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In sinu Patris

Summary. — Christ is above all the Son of God. — I. Dogma of the Divine fecundity : God is Father. — II. “ Functions ” of the Word in the Trinity: the Word, the Son of God, acknowledges that all comes to Him from the Father ; He is the Father’s image ; His relation to the Father by love. — III. We must imitate the Divine Word in His “ states ”, — IV. How Christ is the means established by God for making us participants in the Sonship of his Word. — V. Practical consequence of these doctrines: to remain united to the Incarnate Word, by faith, works, and the Sacrament of the Eucharist. — VI. These truths, sublime as they are, constitute the very foundation of Christianity and the substance of all sanctity. wishes to contract with our souls is such that all is common between Him and us. With divine liberality, He wishes to give us a share in the inexhaustible graces of salvation and sanctification that He merited for us by each of His mysteries, in order to communicate to us the spirit of His states and thus to realise in each one of us a likeness to Himself, the infallible pledge of our eternal’ predestination.

Christ has passed through divers states. He has been a child, a youth, a doctor of the truth, a victim upon the Cross, He has been glorious in His Resurrection and His Ascension : in thus traversing all the successive stages of His earthly existence, He has sanctified all human life.

But there is one essential state which He never leaves : He is always “ the Only-begotten Son Who is in the bosom of the Father” : Unigenitus Filius qui EST in sinu Patris }.

Christ is the Incarnate Son of God, the Word-made- Flesh. Before becoming man, Christ was God ; in becoming man, He did not cease to be God : Quod fuit per-

C HRIST’S mysteries are ours. The union that Christ

I, Joan. 1, 18.

Christ in His Mysteries. 3 mansit 2, Whether we consider Him as a little Infant in the manger, toiling in the workshop of Nazareth, preaching in Judea, dying upon Calvary, manifesting to His apostles his triumphant victory over death, or ascending to Heaven, He is always and above all the Only-begotten Son of the Father.

It is, then, His Divinity that we must first of all contemplate before speaking of the mysteries which proceed from the Incarnation itself ; all the mysteries of Jesus are based upon His Divinity ; from it they derive all their splendour ; in it they find all fecundity.

_ The beginning of St. John’s Gospel is very different from that of the other Evangelists who open their narrative by drawing up the human genealogy of Jesus in order to show how He was descended from the royal race of David. But St. John, who is reluctant to dwell upon earth, first rises, like an eagle, with a marvellous flight, to the highest heavens and tells us what takes place in the sanctuary of the divinity.

Before relating the life of Jesus, this Evangelist tells us what Christ was before His Incarnation. And how does he express himself ? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” : In principio erat Verbum et Verbum erat apud Deum et Deus erat Verbum... And to reassure us as to the weight of his testimony, He at once adds: “ No man hath seen God at any time: the Only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him” : Deum nemo videt unquam ; Unigenitus Filius qui est in sinu Patris IPSE enarravit.

In fact, during three years, Jesus explained the divine secrets to His disciples ; on the eve of His death, He recalled these secrets to them, telling them that this was a mark of friendship which He gave only to them and to those who coming after them should believe in His words : Vos dixt amicos; quia omnia quaecumque audivi a Patre meo nota feci vobts *.

In order to know what Jesus is, what He was, we have then only to listen to the disciple who relates His words ; or rather we have only to listen to Jesus Himself. But let us listen to Him with faith, with love, with adoration ; for He Who reveals Himself to us is the very Son of God.1

The words that He brings to us are not words to be apprehended merely with bodily ears ; they are altogether heavenly words of eternal life: Verba quae ego locutus sum vobis spiritus et vita sunt*. Only a humble and faithful soul can understand them.

Neither let us be astonished in that these words reveal profound mysteries to us : Jesus Himself has willed it to be so. He has spoken these words to us in order to bring about our union with Him; He willed that they should be gathered up by the sacred writers ; He sends His Holy Spirit Who “ searcheth the deep things of God” ?, to recall them to our minds*, so that “in all wisdom and spiritual understanding’ we may savour the mysteries of the innermost life of God*. Does not participation in this divine life constitute the very basis of Christianity and the substance of all holiness ?

I

Faith reveals to us this truly astonishing mystery that the power and act of fecundity is one of the divine perfections.

God is the plenitude of being, the shoreless ocean of all perfection and of all life. The images of which we often make use to depict Him, the ideas that we apply to Him by analogy in speaking of which is best in creatures, are powerless to represent Him. What is needful in order to rise to a conception that does not belie God’s Infinity is not to extend, even indefinitely, the limits of created being ; it is to recognise, in the most positive manner, that there are no limits where God is concerned. He is Very Being, the necessary Being, subsisting of Himself, and possessing the plenitude of all perfection.

Revelation teaches us this marvel of God’s fecundity ; there is in Him an altogether spiritual and _ ineffable paternity ; He is Father, the principle of all the Divine Life in the Trinity.

