The
Most High was in the quiescent state of His own being, when
the three Persons, decreed to communicate His perfections
as free gift. The Majesty of God, beholding the nature of
His infinite perfections, their virtue and efficacy
operating with magnificence, saw that it was just and most
proper, and, as it were, a duty and a necessity, to
communicate Himself and to follow that inclination of
imparting and exercising His liberality and mercy, by
distibuting outside of Himself with magnificence the
plentitude of the infinite treasures, contained in the
Divinity. At the same time God is in Himself conscious that
to distibute gifts and graces, is not to diminish His
riches, but to increae them in the only possible way, by
giving an outlet to the inexhaustible fountain of His
riches. God, in our way of thinking, selected and
determined the order and arrangement, or the mode of this
communication. First it was decreed that the Divine Word
should assume flesh and should become visible. The
perfection and the composition of the most holy humanity of
Christ our Lord was decreed and modeled in the Divine
intelligence. Secondarily, also were formed the ideals of
the rest of men in imitation of the First. The Divine mind
prearranged the harmony and adornment of the human nature
composed of an organic body and a vivifying soul, endowed
with faculties to know and love its Creator, to disern
between good and evil, and with a free will to love that
same Lord. God then determined the gifts and graces,
which were to be conferred upon the humanity of Christ our
Lord, in union with the Divinity. Here the Most High opened
the liberal hands of His Omnipotence and His other
attributes, in order to enrich the most sacred humanity and
the soul of Christ with the highest possible plenitude of
His gifts and graces. In the fifth decree, the
creation of the angelic nature
which is more excellent and more like unto the spiritual
being of the Divinity, was determined upon, and at the same
time the division or arrangement of the angelic hosts into
nine choirs and three hierarchies, was provided and
decreed. As they are created first of all for the glory of
God, to assist before His Divine Majesty and to know and
love Him, so secondarily they are ordained to assist,
glorify and honor, reverence and serve the deified humanity
of the eternal Word, recognizing Him as Head, and honoring
Him also in His Mother, the most holy Mary, Queen of these
same angels. In this instant
Christ our Lord earned for them by His infinite merits,
present and forseen, all the grace, which they were to
receive. He was constituted as their Head, Exemplar and
supreme King, of whom they should be subjects. In the same instant also was decreed the
creation of the empyrean heaven, for the manifestation of
His glory and the reward of the good; also the earth and
other heavenly bodies for the other
creatures.
To this instant also, pertained
the decree and predestination of the Mother of the Divine
Word incarnate; for here was ordained that
pure Creature before anything else whatsoever. Thus, before
all other creatures, was She conceived in the Divine mind,
in such manner and such state as befitted and became the
dignity, excellence and gifts of the humanity of her most
holy Son. To Her flowed over, at once and immediately, the
river of the Divinity and its attributes with all its
impetuosity, in as far as a mere creature is capable and as
is due to the dignity of the Mother of God.
Here, the
promise and, as it were, the contract was made with the
Word as to the degree of sanctity, and perfection and the
gifts and graces, which were to be possessed by Mary His
Mother. Also as to the protection, support and defense,
which was to be provided for this true City of God, in which
His Majesty contemplated the graces and merits, which She
earned for Herself, as well as the fruits to be gathered
for His people by the loving returns which She was to make
to His Majesty. In the same instant, God determined to
create a locality and an abode, where the incarnate Word
and His Mother should converse and dwell. For Them
primarily did He create the heaven and earth with its stars
and elements and all that is contained in them.
Secondarily, the intention and decree included the creation
of the members, of which Jesus was to be the Head, and of
whom He would be the King.
To this
instant belongs also the predestination of the good, and
the reprobation of the bad angels. God saw in it, by means
of His infinite science, all the works of the former and of
the latter and the propriety of predestinating by His mercy
those that would obey and give honor, and of reprobating by
His justice those who would rise up against His Majesty in
pride and disobedience on account of their disordered
selflove.
The envy of the serpent was immediately aroused against them, for satan was impatiently awaiting their creation, and no sooner were they created, than his hatred became active against them. However, he was not permitted to witness the formation of Adam and Eve, as he had witnessed the creation of all other things: for the Lord did not choose to manifest to him the creation of man, nor the formation of Eve from a rib; all these things were concealed from him for a space of time until both of them were joined. But when the demon saw the admirable composition of the human nature, perfect beyond that of any other creature, the beauty of the souls and also of the bodies of Adam and Eve; when he saw the paternal love with which the Lord regarded them, and how He made them the lords of all creation, and that He gave them hope of eternal life: the wrath of the dragon was lashed to fury, and no tongue can describe the rage with which that beast was filled, nor how great was his envy and his desire to take the life of these two beings. Like an enraged lion he certainly would have done so, if he had not known, that a superior force would prevent him. Nevertheless he studied and plotted out some means, which would suffice to deprive them of the grace of the Most High and make them God's enemies.
