,” pure and simple, or the “Holy of Holies.” “I the Lord your God am holy” (Lev. 19:2; cf. 1 Pet. 1:16). The Holiness of God, however, is more than a direction of His Will upon, and conformity with, the good and the beautiful: it is the most intimate effective union with the most perfect objective goodness and beauty. God is “the Holiness” as He is “the Truth.”
The proposition, “God is the Holiness,” implies the three following constituents:—
1. The life of the Divine Will is Holiness pure and simple and pre-eminently, because it is directed entirely, immediately, and exclusively on the infinite Goodness and Beauty of the Divine Essence, and is united with the Divine Beauty and Goodness in every conceivable manner, as complacency, love, and fruition; hence the same attributes—such as simplicity, infinity, and immutability—are applicable to both the life of the Divine Will and the goodness and beauty of the Divine Substance.
2. The life of the Divine Will is essential Holiness, because it is essentially identical with the objective Goodness and Beauty of God, and not merely united to them.
3. It is Holiness by nature; that is, the Divine Nature contains Holiness as its proper energy. Holiness is a constituent element of the Divine Nature, whereas created nature possesses only a capacity for holiness. Thus, the Divine Holiness is a substantial Holiness, and God is Holiness just as He is Truth and Life.
It is evident that the eminent sanctity of God, as above described, is an attribute proper to Him alone.
II. As God is the substantial Holiness and, à fortiori the substantial Goodness, He is the Ideal and the source of all pleasure and love, of all joy and delight, of all the tendencies and appetites of creatures, which only acquire their goodness by adhering to goods outside and above them, and, in the last resort, by adhering to the Creator. Hence God’s Goodness and Holiness, immovable in themselves, are the principle of all motion and of all rest in created life; and the life of creatures is but an exhalation from and a participation of the Substantial Goodness of God. This applies more particularly to the life of spiritual creatures, whose goodness consists in conformity with the life of God, and is the work of the life-giving influence of the Divine Goodness. God’s bounty manifests its power and fecundity most in the supernatural order, by leading His spiritual creatures to a participation of His own life—”partakers of the Divine Nature” (2 Pet. 1:4). That participation, however, by which the blessed spirits see God face to face and are filled with His own beatitude, is but accidental to them; it makes them godlike, but not gods.
Seção 30% da obra, de A Manual of Catholic Theology (Wilhelm & Scannell, sobre a Dogmatik de Scheeben). Ver o original.