From the book:  Divine Indwelling

by Josefino T. Rona

Fullness of Grace                     

God, man, and graces

The nature of God is love. And the nature of love is to diffuse and share itself. "Caritas diffusivum sui" (Love diffuses itself). Everything that God has created is a gratuitous expression and reflection of the nature of God, which is Love. Every piece of creation is a message of God's love for man, if man only knows how to listen to God. This is where contemplation of God within the soul of man comes into play  and is important so that God may slowly reveal to man the gratuitous reality of His love and mercy.

God's gratuitous and unconditional love

Gratuitous means God's love is freely expressed and given though no one deserves it. This is the same root word of gratia or grace. This gratuitous expression of God is called grace, gratia, gratis, or free gift. From God’s point of view, His gift of love is totally given and unconditional.

God love is unconditional indeed. This "unconditionality” does not mean that God gives his love without any purpose. His purpose becomes the defining intention of the love that He gives to man.  But  the expression of the gift of God's unconditional love from within is limited by man's understanding and free acceptance of His free gift of love.. Man's understanding, disposition, and free will give form and shape to God's unconditional offer of love and graces.

The graces that God has intended for the further development of  man according to man's cooperation or disposition are conditioned by the knowledge and freedom of man in the use of these graces.

Private ownership and stewardship

By our own right, there is nothing we can claim from God as our own  for nothing belongs to us. Everything belongs to God. Our ownership of things will only be limited by what God, by His Providence, allows us to hold based on His decision and purpose of us. Before the eyes of God, whatever we possess is a responsibility of stewardship to manage in the name and according to the intention of the Giver.

Our claim for God's graces is simply based on God's mercy and decision on how we cooperate with God in the expression of love for all.

So, then, everything depends not on what man wants or does but only on God's mercy. (Rom 9:16)

Fullness of God's graces for every person

When God gives His gifts, He gives them fully, according to the purpose for which He gives them. This purpose of every gift from the Lord is determined by the nature of the gift according to God's design and plan.  From God's point of view, there is only one purpose for which these gifts are given: that is, His glory. But from man's point of view, these graces and gifts from the Lord are given for different purposes, according  to man's need. Some gifts of God are not dependent on man but simply on God's gratuitous unconditional expression of His nature. There are gifts, however, that are dependent on the disposition of man's need.

Graces which are not dependent on man

Some graces are given without the need for the cooperation of man. Examples of these graces are man's physical existence and being subject to the laws of nature as birth, acts of man, death, the resources environment, etc. In morals, these acts are called acts of man.

Graces that are dependent on man's cooperation

Some are made available for man and are made effective according to man’s cooperation or disposition. Samples of these graces are joy, love, knowledge, decisions, control of imagination and reason, formation of development and enhancements of man's nature, habits, etc. In morals,  called human acts.

How man may use the graces
that are made available to him by God

So in order for man to use these God-given graces, man needs to know what these graces are and how these graces are to be worked out.

Basis of man's happiness and sadness

Man's happiness depends upon his understanding and free acceptance of the joy of participating in God's plan and the proper use of His graces. On the other hand, his sadness depends upon his lack of cooperation with the purpose of God for man on earth in the use of God's graces as God has intended.

Graces that God has equipped man so that man
may fully cooperate with God's graces

God has equipped man with the fullness of graces necessary to enable man to accomplish His design and plan.

      - For all men: fullness of grace in the natural order

- For all baptized: fullness of grace both in the natural order and in the supernatural order

Mary: Full of grace

Mary, our Blessed Mother, through Archangel Gabriel, was the first to receive God's announcement of the fullness of grace. This was the of Annunciation and Incarnation. This fullness of grace was addressed to her because Archangel Gabriel recognized the fact that the Lord was with her. "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you." Why was Mary full of grace? Because the Lord was with her. Mary was full of grace not by her own right, but because God was fully in her.

This message from God to Mary regarding the fullness of grace was intended not only for Mary but also for all men, most especially for all baptized Christians. Christians are also full of grace because the Lord, who is the fullness of all graces, is in him in spirit.

The priest is like Archangel Gabriel

In every Holy Mass, the priest, like Archangel Gabriel, repeatedly announces to every baptized Christian, sinner or saint, in the congregation this fullness of grace:

"The Lord be with you."

Sta. Teresa says, "The fact is God is in us."

The truth of God being in us upon the announcement by the priest at Mass—"The Lord be with you"—may be taken in three senses:

1.     A prayer: "May the Lord be with you."

2.     A command: "The Lord be (should be, must be) with you" could be taken as a mandate, a command.

3.   Non-sense, meaning that the phrase "The Lord be with you" has no meaning, no sense, nor relevance because it is not understood nor lived. Most people do not care what these words mean.

Two levels of fullness of grace: Natural and supernatural orders

I here are two levels of fullness of grace for man, namely the natural order for all men, and the natural^—supernatural orders for all baptized.

Fullness of grace in the natural order

Man is full of grace in the natural order because God has already made available to man all the resources of nature for his development. These natural resources provide the raw materials for man to cooperate to cooperate with God and to participate in co-creating with Him so that God's glory and abundance may be made manifest.

The rest of the graces of God can flow from man's industry and diligence.  God has also given man the power with which to develop these resources for man's own good. This mandate to develop the resources in the natural order was given by God to man ever since the Garden of Eden.

Man is alive not by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Mt 4:4)

Genesis 2:7, 26-30 and Sirach 16:24-29/17:1-14 have revealed that God has made available to us in creation all the temporal blessings of the natural order.

First gifts of God to man in the natural order

The first gifts of God to man in the natural order are man's very nature and existence. God has given man to himself as a gift. God formed man out of the dust of the earth (body) and breathed life-giving breath (spirit, ruah) into man, and man became a living soul (Gen 2:7). The Bible reveals that the life of man is God's own breath and God's own life force, which God makes available for man.

Man's innermost being

God has made man's complete being—spirit, soul, and body (1 The. 5:23)—as the basic components of the nature of man. The substance or innermost essence and existence of every person is "I am." God revealed this as His name. And the Lord commanded us "not to take the name of God in vain." This means that God, who is the very source of our being, wants us to use the very breath of life which he gave to in according to His intention and not foolishly as if there is no God at all,

In Him we live, in Him we move and have our being. (Acts 17:28)

"In Him we live ..." means that our very life comes from God in the spirit not from the soul. "In Him we move ... "means that our very power movement comes from the Spirit of God. "In Him we have our being . means that our very reason to be and to exist is God's own manifestation of His nature, in which we participate by the "breath of the Holy Spirit.”

"Innermost essence" is a philosophical concept, which tries to explain the nature of our being. It means that our very being comes from the innermost recesses of our nature, our substance. And this source of our being is in domain of the spirit, not only on the superficial faculties of the soul. Our human mind cannot fathom the depth nor the height, width, and length of the meaning of our nature; for its source of our being as image and likeness of God is the very unlimited nature of God Himself. (Eph 3:18)

St. John of the Cross teaches that God dwells in the very substance of our being.

We must keep in mind that God dwells in a secret and hidden way in all souls, in their very substance; for if he did not, they could not exist at all.

Hence, philosophy, which is only a limited human instrument, cannot fully explain our true nature, for philosophy is limited in its rational operation of the intellect in the mind of man. Yet the mind of God is eternally different and far beyond our limited human intellect.

"My thoughts," says the Lord, "are not like yours, and my ways are different from yours. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways and thoughts above yours." (Isa 55:8-9)

This understanding of the basic limitation of philosophy has a basic consequence in our understanding of our own being. The true and complete understanding of our being necessitates revelation from God because unless we become progressively united with the source of our being (God Himself) within man, man can never find rest from the struggle to understand in the limited superficial part of his soul. St. Augustine says, "My heart is restless until it rests in Thee, 0 Lord."

In Him ... we have our being. (Acts 17:28)

Second great favor of God to man
in the natural order: Image and likeness

A  second great favor that God has given to man is the fact that God made man to His image and likeness (Gen 1:26-30). This is a great truth about our nature.

As God's image, man is a direct reflection, channel, and instrument of the attributes of God. We can learn many attributes of God as we reflect on the nature of man. If man is the image of God, it implies that we can see the reflection of God when we see man. Everything about man tells us God's own nature and movement.

As God's likeness, we can also learn much about the nature of God from the characteristics of man. This likeness is reflected in the moral mode, how man uses the capacities and faculties that God has. This reflection is manifest when man orders his life to the purpose that God has intended man to be. The moment man deviates from the purpose of God and does things that are not for the glory of God, then the likeness of God turns out to be what God is not. Pride comes in, anger, lust, greed, gluttony, envy, and sloth.

Man as channel of the power of God

As channels of the power of God, our task is to open and keep open the gate of our hearts by being mindful and constantly aware in contemplation of the Source of graces within our soul. Secondly we need to see to it that there should be no obstacle of sin between our soul and our spirit. In this way, the light of God's throne from within and His many graces can flow to enlighten, provide and guide man In his journey on earth toward the Kingdom.

Man's blindness to the truth
about his true and complete nature

Through the centuries, man has rarely realized the meaning and importance of his nature as the image and likeness of God. This has happened because Satan blocked us away from knowing these so that we have become blinded from the truth about ourselves as the image and likeness of God. That is why because of this spiritual blindness caused by Satan and our materialistic education and environment, man is prone to fall away from God. He is prone to darkness that has caused evil in the world. Human philosophy without the guidance and surrender to God's revelation will only lead man to an endless struggle of a search that can never completely satisfy him. Man's heart is restless until it rests itself in the Lord (St. Augustine).

However, in the midst of these human struggles and conflicts as a result of sin, God has not blotted out man's true nature as God has fashioned him. Deep still in the nature of man is God's own love. Man only has to be taught how to surrender to this love by faith.

Third great gift that God has given to man in the natural order:
Power and authority over creation

Along with God's breath of life that God has given to man, God has also given man the power and authority to use, control, and develop creation. These authority and power are intended not for man's selfishness, but for the good of all and to manifest and proclaim the glory of God.

Sirach 16:24-29/17:1-14

The book of Sirach has a lot of things to tell us about the nature of creation  and the nature of man. Some of these teachings are the following:

God's Gifts in Creation

·         God created all things and gave everything a place of its own

·       God arranged everything in an eternal order and decreed that it should be that way forever.

·       Not one part of creation ever grows hungry.

·     God has placed a balance in creation so that everything has its own proper order. Man, being a part of creation, is not supposed to go hungry. But if many go hungry, this is a sign that man in his freedom has deviated from the order of creation that God has placed and has become blind to the inexhaustible abundance of the God-given resources of nature.

·       No part grows tired or stops its work.

·       The parts do not crowd one another.

·       The parts never disobey His word

·       The Lord filled the earth with good things.

God's Gifts in the Nature of Man

·         Gave them authority over everything on earth.

·         Made them to be like Himself

·         Gave them His own strength

·         Made all creatures afraid of them

·         Gave them authority over all the animals and birds

·         Gave them tongues, eyes, ears, minds, consciences

·         Filled them with knowledge and understanding

·         Showed them the difference between good and evil

·       Gave them His own insight to let them see the majesty of Hv, creation

·       Made knowledge available to them

·       Gave them the law as a source of life

·       Made an eternal covenant with them

·       Revealed His commands to them

·       Saw the splendor of His majesty and heard the glory of His voice

_J

·           Warned them against unrighteousness

·           Taught each person how to treat others

Man's fullness of grace in the supernatural order

A Christian is full of grace not only in the natural order (by nature through creation), but also in the supernatural order (by grace through Baptism and the Sacraments).

Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! For in our union with Christ he has blessed us by giving us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly world. (Eph 1:3)

God our Father gives these supernatural graces to us by means of the action of the Holy Spirit through the Sacraments of the Church. God has placed these graces in the spirit of man. Hence, man must go into the spirit in order to be able to uncover these graces. These graces were earned for us by the merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ's Paschal Mystery, His acts of redemption, namely his Passion, Death, and Resurrection.

The Paschal Mystery has enabled man to receive the very gift of God Himself through the Holy Spirit when we receive the Sacrament of Baptism. It is at this moment that we became adopted children of God.

We receive the rest of the supernatural graces through the Sacraments of Confirmation and Holy Communion.

All baptized Christians are already filled with grace in the supernatural order because the Lord God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are present in us and are with us. They, in their unity, are the fullness of grace and the source of our participation in this fullness. A baptized Christian is "full of grace" because the Lord, who is grace Himself and the author and source of all graces, is dwelling in him. And when the Lord gives Himself, He does not give partially, but fully.

Moreover, through Baptism, man is not simply His image and likeness; but by his nature of union with God-within man, he now becomes a child of God, the very presence and manifestation of the nature, the power and the persons of God for all men in the here and now.

God placed all spiritual blessings in the supernatural order within our soul and spirit. We have been equipped by God with all gifts, charisms, powers, and authority. However, these gifts or charisms are meritorious only when man is one with God in spirit and in truth so He can exercise the fullness of His power in us, with us, and through us.

Man's failure in realizing the fullness of graces

Yet  in spite of all the blessings that God has given to man in the natural and  the supernatural orders, many still live in misery. The reason why we do not feel that we are full of grace is because of our ignorance about the nature of grace, our pursuits and attachments to things that are mundane, and the block of our pride and earthbound rationalistic mind vis-a-vis God's wisdom and knowledge that come from within the spirit, made available for us by God's Divine Indwelling.

Another reason why we do not feel that we are full of grace is because we look for the graces that we lack and forget the Giver of the gifts Himself, who dwells within.

Selfishness and sin have blocked man from recognizing these graces and prevented man from attracting the other graces that God has reserved for man. Therefore, the unlimited portion of man's nature continues to struggle against the limited portion of his being. This is what St. Paul describes as "the battle between the spirit and the flesh."

Inability of a Christian to use the supernatural graces

A Christian may be unable to use the supernatural graces given to him by God for the following reasons:

1.       A Christian may not know what these graces are that are made available to him by God.

2.      He also may not know that he already has these graces.

3.      Even if he may know that he already has these supernatural graces, he may not know how to use them.

Thus, it is most important for every Christian to know what these graces are and the "key that opens up all the treasures of God's wisdom and knowledge" (Col 2:2-3) and, finally, to know how to use these grace  for the honor and glory of God.

The key to the graces of God

To open the door to the treasure house of these blessings in order for these to flow, it is important to follow God's instruction as to how use the key (Col 2:2-3), which is our union with the Divine Indwelling of Christ Himself in us. We should not depart or be separated from this key.

    However although we have the key, we still have to know how to use the key.

In this way they will know God's secret who is Christ Himself He is the key that opens all the treasures of God's wisdom and knowledge. (Col 2:2-3)

To use the key to enter into God's Indwelling within the soul it is urgent to form the habit of contemplative surrender to God's Divine Indwelling or DI in spirit within the soul.

To discover and grow in "all the treasures of God's wisdom and knowledge" with the use of the key of Divine Indwelling is done through a constant Walk-Through meditation and sharing on the revelations of God in Scriptures and the teachings of the Church. In this way, one can we and appreciate the "inexhaustible graces in the treasure house of God within the soul."

Supernatural graces given to man at Baptism

All graces, spiritual blessings, and powers that have been shared by God to us in our spirit (Eph 1:3) since the day of our Baptism are the following.

First Set of Graces

Redemption from original sin

Divine Indwelling in man

Adoption as children of God

Second Set of Graces

Participation in the divine attributes:

Omnipresence through the Holy Spirit sustaining every piece of creation

Omniscience through acquired and infused knowledge Omnipotence through the charisms of the Holy Spirit

Third Set of Graces

Theological powers: faith, hope, charity

Fourth Set of Graces

Stewardship of functions and privileges of Christ as priest, prophet, and king.

At Baptism God our Father already gave us in our soul all spiritual blessings in heaven because of our oneness with Christ. All powers and graces that God has reserved for His children are already available for us deep within our soul, in the domain of the spirit. Our Lord Jesus said,

From within you shall flow fountains of living water... (Jn 7:37-39)

Our Lord Jesus renewed and restored man through Baptism into the fullness of grace, and through Confirmation, the Holy Spirit equipped man with the spiritual powers and blessings to be able to recognize use the graces that God has given to man.