Here Lucifer was deceived; for the Lord had from
the beginning mysteriously manifested to him, that the Word
was to assume human nature in the womb of the most holy
Mary, but not how and when; and thus He had also concealed
the creation of Adam and the formation of Eve, in order
that Lucifer might from the beginning labor under his
ignorance concerning the mystery and the time of the
incarnation. As his wrath and his watchfulness had thus
been so signally forstalled in regard to Christ and Mary,
he suspected that Adam had come forth from Eve, and that
She was the Mother and Adam the incarnate Word. His
suspicions grew, when he felt the Divine power, which
prevented him from harming the life of these creatures. On
the other hand he soon became aware of the precepts of God,
for these did not remain concealed from him, since he heard
their conversation in regard to them. Being freed more and
more from his doubt as he listened to the words of the
first parents and sized up their natural gifts, he began to
follow them like a roaring lion (I Pet. 5,8), seeking an
entrance through those inclinations, which he found in each
of them. Nevertheless, until he was undeceived in the
course of the redemption, he continued to hesitate between
his wrath against Christ and Mary and the dread of being
overcome by Them. Most of all he dreaded the confusion of
being conquered bt the Queen of heaven, who was to be a
mere creature and not God.
Taking courage therefore in
the precept, which was given to Adam and Eve, and having
prepared the snare, Lucifer entered with all his energy
upon the work of entrapping them and of opposing and
hindering the execution of the Divine Will. He first
approached the woman, and not the man, because he knew her
to be by nature more frail and weak, and because in
tempting her he would be more certain that it was not
Christ whom he was encountering. Against her also he was
more enraged ever since he had seen the sign in the heaven
and since the threat, which God had made in it against him.
On all these accounts his wrath was greater against Eve
than against Adam. Before he showed himself to her,
however, he aroused in her many disturbing thoughts or
imaginations, in order to approach her in a state of
exitement and pre-occupation. He took the form of a serpent
and thus speaking to Eve drew her into a conversation,
which she should not have permitted. Listening to him and
answering, she began to believe him; then she violated the
command of God, and finally persuaded her husband likewise
to transgress the precept. Thus ruin overtook them and all
the rest: for themselves and for us they lost the happy
position in which God had placed them.
When Lucifer saw
the two fallen and their interior beauty and grace and
original justice changed into the uglness of sin, he
celebrated his triumph with incredible joy and vaunting in
the company of his demons. But he soon fell from his proud
boasting, when he saw, contrary to his expectations, how
kindly the merciful love of God dealt with the delinquents,
and how He offered them a chance of doing penance by giving
them hope of pardon and return of grace. Moreover he saw
how they were disposing themselves toward His forgiveness
by sorrow and contrition, and how the beaty of grace was
restored to them. When the demons perceived the effect of
contrition, all hell was again in confusion. His
consternation grew, when he heard the sentence, which God
pronounced against the guilty ones, in which he himself was
implicated. More especially and above all was he tormented
by the repetition of that threat: The Woman shall crush thy head
(Gen. 3,15), which he had already heard in heaven.
The offspring of Eve multiplied after the fall and so arose the distinction and the multiplication of the good and the bad, the elect and the reprobate, the ones following Christ the redeemer, and the others following satan.
The most high Providence permitted, that Eve, in the unjust Cain, should bring forth a type of the evil fruits of sin, and in the innocent Abel, both in figure and imitation, the type of Christ our Lord. For in the first just one the law and doctrine of Christ began to exert its effects. All the rest of the just were to follow it, suffering for justice sake, hated and persecuted by the sinners and the reprobate and by their own brothers. Accordingly, patience, humility, and meekness began to appear in Abel, and in Cain, envy and all wickedness, for the benefit of the just and for his own perdition. The wicked triumph and the good suffer, exhibiting the spectacle which the world in its progress shows to this day.
Before the appearance of His Onlybegotten, the Most High allowed many ages to pass by, in order that His Son might, in the multiplied numbers of the human race, find prepared for Himself a people, of which He was to be the Head, the Teacher, and the King.
As the world progressed in its course, in order that the Word might descend from the bosom of the Father and clothe Itself in our mortality, God selected and prepared a chosen and most noble people, the most admirable of past and future times.
He reared most holy Prophets and Patriarchs, who in figures and prophecies announced to us, that, which we have now in our possession. To this people God manifested His immutable Essence by many revelations, and they again transmitted these revelations to us by the holy Scriptures, containing immense mysteries, which we grasp and learn to know by faith. All of them, however, are brought to perfection and are made certain by the incarnate Word. Although the Prophets and the just ones of that people were not favored as to see Christ in His body, they nevertheless experienced the liberality of the Lord who manifested Himself to them by prophecies and who moved their hearts to pray for His coming and for the Redemption of the whole human race.
The people of the Most High and
the plans for the triumph of the Lord for assuming human
nature, were already in the last stages of preparation for
the advent of the Messiah. The kingdom of sin in the
generation of the wicked had now spread its dominion to the
utmost limits and the opportune time for the remedy had
arrived.
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