Being Infinite Intelligence, God perfectly comprehends2

Himself ; in a single act, He sees all that He is, all that is in Him. He comprehends, as it were, in a single glance, the plenitude of His perfections, and, in one thought, in one word that exhausts all His knowledge, He expresses this infinite knowledge to Himself. This thought conceived by the eternal intelligence, this utterance whereby God expresses Himself is the Word. Faith tells us that this Word is God: Et Deus erat Verbum, because the Word has (or rather, He is) with God one and the same divine nature.

And because the Father communicates to this Word a nature not only like unto His own, but identical with it, Holy Scripture tells us that He begets the Word, and it calls the Word, the Son. The inspired books repeat the ineffable exclamation of God contemplating His Son and proclaiming the beatitude of His eternal Fatherhood : From the bosom of My Divinity, before the creation of the light, I communicated life to Thee: Ex utero, ante luciferum, genm

  1. “Thou art My Son, My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased” : Tu es Filius meus dilectus, in te complacui mika”, Because in fact this Son is perfect ; He possesses with the Father all the divine perfections saving the property of “being Father” ; so perfect is He that He is the equal of His Father by the unity of nature. A creature can only give to another creature a nature like to his own : simile sibt ; but God begets God and gives to Him His own nature. It is Gods’ glory to beget the Infinite and to contemplate Himself in another Himself, Who is His equal. So equal is the Son to the Father that He is the Only-begotten, for there is only one Divine nature and the Son exhausts the eternal fecundity : Unigenitus Dei Filius ; therefore He is one with His Father : Ego et Pater ee sumus *.

Finally this beloved Son, equal to the Father, although distinct from Him, and, like Him, a Divine Person, does not leave the Father. The Word ever dwells in the infinite Intelligence that conceives Him ; the Son ever dwells in the bosom of the Father Who begets Him : Umgenitus Dei Filius qui EST in sinw Patris. He dwells there by unity of nature. He also dwells there by the love which. Aes mutually bear to one another and whence proceeds, as from one principle, the Holy Spirit, the substantial love of the Father and of the Son.3

You see what is the mysterious order of the ineffable communication of the intimate life of God in the Trinity. —The Father, plenitude of all life, begets a Son ; from the Father and the Son, as from one principle, proceeds the Spirit of Love. All Three have the same eternity, the same infinity of perfection, the same wisdom, the same power, the same sanctity, because the Divine nature is one for the Three Persons.

But each Person possesses exclusive properties—‘ to be Father, to be Son, to proceed from the Father and the Son ”’—which establishes ineffable relations between them and .distinguishes them from each other. There is an order of origin, without there being either priority of time, or superiority of hierarchy, or relation of dependance.

Such is the language of Revelation ; we could not have attained to a knowledge of these things unless they had been unveiled for us ; but Christ Jesus has willed, for the exercise of our faith and the joy of our souls, to give us this knowledge’. When in eternity, we shall contemplate God, we shall see that it is essential to infinite life, that it is natural to the Divine Being, to be one in Three Persons. The true God Whom we must know so as to have eternal life ?, is He of Whom we adore the Trinity of Persons in the unity of nature.

Come ! let us adore this marvellous fellowship in the Unity, this wonderful equality of perfection in the distinction of Persons.y O God, Father of incommensurable

  1. ‘‘ Wherefore plunge into these abysses ? Wherefore has Christ Jesus disclosed them to us ? Wherefore does He return to them so often ? And so as not to forget the sublimity of the Christian doctrine ought we not to dwell on these truths ? But we must do so in trembling, we must do so in faith ; we must, whilst listening to Jesus Christ, and His altogether Divine words, believe that these words come from One Who is God ; and we must also believe, at the same time, that this God whence they come comes Himself from God, and that He is Son; and at every word that we hear Him speak, we must rise as high as the source, contemplating the Father in the Son, and the Son in the Father.’ Bossuet. Meditations upon the Gospel. ‘The Last Supper. 1st part, 86 day. — 2. Joan. XVII, 3. majesty, Patrem immensae majestatis, I adore Thee ; I adore Thy Son, for He, like Thee, is worthy of all reverence, being Thy True and Only-begotten Son, God like Thyself : Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium ; O Father, O Son, I adore Thy common Spirit, Thy eternal bond of love: Sanctum quoque Parachtum Spiritum. Blessed Trinity, I adore Thee !...

II

Let us now turn the eyes of our faith upon the Word, the Son, in order that we may know and admire some of His properties. It is this Son Who, born eternally of the Father, is born in time of a Virgin so as to become the Man-God and bring the mysteries of our salvation into effect. How shall we imitate Him, how shall we remain united with Him, without first knowing Him ?

In the Holy Trinity, the Son is distinguished from the Father by His property of “being Son”.

When we speak of a man as being someone’s son, we affirm two different things : his individual human nature, and his condition of son. It is not so in the Trinity. The Son is really identified with the divine nature (which He possesses in an indivisible manner with the Father and the Holy Spirit) ; what distinguishes Him from the Person of the Father, what properly speaking constitutes His personality is not being God, but being Son ; and inasmuch as He is a Divine Person, He is only Son, entirely Son, and that uniquely ; He is, if I may thus express myself, a living filiation ; He is entirely in relation to the Father.

