Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 444

420

§ 76.

INSPIRATION IN

[Dtv. Ill

growth and begins its life as an adult, there is, moment, known to God, in which that growth performed its last act. In like manner, we may assert that these two periods of revelation lie, indeed, separated from each other by a point of transition known to God, even though we can only approximately indicate the beginning ceases its

nevertheless, a

of the second period. § 76.

Inspiration in Coyineetion with Miracles

So far as the special principium in God directs itself as principium of knowledge to the consciousness of the sinner, it

brings about inspiration (with

its

concomitant illumina-

tion); on the other hand, as principium of being (essendi),

the spiritual and material acts of re-creation miracles (mi57S3 and repara^. thought and the world of being

commonly

called

Since, however, the world of do*

not

lie side

by

side as

two

separate existences, but are organically connected, inspiration

formally has in

common with

the wonderful (^x'?) that which

to us constitutes the characteristic of the miracle.

Conse-

quently the formal side of the miracle need not be considered here.

Very unjustly at the mention

of miracles one thinks almost

exclusively of those in the material domain, and almost with-

out a thought passes by the spiritual miracles. is

absurd.

The

creation (if

we may

This of course

so call it) of a mind,

such as shone forth in the holy apostle John, or such as in the secular world sparkled in a Plato, is, if we make comparison,

more majestic than even the creation of a comet in the and in the same way the re-creation of a person inimical to God into a child of God is a profounder work of art

far

heavens

;

than the healing of a leper or the feeding of the

five

thousand.

That nevertheless the material miracle captivates us more, is exclusively accounted for by the fact, that the spiritual miracle is gradually observed after it is ended, and only in its effects, while the material miracle, as a phenomenon, is immediately In order not to be misled by this visible to the spectator. one-sided appearing in the foreground of the material miracle, it is

necessary that

we

first

explain the connection between

'

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