Theological Foundations new file

110 Theological Foundations ing to the unfathomable decrees of His Divine wisdom and mercy. When He enlightens, visits, fills us with strength, showers with gifts, He is completely free in His actions. There is no injustice with Him because He works irrespectively of a person; He works without expecting any gain because He does not need the creature. He acts in such a manner because He is good and wants to dispense good when, to whom and how He wants — generously, without measure or according to measure. This is what He likes and this is in accordance with His eternal decrees. “The wind blows where it wills” (Jn 3, 8). “All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as He wills” (1 Cor 12, 11). He dispenses His gifts both to those who ask for them and to those who do not, even to sinners and stubborn ones, like St. Paul whom He knocked off his horse at Damascus. But He lavishes His spe- cial love on the righteous. “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rom 8, 14). 38 Since Our Savior promised to send us the Spirit as Comforter, we have a right to expect and desire His gifts. Yet, not as a poor man desires the treasures of the rich one, but with complete trust based on the mer- its of Our Savior. Our Heavenly Father will give us these gifts because Jesus Christ said: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him” (Lk 11, 13). St. Peter encourages us to trust: “He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world ... and become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1, 4). By these gifts we rise to the likeness of God, therefore we should cry: Veni Sancte Spiritus. 39 In their teaching on the Holy Spirit, both the Venerable Servant of God, Stanislaus, and Blessed George follow the theory of appropriation worked out by the great scholars like St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas Aquinas, which ascribes the work of sanctification to the Holy Spirit. This theory, based on the Holy Scriptures, on the symbols of faith and on liturgical prayers, ascribes the omnipotence and the creation of the