The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage

...of grace flows daily into humanity. In the third advent: that which is enacted specifically in the deaths of individuals, he will judge universally for all people at the end of the age.

¶ ON THE THREE THINGS to be considered in the advents and acts of CHRIST. Chapter III.

Ornamental woodcut drop cap 'V' decorated with vine and leaf scrollwork.
Truly, in these three advents of CHRIST and in all his works, three things occur to us for consideration: namely, concerning his indwelling dispositions and his visible actions. For the cause of the creation of intellectual and rational creatures—namely, the angel and the human—is the immense goodness of God original: bonitas dei: so that he might communicate and show the riches of his goodness to a creature made capable of receiving it. This was done so that the creature might love the goodness it saw, be united to the goodness it loved, and, once united, enjoy it perpetually. And the angel, indeed, by a single movement of free will free will: liberum arbitrium, the capacity of a rational being to choose its own path or orientation toward God, attained the goal of its creation; but man, in this present life, rises step by step through many movements toward an enigmatic vision original: aenigmaticam visionem, a reference to 1 Corinthians 13:12; in this life we see God "darkly" as through a blurred mirror, rather than clearly and a slight foretaste, aided by grace grace: gratia, the supernatural assistance given by God to humans for their salvation. But in the future, having been made equal to the angels, he will be inebriated by the abundance of the house of God, and will be given to drink from the torrent of divine pleasure, and will see God face to face just as he is. Furthermore, the cause of the Lord's incarnation incarnation: the theological mystery of God becoming human in the person of Jesus was the inestimable love of charity original: charitas, specifically the selfless, divine love God has for creation, by which God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son; and also the miserable condition of necessity, by which the human race, beset by countless calamities due to the guilt of original sin original: reatus originalis culpae, the inherited state of separation from God resulting from the Fall of Man, was unable to make satisfaction by itself. Indeed, the causes of the works of CHRIST which he performed in this world, according to both his divinity and his humanity, are fourfold: