In treating divine infinity and omnipresence, Aquinas is attempting to provide a metaphysical grammar for what scripture affirms (see Ps. 145:3, 139:7-10), in keeping with his overall program of sacra doctrina.
“After considering the divine perfection we must consider divine infinity, and God’s existence in things, for God is everywhere, and in all things, inasmuch as He is boundless and infinite” (ST I, q. 7)
Divine infinity
- Like the Cappadocian Fathers, Aquinas understands this divine attribute or name primarily as a negative name. God is not-finite. Whereas today it’s used in a positive way.
- This notion of the “negative infinity” of God is integrally related to God’s simplicity and perfection, the two more basic “name generators” of Aquinas’s theology.
“The infinity of God qualifies his goodness: God is infinitely just and powerful, but also infinitely good and merciful, and we know from divine revelation and from the faith that he uses his power in the service of goodness and mercy, even going so far as to render us “justified” in the mystery of the Cross. Christian reflection on the infinity of God, in light of faith in the providence of God in Christ, can and should inspire in us a confidence in God, who can accomplish all things” (285).
Divine Omnipresence
- Author of being: – God is in all things insofar as he is the cause of all things. This is a “common” mode for all of creation. He is present to all things that exist as one who is personally causing them to be, in virtue of his power as Creator. “What emerges is a creation mysticism, in which God is understood to be intimately present at the heart of all reality, a hidden presence as Creator that remains in and through all things, and which is presupposed to all that God does in the order of redemption” (286).
- Author of grace: God is in some spiritual creatures by which He shares the gift of His divine life. This “higher” mode of presence allows us to know God by grace and is increased through the theological virtues of faith, hope and love.
- Author of the sacraments: In the Sacraments, God is substantially present in the Eucharist, in a sacramental mode, so that any human being who is in the presence of the Eucharist is objectively and really in the presence of the glorified Christ, albeit in a mysterious way. Beyond this, in the other six sacraments, Christ is also present not substantially but operatively, since he communicates distinctive forms of grace actively, in and through the celebration of these diverse sacraments.
Both a beauty and a sobriety
- Spiritual beauty – In light of the divine omnipresence we can learn to see the world of nature as a kind of vast iconostasis of God the Creator, which manifests God indirectly by its intelligibility, goodness, and beauty, but which conceals God due to its mere finitude. This provides us with a sense of the providence of God, which is present and active at all times and places without fail, and of the power of his grace, which can be present to our souls and bodies no matter what may come. God’s omnipresence is in no way a limit to our freedom but is the very foundation upon which we can exercise freedom.
- Spiritual sobriety – There is also a spiritual sobriety that stems from this teaching. We see in its light that God’s presence is inescapable, but that this fact alone does not provide for human salvation. On the contrary, this form of presence is extended even to those in a state of sin, and includes the souls of the damned, and the fallen angels. No creature, no matter how disinterested in the sacred, or hostile to it, can truly escape God in its ontological roots, since God sustains all things in being, as the Creator of their existence. (288) In effect, it is a matter of fundamental realism to acknowledge that our spiritual soul is truly in the hands of God in life and in death. God is omnipresent, and therefore is utterly, intimately present to all that we are, if we wish to acknowledge his presence as Creator, and to cooperate with his presence by grace as our Redeemer. Nothing can thwart the work of God in our lives, except our refusal to acknowledge his dominion and universal providence over us as Creator and Redeemer… From a consideration of the mysterious omnipresence of God in all things, we can begin to recognize that the creature exists only within a dynamic tension. It both manifests and conceals one who is inescapably present and utterly transcendent.
Prodigal Catholic 