The Catholic World, Vol. 10, October, 1869 to March, 1870Various
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 10, October, 1869 to March, 1870
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
This supposition is eminently possible. For, on the one hand, the
infinite personality being possessed of infinite energy, and, on the
other, the finite nature being endowed with an indefinite capacity of
sublimation, nothing can detain the first from communicating itself
to the second with such energy, power, and intensity of communication
as to render it its own most intimate and dependent organ of action.
In fact, let the communication of an infinite person to a finite
nature be carried to its highest possible degree of union short
of absorbing and destroying the real existence of the finite, its
substantiality, so to speak; let this finite nature be, accordingly,
raised to the highest possible intimacy with the infinite person;
let the latter take such intense possession of the former as to make
it its own intrinsic organ, the immediate and sole instrument of his
own infinite operation, and what will the result be? Why, that the
finite nature will no longer possess itself, no longer form a whole
by itself separated from and independent of any other; no longer bear
the attribution of the actions springing from its nature; in short,
it will no longer be a subsistence and an individuality by itself,
but will form one single individuality with the divine person, or
rather the infinite person will be the only single subsistence of the
two natures united, the infinite and the finite. The finite nature in
this supposition would stand, with regard to the infinite person, in
the same relation in which our body stands with regard to our soul.
For the union of body and soul, which constitutes the individual
called man, takes place according to this kind of union. The soul is
united to the body in a manner so close and so intimate as to render
the body its own most intrinsic, dependent instrument, the organ of
its operations in such a manner that, in force of this operation, the
body does not possess itself, does not form a whole apart, nor is it
accountable for the actions which immediately flow from its nature.
In other words, it has no subsistence of its own, but subsists of the
subsistence of the soul and the whole individual man. The result of
this union is possessed of the subsistence and forms one person.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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