And in the same way as the Father proclaims His ineffable fecundity : Filius meus es tu, ego hodie genui te}, the. Son acknowledges that He is Son, that the Father is His principle, His source, and that all comes from the Father : this is, so to speak, the first “ function” of the Word.

Open the Gospels, especially that of St. John, and you will see that the Incarnate Word is constantly laying stress upon this property. Christ loves to declare that, in His quality of Only-begotten Son, He receives everything from His Father. “TI live by the Father”... He says to His if, Veteha vagy Tye

IN SINU PATRIS Al

Apostles : “ My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me... ; the Son cannot do anything of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing ; for what things soever He doth, these the Son also doth in like manner”... ; I cannot of Myself do anything. As I hear, so I judge, and my judgment is just ; because I seek not My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me,... I do nothing of Myself, but as the Father hath taught Me, these things I speak ” 1.

What does Our Lord wish to make us understand by these mysterious words, if not that in His quality of Son, He holds all things from the Father, while yet being equal to Him ? Throughout, in all the remarkable circumstances of His life, as for example at the resurrection of Lazarus, Christ Jesus brings forward the ineffable relations that _ make of Him the Only-begotten Son of the Eternal Father.

Read above all the discourse and prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper, where, before consummating the series of His mysteries by His sacrifice upon the Cross, He raises a corner of the veil which hides the Divine life from our sight, and you will see with what insistance He dwells again and again upon the eternal Sonship and the properties that are its privilege : “ Father, the hour is come, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee... glorify Thou Me, O Father, with Thyself, with the glory which I had, ‘before the world was, with Thee. I have manifested Thy name to the men Whom Thou hast given Me out of the world... Now they have known, that all things which Thou hast given Me, are from Thee... And all my things are Thine, and Thine are Mine...That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee... Father, I will that where I am, they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me ; that they may see my glory which Thou hast given Me, because Thou hast loved Me before the creation of the world” *.

What a wonderful revelation of the Father and of the Son, of their incomprehensible relations, these words open out tous! Truly, as St. John says at the beginning of his Gospel, not that we have seen God ; but “the Only-begotten Son Who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him”. I believe, Lord Jesus, that Thou art the4

Only-begotten Son of the Father, God like unto Him. I believe, but increase my faith !

The second “ function ’”’ of the Word is to be, as St. Paul says, the image of the Father : Imago Dei invisibilis*.

Not some vague image, but a perfect living image. The Word is the splendour of the Father’s glory, the figure of His substance, the reflection of His eternal light : Splendor gloriae et figura substantiae ejus*. He is, as the Greek term indicates, the “character”, the adequate expression of God, and like the impression of the seal upon the wax. The Eternal Father, in looking upon the Son, sees in Him the perfect reproduction of His divine attributes ; the Son perfectly reflects, like a spotless mirror, speculum sine macula*, all that the Father gives Him.

And this is why the Father, in contemplating His Son, sees in Him all His own perfections ; and ravished at this sight, He declares to the world that this Son is the object of all His dilection : Filius dilectus in quo mihi BENE complacut*.

Thus when He becomes incarnate, the Word reveals to us the Father, manifests God to us. When at the Last Supper, Our Lord spoke of His Father in such touching terms, the apostle Philip says to Him: “Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us”. And what does Christ Jesus answer ? “ Have I been so long a time with you, and have you not known me”? Philip, he that seeth me, seeth the Father also” : Qm videt me, videt et Patrem®. What a profound revelation is this! It is enough for us to see Jesus, the Incarnate Word, in order to know the Father of Whom He is the image. Christ translates all the Father’s perfections into human actions, in language accessible to our minds. Let us often recall these words : Qui videt me, videt et Patrem.

We will presently study the principal mysteries of Jesus. He Whom we shall contemplate is God, the Infinite, Almighty and Sovereign Being. This Infant lying in a manger and adored by the shepherds and magi, He is God. This Youth toiling as an obscure artizan in a poor work- shop, He is God. This Man who heals the sick, multiplies the loaves, forgives sinners and saves souls, He is God. He is God, this Prophet persecuted by His enemies ; God, He Who agonises beneath the weight of fear and sadness, Who is condemned to die upon a Cross ; this Host kept in the tabernacle, and that I am about to receive at the Holy Table, contains God : Qui videt me, videt et Patrem.5

And all the perfections which the states and mysteries of Jesus manifest : that wisdom which none can confound, that power which astonishes and enraptures the multitude, that unheard of mercy towards sinners, that untiring goodness which bears every injury, that ardent zeal for justice, that unalterable patience under insult, that generous and self-surrendering love, these are the perfections of a God, of our God : for he who sees Jesus, sees the Father, contemplates God.

At the end of His sacerdotal prayer, Christ said to His Father : “ I have made known Thy name to [My disciples], and I will make it known ; that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me, may be in them, and I in them”?... O Jesus, by Thy mysteries, show us Thy Father, His perfections, His greatness, His rights, His will ; reveal to us what He is for Thee, what He is for us, so that we may love Him, and He love us, — and we ask for nothing more : Ostende nobis Patrem, et sufficit nobis.

The third “function” of the Word is His constant relation by love to His Father.

