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1. After a consideration of the essential traits [of God] the eye
of the
intelligence must be raised to look upon the most Blessed Trinity,
in order
that the second Cherub may be placed next to the first. Just as
Being is
the root and name of the vision of the essential traits, so Good
is the
principal foundation of our contemplation of the divine emanations
[of the
Trinity].
2. See then and pay heed, since the best which exists simply is
that than
which nothing better can be thought of. And this is such that it
cannot be
rightly thought not to be. For Being is in all ways better than
Non-Being.
This is such that it cannot rightly be thought of unless conceived
of as
both three and one.
For the Good is said to be self-diffusive. The
highest
good is therefore the most self-diffusive. The greatest diffusion,
however,
can exist only if it is actual and intrinsic, substantial and
hypostatic,
natural and voluntary, free and necessary, lacking nothing and
perfect.
Unless, then, there be eternally in the highest good a production
which is
actual and consubstantial, and an hypostasis as noble as the
producer
through generation and spiration, so that it would be from the
eternal
principle eternally co-producing and would be beloved ("dilectus")
in
itself and co-loved ("condilectus"), generated, and spirated as
are the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in no way would it be the
highest
good, for it would not diffuse itself most highly.
For temporal
diffusion
in creation is nothing else than central and punctiform with
respect to the
immensity of the eternal goodness. Whence also can some diffusion
be
conceived as greater than that--to wit, that in which the
diffusive power
communicates its whole substance and nature to another. Therefore
the
highest good would not exist if it could lack that characteristic
either in
existence or in thought.
If then you can look with the mind's eye upon the purity of
goodness, which
is the pure actualization of the principle of Charity, pouring
forth free
and due love, and both mingled together, which is the fullest
diffusion
according to nature and will--the diffusion as Word, in which all
things
are expressed, and as Gift, in which all other gifts are
given--you may see
by the highest communicability of the Good that a Trinity of
Father and Son
and Holy Spirit is necessary.
Because of the greatest goodness, it
is
necessary that there be in them the greatest communicability, and
out of
the greatest communicability the greatest consubstantiality, and
from the
greatest consubstantiality the greatest configurability, and from
all these
the greatest coequality; and therefore the greatest coeternity as
well as,
because of all the aforesaid, the greatest co-intimacy, by which
one is in
the other necessarily through the highest degree of mutual
penetration and
one operates with the other through the complete identity of
substances and
power and operation of the most Blessed Trinity itself.
3. But when you contemplate these things, see that you do not
think
yourself able to understand the incomprehensible. For you have
still in
these six stages to consider what most strongly leads our mind's
eye into
the stupor of wonder. For there [in the Trinity] is the greatest
communicability with individuality of the persons, the greatest
consubstantiality with plurality of the hypostases, the greatest
configurability with distinct personality, the greatest
co-equality with
order, the greatest co-eternity with emanation, the greatest
mutual
intimacy with mission.
Who in the face of such great marvels would
not
start in wonder? But we understand with greatest certitude that
all these
exist in the most Blessed Trinity if we raise our eyes to the
goodness that
excels all goodness. For if there is the greatest communication
and true
diffusion, there is also true origin and true distinction. And
because the
whole and not the part is communicated, therefore it is itself
given as a
whole and not as a part. Therefore the one emanating and the one
producing
are distinguished by their properties, and yet are essentially
one.
Since,
then, they are distinguished by their properties, therefore they
have
personal properties and a plurality of hypostases and an emanation
of
origin and an order which is not of posteriority but of origin,
and a
mission not of local change but of free spiration, because of the
authority
of the producer which every sender has in respect to that which is
sent.
Because they are substantially one, therefore it must be true that
there is
unity in essence and in form, in dignity and in eternity, in
existence and
inimitability. While therefore you consider these things one by one
in
themselves, you have a reason for contemplating the truth; when
you
compare them with one another, you have the wherewithal to hover
in highest
wonder; and therefore, that your mind may ascend in wonder to
wonderful
contemplation these things should be considered all together.
4. For these Cherubim signify this also, since they look at each
other. Nor
is this free from mystery, that they look toward each, their faces
being
turned toward the propitiatory [Exod., 25, 20], that there may be
verified
what the Lord said in John, "Now this is the eternal life: That
they may
know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom thou hast
sent" [John,
17, 3]. For we should wonder not only at the essential and
personal traits
of God in themselves, but also in comparison with the
superwonderful union
of God and man in the unity of Christ's person.
5. For if you are the Cherub when you contemplate the essentials
of God and
you wonder because the divine Being is at once primary and last
Being,
eternal and most present most simple and greatest or unlimited,
all
everywhere and yet never bounded, most actual and never moved,
most perfect
and having nothing superfluous or lacking, and yet immense and
infinite
without bounds, one to the highest degree and yet all-inclusive as
having
all things in itself, as total power, total truth, total goodness,
look to
the propitiatory and wonder that in it the primal principle is
joined to
the last term, God joined with man formed on the sixth day, the
eternal
joined with temporal man, born in the fullness of time of a
Virgin--the
most simple joined with the most composite, the most actual with
the most
passive and mortal, the most perfect and immense with the little,
the most
highly unified and all-inclusive with the composite individual
distinct
from all else, namely, Jesus Christ.
6. If, however, you are the other Cherub when you contemplate the
properties of the Persons, you will also wonder that
communicability exists
with individuality, consubstantiality with plurality,
configurability with
personality, co-equality with order, co-eternity with production,
co-intimacy with mission, for the Son was sent by the Father, and the
Holy
Spirit by both, Who nevertheless is always with Them and never
withdraws
from Them. Look to the propitiatory and wonder because in Christ
is a
personal union with a trinity of substances and a duality of
natures, an
absolute agreement with a plurality of wills, a common speech
between God
and man with plurality of properties, an equal worship with
plurality of
ranks, an equal exaltation above all things with plurality of
dignities, a
condominium with plurality of powers
7. In this consideration is the perfection of the mind's
illumination,
when, as if on the sixth day, it sees man made in the image of
God. If then
the image is an express likeness when our mind contemplates in
Christ the
Son of God, Who is the natural image of the invisible God, our
humanity now
wonderfully exalted, now ineffably united, by seeing at once in
one Being
the first and the last, the highest and the lowest, the
circumference and
the center, the alpha and the omega, the caused and the cause, the
creator
and the creature, the book written within and without, it [the
mind]
arrives at a perfect being in order that it may arrive with God at
the
perfection of His illuminations on the sixth level, as if on the
sixth day;
nor does anything more remain save the day of rest, on which, by
the
elevation of the mind, its insight rests from all work which He
had done.
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