Below is the second reading from today's Office, a homily by St. Gregory of Nyssa titled "The Hope of Seeing God." I'm not usually very good at doing the Office of Readings... for whatever reason I just never get around to it. I'm fairly good at keeping the other major hours, but even those slip away from me at times. Clearly I'm not bound to pray the liturgy of the hours, but I do enjoy the prayer and try to keep it as well as I can.
Anyways, I happened to not sleep much at all last night. I went to bed around 1:30am, woke up around 4am, and then laid in bed for an hour. Finding myself rather wide-awake, I decided to get up and start my day. Coffee, a pop-tart, and reading Archbishop Chaput's address on the relationship between evangelization and liturgy (which, is excellent, by the way... I might comment on it later). Then I decided that I should actually start my day with prayer, rather than this blasted thing called the internet. So I grabbed my brievary and began the invitiatory.
But it was today's second reading that really caught my attention. It's theme something that has been the object of my study for the past two weeks (and really, a topic that I've dabbled in for the past semester, but haven't had the chance to really dig into until now): obediential potency and the relationship between grace and nature. Of course, I've been studying this within the scope of Thomistic theology, but we find in today's reading a great insight into the issue by Gregory of Nyssa.
St. Gregory correctly identifies something of the paradox of the Christian life: We are promised (or called to) by Jesus the Beatific vision-- to see God face to face, to enjoy and possess (and be possessed fully by) our Creator. The means of achieving this end? Purity of heart, so says Jesus in the Beatitudes. What exactly that means is a topic for another day (albeit a very interesting and edifying one). The paradox of this, of course, is that purity of heart seems to be something which we are not capable of by our own power. How then can we attain to the Beatific vision if that which is required is impossible for us to achieve? Clearly this cannot be the totality of the picture, since, as Thomas teaches, no natural desire is in vain (ST I, q. 75, a. 6). It would be unjust, for as St. Gregory states, "The law of each creature’s being does not demand that it should do something that it is beyond its own nature to do."
The translation below is different than the one in the brievary, which says, "If then in the case of all other creatures the command is according to the capacity of those who receive it, and does not oblige them to anything beyond their nature, we shall come to the conclusion that we are not to give up hope of gaining what is promised by the beatitude." I like this particular translation because of the phrase "according to the capacity of those who receive it."
Thomas expounds upon this theological point by noting that while human nature has a natural desire for God (ST. I-II, q. 3, a. 8), it is a desire for God as first cause, which is different than the supernatural desire for God, which is for God in His essence, ie the beatific vision. That is to say that man does not have a natural desire for God in His revealed Being, Holy Trinity, which is why it is impossible of our own power to achieve the purity of heart necessary for attaining the beatific vision. However, as Thomas teaches, human nature has a purely obediential potency for grace, which elevates human nature and orders man to a supernatural end in the vision of God. That is, as St. Gregory himself says, human nature has the "the capacity to receive" the command of God to the beatific vision. And as Thomas teaches, only grace can direct the movement of the will toward beatitude (ST. I, q. 62, a. 2).
Main point? Of our own powers, we are incapable of "grasping at equality with God"-- we cannot, through our own efforts and powers, attain the beatific vision promised by Jesus Christ. However, with the grace of God, we are given what is needed to fulfill the "upward call" of Christ. We are raised by Jesus to a new life in Him, that has its final end in Him. It is through His grace that we shall achieve purity of heart and therefore be granted the blessed vision of God!!
Homily of St. Gregory of Nyssa: Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. God’s promise is so great that it passes the furthest limits of happiness. Given such a blessing, who could desire more, having already received all things by the fact of seeing God? Remember that in Scriptural usage ‘seeing’ means ‘having.’ May you see the good things of Jerusalem means ‘may you find them.’ Let the ungodly be taken away and not see the glory of the Lord means, in the prophet’s words, ‘not share in the glory of the Lord.’
So whoever ‘sees God’ receives, in this act of seeing, possession of everything that is good: incorruptible life without end, blessedness that cannot fail, a kingdom without end, happiness without limit, true light, the true voice of the Spirit, glory never before reached, perpetual rejoicing, and all else that is good.
The promise of this Beatitude gives us the right to hope for these great things. All this sight of God is conditional on having a pure heart – and thinking of this, my mind is once more teetering on a dizzy peak. What if purity of heart is one of those unattainable things that are simply beyond our human nature? If, on the one hand, it is by purity of heart that God can be seen, and if, on the other hand, Moses and Paul did not see God and said that he could never be seen, it follows logically that purity of heart must be impossible, so that in pronouncing this Beatitude, the Word is putting forward something that simply cannot be.
How can we benefit from knowing the means by which God can be seen, if that means is impossible for us?
Suppose, for instance, that someone told us it was good to find oneself in heaven because there one would see things that cannot be seen in this world. Now if he also told us how a journey to heaven might be undertaken, there might be some use in telling us about its delights. But as long as the journey is impossible, what use is it to think about the happiness that might lie at the end of it? We would simply suffer and be sad at the thought of the things that await us somewhere where we cannot go.
Does the Lord really encourage us to do something that is beyond our nature and our powers to accomplish? Surely not. Look at the birds: God has not created them without wings. Look at sea creatures: God has not designed them as land animals. Wherever we look, the law of each creature’s being does not demand that it should do something that it is beyond its own nature to do.
Let us reflect on this and realise that we should not despair of the purity of heart that the Beatitude speaks of. John, Paul and Moses did not, in the end, lack the sublime blessing of seeing God. Paul said There is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord, the just judge, will render to me; John lay on Jesus’ breast; and Moses heard God say to him, I have known you above all. It is certain that those who said that the contemplation of God was beyond human power were themselves blessed. But blessedness comes from the contemplation of God, and seeing God is something that comes to those who are pure of heart. It follows logically that purity of heart cannot be an unattainable thing.
So if some, with Paul, truly say that the contemplation of God is beyond human power, yet the Lord himself contradicts them by promising the sight of God to those who are pure of heart.
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