CROSS AND CROWN
A THOMISTIC QUARTERLY OF SPIRITUAL THEOLOGY

EDITED BY THE DOMINICAN FATHERS

Ϊ

OF THE
PROVINCE OF ST. ALBERT THE GREAT

VOLUME
II

1950

' ......... "'l~~......... " l,ll?·

R HERDER BOOK CO.
ST. LOUIS 2. MO.
FiJilishun

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Eternal Youth

HE blessed are always thirsting and always filled. Their satiety is
ever new, with a newness that does not pass. St. Augustine in Ser­
mon 362, no. 29, deals admirably with this subject in a passage quoted
by Bossuet in his fourth Sermon for the feast of All Saints. St. Augustine
writes: “Our entire activity will be an Amen, an Alleluia: in other
words, an assent to the truth and the expression of praise in adoration
and thanksgiving. Do not grow sad, considering this activity in a com­
pletely material manner, and do not say here that if one were to stand,
repeating continually Amen, Alleluia, he would soon be exhausted
with boredom and would finally fall asleep repeating these words. This
■4men. this Alleluia will not be expressed by evanescent sounds, but by
'tit sentiments of the soul on fire with love. What does this Amen
cig’tifx ? What does this Alleluia mean? Amen: it is true; Alleluia:
pra-.w (,tou. God is immutable truth knowing no defect, no progress,
no falitng· οΊ. no increase, nor the slightest inclination to falsity: eterami stabie truth, remaining fore’, er incorruptible.
Thus wc shall indeed say Amen, but with an insatiable satietv: with
satiety, because we shall possess perfect abundance; but with a satiety
that is always insatiable, if we may speak in this fashion, because this
good, which is always satisfying, will produce in us an ever new pleas
we. In the degree, therefore, in which you will be insatiably sated with
" 'rur i. in the same degree you will say by this insatiable truth:
* · ■ ■'. ·ι :s true. Rest and see; this will be a continual sabbath.” It will
- m curnd repose tn a sovereign action which will not end, and which.
'
in a way be always new; rest in God eternally possessed and loved
'c 4 * cii>e md more than ourselves. The Greek philosophers dis-v aether beatitude is found in pleasure in movement, or in pleas•■ure in repose. Aristotle shows clearly that the highest joy is that which
■> me ciMr.picment. the completion of perfect normal activity, which no

T

CROSS AND CROW N

l8

longer tends toward its end but possesses it and rests in it.1 This is real­
ized in an eminent degree in the beatitude of heaven.
The joy found in this beatitude is a continually new satiety, because
its newness never ends. The first instant of the beatific vision lasts f°r*
ever, like an eternal morning, an eternal springtime, an eternal youthThis is explained by consideration of the very beatitude of God. He
possesses His life all at once in the single instant of immobile eternity­
lie cannot grow old; for Him there is no past, no future, but an eternal
present which contains eminently ail time, as the summit of a pyramid
or of a cone contains eminently all the points of the base of this geo­
metric figure, or as the gaze of a man on a mountain embraces the whole
valley below. God thus possesses His life all at once, ta ta simul, with­
out beginning or end; this is the definition of eternity.
W'e can concede this wealth when we are told that Mozart in com­
posing a melody heard it all at once in the musical law which produced
it; ne heard the end while composing the beginning. Thus great scholars
enmrace ad their knowledge in a single glance.
The acati..·. y»io.« of the saints is likewise measured bv the single
mstant of xmrnobne ctei-niry. As ? rcsukf
ùnnwn .e · ' of ,he mo.
u.ent ot their entrance hno heaven will not pass; its newness, its freshX
VC CrenU 1>·
Therefore, in this sense. dais vision will
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,rç 'is the mete we possess sensible goo-.b at nr<t keenly

‘■ve 'is- rnr.·.'«·:i.-.'.’.iy; ' S C ‘‘ie:r ho^^tinns and the more the inv they
If a mirinia.1 fritnd-s-v.p lass ten. twenty years, 433 more
uin- always new, v- may take it as a sign *at rius incn ?
divine origin. Likewse the word of God givcs 3
‘ *C ’

