« Ch.IX. Q.58. Divine Justice | Main | Chapter X. The Trinity »
August 04, 2005
Ch.IX. Q.59. Divine Blessedness
THE Blessedness of God is the richness and joy of His life, arising from the internal relations of the Divine Persons, and also from the relations subsisting between God and His saints.1
2. The Blessedness of God is the reflection of Divine love, both within the Trinity and in the Kingdom of God. The latter is conditioned. It arises from the creative activity of God, and His condescension revealed in the Incarnation and the descent of the Holy Ghost.
3. The pity, grief, and anger of God, as they are metaphorically described in Scripture, caused by human sin and its consequences, do not interrupt the Divine blessedness. Our inability to see how this can be is but a branch of our inability to reconcile the existence of evil with Divine sovereignty. But we know that where sin abounds grace abounds still more, rendering the Divine dispensation of mercy fruitful in glory. We also know that the triumphant future is as immediately present to the eternal contemplation of God as is the present evil.2
4. The response of man to the grace of God finds articulate expression in the worship of the faithful—their Eucharistic Oblations here, and the heavenly worship hereafter, which those Oblations anticipate. In this worship on earth men find the beginnings of their participation in Divine blessedness.3
Posted by Debra Bullock at August 4, 2005 10:42 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://disseminary.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/525