In the Blessed Trinity, the love of the Son for the Father is infinite. If the Word proclaims that He holds all from His Father, He likewise refers ali to Him with love, and from this movement of dilection which meets that of the Father, proceeds that Third Person Whom Revelation calls by a mysterious name : the Holy Spirit, Who is the substantial love of the Father and of the Son. ~ Here below, the love of Jesus for His Father shines out in an ineffable manner. All Christ’s life, all His mysteries are summed up in those words which St. John relates : Diligo Patrem ?, “1 love the Father”. Our Lord gave His disciples the infallible criterion of love. “If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in My love”. And He at once gives an example : “ As I also have kept my Father’s commandments, and do abide in His love”*. Jesus has ever remained in the love of the Father, because He has ever done His will. St. Paul expressly declares that the first movement of the Word-made-Flesh was a movement of love : ‘“ Behold I come that I should do Thy will, O God ” ?. In this first glance of His earthly existence, the soul of Jesus saw the whole succession of His mysteries, the humiliations, the fatigues, the sufferings of which they were formed ; and, by an act of love, He accepted to fulfil all these things.6

This movement of love towards His Father has never ceased. Our Lord could say : Quae placita sunt ei facto semper ®, “J do always the things that please Him”. He fulfils everything to the last iota ; He accepts all that His Father requires of Him even to the bitter chalice of His agony : Non mea voluntas, sed tua fiat* ; even to the ignominious death of the Cross, Ut cognoscat mundus quia diligo Patrem, sic facto®. And when all is consummated, the last beat of His Heart and His last thought are for the Father : “ Father, into Thy hands, I commend My spirit ” °.

The love of Jesus for His Father underlies all His states and explains all His mysteries.

III

This Divine Word is our Model, the very form of our predestination. For, even after the Incarnation, He remains what He is : the Word co-eternal with the Father. This is why our imitation of Christ ought to extend not only to His human virtues, but likewise to His Divine Being.

Like Jesus and with Him, we ought first of all to confess and declare that all comes to Him from the Father.

When, at the Last Supper, Jesus prays to His Father for His Apostles, what reason does He bring forward in commending them to Him? “ Father... the men whom7

Thou hast given Me... have known, that all things which Thou hast given Me, are from Thee... and they have known that I came out from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send Me. I pray for them”... The Incarnate Word has it at heart that we should acknowledge that He receives everything from His Father; how often He repeats this to His disciples : It is therefore pleasing to Him that we should declare it with Him.

It is likewise pleasing to the Father. At this Last Supper, Jesus said to His Apostles, “The Father Himself loveth you”... What words could be more sweet or give rise to greater confidence ? Where they not spoken by Him Who knows the secrets of the Father ? “The Father Himself loveth you”... And what reason does He give for this”. ‘ Because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came out from God” ?. To believe—with a practical faith which yields us up to Him that we may serve Him—that Jesus, the Incarnate Word came out from the Father, is the best way of pleasing God.

Let us often repeat, with deep reverence, especially after Communion, the words of the Credo, saying to Christ Jesus: Thou art “the Only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God of God, Light of Light ; true God of true God ; begotten not made ; consubstantial with the Father, by Whom all things were made”. Grant me the grace that what I proclaim by my words, I may also proclaim by my deeds”.

We ought next to acknowledge that, we too, receive all from the Father, and that by a double title : as creatures and as children of God.

As creatures.—lIi is true to say that the creation is the work of the entire Trinity. But, as you know, it is especially attributed to the Father*. Why is this? Because in the intimate life of God, the Father is the principle of the Son and, with the Son, the principle of the Holy Spirit. Therefore the outward works wherein the character of origin is especially seen are particularly attributed to the Father : “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth”. The whole creation came forth from the hands of the Father, not by an emanation of His nature, as the pantheists would have it, but in that it was produced from nothing by virtue of the divine omnipotence.8

It is very useful for us to acknowledge this dependance, and to praise God for it. Doubtless, God has no need of our praises ; but it is meet and fitting that we should proclaim our condition as creatures by acts of thanksgiving to Him Who gave us life and being. “Thy hands have made me, and fashioned me wholly round about” : Manus tuae fecerunt me totum in circuitu*. All that I have: body, soul, intelligence, will, health, I have from Thee, Thou Who art my principle, I adore and thank Thee ; in return, I yieid myself wholly up to Thee to do Thy will.

But it is above all because we are God’s children that we ought to keep ourselves in these sentiments. To the divine filiation, necessary and eternal, of His Only-begotten Son, the Father willed to add, by an act of love, infinitely free, a filiation of grace : He adopts us as His children, to the point that one day we shall share in the beatitude of His inmost life. This is an inexplicable mystery ; but faith tells us that when a soul receives sanctifying grace at baptism, it participates in the divine nature : Divinae consortes naturae*. This soul becomes truly the child of God, Dui estis et filu excelsi omnes*. St. John speaks of a divine birth : Ex Deo NatTI sunt*, not in the proper sense of the word, by nature, as the Word is begotten in the bosom of the Father, but by something analogous : Voluntarie GENUIT nos verbo veritatis °.

In a very real, very true sense, we are divinely begotten by grace. With the Word, we can say : “O Father, I am Thy son, I came out from Thee”. The Word says it necessarily, by right, being essentially God’s own Son ; we only say it by grace, as adopted sons ;—the Word says it from all eternity ; we say it in time, although the decree of this predestination is eternal ;—for the Word, this language denotes a relation of origin with the Father ; for us, there is added a relation of dependance. But for us, as for Him, there is a veritable sonship : we are, by grace,

Io Job. x, 8.—— 2, II Pett: 1, 4.-= 3.Ps. Exe Os Joan x, 34. ae LbIdieh 1s epaca Ta Noes

God’s children. The Father wills that despite our unworthiness, we should give Him the name of “ Father”. Quoniam estis filu, misit Deus Spiritum Fila sui in corda vestra clamantem: abba, Pater?. “ God hath sent the Spirit” of His Son” for that. This cry pleases our Heavenly Father. It is ineffable, but it is the truth. “ Behold”’, says St. John, “what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, and should be the sons of God” : Videte qualem caritatem dedit nobis PATER ut filii Det nominemur et SIMUS ”.

And in order to assure this decree of adoption, in order that this filiation of love should be wrought in us, God, with magnificent profusion, multiplies heavenly favours along our path; the Incarnation, the Church, the Sacraments,—especially the FEucharist—,the inspirations of His Spirit. So that every gift that raises us up to Him, every grace that leads us to perfection, “is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” : Omne datum optimum et omne donum perfectum desursum est, descendens a Patre luminum®. |

This thought fills the soul with great confidence, but also with profound humility. If I may thus express myself, we ought to make all our activity proceed from God ; to lay down at His feet all our own thoughts, all our own judgment, our self-will so as no longer to think, judge, will or act save as He wills. Was it not thus that Jesus acted ? “The Son cannot do anything of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing ” *, the Incarnate Word said of Himself. All proportion guarded, it ought to be the same with us. We ought to immolate to God whatever is ill-regulated in the need we experience of being something of ourselves and of relying only on ourselves. And for this, before all that we do, let us implore the help of our Father in Heaven, as Jesus did.

This is the practical homage whereby we acknowledge our dependance upon our Father Who is likewise our God, and whereby we proclaim, like Jesus, that all that we have is from the Father : Omnia quae dedisti mihi abs te sunt®.

Again we ought to imitate the Word inasmuch as He is the image of the Father. Holy Scripture tells us that God created us to His image and likeness. We bear within us, as creatures, vestiges of the divine power, wisdom and “goodness.9

But it is above all by sanctifying grace that we become like unto God. As St. Thomas says, this grace is a participated similitude of the divine nature : Participata similitudo divinae naturae?. To employ a theological word, grace is deiform because it places in us a divine similitude. When He contemplates His Word, the Father exclaims on beholding the perfection of His Son Who, begotten of Him, so adequately reflects His own perfection: ‘“ Thou art My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased”. Something analogous comes to pass in regard to a soul adorned with grace: the Father is well pleased with this soul. “If any one love Me”, said Jesus, “My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our abode with hunk 2.

Sanctifying grace is the first and fundamental element of the divine similitude in us. But we must likewise be the image of our Father by our virtues. Christ Jesus Himself said: “Be ye therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect’. Imitate His goodness, His mildness, His mercy : it is thus that you will reproduce His features in you. “Be ye therefore followers of God”, St. Paul repeats after Jesus, “as most dear chidren”’ ¢.

Undoubtedly this resemblance is not visible to bodily eyes, although it is revealed outwardly by works of holiness ; it is in the soul that this resemblance is formed and perfected. Here below its beauty is hidden, its splendour is veiled. But the day will come when it will blossom forth and be manifested to the eyes of all. When we shall see God “we shall be like to Him”, because on that day we shall be clear mirrors reflecting the divinity : Similes ei erimus ; quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est.

Finally, like the Word, we must refer ourselves entirely to our Heavenly Father through love. All in us comes from God by grace, all in us ought to return to our Father by a movement of love. God must be not only the principle, but also the end of all our works.10

In order for our works to be pleasing to our Heavenly Father, they must be animated by love. In all that we do, great or small, known to men or hidden from sight, we ought to seek only the glory of our Father, act only in view of hallowing His name, extending His kingdom and doing His will. All the secret of holiness is in this.

IV

The marvels of divine adoption are so great that human language cannot exhaust them. It is a wonderful thing that God should adopt us as His children ; but the means - that He has chosen to realise and establish this adoption is more wonderful still. And what is this means? It is His own Son : Jn dilecto Filio suo*. I have exposed this truth elsewhere *, but it is so vital that I cannot forbear returning to it.

God created us by His Word. After having said : “In the beginning... the Word was God”, St. John adds : “ All things were made by Him : and without Him was made nothing that was made”. ‘ What do these words signify ? In the Holy Trinity, the Word is not only the expression of all the perfections of the Father but moreover of all possible creatures. These have their prototype and exemplar in the divine essence. When God creates, He produces beings that will realise one of His thoughts. Then He creates all things by the power of His word : “ He spoke and they were made: He commanded and they were created” : Ipse dixit, et facta sunt*®. This is why Holy Scripture says that the Father created all things by His Word.

