On The Seventh Sunday After Pentecost

Being, movement and perfection are all under the dominion of the providence of God. No creature, however lowly or however magnificent can remove itself from the intimate and steady hand of Divine Providence.
 The Aristotelian philosophical principle of the real distinction between act and potency is of immense value to us and serves as a great aid to elucidating the divine motion upon all created being. No act, however insignificant can be performed without at least the natural concurrence of God. No agent is unable to rouse itself to movement without the exercise of God's motion upon their natures. Ignoring this truth would reduce all action and change to absurdity where no sufficient external causality could account for an outbreak of direction less transition without purpose. This natural concurrence is due to man's nature  and God owes it to Himself to assist nature as a whole to attain to its purpose as designed and implemented by His liberality in creating everything ex nihilo. This demonstrates that all thought, willing and acting can only be actualised by the consent and motion of God. Let us not confuse this with the higher inspiration of the Holy Ghost, or the formal participation in the divine nature of habitual grace or the transient participation in the same that is actual grace. Grave theological errors have been committed by the lack of due distinction between the orders of grace and nature. Yet gratitude should be shown for both.

 If we were to imagine the possibility of a completely natural state of creation, where Adam has no higher gift of divine life in his soul where his end is the purely nature knowledge and love of God above all things, he would still be utterly dependent upon his Creator for his being and movement. He would have all his faculties untainted by sin and the loss of original justice in grace, where these powers would be directed with rectitude to goodness. Yet after all this he would still require the assistance of God for any movement whatsoever.

 Let us then consider how much more imperative is the grace that is given for man in a fallen world to attain to holiness. We speak here not of general divine motion upon nature to reduce its potentiality to act but grace that is substantially supernatural not just modally. Without grace, the sinner may still be orientated towards universal good as his human nature is not destroyed, and he may attain to knowledge concerning the material world around him, but he is utterly incapable of raising himself beyond this. This is not to say that unfallen Adam could have elevated himself by pure will and discipline to the domain of the supernatural. The human soul has an obediential capacity to participation in the divine life which far excels the proper objects of its faculties yet is not entirely repugnant to its nature.

Oh happy fault that merited us so great a redeemer! With the School of Salamanca, I state sin was permitted by God for the greater good of the Incarnation. Slaves are to become sons and heirs too. Where sin abounded, grace abounded even more. Mercy and justice were the wounds of our Lord. Although the baptised may have entered into a formal participation in divine life (baptism being the seed of glory whose culmination is the beatific vision), the intellect is still darkened and the will remains vitiated. However, in this redeemed world, even greater helps are given to man than was available to Adam. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is greater than the worship in Eden. The Incarnation is far superior to when God 'walked' in the garden with our first parents. Striving through pain and vicious temptation with these magnificent supernatural graces man can attain to greater holiness than Adam possessed before his sin.Through these actual graces and the possession of sanctifying grace man comes to know his subjection to God in both the natural and the supernatural spheres and he is glad of it. He recognises the mercy and bountiful goodness that has been shown to him. He marvels not that some are damned but that any at all have been elected for glory.

 His faculties and his body are understood now to be in the service of his Redeemer and Lord. Of his own, belongs sin. To God, belongs his virtue. Even when he was astray from God, the latter was near to him. To echo Saint Augustine, that doctor of grace, God was nearer to him than he was to himself! His thoughts although at least generally moved by God was not concerned with God. By the infusion of the theological virtue of faith, he begins to view matters not in the shadow of practicality but in the light of eternity. He comes to acknowledge humbly his vast plans and triumphs are as straw being blown towards the pit.

As he journeys along the path of spirituality, he can only respond with gratitude to the saving mercy of Jesus Christ on the Cross. His labours of sanctity can never now be seen as burdensome but rather as a joy and a free offering to almighty God. O clap your hands, all ye nations: shout unto God with the voice of joy!Who is God but our Father and Protector? His past deeds disgust him and by continual actual graces he resists the curiosity to consider what his life could now be like etsi Deus non daretur. No more will he be enclosed within himself but will deny himself and serve as Christ served according to the will of the Father.

 He shall live for God as Jesus died for him. 

Commentary on Romans - Next Part For Now

I still have much to do on this, as you can see, I have not even gotten to the second chapter of the Letter to the Romans yet. I have made a few adjustments to the first part, but I will post a full and definite copy of this work when I have completed it (Deo volente), and correct the (numerous, no doubt) typos. I have to say one thing about the wonders of modern day technology as I would have been unable to write even half of this by hand. No wonder the Angelic Doctor died before 50 years old...

