FAITH OF OUR FATHERS

New Zealand Tablet, 4 August 1921, Page 33

FAITH OF OUR FATHERS

LA .Weekly Instruction for Young and Old.] - . Third Article: Moral Attributes, 12. Those attributes of God which wo call moral constitute, so to speak, His virtues, which reasonable creatures are bound to imitate. The principal moral attributes are • wisdom, goodness,- charity, providence, truth, mercy, and justice. 13. (1) Wisdom, considered as a moral perfection, is the perfect conformity of the divine will with the divine intelligence. It is His supreme love of order by which God always works for ends worthy of Himself, and by ■which he attains His. ends by suitable means, equally worthy of His infinite perfections. „ The wisdom of God, by reason of its sublimity, sometimes cannot be appreciated by creatures. The most signal act of divine wisdom, the redemption of the world by the Cross, seemed, in the ages of. human wisdom, nothing but folly.

(2) Goodness is here taken in a relative sense, or inasmuch as God is good to us. It docs not differ from benevolence and beneficence. It is the disposition which urges God to communicate His own happiness to creatures, according to their condition and the counsels of His wisdom.

(3) The charity and the mercy of God.* The infinite goodness of God towards His reasonable creatures is called also charity, inasmuch as God loves us as a father; and mercy, inasmuch as Pie bestows Mis benefits on the miserable, the unfortunate, and sinners.

(4) By the holiness of God we understand, on the one hand, His infinite hatred of iniquity, which, like to the purest light, excludes all shadow of sin ; and on the other, His supreme love of justice—a love which includes the possession of every virtue in an infinitely perfect degree. The holiness of God is also the source of all holiness in creature*.

14. By reason of His goodness. His mercy, and His sanctity, God wishes to save all men; according to St. Paul, God "will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth'' (1 Tim. xi. 4); and again, "He that spared not even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how hath He not also, with Him, given us all things!" (Rom. viii. 32). If some souls are lost in spite of the means of salvation which God gives to all, it is their own fault, and through their own sins. The only cause of reprobation is the rebellious creature, the sinner, and deliberate sin. None can be lost excepting by their own fault.

As regards children who die without baptism, if on account of their stain of original sin, they cannot enter heaven, they, at the same time, do not suffer the torments of hell, which are the chastisement of actual sins, which they have not committed. Their state is one which is in accordance with God's mercy as well as His justice. The general opinion of the doctors and fathers of the Church is, that children who have died without baptism will be exempt from all pain of the senses, but that they will be deprived of the Beatific Vision. Moreover, St. Thomas teaches that this privation will cause them no pain, but that they rather will enjoy a certain sort of felicity derived from the natural gifts of intelligence and love which they have received from God.

(5) The providence of God signifies His wisdom and goodness in the government of the world. It comprises two things: (1) the destination of creatures to their end, which constitutes design, order, and subordination; (2) the fulfilment of this order and design by suitable means Gods providence includes the preservation and subsistence of creatures, the remedy for their miseries, and help m their wants. It embraces all creation down to the smallest insects, but its principal care is man. There is a double providence: that which is natural, and that which is supernatural, or the order of grace. (6) Truth.—God, who is sovereign truth in Himself, is also the supreme truth in His relations with us. He

* After having considered mercy as linked to charity,, we will consider it further, on, in its relation to justice, so that it may be fully understood.

could neither deceive Himself nor deceive His creatures, either in teaching a doctrine or in making a promise. Truth therefore comprises the infallibility of God and His fidelity to His promises. The first is the foundation of our faith the second, of our hope. ' (7) The mercy and the- justice of God.— two perfections, as we take them here, regard sinners. The first is exercised towards repentant sinners, by pardon and leconipense; the second, towards hardened and impenitent sinners, by condemnation and chastisement proportionate in rigor to the malice of their sin.