The Catholic bulletin., 1922-04-15
Sermons on Catholic Worship,

mon OF q series on tuS NP0S~'SS
Greed, is here appended. This SER
mon on the text, "a am who am"
from Exodus Ill, ID, was prepared
by the Rev. Patrick Casey of Judith
Gap, Mont.
THE DIVINE ESSENCE.
In the nature of things, truth can.
not contradict divinely-revealed! dog
ma. Reason cannot contradict revela-
ton, but revelation may and does
disclose supernatural truths which
surpass potentialities of unaided rea-
son.
The existence of a personal God,
distinct from the world, yet who cre-
ated the world, is not only inculcated
by the fact of our own personal exist
enee, but is marvelously mirrored in
the universe and reflected with sur
passing splendor in the beauty OF our
planet. In the words of St. Paul, in
his epistle to the Romans, THE in
visible things of Him, from the Gre
alton of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that
are made" (Romans, 1:20)
This is also the teaching of the
Vatican council which expressly de-
clares that God can certainly be
known from created things by the
natural light of reason" but when We
pass from the very obvious fact of
the existence of Supreme Being and
attempt to unravel the mystery of
His nature-the mystery of His es-
sence-or that which intrinsically
constitutes God i'm His own order of
Being, then reason falters and the
intellect is somewhat baftled in the
contemplation of that sublime enigma.
Divine Revelation.
1t is the function of divine revela-
ton not only to apprise us of truths
about God, such as the Trinity and
the Redemption, which otherwise we
would never know, but also to sup
plement our reasonings about the
spiritual, and thus to give, as it were,
the impress Of divine faith to con-
clusions arrived at by the light OF
natural reason. This is particularly
true of the question at issue. In con-
sidering the nature of God, revealed
and our inspiration.
We read in the third chapter of
Exodus that God, whilst communicate
ing with Moses on Mount Horeb, and
constituting him the divinely commits
stoned leader who should deliver the
Israelites from the manacles to which
the Egyptian Pharaohs had subjected
them, declared in response to query
from Moses, Il am who am. s. .
Thus shalt thou say to the children
of Israel, He who is, hath sent me to
YOU.
Il am who am" Thus did God
enunciate His own intrinsic and di-
vine nature; thus God declared Him.
self; thus did He declare His essen
tial independence of all contingent or
created entities; thus did He distin-
guish Himself from the pretended di-
whites of the idolatrous gentle as
we'll as fran Sthe. deified preternatural
forces so active in ancient paganism.
To more thoroughly grasp the deep
significance of the words-"I am who
am" let us investigate them in the
light of the original Hebrew in which
they were enunciated "Am'' in
Hebrew is not in the present tense
as we would say, for the Hebrews do
not distinguish their lenses with refer.
ence to time. Their lenses refer to
the finishing of an act or it's contin-
uance. The Hebrew Am" means the
continuance of the existence of a be-
ing Who is the continuance of the
act of existence. Hence the prime
essential notion of God is existence,
or in other words, His essence is
ITO Be-
In God, then, essence and existence
are identical, radically differing in this
respect from creatures, in which es.
sence is potential in relation to eX-
istence, and existence is realized es-
sence. God is the only being of whom
in the words of scholastic philoso.
pliers aseity can be predicated or, in
other words, He is the only being who
exists from Himself.
Concomitant with this notion of
aseity comes the further idea that God
is a necessary being. All created
things are contingent, they have not
sufficient reason within themselves
for their own existence, they depend
upon something else not only for
their existence, but also for their con
Servation in their respective orders OF
being. God inasmuch as He derives
His existence from His essence, mas
much as in Him essence and existence
are one. must necessarily have in His
own divine nature sufficient reason
for His own existence, or, in other
words, He must be necessary being
Being necessary and self-exiStent GOD
is infinite, imitless in His perfections
incomprehensible in His glory and
beauty, surprising in His worth. He
is the boundless ocean of goodness OF
which creatures are only faint and
shadowy reflection. Exalted beyond
all, with loving care and tenderest re
gard He guides the destiny of men and
things in obedience to His eternal
laws. Man, He has constituted a free
agent; man can disobey His eternal
dictates, but man must either repent
or suffer the eternal consequences oi
his disobedienee.
Abashed then in the presence of the
Infinite, in the sublime presence ot
Hin, uyho alwavS WAS and who ever