Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: The Trinune God: Systematics

Titel: The Triune God: Systematics

Stichwort: Sendung (sichtbar, unsichtbar): Sohn, Geist; Ordnungsgut: visio beatifica - Königreich Gottes, Leib Christ, Heilsökonomie;

Kurzinhalt: QUESTION 30/2 - Is it appropriate that the divine persons be sent ...; Moreover, it was appropriate for one divine person to be sent visibly and the other invisibly. For a mission has a twofold end: ...

Textausschnitt: 495b (2) With these considerations about the nature of the good well understood, we must now go on to consider the end of the divine missions. The ultimate end is of course the divine good itself communicated immediately in the beatific vision, while the proximate end is that good of order which, according to various analogies with human goods of order, is called either the kingdom of God, or the body of Christ, or the church, or the mystical marriage of Christ with the church, or the economy of salvation, or the city of God. The proximate end is called a kingdom because of its similarity to a good political order, a body because of its similarity to the good of order that obtains among the organs of a single body, a church and a city because of its similarity to a social good of order, a marriage because of its similarity to a domestic good of order, and an economy because of its similarity to the good of order in acquiring, producing, and managing material things. (Fs) (notabene)

495c In this good of order are found all the elements that come together to constitute a good of order. It includes many persons, since Christ died for all. There are cognitive and appetitive habits, since from sanctifying grace flow the infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. There are many coordinated operations, since Christians put off the old man, live a new life, and love one another. There are successions and series of particular goods, flowing from the benefits that the new life in Christ constantly produces, from the ministry of the word by which the gospel is preached to every creature, from the ministry of life that is seen in sacrifice, in the priesthood, and in the sacraments, and from the hierarchy that regulates and develops the church. Finally, there are the personal relationships that are formed when Christians love one another as Christ has loved them,1 when in loving one another they love Christ,2 when in loving Christ they are loved by the Father,3 and when the Holy Spirit is sent to them by the Father through Christ.4 Fs) (notabene)

497a (3) Now, it is appropriate that the divine persons are sent to constitute and develop this good of order. For although the other goods of order externally imitate that supreme good of order that we observe in the Holy Trinity, nevertheless it was appropriate that the economy of salvation, which is ordered to participation in divine beatitude itself, should not only imitate the order of the Holy Trinity but also in some manner participate in that order. For this reason the very divine persons who from eternity proceed from the Father are also in time sent by the Father to initiate and strengthen new personal relations of reconciliation and love with human persons. In addition to this appropriateness is the fact that through the missions the divine persons are more clearly revealed, and each more ardently loved. (Fs)

497b Moreover, it was appropriate for one divine person to be sent visibly and the other invisibly. For a mission has a twofold end: a person is sent by a person to persons both so that a certain good might be accomplished and so that new personal relations might be initiated or strengthened. Now, since the cooperation among the divine persons is so perfect that there is one simple common operation of the Three, it follows that a divine person as divine can indeed enter into new personal relations but cannot perform works that are proper to himself. Since, therefore, the Son was sent to accomplish the work of mediator and redeemer, it was appropriate for him to assume, a human nature in accord with which he was able to do works proper to himself. But since the Holy Spirit is sent to confirm by uncreated gift the new relations initiated by the Son and to be a pledge of eternal life, it is appropriate that he dwells invisibly in our inmost hearts. (Fs)

499a To this appropriateness of the missions themselves many other instances of appropriateness can be added. It was appropriate for the Mediator that a divine person be in a human nature to teach human beings as a human being, to give them an example of the new life, and to lead them to reconciliation and love and eternal life. It was appropriate for the Redeemer that he was able to the for those whom he wished to the to themselves and live for God. It was appropriate for the Mediator and Redeemer to be the Son, who proceeds as truth from the Father and breathes as holiness that Love which is the Holy Spirit. It was appropriate for the one who proceeds from the Word spirating Love to be sent to us because of the Son. It was appropriate for the one who from eternity is Gift to be given to us as a guest and a pledge. It was likewise appropriate for us that we be drawn to the Father through the visible Son, and that we be drawn away from the realm of the senses, and that in the invisible Spirit we should desire and hope for everlasting life. (Fs)