Folia Theologica et Canonica 4. 26/18 (2015)
SACRA THEOLOGIA - Sebastian Walshe, O.Praem., A sacramental theology of the family: the unity and harmony of the sacramental order
A SACRAMENTAL THEOLOGY OF THE FAMILY 121 Paradoxically, the inferiority and independence characteristic of life does not isolate a living thing from other things. In fact, the more perfectly a living thing possesses life, the more perfectly is it able to enter into relationship with other things. Knowledge involves interiorly possessing the being of another, while retaining one’s own unique being. The possession of another through knowledge begets an inclination for a more perfect union with that other through love. So another mark of life is that living things are able to enter into relationships with other beings, and the more perfect is their life, the more perfect is the relationship established with others. This is a reflection of the relations existing in the Trinity. Self-movement and possession makes communion possible since nothing gives what it does not possess, and communion at its highest level involves giving oneself. Since God most perfectly possesses himself and his activity is most perfect and independent, he is most able to give himself and enter into communion with another. This is what happens in the divine processions: by a wholly interior, intellectual act, a really distinct divine Person (the Son) eternally proceeds who is at once entirely from another, and in relationship with the one from whom he proceeds (the Father), yet independent, and self-possessed of divine life as much as the one from whom he receives it: "Just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to his Son the possession of life in himself.”17 And in like manner, by a wholly interior act of love, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. So perfect is the relationship constituted by this sharing of life that the very personhood of each divine Person is identical with the relationship constituted by the active processions.18 In contrast to the divine gift of self, a creature is able to give itself and enter into communion with another only in virtue of being moved to do so by some extrinsic cause or principle. We might say that the communion of a created person is that of a given giver: one who can give only because he has received the power to give from another: “We love because he first loved us;”19 “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you.”20 As a consequence of this, the gift of self which marks created communions is not a definitive gift in which the receiver can finally rest, but it points to a prior giving. And only this prior gift is able to bring the soul to rest: "You have made us for yourself O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”21 17 Jn 5:26; cf. S. Thomae Aquinatis, Super Ev. Johan. V, lect. 5. 18 Cf., S. Thomae Aquinatis, Summa Theologica, la q. 29 art. 4; and S. Thomae Aquinatis, Summa Theologien, la q. 40 art. I. 19 1 Jn 4:19. 20 Jn 15:16. 21 S. Augustine, Confessions, 1.1.
