Divine Mercy: The Heart of the Gospel

A Contribution to the Discussion on the Feast of The Divine Mercy 127 A teaching o f St. Thomas Aquinas (who in this matter follows Aristotle) about the two kinds o f perfection for any being should help us here. He declares that for any thing (or being) there are two kinds of completeness - or perfection: initial and evolved, or a first one and a sec­ ond one. The first perfection is present when the thing or being has all that makes up its substance. This completeness or perfection, which is the result of integrity o f parts, constitutes the whole. The second kind of completeness, or perfection, on the other hand, is the goal that the thing or being is to achieve. This goal is either an activity (for example play­ ing the harp for a harpist), or it is something achieved through activity, (for example the house that is the builder’s goal when building). But the first sort o f completeness or perfection is the cause o f the second (,Summa Theologiae, la. Q. 73, art. 1). I believe we can apply this philosophical understanding to the case of Easter Sunday and its Octave. St. Gregory Nazianzen points out that the Sunday o f the Resurrection was the frontier between the burial and the Resurrection, a spiritual creation: salvation. But the Sunday o f the Octave is the anniversary of salvation, to be understood as the conse­ quence o f salvation, something entirely o f the second creation. With regard to their perfection, then, Easter Day constitutes the first one: it has all that makes up its substance. The Octave constitutes the second perfection, of which the first was the cause, namely: it is related to the life above. St. Thomas says it this way: The most evolved completeness of all, however, which is the goal intended for the whole universe, is the perfect bliss of the blessed, and this will occur at the very end of the world (ibid.). And he continues: Since to attain blessedness, two things are required, nature and grace, the consummation of beatitude will take place at the end of the world, as we have said. But this consummation pre-existed causally, on the side of nature, at the first forming of things, and on the side o f grace, in the Incarnation o f Christ, because grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (Jn. 1: 17). Thus on the seventh day (of creation — the Sabbath, the day of rest,) came the consumma­ tion of nature; in the Incarnation o f Christ, (came) the consumma­ tion of grace, and at the end o f the world, the consummation of glory will come (ibid.).