As written in 1 Samuel, ‘’The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.", accordingly God does not feign acceptance of a man, proclaiming him to be just when he is teeming with hatred and sin. Through an erroneous application of piety and trust in the sufficiency of Christ’s offering to His Heavenly Father, Calvin commits the grave mistake by saying, ‘There is no doubt that we obtain justification in the sight of God only by the intercession of the righteousness of Christ. This is equivalent to saying that believers are not righteous in themselves, but on account of the communication of the righteousness of Christ through imputation...’ and ‘(the justified person) has taken hold of the righteousness of Christ through faith, and having been clothed with it, appears in the sight of God not as a sinner, but as a righteous person’. Certainly no man has claim righteousness before God independently of the Divine Master or His initiative, as the Apostle states, ‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God’ (Eph 2:8) and this gift ‘is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom 6:28). Elsewhere it is written, ‘And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him’ (Heb 11:6) and the Holy Council of Trent affirms, ‘faith is the beginning of human salvation, the foundation, and the root of all Justification; without which it is impossible to please God, and to come unto the fellowship of His sons’ (VI,VIII).
Paul asserts that this ‘power of God’ communicated to men saves the faithful, first of all the Jewish nations, for whom the Messiah was sent only (Mat 15:24), and then onto the Greeks, by the missions of the Apostles who had received ‘grace...and apostolic mission to preach the obedience of faith...in honour of His Name’. Guided by the Spirit of Truth, the chosen men are called forth with the authority of Christ Himself, and the ‘‘Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say." (Lk 12:12). Whosoever rejects the Church of Christ rejects the One Who sanctified her by His Precious Blood, and thereby rejects the Father Who orders all things to His honour and glory.
This affirmation of the primacy of faith does not set up as certain men do, a contradiction between ‘good works’ and divinely granted ‘faith’. One must note that although the ‘upright man finds life by faith’, this acceptance of the divine mercy in Christ and His sorrowful Passion remains the foundation of good works, which naturally flow from it. In Galatians the same author states, ‘faith expressing itself through love’ (5:6), and the Divine John writes, ‘And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.’ (2 John 1:6). Faith is the corner stone, yet it is not the entire edifice. Faith allows man to situate himself in truth and light, without this acknowledgement of his utter dependence upon God for creation, sustenance and redemption, man stumbles in the dark and ‘flatters himself in his mind that he knows not his guilt...he clings to what is evil’’ (Ps 35: 2-4).He lives, nay, exists, as a beast and in his lie, he distorts the nature of his being which is to love and participate in the Trinitarian life of God.
Let us now proceed since these preliminary remarks have been set forward in order to correct certain misunderstandings. One of the greatest catechetical errors of the modern era is to assert the goodness of God and His love, without fully comprehending either. By His goodness (as it is appropriate for a good God to create good things), according to His Wisdom, by the Power of His Spirit, the Blessed Trinity creates man out of nothing without gaining or losing anything in the process. God would have continued to exist in absolute bliss and felicity without need of us. Even if man were to live all the days of Methuselah in extreme penance and anguish of body and soul, he would still remain unworthy to exist for even an instance upon this earth. All is of grace and mercy. It is also false to assert that God must live within certain boundaries in dealing with His creatures that we so foolishness demand, if otherwise, He would be guilty of malevolence. God owes us nothing, although one may say that He has bound Himself to a promise in Christ, yet this is one that He freely made from all eternity. Of His Essence, He is absolute goodness and holiness (which is the will to exist as good), there is no ‘change, nor shadow of alteration’ (Jas 11:17), therefore He detests sin as offensive to His nature, not because it ‘harms’ Him in some way. Sin wounds in a serious manner the operation and nature of the rational beings He brought forth from nothing to love and serve Him, and those who practice such iniquity are deserving of eternal punishment. The Psalmist maintains that the impious will be ‘flung down, they shall never arise’ (35:12), and ‘the wicked will not stand in the judgment... the way of the wicked will perish.’ (1:5-6). No man can excuse God of hiding the truth concerning Himself from them, since ‘the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands... There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard...their words to the ends of the world’ (Ps 19:14). Evil-doers are ‘without excuse’ because ‘what can be known about God is perfectly plain to them since God Himself has made it plain’. One can truly affirm that the earth is apostolic, telling with great eloquence the glory of the Lord. Saint Augustine writes, ‘‘Heaven and earth glorify God. All the creatures proclaim His existence. The heaven cries to God: ‘You it was who made me: I did not make myself.’ And the earth cries: ‘You are my creator: You it was who made me’’. Yet, as a consequence of the evil act of our first parent, the effects of which are transmitted through human nature, our minds are darkened to this sublime witness to the goodness and glory of God. We become confused and dazed at such a mystery and fail to rise above it to Him Who fashioned the universe through a super-abundance of love. The Doctor of Grace continues, ‘This spectacle (the beauty of the created cosmos) which has been given to you to admire, the joy with which it inspires you, the impetus with which it raises up to towards the Maker of it all, the revelation of the ineffable Being through Whom He created it – all this is the testimony of heaven and earth to which you bear witness when you look at them. If you love what he has made, love still more Him Who has made it all.’ With reason, the Divine Apostle states that ‘they (the pagans) knew God’ but by turning aside from the Principle Who creates, orders and blesses, they reduce themselves to corruptibility and giving honour to things that have less value than they. Man is able to be justly condemned for his sin and wayward heart even before or without the revelation of God in Christ, as the truth concerning the presence of God and His effects does not remain merely external but is situated within the heart and mind. Although defaced, the image of God which enables man to will freely, to know and understand and to love endures as if man were to lose this; he would also relinquish his humanity. Through a simple examination of the heart and reasoned discourse concerning his purpose in the world, the human being will infallible come to a knowledge of God, which will reveal His goodness and providence. The Angelic Doctor affirms that perception of visible, sensible objects, although we are unable to see the Divine Essence, ‘because they are His effects and depend on their cause, we can be led from them so far as to know of God "whether He exists," and to know of Him what must necessarily belong to Him, as the first cause of all things, exceeding all things caused by Him.’’ Furthermore, we can deduce from these causes that the Principle of their existence must be Being beyond them, otherwise the First Cause would be constrained within His effects, which is absurd. If so, this ‘cause’ would in turn require another to justify its presence. Yet, He is not the impersonal Aristotelian god who remains aloof from His creation as the Psalmist says, ‘"The Lord looked down from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he viewed the earth’’ (102:19) and ‘’ The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.’’ (103:19). The humble of soul may see His ‘everlasting power and deity’ reflected in the cosmos, and then joyfully proclaim His mercy before men and angels. The Good Lord does not bind us to honour Him if He has not gifted us with the capacity for realising His presence, therefore such acceptance and realisation of the truth does not depend upon intellectual ability but arises from purity of heart, which is itself a gift from the Creator. Through hardness of heart, man becomes ‘imprisoned in wickedness’ which lowers him to the dust, which is essentially lifeless, instead of causing him to soar upward to He Who is Life of His essence. Too often in the modern world, one will hear that someone embraces ‘spirituality’ in order to find themselves some ‘transcendence’ without having to resort to religion which carries along with it a great deal of guilt. Such an attitude is a great distortion, which as opposed to guiding man through obstacles by illumination, covers him in greater darkness as it is freely willed and guarded. Man will heap up to himself many instructors who call themselves ‘philosophers’ (lovers of wisdom), and be solicitous for the latest novelty, instead of confronting his disordered desires and correcting them in accordance with right reason which finds its only basis in God. The Apostle elsewhere pronounces that this erroneous behaviour arises from a will to see their own desires suited (1 Tim 4:3. We often see this in today’s supposedly ‘rational’ world, where any behaviour may be excused or promoted simply because such an action is possible. Men will wilfully deceive themselves, submerging themselves in mud, making ‘nonsense out of logic’, appealing to ‘reason, liberty, choice, progress’ (the mantra of our era), resulting in acting like beasts. They are insatiable, yet refuse to confront the source of their misery and wretchedness, they fail to emulate the resolution of the Psalmist whose ‘bones wasted away, through (his) groaning all day long’, as he lingered in his sin, then he turned to his Lord and ‘acknowledged (his) sin’ and God ‘forgave the guilt’ (32:3-5). Our God is a fountain of mercy for those who turn to Him in humility; He pours the Holy Spirit into our hearts Who dwells there, allowing us to cry out Father (Gal 4:6) in the sure hope of salvation. The sinner who is borne about by the changing winds of the world’s values and the fickle ambitions and pleasures of men, has his ‘empty mind darkened’, as he has divorced himself from the Source of all being, truth and love. He in his destitution (the great poverty of disordered love) scrambles around, looking for solace and finds refuge in the ‘works of (his) hands’ whereby ‘provoking the Lord to anger’ (2 Chr 34:25) and to their further shame. The Divine Apostle admonishes, ‘Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things’ (Phil 3:19). According to our doctrine, the Source of all being is the Father Who creates through His Word by the Power of His Spirit, He is the uncreated Creator Who brings forth all that exists, lives and loves for the manifestation of His glory and so that rational creatures may come to share in His divine life. All that exists, in some sense, participates in the nature of God. Rocks participate in a very finite manner by possessing existence, although a very fleeting one. Plants in a further degree through life and the ability to grow. The ‘lord’ over this earth, man, is called to share in a wonderful degree, to a great height through love, which is God’s own gift, in the divine nature, which permits and enables man to transcend his limitations and creaturely confinement and truly to be free. It was rightly said to Adam that if he were to eat of the tree of life, he should ‘surely die’. As soon as man deviates from this course, which is natural and in which consists his eternal felicity, he is not even worthy of the name of ‘man’. He ‘exchanges the glory of the immortal God for a worthless imitation’ which contains less value than mortal man who will soon return to the dust as his deeds deserve. He sets his eyes on ‘the image of mortal man’ (which is not infused with a soul, it therefore has no life), ‘they have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see’ (Ps 135:16) yet it is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob Who formed the eye and the mouth (Ps 94:9) and ‘knows the secrets of our hearts’ (Ps 44:21). Our modern day idols are even less secure than these, as we do not accord them divinity, we acknowledge that they are a commodity, yet we still render homage to them.

