GOD’S SUPERNATURAL PROVIDENCE TOWARDS RATIONAL CREATURES
All that God has done is for the salvation of humans and angels. As far as we can discover from the Sacred Scriptures and the teaching of the Fathers of the Church, and our human weakness allows us to discuss, the following is the order of divine providence.
God knew from all eternity that he could create a vast multitude of creatures. He could communicate to them various qualities and perfections. Among the various ways of communicating, there was none more excellent than joining himself to a created nature. It had to be in such a way that the creature could be grafted and merged into the Divinity so that with it, it becomes a single person. His infinite goodness in itself and by itself is self- sharing. So God resolved and decided on such a sharing. From all eternity, there is an essential-sharing [communication] in God. By it, the Father communicates his infinite and indivisible Divinity to the Son in generating him. The Father and the Son share their own unique Divinity with the Holy Spirit as he proceeds from them. In the same way, the supreme loving kindness of God could also be shared outside itself. It is shared so perfectly that the created nature and the Divinity, each retaining its own characteristics would still be so united as to be a single person.
Among all the creatures God’s almighty power could create, he decided to choose the same humanity which in fact was later united to the person of God the Son. He decreed for it this preeminent dignity of personal union with his Divine majesty so that eternally it enjoys supremely the treasures of his infinite glory. Thus, after preferring the sacred humanity of our Saviour for this happiness, the supreme providence decided that his goodness should not be limited to the person of his beloved Son only, but for his sake, be shared among many other creatures. From the totality of the countless hosts of creatures to whom God could give existence, he chose to create humans and angels. They are to keep company with his Son, share his graces and glory, and adore and praise him eternally.
God saw that he could create the humanity of his Son in many ways to make him a true man. For instance, he could create it out of nothing not only as regards his soul but also his body. He could form his body from some pre-existing matter, as he made that of Adam and Eve. It could be by the common way of generation from man and woman. Finally, it could be by an unusual generation from a woman without relation to any man. He decided that it would take place in the last manner. Among all the women, he could choose for this purpose, he selected the most Holy Virgin, Our Lady. By her, the Saviour of our souls will not only be man but also a child of the human race.
Moreover, divine providence decided to create all other things, both natural and supernatural, so that angels and humans might serve him and share in his glory. Then God willed to create angels and humans with free will. They were free with genuine freedom to choose good and evil. God created them in original justice. This was to show that the divine goodness dedicated them to good and glory. Original justice was nothing else than a sweet love [charity] which inclined them, turned them and led them to eternal happiness.
God’s supreme wisdom had resolved to mingle this original love with the will of his creatures. Love did not force the will but left it free. So he foresaw that a crowd, but a minority, of angels would willingly desert holy love and consequently lose glory. The angelic nature could not commit this sin except through deliberate malice without temptation and without any motive which could excuse them.The great majority of angels would remain steadfast at the service of the Saviour. Hence, God so largely glorified his mercy in the creation of angels and willed to exalt his justice. So in the fury of his wrath, he resolved to abandon for ever these sad, unhappy band of traitors who in the fury of their revolt had so deplorably abandoned him. God also clearly foresaw that the first man would misuse his freedom. He could abandon grace and lose glory. But he did not wish to deal with human nature as sternly as he resolved to do with the angelic nature. It was human nature, a blessed portion of which he had decided to unite with his Divinity. He knew that it was a weak nature, a wind that passes and does not come again (Ps 78:39); that is, scatters itself as it goes. He had consideration for the surprise which Satan caused to the first man. He was aware of the intensity ofthe temptation, which ruined him. He saw the whole human race perish because of the fault of one man. Thus, for these reasons, he looked with compassion on our nature and decided to show mercy.
God decreed the gentleness of his mercy to be adorned with the beauty of his justice. So he decided to save humans by way of strict redemption. But it could be done only by his Son. Hence he resolved that he [the Son] would redeem humans. One of his loving actions would have been more than enough to redeem millions and millions of worlds. However it was not only by one action but by the innumerable loving actions and painful sufferings which he would undergo and suffer to the point of death — even death on a cross (Phil. 2:8).8 For this, God destined his Son, thus making him a companion in our miseries to make us later companions in his glory. In this way, he showed the riches ofhis goodness (Rom 2:4; 9:23) by this copious redemption (Ps 130:7), profuse, overflowing, sublime and beyond all measure. Thus he acquired for us, as if reconquered, all the means necessary to reach glory. So no one could ever complain that divine mercy failed him.