You already see what close and intimate relations with the Word the creation establishes in us. From the sole fact of our creation, we correspond to a divine idea, we are the fruit of an eternal thought contained in the Word. God knows His essence perfectly ; expressing this knowledge, He begets His Word ; He beholds in His Word the11

Exemplar of all creation. Thus each one of us represents a divine thought, and our individual holiness consists of carrying into effect this thought which God conceived of us before our creation.

In one sense, then, we proceed from God by the Word ; and we ought to be, like the Word, the pure, perfect expression of God’s thought for us. What hinders the realisation of this thought is when we impair God’s work : for to impair the divine is truly the work that is our own in the creation,—our own, that is to say that belongs to us alone, God excluded. Thus all that comes from us and is in disaccord with the Divine will : sin, infidelities, resistances to inspirations from above, views that are merely human and natural ; these are so many things whereby we spoil the divine idea in us.

But this relation with the Word, the Son, goes much further still in the work of our adoption.

The Apostle St. James tells us that every gift, every grace, comes down to us from our Heavenly Father ; and he at once adds : “ Of His own will hath He begotten us by the word of truth” : Voluntarie genuit nos verbo veritatis. The divine adoption by grace which makes us children of God is wrought by the Son, by the Word.

This truth is one of those to which St. Paul returns most often. Like St. James, he declares that all blessings come from the Father and that they are all related to the decree of our adoption in Jesus Christ, His beloved Son. In the eternal plan, we become God’s children only in Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word : Elegit nos in ipso. The Father will only recognise us as His children if we bear in us the features of His Son Jesus : Praedestinavit [nos]... conformes fieri imaginis Filti sui?. So that it is only as joint-heirs with Christ that we are one day to be in sinu Patris.

Such is the divine decree. Let us now see the realisation, in time, of this eternal design, or rather the manner wherein the divine plan, which was crossed by Adam’s sin, has been restored.

The Eternal Word is made flesh. The Psalmist says of the Word that He “hath rejoiced as a giant to run the way : Exsultavit ut gigas ad currendam viam. It is from the heights of heaven that He comes forth : A summo caelo egressio ejus ; and it is to this sublime summit that He ascends : Et occursus ejus usque ad summum ejus+. This egressio a summo caelo, is the eternal birth in the bosom of the Father : Exivi a Patre ; His return is His ascension - towards the Father : Relinqguo mundum, et vado ad Pairem. *,12

But He does not ascend alone. This giant came to seek lost humanity ; He has regained it ; and, in an embrace of love, He bears it away with Himself in His course to place it near Him im sinu Patris : “I ascend to My Father Who is also your Father, and I go to prepare a place for you in My Father’s house”.

Such is the work of the Divine Giant : to lead back fallen humanity into the bosom of the Father, the source of all beatitude, whilst restoring to this‘humanity the grace of -adoption by His life and His sacrifice.

Oh ! let us say with the Apostle : “ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with spiritual blessings” through His Son, in His Son, and hath made us sit with Him in those heavenly splendours where, in the midst of eternal felicity, He begets the Son of His dilection! Consedere fecit nos in caelestibus*. Yes, blessed be God! And blessed be the Divine Word Who was made flesh for us, Who by the shedding of His Blood has restored to us the heavenly inheritance. O Jesus, beloved Son of the Father, to You be all praise and all glory !

V

Now what are for us the practical consequences of these doctrines ?

If the Eternal Father has decreed that we should be His children, but only so in His Son Jesus : Praedestinavit nos in adoptionem filiorum PER JESUM CHRISTUM ‘ ; if He has made us partakers of the heritage of His beatitude only through His Son,—we can realise this divine plan and consequently assure our salvation, only by remaining

  1. Ps, XVII, 6-7. — 2. Joan. XVI, 28. — 3. Ephes. 11, 6. — 4. Ibid. 1, 5.

Christ in His Mysteries. 4 united to the Son, to the Word. Never let us forget this : there is no other way for us to go to the Father : Nemo venit ad Patrem, nisi per me?! No man, nemo, can hope to come to the Father otherwise than by the Son, And to go to the Father, to reach Him, is not that all salvation and all holiness ?

Now, how are we to remain united to the Word, to the Son ?

First of all by faith. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... All things were made by Him... He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, He gave them power to be ‘made the sons of God, to them that believe in His name”, and thus “are born... of God”.

The Eternal Father presents His Word to the world : “This. is, My—beloved: Son.:.. Hear, ye Him?) ° if we receive Him by faith, that is to say if we believe that He is the Son of God, the Word makes us partakers of the best that He has : His Divine Sonship ; He shares with us His condition of Son, He gives us the grace of adoption : Dedit eis potestatem filios Dei fiert ; He gives us the right of calling God our Father.

All our perfection consists in our faithful imitation of the Son of God. Now, St. Paul tells us that all paternity comes from God: Ex quo omnis paternitas nominatur ?. We can say too of the Son : Ex quo omnis filiatio nominatur. It is the Son alone Who, by His Spirit, teaches us how we may be sons : Quoniam estis fil, misit Deus spiritum FILII SUI in corda vestra clamantem : ABBA, PATER 8,

We are to receive the Son Himself ; to see ever in Him, whatever be the state wherein we contemplate Him, the Word co-eternal with the Father. Then we are to receive His teachings, His doctrine. He is in the bosom of the Father : and by His words He reveals to us that which He knows : [pse enarravit. Faith is the knowledge that we have, through the Word, of divine mysteries. Whatever be the page of the Gospel that we read or that the Church sets before us in the course of the celebration of the mysteries of her Bridegroom, let us say to ourselves that these words are those of the Word : Verba Verbi, of Him Who expresses the thoughts, the desires, the will of our Father in Heaven : Ipsum audite?. Let us sing Amen to all that we hear from the Word, to each page that, in her liturgy, the Church detaches from the Gospel to propose to our faith. Let us say to God : O Father, I do not know Thee, since I have never seen Thee ; but I accept all that Thy Divine Son, Thy Word, reveals to me of Thee. :13

This prayer is excellent ; and often, when it is made with faith and humility, a ray of light comes down from on high? which throws a light upon those texts that we read and makes us penetrate into their depths so that we find therein principles of life.

For the Word is not only the expression of the perfections of His Father, but, moreover, of all that the Father wills. All that the Word commands us in His Gospel or by His Church is the expression of the adorable will and . desires of our Father in Heaven. And if we fulfil, above all through love, the precepts that Jesus gives us, we shall remain united to Him, and through Him, to the Father : Si praecepta mea servaveritis, MANEBITIS in dilectione mea... Qui autem diligit me, diligetur a Patre®*...

Here is all the formula of holiness : to adhere to the Word, to His doctrine, to His precepts, and, through Him, to the Father Who sends Him and gives to Him the words that we are to receive *.

Lastly, we remain united to the Word above all by the Sacrament of union, the Eucharist. It is the Bread of Life, “the children’s Bread” ®. Under the Eucharistic species, lies really hidden the Word, He Who is eternally begotten in the bosom of the Divinity. What a mystery ! He Whom I receive in Communion is the Son begotten from all eternity, the beloved Son to Whom the Father communicates His life, His Divine life, the fulness of His Being and His infinite beatitude. How much reason had Our Lord to say : “ As the Living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father, so He that eateth Me the same also shall live by Me” : Et qui manducat me, et ipse vivet propter me”... he abideth in Me, and I in him”: In me manet et ego in ilo +.14

If we ask Our Lord eae we can do that is most pleasing to His Sacred Heart, it is certain that He will tell us, before all else, to be like Him, the child of God. If then we want to please Him, let us receive Him every day in the Eucharistic Communion, and say to Him: “O Jesus, You are the Son of God, the perfect, adequate image of Your Father ; You know Your Father, You are wholly His, You behold His Face ; increase within me the grace of adoption which makes me the child of God ; teach me to be, by Your grace and by my virtues, like You and in You, a worthy child of the Heavenly Father”. It is certain that if we ask this grace with faith, the Word will give it to us.

He has told us : “ The Son cannot do anything of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing : for what things soever He doth, these the Son also doth in like manner” ?. He wills only what the Father wills. Hence the Son enters fully into the views of His Father, and when He gives Himself to us, it is in order to establish, preserve, and augment the grace of adoption within us. All His Divine personal life is to be ad Patrem ; in giving Himself to us, He gives Himself as He is, seeking in all things His Father and the glory of His Father ; and so our entire turning towards the Father is wrought when we receive the Word with faith, confidence and love. What we ought to ask and constantly seek after is that all our thoughts, all our aspirations, all our desires, all our activity, should tend, by the grace of our filiation and by love, to our Heavenly Father in His Son Jesus : Viventes Deo in Christo Jesu ?.

VI

These truths are indeed elevated, this state is indeed sublime. And yet I have only reminded you of what the Word Himself revealed to us, and what St. John and St. Paul have repeated after Jesus. These are not dreams but realities, divine realities.15

And these realities form the substance of Christianity. We shall understand nothing, I do not say merely of perfection, but even of simple Christianity, if we do not grasp that its most essential basis is constituted by the state of child of God, participation, through sanctifying grace, in the eternal filiation of the Incarnate Word. All the teachings of Christ and of the Apostles are summed up in this truth, all the mysteries of Jesus tend to establish the wonderful reality of it in our souls.

Never let us forget that ail Christian life, all holiness, is being by grace what Jesus is by nature : the Son of God. It is this that makes the sublimity of our religion. The source of all the greatness of Jesus, the source of the value of all His states, of the fruitfulness of all His mysteries, is His Divine generation and His quality of Son of God. In the same way, the saint who is the highest in heaven is the one who here below was most perfectly a child of God, who made the grace of supernatural adoption in Jesus Christ fructify the most.

This is why all our spiritual life ought to be based upon this fundamental truth, all the work of perfection ought to consist in faithfully safeguarding our participation in the Divine Sonship of Jesus and in developing it in the greatest possible measure.