First set of graces given to us at Baptism

The first set of graces given to us at Baptism is the following:

-           Redemption from original sin

-           Divine Indwelling of the Most Holy Trinity

-           Adoption as a child of God

1. Redemption from original sin

Through the Sacrament of Baptism, the merits of Christ's redemption applied in us so that by His blood we are washed completely by the sins that are present in our body and soul: the sins of our first parents and those of our ancestors in the past. However, the weaknesses of the sins of the past remain in us. Hence, it is important for us to keep watch so we wouldn't fall into sin. And it is important to ask God for this gift of being faithful to Him. And the greatest antidote against this failure In personal actual sins is the habit of being with God's Divine Indwelling in us.

But sad to note, we have grown without the knowledge of this, nor have been formed in living before the presence of God within us. Hence, we have become victims of our own ignorance and pride so that now we have become weak against our own limitations, our pride, our ambitions, and our struggles to keep up our idea of success in the ways of the world.

2. Divine Indwelling

At Baptism, the Holy Spirit enters and becomes one with the spirit of man. He confers all spiritual blessings and truths into our spirit when Ile unites Himself with our own spirit. From that moment, God dwelt In the spirit of our soul.

The Holy Spirit joins the spirit of man. (Rom 8:16)

Divine  Indwelling is the union and presence of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—in spirit within the soul.

When you pray go into your room, close the door and pray to the Father who sees you in secret. (Mt 6:6)

God's plan is to make known His secret to His people, this rich and glorious secret which He has for all peoples. And the secret is Christ is in you, which means you share the glory of God. (Col 1:27)

Don't you know that you are the temple of God and that the Holy Spirit dwells in you. (1 Cor 3:16)

A Christian should not be afraid or be discouraged because the most Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) are so close to him—in fact closer to him than man is to himself, for in the innermost essence and substance of every person is the very presence and essence of God:

within. It is the Holy Spirit that has put all these into effect when He united Himself with our own spirit.

ln Him we live, in Him we move and have our being. (Acts 17:28)

3. Adopted child of God

By Baptism, we have become adopted children of God. We have received from the Father the same right as Jesus received. We have become sharers of God's divine nature. (2 Pt 1:4)

God's Spirit joins Himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's Children. (Rom 8:16)

And since you are His child, God will give you all that He has for His children. (Gal 4:6-7)

And we will possess the blessings He keeps for His people ... (Gal 8:17)

Second set of supernatural graces shared with us:
Divine attributes

The second set of supernatural graces and powers that God has shared with us on the day of our Baptism is our participation in the nature old power of God's divine attributes:

-Omnipresence through the Holy Spirit sustaining every piece creation

     -Omniscience through acquired and infused knowledge

    -Omnipotence through the charisms of the Holy Spirit

However, the manifestation of the presence of God and the three fold divine attributes of omnipresence, omniscience, and depends the degree of man’s of man's self-emptiness, self-surrender,  self-nothingness before the presence of the Divine Indwelling, within him and his knowledge as to what these attributes are all about

Man is made to participate in these attributes in order for man to appreciate that God is truly alive and ever present, expressing Himself from within the soul of man and in the whole of creation.

God does not want any obstacle to impede the manifestation of His divinity and power from within the soul of man. He wants man to be pure. "Do not stifle the Spirit," God says. (1 Thes 5:19)

It is not essential that man sees or feels the reality of God's presence and power in the level of the body or of the soul. What is important is that man can "see and feel" in the level of the spirit and faith.

We walk by faith and not by sight. (2 Cor 5:7)

These divine attributes need not be acquired because by the fact of God's presence in us, these attributes are already with God. However, we need to know them and to practice them so that we can participate in God's attributes and make them beneficial in our lives in our journey

to  union with God.

Third set of graces given to man

The third set of graces that man receives at Baptism is the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.

Theos means God or pertaining to God. Logos means study or word.

God  is invisible, intangible, and inaudible with man's exterior or interior senses. It is impossible for man to relate with God, with man's limited senses, without the grace of God. Hence, God has provided man with ^-'theological virtues or powers" so that man may be able to relate with God.

Virtues mean powers. These theological powers of faith, hope, and charity are given to us at Baptism so that we can relate with God personally within us and, with these powers, be able to face the challenges and demands of living in our demanding earthly life.