ETERNAL YOUTH

19

a man forget temporarily the difficulties of business, the pressing duties
of home, the excessively eager search for vain amusements. It is divine
truth and supreme goodness that are glimpsed which nourish the soul.
As Bossuet says (Joe. cir.) : "If this divine truth delights us when ex­
pressed by evanescent sounds, how greatly will it ravish us when it will
speak to us in its own eternally permanent voice’· · · · God in heaven
does not utter many words; He utters only one, the same for all eter­
nity, His Word, and He has said everything. It is in
ord that we
shall see all.” “Taste and see that the Lord is sweet,” says the Psalmist,
and you shall have, as it were, the prelude of the joy of heaven. It will
be repose in unceasing action, in an immediate vision of God, which
will fill the soul with love and with a continually new 1°Υ· Gaudium

de veritate et de bonitate divina.
St. Thomas,® following St. Augustine, says that, whereas man grows
weary of sensible goods when he possesses them, the contrary is true
of spiritual goods; the more a man possesses spiritual goods, the more
he loves them; for they are not consumed, they ate not exhausted, and
they are of a nature to produce an always new joy m us· This is some­
times experienced in praver; it is like the realization of me admirable
prayer of St. Nicholas of Flue: “My Lord and my God. take from me
all that hinders me from going: to Thee; give me ad that wilt lead me co
Γΐκχ. Take me from myself and give me entirely to Thyself in order
that I may belong comuletelv to Thee.” It is as if God penetrated more
and more deeply the depths’of our spiritual will, which desires increas­
ingly to be seized and. as it were, wounded by Hun, so that He max

possess it fully.
This doctrine is admirably expressed by the author of C>:e imita. i-j)i.
' In all things and above all rest in God. O my soul, because He is the
eternal repose of the saints. Loving and sweet Jesus, grant that π..λ
rest in Tb.ee more than in all creatures; more than in hearth. oeauty.
Honors, and glorv·. more than in every power and dignity, mo>e t an
m knowk-d·.·;. riches, and arts; more than in all meric and every desue.
· tu
that Thou canst lavish
more even than in
Thv gifts and all
au rhe
me rewards
rev, *
.happiness «nd
rhe
transports
that the soul can
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20
CROSS AND CROWN
receive and feel; more finally than in the Angels and Archangels and
all the heavenly host; above all things visible and invisible, more than
in all that is not Thee, O my God! For Thou alone art infinitely good.
... Thus all that Thou dost give me outside of Thyself, all Thou dost
reveal to me concerning Thyself is too little and does not suffice me ii
I do not see Thee, if I do not possess Thee fully, resting in Thee alone.’ ’
Such is the joy of heaven, always new, because ils newness and its fresh­
ness do not pass and will last forever. For this reason we call it not
only the future life but eternal life.
SOVEREIGNLY SPONTANEOUS LOVE SUPERIOR TO LIBERTY

In heaven the love of chanty will take on new modalities; it will be
a love of God superior to liberty, a love nothing will be able to make us
lose, which nothing will be able in any way to diminish. On earth our
love of God remains free, because we do not see God face to face.
Under one aspect He appears very good to us, and under another He
may appear too exacting; certain of His commandments may displease
the egoism or pride that still remains in us. Consequently our love for
Him remains free and at the same time meritorious.
In heaven, on the contrary, we shall see infinite Goodness as it is in
itself. It will be impossible for us to find in it the slightest aspect that
can displease us or alienate us, the slightest pretext for not loving it
abwe all eke. tor prefcrring anything to it, or for suspending for 3
single insrant our act of love in which there will be no shadow of wear­
mess. Infinite Goodness, seen immediately, will so perfectly fill up our
capacity tn *uve,
St. Thomas, that it will draw our lové irresistibly,
n ore even tnan m ecstasy on earth where the love of God still remains
t ree and mentor^. We shall be in the happy necessity of Iovi
me Tnonusts.’
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ETERNAL YOUTH

21

of our will, of our capacity for spiritual love, which God alone seen
face to face can fill.5
In heaven our love of God will, therefore, be supremely spontaneous,
not at all forced, but no longer free; we shall be unable not to love God
seen face to face. This love will of a certainty not be inferior to liberty
and merit like a thoughtless and involuntary act of the sensible appetites;
but it will be above liberty and merit like the very spontaneous love
which God has for Himself from all eternity, and which is common to
the three divine Persons. God necessarily loves His infinite goodness.
For the same reason, like the beatific vision of which it will be the
necessary consequence, our act of love of God will never be interrupted
and will never more be able to lose any of its fervor.
Recently this lofty truth found expression in the writings of a person
who has no human culture, but who seems to be advanced in the ways
of prayer. “In heaven,” she says, “the soul receives God into itself and

ment of God with all its strength and all possible vigor. It possesses
God and is possessed by Him, and it experiences this enjoyment as its
eternal state.” This state is always new in the sense that, like an eternal

