The Beauty and Truth of the Catholic Church
Vol. IV
B. Herder, St. Louis, MO, 1816
 
Fr. Edward Jones
With Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat, 1916

"For of Him, and by Him, and in Him, are all things: to Him be glory for ever. Amen."-----ROM. 2, 36

   We shall therefore today, according to the measure of my ability, and with confidence in the assistance of the Holy Ghost, speak of the Essence and the Perfections of God, and that according to the words of the Apostle: "Of Him is all," first of His eternity; "by Him is all," of God as a pure Spirit, and "in Him is all," of His perfections; in a word God is eternal, a Spirit, perfect.

   O Jesus, assist us with Thy grace!

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   1. God is eternal: thus the creatures proclaim Him; God is eternal: thus our faith teaches us. God is eternal; the universe has but one voice about this: "He hath made us, and not we ourselves" [Ps. 99, 3], or as St. Paul gives the same still more briefly: "By Him is all." What intelligent man would assert that before all this there was purely nothing in existence? Then if purely nothing preceded all this that we see there would also be now purely nothing in existence. That nothingness in ancient times accomplished nothing, and accomplishes nothing today. It can, therefore, not give to this universe its existence because it has no existence itself and therefore is nothing and can do nothing. But did the creatures perhaps give to themselves their own existence? But how could they make themselves since they did not exist? Thus we are compelled by the power of circumstances to acknowledge a Being which is of Himself and Who gave existence to all visible things. Such a Being is God, Who is of Himself, therefore always or eternal. That the creation teaches us: "From Him is all."

   But if someone in order to deny the existence and the eternity of God with a greater show of learning, would postulate another cause of the present visible things, and before this cause still another, and then again another, and so an endless series of causes of which one would have sprung from the other, one would have given to the other existence, still the question would always return: Whence comes then the first cause? From nothing it cannot originate; it could no more give existence to itself than the new-born child to itself; and so there remains again the eternal God Who gave existence to all creatures. Yes, precisely such an assumption of an endless series of causes through millions and millions of years shows still more the eternity of God.

   God is eternal, our holy faith teaches us much more emphatically. "I am, Who am," thus God spoke to Moses, when He sent him to free the Israelites from Egypt. "I am, Who am." It is My essence that I always am, without a beginning. God has no beginning: "He is." Hence the holy King David exclaims: "Before the mountains were made and the earth with its circumference, Thou art, O God, from eternity to eternity." Everything which once was not, has its beginning and its existence from Him. "He that liveth forever created all things together" [Sir. 18, 1]. And just as God is without a beginning, so is He also without an end. "I am, Who am." Therefore holy David again exclaims: "In the beginning, O Lord, Thou didst found the earth: and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish but thou remainest: and all of them shall grow old like a garment, but Thou art always the selfsame and Thy years shall not fail" [Ps. 101, 27, 28]. The eternity of God therefore consists in this, that He has no beginning and no end, no growth and no change, but with His Essence is always as He was, and always will be as He is. We cannot measure God's existence and life according to years and thousands of years, because He is without beginning and without end. These are for us and for all created beings who have a beginning, increase, grow old and pass away, because time began only with the creation of the world and before that there was no time. Therefore St. Paul says: "With God a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day," for in God there is no past and no future, and therefore no change.

    2. What then is eternity? It is a majestic present, a constant present duration, a constant day, an ocean without bottom, without boundaries and without end. And if you wanted to reckon eternity according to hundreds of millions of years and hundreds of thousands of millions of years you would find neither beginning nor middle nor end, for eternity is always the unchangeable present. For this reason is time which we measure after the creation of the world and according to the duration of our life, surrounded by this unchangeable present, just as the center in a circle is surrounded on all sides. For this reason a day is to God as a thousand years, a thousand years is as a day; for this reason everything is always present to God, whatever has happened or whatever will take place, from the creation of the world, good or bad, life and existence. And for this reason sinners will be eternally punished if they die impenitent, because their sins are eternally present to God, therefore eternally offend Him. Majestic eternity, eternal presence of God! Mountains and valleys, countries and nations have disappeared, the most powerful kingdoms, cities and palaces have perished, emperors and kings, kingdoms and armies, countless hosts of men have sunk into their graves, we too will sink into our graves and after us millions of men, everything passes away as a shadow,------even heaven and earth will pass away, but God remains eternally the same: "I am, Who am." Oh, yes, indeed, a great consolation for the good Christian whose soul thirsts for God and observes His Commandments! He, the eternal One, will make him eternally happy, because his love and penance and good works are eternally present to Him. Do you therefore, O Christian, desire an eternal joy which will never pass away, then obey Him and love Him Who exists eternally! But woe to the sinner, for God is an Eternal Avenger of sin!