Romans 1 - A Sneak Peak

Fratres: I write this commentary in the hope of building up the Body of Christ, so that in all things glory may be given to our God Who reigns forever. The Epistle to the Romans of the Divine Apostle Paul is a treasure trove of spiritual delights, sufficient to raise the souls of all men, whether clergy, religious or laity, learned or simple to the Truth Who is Christ Jesus, Our Lord. I undertake this study of this Sacred Writing so I may participate in closer union with our Divine Redeemer through His Mystical Body suffering on this earth in the hope of coming face to face with Him Whom I read about. I call upon the intercession of the glorious Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and of all Hearts that I may explain, as far I have been given the capacity, this heavenly doctrine concerning the Descent of the Logos and the exaltation in principle of man with humility and faith.
Many homilies, commentaries and expositions have been commended to paper on this Epistle yet for my sake; I believe it to be pertinent that I write so that I may understand more fully. If there is contained within this work anything contrary to the Faith, I sincerely apologise for negligence, but it will not be out of bad faith that such errors are proclaimed. My plan is to reproduce this commentary in the form of a ‘sermon’ if you will, or each chapter for Filioque each week. I ask for initial good will before I commence and urge for you to pray for me to the Lord our God.

Chapter 1.

For us Catholic Christians, the Letter to the Romans especially concerning the doctrine of justification by faith set forth by Paul is often troubling. In the past one hundred years, such a sublime teaching of the gratuitous mercy of the Good Lord has been gravely distorted by Protestantism that so many of us approach it with scepticism at the very least. Yet with the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit, the Soul of the Church, we may be led into all truth (Jn 16.13), by remaining faithfully united to His Mystical Body, who is the pillar and foundation of that message (1. Tim 3:15). With this in mind, let us proceed according to the regula fidei that we may be preserved from such deviation.
The Holy Apostle declares that he ‘is not ashamed of the Good News’, even though this kerygma was a source of ‘stumbling’ for the Jews and a message of ‘foolishness’ for the erudite and cultured Greeks (1. Cor 1:23). Lacking this sophistication of the world, the Apostle remains faithful to his calling, calling to mind the words of Our Blessed Lord Who did say, ‘If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.’(Lk 9:26).The scandal of the Cross, His Supreme Immolation for our ransom was an affront to the human assumption that such a termination of a mission was a resounding failure. Even though the Suffering Servant was set forth as the propitiation to remove the guilt and to bind up the wounds of the people of Israel (cf. Isaiah 53), the Incarnation of the Eternal Word of the Father and His utter humiliation on the Cross as a common criminal was more than they could honestly bear. It verily surpasses the hopes of all men. When our Master prophesied that He would be handed over to the scribes and Pharisees, the Prince of the Apostles answered with the expected human reaction of astonishment and fear at such a fate (Mt 16.21-23). The expectation of the Jews was frustrated, and they received a kingdom not of this world, which was incomprehensible to their uncircumcised hearts of stone. No man could ever have conceived of the complete condescension of the Lord Who sent forth in love, His Beloved, Sole-Begotten Son so that whosoever shall believe in Him shall not perish but receive eternal life (Jn 3.16) and be crowned with righteousness (2. Tim 4:8) before the host of angels. He acknowledges the ‘power of God’ which manifests itself in the foolishness of the Cross, for the mockery and scorn of men. Yet for Paul and the member of the Body of Christ, the Cross far from being dead, dry wood, becomes the Tree of Life for us, through which the fruits of sanctity blossom and give delight to passersby, who wish to taste and see that the Lord is good. This Faith was not merely taught to the lost sheep of the House of Israel or the Gentiles, but that intimate union with the Redeemer was urged to be accepted by mankind, so that they may inherit the’ kingdom prepared for (them )before the foundation of the world’ (Mt 25:34). An aversion to the wood of the Cross on which is hung our Salvation, is sign of the reprobate who fails to acknowledge the universal sinfulness of humanity and the necessity of grace and the divine mercy. Paul states elsewhere, ‘For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.’ (1 Cor 1:18). It is imperative to state however, in whatever manner the ‘economic’ Trinity operates, we see a reflection of the immanent life of the Deity. With the risk of proclaiming subordinationism (which I reject), we can realise how in the ivine communion of love, the Eternal Son of the Father is in some sense dependent upon the First Person (although fully God by nature) as He receives His essence from the Source of the Godhead. In the Incarnation, brought about by the work of the Holy Spirit through the cooperation of Mary, the Mediatrix of all Graces, the Logos comes to do the will of Him who sent Him (Jn 6:38) into the world to save sinners and grant them abundant life (Jn 10:10). He submits to the eternal plan of His Father even to the point of death (Phil 2:8) and is raised in great glory and given the Name above all Names (Phil 2:9). By His humble submission to the divine will, He reverses the sin of Adam, our First Parent who fell through pride. God does not merely ‘stoop down to look’ (Ps 113:6), but He unites Himself hypostatically, that is truly in the harmony of one Person, the whole nature of humanity so that we may be healed. As Athanasius said, “He became what we are that we might
become what He is.”
The ‘justice of God’ was a phrase that haunted Martin Luther, through which all he saw initially was his innumerable weaknesses and imperfections which were due to be punished by the just decree of God. In his failure to comprehend this divine mystery, he distorted the truth to fit human sensibilities and claimed his innovation of sola fide as a safeguard for the grace of God in Christ. However, the Council of Trent against such error declared that the ‘formal cause’ of our justification consists of the ‘justice of God, not that whereby He Himself is just, but that whereby He maketh us just, that, to wit, with which we being endowed by Him, are renewed in the spirit of our mind, and we are not only reputed, but are truly called, and are, just, receiving justice within us, each one according to his own measure, which the Holy Ghost distributes to everyone as He wills, and according to each one's proper disposition and co-operation ‘ (6, 6). The Good Lord elects through an inscrutable decree some of His sinful creatures to share in the divine nature whereby they are conformed to the image of His Son, Who is blessed forever. He desires them to be animated by charity, which reflects the Essence of God Who is Love (1 Jn 3:16). He chooses to make them righteous in His sight as He knows the secret desires of the heart and is not fooled by the appearances of men.


Much more must be written, but I need a bit more time to collect my thoughts on such a sublime mystery. But here it is so far...

The Nature of Love - 2

All that exists, shares, in some sense, in the nature of God. As He is the origin of all that has being, no existing subject can be, without resembling His essence. Yet not all creation is alike in this. Rocks participate in God simply by being. Plants by living. Men by knowing and loving. This capacity for love reflects the intra-trinitarian communion, where the Spirit is the bond of love between the Unbegotten and the Logos. It is this endowment which exalts man above the rest of the earth and makes him most like God. The path of sanctity, which consists loving the Good, is not foreign to human nature, but grace is the perfection of it, where it is given its fulfilment and uniqueness.
Man can only love what is good, of his nature he is drawn to what is desirable and beautiful. Yet, such a desire which should be pure, grounded in God, in this valley of tears, becomes corrupted and confused. What is good is sought after in isolation from He Who is Good, Who He Is. The man who acts and loves in this manner, offends his own being. This is not simply ‘inauthenticity’, but a lie, a distortion of creation.
Love is the fundamental orientation of man, it directs his being, raises him up and transforms him. He that loves God, loves Himself and becomes God. Such an exaltation could only ever occur because of the Incarnation of the Sole-Begotten One and His Death. The supreme oblation of a God wounded by sin. A heart that would beat for the love of humanity and for the Father’s glory. The lover desires to be united with the Beloved, wishes to make himself like He Who is sought after and rejoices in His perfections.

This could be greatly expanded, but I thought I would write down some initial thoughts and develop them over the course of time.