Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 443

TO THE PKINCTPIUM ESSENDI

CiiAP. II]

419

which allows it, having reached its measure, to perform its work. And this is what w^e face in the difference between inspiration and illumination. Inspiration completed the reveof

lation, and,

its

work.

period (that in which Revelation attained

first

its

measure by inspiration, and which lasted so many centuries) does not flow by itself from the principium of knowledge. If you think that revelation consisted merely in a communication by inspiration of doctrine and law, nothing would have prevented its being finished in a short time. Siiice, on the other hand, revelation did not merely make its appearance intellectually, but in life itself, and therefore dramatically, the inspiration, which only at the end of this drama its action, was eo ipso linked to that process which was necessary for this drama. This would not have been so if the special principium had merely been a principium of knowing, but must be so since simultaneously

could complete of time

took in life. The long duration of the first period of but this Revelation has nothing, therefore, to surprise us long duration should never tempt us to allow that first period it

;

unmarked into the second. However many the ages were that passed by before the incarnation, that incarnation came at one moment of time. The new drama which began

to pass

with this incarnation is relatively of short duration and when this drama with its apostolic postlude is ended, the Revelation acquires at once its a?cumenic working, and thereby' ;

.

shows, that

Thus

period of

its

becoming,

is

now

completed.

which it a boundary of

\

inspiration obtains a sphere of its own, in

appears its

its first

;

a definite course

own, which

completion, a

it

which

it

has to run

cannot stride across.

new

condition enters

in,

As

;

the fruit of

which shows

its

itself in

the oecumenic appearance of the Church, and this condition not only does not demand the continuance of inspiration, but

excludes

it.

Not, of course, as

may

if

a

sudden transition took

be indicated to the very day and hour. Such transitions are not known in spiritual things. But if the exact moment escapes our observation in which a child

place which

^

tt-^

appearing in this completed form, the Revelation/

now performs This

|

A

1

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen