Spiritus dotnini replcvit orhem terrarum etc, {Saj). I 7 ). ‘ The spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world.’
A philosopher says, All creatures bear witness to the divine ?iature whence they proceeded forth, in their will to emulate the Deity they came from.
Creatures proceed forth in two ways. The first is a radical process, like I’oots coming out of a tree. The second emanation is by mode of will. Behold the twofold emanation of divinity. One the descent of the Son from the Father, this after the manner of a birth. The other, the outpouring of the love of Father and Son, the Holy Ghost, to wit, for in him they love one another. All creatures proclaim their origin, their divine descent betrays itself in their works. According to a Greek philosopher, God keeps all creatures in leash, as it were, and they must follow where he leads. Hence nature is aye making for the highest.
The second emanation is the Holy Ghost, by mode of will. Nature would fain make nothing but the Son ; were she allowed she would do father’s work, so nature would be ever giving sons did she not suffer accidental lapses. When nature is working in time and space then father and son are different. One master explains that a carpenter building a house will erect it first in his mind and, were the house subject enough to his will, then, materials apart, the only difference between them would be that of begetter and suddenly begotten. Lo, thus it is in God, for since there is no time nor place in him, therefore they are one God, there being no distinction save outpouring and outpoured.
According to the scriptures, ‘ The spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world.’ Why is he called Lord ? Because he fills us. Why is he called spirit ? Because he unites us with himself. A lord is known by three signs. First, he is rich. Rich means possessing all things without stint. Hence none is really rich but God in whom all things are harboured indivisibly. So he can give all things and this is the second sign of riches. A philosopher says, God hawks himself to all creatures and each takes as much as it wants. I trow God offers himself to me as he docs to the highest angel and were I as apt as he is I should receive as he does. As I have often observed, God always behaves as though he was trying to please the soul. The third sign of riches is, giving for love ; whoso giveth for aught is not really rich. God’s richness is shown by his giving all his gifts gratis. As saith the prophet,
‘ Thou art my God, thou needest not my possessions.’ He alone is the Lord and the spirit. I say, he is spirit ; our happiness lies in union with him.
The most excellent work of God in creature is being. My father gives me my nature but he does not give me my being : God does that, none beside. That is why everything that exists takes such a shrewd delight in being. The being of the soul receives the influx of God’s light ; not pure and limpid as God sends it forth but in ambient undulations. We can see the sunlight where it falls upon a tree or any other object, but we fail to apprehend the sun itself. And so with any gift of God : these are all meted out according to the taker not according to the giver.
A philosopher says, ‘ God is the standard of measure,’ and so far as one mortal contains more God than another, to that extent he is wiser and nobler and better than the other. To have more of God simply means being more like him : the more God’s likeness exists in us the more spiritual we are. A philosopher says, ‘ Where the lowest spirit ends the highest bodily thing begins.’ All of which goes to prove that God being spirit, the least of spiritual things excels the best of corporal things. Soul is more excellent than anything bodily. Soul is contained in a place, as it were, betwixt time and eternity, touching them both. With her higher powers she is in touch with eternity ; in her inferior powers she is in contact with time. Thus, mark you, in time she does not function according to time but in her eternal nature which she has in common with the angels. Spirit is a subtle thing, bringing life to all the limbs in virtue of the close accord of soul with body. Albeit spirit is rational, and does the entire work, yet we do not say, my soul docs so and so, for both of them together are a man. This fact I may make bold to state : because of the intimate union of the body and the soul the soul is in the smallest member as much as in the body as a whole. St Augustine says, ‘ The union of body and soul may be close, but closer still is the union that spirit has with spirit.’ Lo, he is Lord and spirit, may he beatify us by uniting us with him.
It is a puzzling question how the soul survives when God imprints himself in her. Consider. Were God to give her any outward being she would scorn it ; but when he gives her himself in himself she receives and suffers in his and not in her own, his being hers : he has fetched her out of her own so his is now hers and hers really is his. So she suffers in union with God. This is the spirit of the Lord which has filled the whole world. Amen.