We do not have to make the effort to acquire these theological virtues because they are already infused gratuitously in our spirit at the moment of Baptism. What we need to do is simply to know what these are and to activate them in order for us to earn the merit of what these virtues are supposed to realize in us.

Meaning of the theological virtue of faith

Faith is a gift from God. It is a power given to man so that man may believe in God, in what He says and in what He can do in us, with us, and through us. It also makes us trust in His promises and the assurances of His saving, power, which He revealed to us in the Scriptures and made available to everyone baptized. We believe simply because God said it, like a child who believes in his father just because by nature he is the father.

Virtue means power. Faith, being a theological virtue or power, mean. that we are linked to the power of the Holy Spirit in us as the Lord said it. Theological virtue means it is a power that comes from God, pertaining to God, and is intended to relate with God.

It is this God-given faith that can make us see that "mountain," (meaning, seemingly  impossible things) are moved, even though out faith may be as small as a mustard seed. The reason for this power is because it is not us that do these miracles of removing "big mountains,” but the Holy Spirit who is in us. By this faith, we simply link with God in us, and God can now activate His promises because God said it.

The Spirit who is in you is more powerful than the spirit in those who belong to the world. (1 Jn 4:4)

God shares with man His divine power by conception and Baptism.  However, man is unable to use the full strength and capacity of this power because of the limitation of his intellect and human faculties  That is why God has given man an instrument to help him work those  divine powers out. This is where faith comes in. To operate faith to the fullest, man must learn how to surrender to what God has said promised. That is why it is important to study the Word of God in His promises and assurances and conditions so that we can live our lives

according to His word. 

This faith given to us at Baptism has made God available to us within our soul. Now it is our task to train ourselves to be mindful of Him every moment through constant DI and to Walk Through with Him, through the sharing of His words and the teachings of the Church.

The validity of faith does not rest on what we know about the faith but on the fact that things happen as they are revealed by God simply because God said it and we believe in Him and we follow His instructions.

Just  a very minimal mustard seed of a faith is needed to link our thoughts to the Spirit of God. What God requires of us is just an iota of childlike surrender to Him and a simple awareness of Him who dwells in us. This is symbolized in a way by the little drop of water in a chalice of wine at the offertory at Mass.

We do not need an enormous amount of faith to activate the power of God from within us. God is asking only a little child's faith. It is simply to connect ourselves in thought, word, and deed to God who dwells in us. The rest is the Lord's doing. Our task is simply to surrender and accept In faith and humility whatever God disposes. As the saying goes, "Man proposes, God disposes."

God does not want any block to impede the manifestation of His divinity and power from within the soul of man. He wants man to be pure. "Do not stifle the Spirit," God says. (1 Thes 5:19)

Meaning of the theological virtue of hope

The virtue of hope is the reality that what we believe and long for is already achieved now because of the effective promise spoken by God. ¹-tic is the realization of faith in God's promise as being fulfilled now --I forever, revealing that the Kingdom of God is now here, within us

 What man needs is simply the grace to do and to see

Difference between human hope and the virtue of hope

Human hope is a wishful aspiration of something to happen in the future. Man's understanding of human hope is a wish and a waiting for things to be achieved or to get better in the future.

Christian hope is not futuristic but right now. It is a joy in knowing that God has spoken His promise, and He is faithful in doing what He promised just because we believe and love Him. Hope in God is not primarily for tomorrow, but for today. "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," not tomorrow.

"Haec est dies quam fecit Dominus, exsultemus et laetemur in ea." (This is the day the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it.)

In spite of God's effective promise in the here and now, man still has a strange feeling of "unfinished fulfillment." Such a feeling is part of our "human experience." The reason for this feeling, which is true for every human being, is coming from the fact that our nature is a composite of two seemingly opposite poles.

Man is always in constant search for a happy balance between the space and time limitation of our humanity and the unlimited image and likeness of the divinity of God's nature that we have been molded into. The limited part of ourselves gets attached to man's limited achievements of the things of earth while the unlimited capacity and aspirations of our nature has an unceasing longing for the "not yet " Hence, man always has a feeling of "unfinished fulfillment or unfulfilled desires." This feeling is often perceived as "already but not yet."