And do not let us say that this life is too high, that this programme is unrealisable. It is true that for our nature left to itself, this life is above the exigencies, the rights, the powers of our being, and that is why we call it supernatural.

But our Father in Heaven “ knoweth what is needful” + for us. If He calls us, He likewise gives us the grace to come to Him. He gives us His Son in order that His Son may be our Way, that He may bring us Truth, and communicate Life to us. It suffices that we remain united to this Son by grace and by our virtues for us one day to be partakers of His glory in sinu Patris.

What did Jesus say to Magdalen, after His Resurrection? Ascendo ad Patrem meum: “I ascend to My Father” ; and He adds : “ And to your Father”, Et Patrem vestrum*. And he goes “to prepare a place” for us : Vado parare vobis locum, for in His Father’s house “there are many mansions ” ?,16

He has ascended to His Father, but as our Forerunner : Praecursor pro nobis introiwit Jesus*. He has gone before us, but so that we may follow Him thither, for our life here below is only a passage, a probation : “In the world you shall have distress ” *, said Jesus. There will be inward contradictions to be suffered, temptations to be borne from the prince of this world, disappointments arising from the course of events ; for “the servant is not greater than his Master” ®. But, He added: “Let not your heart be troubled”, do not be discouraged. ‘ Believe in God, believe also in Me” ®, Who am likewise God. “I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world’’’. -“ Your sorrow shall be turned into joy” *®. The hour wiil arrive when “I will come again, and will take you to Myself, that where I am you also may be” in My Father’s kingdom : Accipiam vos ad meipsum ut ubi sum ego et vos SHis?,

O divine promise, given by the Uncreated Word, by the Word in person, by the infallible Truth ; promise full of sweetness : “I will come Myself” !... We shall belong to Christ, and through Him to the Father, in the bosom of beatitude. ‘“‘In that day”, says Jesus, “ you shall know ’—no longer im umbra fidei, in the shadows of faith, but in the full radiance of eternal light, in luwmine gloriae— “you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you”°. You shall see My glory as the Only-begotten Son, and this vision shall be for you an ever living source of inamissible joy.

1, Joan. xx, 17. — 2. Ibid. xiv, 2. — 3. Hebr. vi, 20.— 4. Joan. XVI, 33.— 5. Ibid. xv, 20. — 6, Ibid, xiv, 1.— 7, Matth, xxvut, 20. — 8. Joan, XVI, 20.— 9. Ibid. xrv, 3. — ro. Ibid. xiv 20.— 11. Ibid. 1,

Footnotes

  1. 1, Antiphon for the office of the Circumcision. — 2. Joan. xv, 15. ↩

    1. Joan, v1, 64.— 2. I Cor. 1, 10.— 3. Joan. xiv, 26. — 4. Col. I, 9.
    ↩
    1. Ps. crx, 3.— 2. Lue. mI, 22; ; Marc. I, 11.— 3. Joan. x, 30.
    ↩

  4. 1, Joan. VI, 55 ; vl, 16; V, 19, 30; Vill, 28.— 2. Joan. Xvu. ↩

  5. 1, Col. I, 15.— 2. Hebr. 1, 3. — 3. Sap. vil, 26.— 4. Matth. xvn, 5. — 5. Joan, XIv, 8-9. ↩

    1. Joan, xvm, 26.— 2. Ibid. XIV, 31.
    ↩
    1. Joan. Xv, Io, — 2. Hebr. x, 7. — 3. Joan. vu, 29. — 4. Luc. XXII, 42. — 5. Joan, XIV, 31. — 6. Luc. xxi, 46.
    ↩
    1. Joan. XVI, 27. — 2.We have explained at more length this doctrine of appropriation in the conference The Holy Spirit, in our volume Christ, the Life of the Soul.
    ↩
    1. Job. x, 8. — 2. I Joan. mi, 1. — 3. Jac. 1, 17. — 4. Joan. Vv, 19. — 5. Ibid. xv, 7.
    ↩
    1. II, 9. UXU, a. 1.— 2. Joan. XIv, 23.— 3. Matth.v, 48.— 4. Eph. v, 1.— 5.1 Joan. m1, 2.
    ↩
    1. Eph. 1, 6.— 2. Our Divine predestination in Christ Jesus. § Iv, in the volume Christ, the Life of the Soul. — 3. Ps. CXLVIM, 5.
    ↩
    1. Eph. 1, 3-4. — 2, Rom. vi, 29.
    ↩
    1. Joan. XIv, 6.— 2. Ephes. m1, 15,— 3. Gal. rv, 6.
    ↩
    1. Matth. xvu, 5; Lue. 1x, 35. — 2. Ci. Jac. 1,17. — 3. Joan. Xv, IO; XIV, 21. — 4. Cf. Joan. xv, 8. — 5. Sequence Lauda Sion.
    ↩
    1. Joan, VI, 57-58. — 2. Ibid. v, 19. — 3. Rom. vy, rr.
    ↩
    1. Matth. vI, 8.
    ↩

Chapter 4 of 21