tnorning, its newness never fades.
The Impeccabh ity of the Blessed

Another effect of the beatific vision is the impeccability of the blessed
They are impeccable not only because God preserves them from sim
as on earth He preserves saints confirmed in grace, but because a so
in possession of the beatific vision of infinite Goodness, canno. tu
‘Of. Sr. Thomas, la q. h»5.,a- «= “Now ihe -.yll
U
g·■-.■’·
·■;- in- Go,’. alone sufficiently wd efficM.oWQ·■;« sufficiently as ’··
He alone fills *e
of
’“r
£<l(m of Ae divine ewer.ee.
ôb-î-.t.·· la lhe, q. 4. a. *
iuppiness
s
of hirn whi! secs the wsence o.
’*-nq.h n ma very essence oî goneness. So «.ha. t.
i· at;on
God; p* » the vr
God. of necewiw loves »»«« «
whatever he loves wider th*
him who dees nûi see God’s essence, of necessio
:w.ira r.orior. of good ^cb he knows.
necessity of loving, esen
Tbomi« cL^monfy
lauThe“-Ü1 of the bteeed «
« f« as its exercise, foil‘d,and overwhelmed by the Sos ere «Γ
filled, fitted to capacity, idled to overflow

-CROSS AND CROW N
away from it by mortal sin, or find the slightest pretext for loving it less
for a single moment.® Just as on earth man cannot cease to wish to be
happy, although he often seeks happiness where it is not to be found,
even at times in suicide, so in heaven the saints cannot cease to will to
love God seen face to face, or to will to contemplate Him. However,
they remain free to love some finite good, a certain soul in preference

to anot er, to pray for it, and they freely execute God's orders in order
to assist us But this liberty never deviates in the direction of evil; it
t us distantly resembles the divine liberty, which is at one and the same
rime supreme and impeccable. This was' true even here on earth of the

'insr wr f
W^° cn)°yed the beatific vision from the first
were
.C<M^cePt’on· ®ut
free acts Jesus performed on earth
Zr
fOr He Was sriU a traveler?
rr
> ensoi. uncreas the free acre
λ- m
.
,
. · r
since they have reached rhe rn » f
°ng" menttT°
■’crs a-e rbe
their journey and of merit. Their
m,Xg‘»
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which ha,
longer
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"nv from God, it fdtavTthvision can nor s’
nature, cannot be
beatitude by reason of its very
“These fthe wicked J shall
7^ * “etemal iife” -^csus sa>’S:
;nro Ufc e crlastine ’7 St. P Π?° ever“st’nS Punishment: but the just,
?b>ry. ·’ Sr paci s"n.s A
sPcal« of ’‘a never fajjng crt)Wn of
dccurcv F,lr chat which i/
* 'incorruPtibie”;’and he ako
’ribulation. wofseth for m Λ"" ΡΓ“6ΠΓ !nn":enrarv and fight of our
rf glory - The Cre(fo * '
««edingly an eternal weight
^•emam.”
nJs ***
words: ‘Credo
in viram
Rfoikvd Gkrrwk»v-L«.graxgf. θ·Ρ·

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The Wanton Stings
IFE without pain and passion would be a rather dull affair. In fact,
it would be something close to tragedy, since pain and passion give
us so many occasions of laying up merit. Not that we ever need worry
about being without conflict. With human nature shaped as it is, and
with tnt .vounds of original sin so manifest in our very vitals, we shall
never want for grief and tears. Just so we keep an eye and ear open to
the brighter side of things! After all. it is as natural to laugh as to cry.
So long as man remains man, a balance of mind and matter, he must be
able to see the humor as well as the pathos of life. This goes for all of
us: saints and sinners, Jews and Gentiles. “If you prick us, do we not
bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not
die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?’’ Perish the thought of
tickling father abbot merely to note how’ he would react. Or of wrong­
ing mother general in order to prove the rightness of Shylock’s predic­
tions. Yet, so surely as they are human beings, father abbot and mother
genera: would tend to behave as Shylock says. Neither habit nor vows
nor even the grace of God can change the essentials of human nature,
though they often work miracles in moderating rhe actions of that
nature.
that if priests and sisters felt no natural impulse to laugh or
cry or w reak revenue. it might warrant some examination ot their state
■ ·ί health.
What I am trying to say is that passion is as natural to man as eating
md drinking, it is quite as natural as having a material side ro his make­
up. which is certainly the way almightv God made him. A ithout the
body, there could be nr- passion in the proper sense nr the word. But
’-v.thout the bndv. there could be no man. either. Tms nas some
it-irtlinry imohcations.
For instance, have vou ever stopped m think that you can. ι-c p»iy de­
ad v sick and sad at the sin in the world, but that an angel is not able to
share this blessed kind of yr-/ with v-tv Or that you can be stirred

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