Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: The Trinune God: Systematics

Titel: The Triune God: Systematics

Stichwort: Göttliche Personen im Gerechten; Ordnungsgut - Gegenwart d. Person; Gott in sich = das Gewusste im Wissenden; Quasi-Identifikationen unter in Liebe verbundenen; Christus als Vermittler (Textstellen, Schrift)

Kurzinhalt: QUESTION 32/1 - Is it by way of love that the divine persons are in the just and dwell in them? ... that the degree of perfection by which personal presence is achieved is the same as that by which the good of order is achieved.

Textausschnitt: notabene von: 511c From all of this we conclude that the divine persons themselves and the blessed in heaven and the just on this earth are in one another as those who are known are in those who know them and those who are loved are in those who love them.
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505e For a better understanding of this, we return to the idea of the good of order. For as we said above,1 (1) persons, (2) interpersonal relationships, (3) cognitive and appetitive habits, (4) many coordinated operations among many persons, and (5) a succession and series of particular goods, are, as it were, organically interconnected. All these elements taken together constitute an intelligible good of order. But since these are the same elements that constitute personal presence, it must be said that the degree of perfection by which the good of order is achieved is the same as that by which personal presence is achieved, and similarly, that the degree of perfection by which personal presence is achieved is the same as that by which the good of order is achieved. (Fs) (notabene)

505f We have, then, distinguished several meanings of 'presence.' One sort of presence is a matter of spatial proximity, and on this basis one stone would be present to or absent from another. Another sort of presence has to do with the adaptation of sensibility resulting from spatial proximity. A third sort of presence, proper to rational animals, supposes only a remembrance of the past or the imagining of some future possibility. Finally, there is personal presence whereby persons, pursuing a common good of order, are mutually in one another as the known in the knower and the beloved in the lover. (Fs) (notabene)

507a From these considerations let us ascend to consider the triune God in order from there to strive for some understanding of the economy of salvation. (Fs)

First, then, God is in himself as the known in the knower and the beloved in the lover. For every mental word is, in the order of intelligible existence, the very thing that is known through that word. Now, God expresses himself through a word, and therefore that word is God in the order of intelligible existence. But in God to be is the same as to understand, and therefore God's natural existence is the same as God's intelligible existence. Hence, what is in God, in the way God the known is in God the knower, is God, not only in the order of intelligible existence but also in the order of natural existence. Thus, the Word of God is God. (Fs)

507b Further, by the very fact that a friend is loved there results a quasi-identification of the friend with the lover. Thus, a friend is said to be a second self, or as the poet says, 'half of my soul.' For friends who pursue a common good of order, work together in an orderly way, and enjoy a succession of particular goods, are so far from living each one for himself or herself that they may rather be said to have one life in common. Now, God loves himself. This divine love of God implies not only a quasi-identification, but even a total identity. For divine willing is God himself, and therefore the Holy Spirit, who proceeds in God as Love, is God. (Fs; tblVrw)

Moreover, God the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father, both as the known in those who know them and the beloved in those who love them. '... and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.'1 '... because you loved me before the foundation of the world.'2 '... just as I... abide in his love.'3 Those whose being and understanding and knowing and loving are one and the same and are indeed that which they themselves are, are in one another in the most perfect way. (Fs)

507c Besides, all other things apart from God are known and loved by God. These also are in God as the known in the knower and the beloved in the lover, not, of course, in the consubstantiality of the divine nature, but according to intentional existence and the quasi-identification of those in love. Still, God knows and loves others in accordance with what suits the perfection of their nature; but there are still others whom 'he foreknew [and] predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.'4 And those who are known and loved in this special way are also seen to be present in God in a special way as the known in the knower and the beloved in the lover. Therefore in a special way they are in the divine Word in which God the Father utters himself and all other things;5 and in a special way they are in the divine proceeding Love in which God the Father and God the Son love both themselves and all other things as well.6
509a Next, let us turn to the Lord and Mediator, the divine Word incarnate. He does not know all of those who cry, 'Lord, Lord,'7 but, 'I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.'8 Nor does he know his own without loving them; indeed, 'As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you';'9 and, 'No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.'10 And the sheep do not know their shepherd without loving him. For, as the shepherd himself knew, 'And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself.'11 As also the apostle Paul exclaimed, 'For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.'12 And as the apostle prays for others, 'that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.'13 And as the apostle concludes for others, 'For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!'14

511a Those, therefore, whom Christ the man knows and loves and who believe in Christ the man and love him, live not for themselves but for him, and Christ and they surely live and dwell in one another as those who are known are in those who know them and those who are loved are in those who love them. (Fs)

511b Third, as it was the function of the Mediator not to teach a doctrine of his own but that of the one who sent him, nor to seek his own will but that of the one who sent him, so also Christ does not unite the members of his body with himself without uniting them with God the Father. For the Father first loved us,15 and he was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.16 'Whoever has seen me has seen the Father';17 'those who love me will be loved by my Father';18 'you have loved them even as you have loved me.'19 'If you love me, ... he will give you another Advocate ... he abides with you, and he will be in you.'20 All of these are summed up in the words, '... as you, Father, are in me, and I am in you, may they also be one in us.'21 We surely do not arrive at this ultimate unity unless, by keeping Christ's commandments, we love one another as Christ has loved us. Indeed, one who loves one's neighbor, by that very fact loves Christ; and one who does not love one's neighbor who is hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison does not love Christ, as the futurejudge himself has testified.22

511c From all of this we conclude that the divine persons themselves and the blessed in heaven and the just on this earth are in one another as those who are known are in those who know them and those who are loved are in those who love them. This knowing and loving is directed both to the ultimate end, which is the good itself by essence, and to the proximate end, which is the general good of order, the kingdom of God, the body of Christ, the church. This consequent mutual 'being in,' however, differs according to each one's nature and status: the divine persons are in one another through consubstantiality; the just are in God and in one another by way of intentional existence and the quasi-identification of love. We are in the Word, however, as known and loved through both his divine and his human nature; and the Word is in us in order that in knowing and loving a visible human being we may arrive at knowing and loving God, who dwells in unapproachable light.23 And because this prior knowledge and love is easier for us, since it includes our sense memory of the past and our imagination of the future, we are led through it to that higher knowledge and love in which we no longer know Christ from a human point of view, but our inner word of the divine Word is spoken in us intelligently according to the emanation of truth, and our love of divine Love is spirated according to the emanation of holiness. For the divine persons are sent in accordance with their eternal processions, to encounter us and dwell in us in accordance with similar processions produced in us through grace. Those who proceed from and are sent by the Father do not come without the Father, to whom be all glory through the Son in the Spirit. (Fs)