The spirit of the Lord fills the world

Spiritus domini replevit orbem terrarum etc. (Wisdom 1:7). The spirit of the Lord has filled the whole world.

A philosopher says that all creatures bear witness to the divine nature from which they came forth, in their will to be like the Deity they came from.

Creatures come forth in two ways. The first is a root process, like roots coming out of a tree. The second emanation is by way of will. See the twofold emanation of divinity. One is the descent of the Son from the Father, this after the manner of a birth. The other is the outpouring of the love of Father and Son, the Holy Ghost, that is, for in him they love one another. All creatures proclaim their origin, their divine descent shows itself in their works. According to a Greek philosopher, God keeps all creatures on a leash, as it were, and they must follow where he leads. So nature is always making for the highest.

The second emanation is the Holy Ghost, by way of will. Nature would rather make nothing but the Son; if she were allowed she would do the father's work, so nature would be forever giving sons if she did not suffer accidental lapses. When nature is working in time and space then father and son are different. One master explains it this way: a carpenter building a house will first raise it in his mind, and if the house were subject enough to his will, then, apart from materials, the only difference between them would be that of begetter and thing suddenly begotten. So it is in God, for since there is no time or place in him, they are one God, there being no distinction except that of the outpouring and the outpoured.

According to scripture, the spirit of the Lord has filled the whole world. Why is he called Lord? Because he fills us. Why is he called spirit? Because he unites us with himself. A lord is known by three signs. First, he is rich. Rich means possessing all things without limit. So none is truly rich but God, in whom all things are held indivisibly. So he can give all things, and this is the second sign of riches. A philosopher says, God offers himself to all creatures and each takes as much as it wants. I believe God offers himself to me as he does to the highest angel, and if I were as fit to receive as that angel is, I would receive as it does. As I have often observed, God always acts as though he were trying to please the soul. The third sign of riches is giving for love; whoever gives for the sake of something else is not truly rich. God's richness is shown by his giving all his gifts freely. As the prophet says, You are my God, you have no need of my possessions. He alone is the Lord and the spirit. I say he is spirit; our happiness lies in union with him.

The most excellent work of God in a creature is being. My father gives me my nature, but he does not give me my being: God does that, no one else. That is why everything that exists takes such great delight in being. The being of the soul receives the inflow of God's light, not pure and clear as God sends it forth, but in surrounding ripples. We can see the sunlight where it falls on a tree or any other object, but we cannot look upon the sun itself. And so it is with any gift of God: these are all measured out according to the one who receives, not according to the one who gives.

A philosopher says, God is the standard of measure, and so far as one person holds more of God than another, to that extent he is wiser and nobler and better than the other. To have more of God simply means being more like him: the more God's likeness exists in us the more spiritual we are. A philosopher says, Where the lowest spirit ends the highest bodily thing begins. All of which goes to show that since God is spirit, the least of spiritual things outranks the best of bodily things. Soul is more excellent than anything bodily. Soul is set, as it were, in a place between time and eternity, touching both. With her higher powers she is in touch with eternity; in her lower powers she is in contact with time. So, mark this, in time she does not act according to time but according to her eternal nature, which she has in common with the angels. Spirit is a subtle thing, bringing life to all the limbs because of the close bond of soul with body. Though spirit is rational and does the whole work, still we do not say, my soul does this or that, for both together make a man. I may say this boldly: because of the close union of body and soul, the soul is as fully present in the smallest limb as in the whole body. St Augustine says, The union of body and soul may be close, but closer still is the union that spirit has with spirit. So he is Lord and spirit, may he make us blessed by uniting us with him.

It is a hard question how the soul survives when God imprints himself in her. Consider. If God were to give her any outward being she would refuse it; but when he gives her himself in himself she receives and suffers in his being and not in her own, his being now hers: he has drawn her out of her own, so that his is now hers and hers is truly his. So she suffers in union with God. This is the spirit of the Lord which has filled the whole world. Amen.