   3. Because God is eternal He cannot be a material being, He must be a spiritual Being. For material beings are all subject to the change of time and change daily, they have a beginning and find an end either by destruction or cessation, or some other powerful cause; only the spirit cannot be destroyed or changed, but God does not change, He is always the same: " I am, Who am," He is a Pure Spirit.

   If creation, its order and the providence and wisdom which rules the world would not prove to us that God is a Spirit, our faith teaches us this truth. "God is a spirit," says Christ, our Lord [John 4, 24]. God is without a body, incorporeal; He needs neither an eye to see, nor an ear to hear, nor any member to work. In us men too, it is in reality the soul which sees, hears and works. The eyes are only windows through which the soul looks out upon the world, and the other senses serve her as instruments with which she works and reveals herself. The more we raise ourselves above the needs of the body, the more free will the spirit becomes; therefore the Angels are far more perfect beings than we are, of greater understanding and better will, because they are not hemmed in with a body, therefore incorporeal and pure spirits. Therefore what a sublime Spirit must God be according to Whose image and likeness the Angels and our souls are created, even though immeasurably lower!

   God is a Spirit, but also the most Perfect Spirit, that is, He possesses of Himself the highest knowledge, the holiest will and all perfections in the highest degree. The spirit of man, and much more the spirit of the Angel, is indeed like unto the Spirit of God, but not equal to it; for the former is limited, the latter unlimited; the former created, the latter uncreated and eternal of Itself. Man, the Angels and all creatures have their perfections, their life and existence from God, but He has everything of Himself. Therefore, just as our bodily eye cannot look upon the sun in its brilliancy, but eagerly seizes upon its rays and through them beholds things in their true light, so also our spirit can neither grasp the perfection of God nor behold Him, but it seeks eagerly after Him, since it finds rays of the eternal Sun in His creatures and can also learn these in their proper relations. "For by the greatness of the beauty, and of the creature, the creator of them may be seen, so as to be known thereby" [Wisdom 13, 5].

   There are therefore two ways to obtain a true and proper conception of the immeasurable perfection of God, and to form a worthy picture of His Godhead, namely, the way of negation, whereby we deny to God everything imperfect and limited because they are unworthy of His greatness; hence we call God infinite, immeasurable and incomprehensible. The other way is to ascribe to God all the beauty and perfection we discover in creatures but in an infinitely more perfect manner. This is the same as what the artist does when he wishes to reproduce a beautiful picture. If it is of stone he hammers and files everything away until the picture appears as beautiful as possible. If he paints on a canvas he puts on colors until the picture appears satisfactory to him. In the first way, therefore, we learn what God is not, that is that God is not like any creature, He is therefore neither brilliant, nor beautiful, nor enlightening as the things are which we see; He is not as the sun, not as the heavens, the stars, the air; not as fire, water, the earth, not as the animals or plants, for all these man perceives with the senses. It would therefore be unworthy of the greatness of God to compare Him with such things. "To whom then have you likened God? and to whom have you likened Me and made Me equal, sayeth the Holy One" [Isaias 40, 18-25]. God is not beautiful as the created things, but indeed of an entirely different beauty which even the Angels cannot comprehend; He is not brilliant as the light of the sun, but indeed of an entirely different immeasurable brilliancy and uncreated light; He is not great as the measurements of the body, but indeed of a greatness which is incomprehensible.

      God is, moreover, not like anything which we can grasp and comprehend by our intellects, for all this is limited and imperfect and contradicts the greatness and majesty of God. Therefore He is not as our spirit or the celestial spirits; not good, not wise, as we or the Angels understand goodness and wisdom, for such is always an imperfect goodness and wisdom. His goodness is infinitely different from these. It is for us incomprehensible and inexpressible. His greatness is not the greatness of a man or of an Angel; His power, all His qualities surpass everything, and are far different from everything which we can imagine. For whatever we think of is always imperfect, taken from daily experience and therefore unworthy of the majesty and perfection of God. Therefore, in order to obtain a right conception of the greatness of God we must remove everything from the essence of God which we can perceive in creatures with the aid of the senses and understanding, for God is no being, no spirit, no life such as we know, but a sublime, marvelous, ineffable Being, above all beings, above all spirits, above all existences. Yes truly, the Essence of all essences, the Ineffable for every tongue, incomprehensible for every intellect. "He that is a searcher of majesty, shall be overwhelmed by glory" [Proverbs 25, 27].

   The second way to arrive at the knowledge of the infinite perfections of God is to attribute to God all the beauty and perfection which we perceive in creatures, but in an infinitely higher degree. The first and highest perfection of God is a perfect existence, that is-----as St. Dionysius, St. Augustine and all the Fathers of the Church teach-----to unite all possible and conceivable excellences and perfections of creatures with out a shadow of imperfection; so that we cannot imagine a beauty which would not be in God, and that too in an infinite measure and degree. Hence Holy Scripture says: "His greatness has no end." He embraces within Himself everything that is beautiful, perfect, glorious, and it is found in Him in an infinitely higher manner and without the imperfections of creatures. Marvelous is the sun when it disappears in triumph from the glorified horizon; marvelous is the moon when it pours out its floods of pure silver light; marvelous is the star-studded canopy glittering joyously in the firmament of heaven; marvelous is nature when it awakens in spring. The Christian feels in his heart that this same beauty is in an infinite degree found in Him Who gave all this beauty to nature; he feels, he believes with his whole soul the word of the Apostle: "In Him is all." All beauty, in an infinite degree.

   Marvelous is the growth and variety of flowers, their colors and blossoms. They beautify the earth and ravish the eye of the man of faith, but he raises his eyes higher and higher to God; his heart tells him that in God is found all this beauty in an infinitely higher degree and without any imperfection.

   Marvelous is the life of animals, from the smallest insect to the elephant, from the smallest fly to the eagle, from the smallest fish up to the whale, from the smallest worm to the giant serpent; marvelous is their movement, the quickness of their senses and their strength. The Eternal Wisdom is their Teacher and Director; they follow the inclination which the Creator gave to them. Therefore the gaze of admiration is not confined to them but is raised higher and higher to God, in Whom all this is, and in Whom everything is infinitely better and infinitely more perfect.

   Marvelous is man with his soul created according to the image and likeness of God, with his memory, understanding and free will, with his arts and sciences, with the wonderful and giant works of his mind and body. But he is far surpassed by the heavenly spirits, the Angels and Archangels, the Cherubim and Seraphim. And yet a voice in man cries out to him:
"Remember, O man, that dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return." There is only One from Whom everything is. In God is all wisdom and power in an infinite measure. Admirable are the virtues of pious men, and yet they point to the Adorable Fountain, to the Eternal Beauty. As all lesser lights are extinguished by the rising sun, so is all beauty clouded by the Eternal Beauty. They are all traces which lead us to the infinite God. Everything in nature is but a slight reflex of the glory of God; would that they might illuminate us with their light in order that we might worthily know God in His Majesty.

   But you must not believe that because these perfections in creatures are manifold that they are also manifold in God. In God there is only one, simple and supreme perfection which embraces within itself in an infinite manner all the perfections of creatures, just as the ocean unites all the drops of rain, springs, rivers and brooks into one whole.