God has assured us that He is already with us, but at the same time, God seems to be as elusive as being far from where we are.

To resolve this issue of searching for the unlimited longings and aspirations of man with the very limited instrumentality and vessel of his own humanity, one has simply to get to the source of one's un-limitedness. This source of un-limitedness is within him.

The answer to the final fulfillment of man's endless search for what is without is found in his final and unending surrender to the source of the unlimited within. God who dwells in the depths of one's being, is the very source of this seeming un-limitedness. Our Lord Jesus came to tell us that through Baptism, our unlimited God is dwelling within us. We simply have to surrender into the depths of our nature, into the spirit, be still, and know that it is the Lord.

Meaning of the theological virtue of charity

Charity (love) is the very power and movement of the Holy Spirit in our souls, In loving God with all our heart, soul, body, and strength. By acknowledging that God from within us is He that loves the world through us and with us, then God can be glorified as we allow Him to express His love from within us so that through us and with us, He may be able to relate and reach His love out to others. In this way, the Holy Spirit can create with us, through us, and in us the increasing bond of loving fellowship and mutual service as  a witness of a greater manifestation of the presence and glory of God among men. The book of Genesis proclaims that God sees everything in creation as good. This is true because everything in creation is a reflection of God who made them; and only God is good. So also must we be like God. We should also see the whole world as good because through our being our eyes and our faculties God "sees" the reflection of Himself in everything that He has made.

The apostle said, "It is not because we love God, but that God loves us first." (1 Jn 4:19)

God Himself is the very subject or source of charity within us. At the same time, He is the object of our love in the heart of others, as well as our love for Him reflected in everything that He has made in creation.  In other words, we love because God loves Himself through us from within. We are only his "free" channels of His love. By surrendering ourselves to this eternal design of God's love for Himself from within us, we participate in the fullness of God's love for ourselves, for others, and for all of His created things.

God's love in us is always active and available, regardless of whether we know it or not, acknowledge it or not, cooperate with it or not. However, God wants us to freely participate in the joy of this grace of love that comes from Him. To do this, first of all we have to acknowledge God's gratuitous love for all already present within our spirit and then see His action of love from within our souls, which expresses itself even in our natural desire to achieve and reach out to the things we want to hold and, finally, to know that all this movement of our life to become is an expression of His own life that He has shared with us.

Both points of view are important. However, it is better to understand the kind of love that God wants of us. He wants us to love our neighbor indeed. But since there is nothing we can do without Him, we have to go deeper in our understanding of the deep source of this love than our own feeling about it. It is not deep enough to feel or even to realize we love our neighbor. He, rather, wants us to acknowledge that God dwelling in us is the one who loves Himself in us and in others through us. He wants us to become part of His love for all. And He would to express His love from within us, through us, and with us.

By constantly and unceasingly practicing DI, one is slowly introduced into the truth that it is God who moves in us, lives in us, and have our being. The more we become one with God within us, the more we realize that it is God who is acting in us, with us, and through us. We are merely his free vessels, "vessels of clay."

Like St. Paul, we can say, "It is no longer I that live but Christ that lives in me."

The fourth set of graces and powers that we have received from
God at Baptism: Stewardship of the functions of Christ as priest,
prophet, and king

At the moment of Baptism, the priest pronounces over the baptized the words conferring the privileges and function of Christ, saying

God the Father has freed you from delusion, given you new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and welcomed you into his holy people. He now anoints you with the chrism of salvation. As Christ was anointed Priest, Prophet, and King, so may you live always as a member of his body, sharing everlasting life. (Liturgy of Baptism)

The child now becomes the "extension and continuation" of the life  of Christ on earth and is given the privilege to live as a steward of His functions as priest, prophet and king. However, although the child has already been conferred with these functions, he has to know what these functions are in order to use them properly. Man cannot truly use the privileges, powers, and functions of Christ if one does not know what these are and how to use them and for what reasons they are given to man. It is therefore most urgent that man knows what these powers and functions are in order to maximize the use of these powers for the purpose for which he has been created by God or made a child of God.

Christ (in you) is the key that opens up all the treasures of God's wisdom and knowledge.

(Col 2:2-3)


home