Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/519

 PROFESSION

453

PROMISE

profession admits one to the religious state and con- sequently creates an obligation to aspire after per- fection. This obligation is sufficiently fulfilled by obscr\'ing the vows and rules, so far as they bind the conscience. All previous vows, provided they do not prejudice the right of a third party, may be changed into religious profession, as into something of a dis- tinct Ij- higher character; and this may be done by the religious himself, or by some person who has power to commute the vows. If the profession be solemn, these previous vows are annulled by canon law. Theolo- gians generally teach that, when made in a state of grace, this absolute surrender of self procures for the religious a remission of all the penalties due to past sins. The generally accepted opinion, by which religious profession was compared to a new baptism, induced St. Pius V to permit novices in houses of Dominican nuns to make their profession when in danger of death even before completing their years of novitiate (Constitution "Summi sacerdotii", 23 August, 1570). This has since been extended to all religious orders; but restoration to health deprives the profession made under such circumstances of all canonical effects.

Historical. — L.vdeuze, Le cenobilisme pakhdmien pendaTit le IV' Slide et la premiere moitie du V' (Louvain. 189S) : MARTtNE. De antiq. monach. ritibus. Comment, in regul. S. P. Benedicti; ScHlEwiTZ, Das orientalische Monchtum (^Iainz, 1904).

Doctrinal. — Bastien, Directoire canonique d Vusage des con- grig, d Tceux simples (Maredaous, 1911); B.attandier, Guide canon, pour les constitutions des inslituts d votux simples (Paris, 190S); Bovi^, Tract, de jure regularium (PsLTis, 1856) ; Collette, Religiosm professionis valor satisfactorius (Li6ge, 1887) ; Mocche- GIAXI. JurispruHentia ecclesiastica. I (Quaracchi, 1904) ; Passerini, De hominum statibus. III, qq. 186, 189; Peluzarics, Manuale regularium, tr. 3. c. 1-6; Idem, Tractatio de monialibus. cor. by MoNTANl {Rome, 1761); Piat, Prcelect. juris regularis, I (Tournai. 1898). 130-70; Reiffenstuel. Jus canonicum universum; Ro- TARIUS, Theologia moralis regularium, I, III. v; S.anchez, In Decalogum, V, iii, iv. v; VI, v; ScHMALZGRtjBER, In lib. 3 decretal., t. 31, n. 149 sqq.; Suabez, De religione, tr. 7, lib. VI. cc. 1, 2, 12; Vebmeersch, De retigiosis institutis et personis (Bruges, 1907), sect. 3; Idem. De relig. insti. et pers., supplementa et monumenta (Bruges. 1909); Idem, De relig. inst. et pers., sup- plem. et mon. periodica (Bruges, 1905 — ); Wernz, Jus decre- talium. III (2Dd ed.. Rome, 1908). nn. 640, 648, 668, 673.

A. Vermeersch

Profession of Faith. See Creed.

Promise, Divine, in Scripture. — The term prom- ise in Holy Writ both in its nominal and verbal form embr;ices not only promises made by man to his fellow- man, and by man to God in the form of vows (e. g. Deut., xxiii, 21-3), but also God's promises to man. A complete study of this phase of the subject would require a review of the whole question of Old-Testa- ment prophecy and also a discussion of several points pertaining to the subject of Divine grace and election. For God's every word of grace is a promise; man's willingness to obey His commandments brings him many assurances of grace. When the children of Israel were commanded to go in and "possess the land", it was practically already theirs. He had "lifted up His hand to give it them"; their disobe- dience, however, rendered of no effect the promise im- plied in the command. There are, moreover, many examples of promises of which the Patriarchs them- selves did not receive the outward fullness. Among these may be mentioned, the full possession of Canaan, the growth of the nation, universal blessing through the race. For: "All these died according to faith, not having received the promises, but beholding them afar off" (Hcb., xi, 13). On the one hand we find that Abraham, "patiently enduring . . . obtained the promise" (Heb., vi, 1.5), because the birth of Lsaac w:is the beginning of its fulfilment. On the other hand, he is one of the fathers who "received not the promise", yet with a true faith looked for a fulfilment of the promises which was not granted to them. The New-Testament phrase " inherit the promises" (Heb., vi, 12; cf.xi,9; Gal., iii, 29)isfound in theapocryphal Pealms of Solomon, xiii, 8 (70 b. c. to 40 b. c). It ia

believed that this passage is the first instance in extant Jewish literature where the expression "the promises of the Lord" sums up the assurances of the Messianic redemption. The word "promise" is used in this technical sense in the Gospels only in Luke, xxiv, 49, where we find that the promise of the Father refers to the coming of the Holy Ghost. In passages which make mention of promises of which Christ is the ful- filment, the Epistle to the Hebrews especiallj' abounds. St. Paul indeed both in his speeches and in his Epistles looks at the Christian Gospel from the same point of view. And we see that it was by a con- templation of Christ that men ultimately discovered what the "promise" meant.

The New-Test ament teaching on the subject might be summed up under three heads: that which the promise contained, those who were to inherit it, and the conditions affecting its fulfilment. The contents of the "promise" are always intimately concerned with Christ, in WTiom it has found its perfect fulfil- ment. In the preaching of St. Peter it is the risen Jesus, "both Lord and Christ ", in whom the "promise" has been fulfilled. The forgiveness of sins, the gift of the Holy Ghost, the partaking of the Divine nature through grace (II Peter, i, 4), all the Divinely be- stowed possessions of the Christian Church, may be said to be its contents. Passing to St. Paul we find a general conception of the same character. Christ and the "promise" are practically synonymous terms. The promises of God are all summed up in Christ. A conception of the "promise" which was distinct- ively common to the early Christians is set forth in I John, ii, 25 — "And this is the promise which he hath promised us, life everlasting." Concerning the in- heritors of the "promise", it was given at first to Abraham and his seed. In Hebrews, xi, 9, we find Isaac and Jacob referred to as "co-heirs of the same promise". A controversy existed in the primitive Church over the interpretation of the expression "the seed of Abraham". St. Paul spe.aks frankly concern- ing the prerogatives of Israel, "to whom belongeth . . . the promises" (Rom., ix, 4). Of the Gentile Church before admission to Cliristianity, he says its members had been "strangers to the covenants of the promise", consequently cut off from all hope. It was his work, however, to show that no physical or his- torical accident, such as Jewish birth, could entitle one to a claim as of right against God for its fulfil- ment. It is his teaching in one instance that all who are Christ's by faith are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to promise. He is concerned, how- ever, with the fact that the promise is not being ful- filled to the seed of Abraham (referring to the Jews); yet his heart, is evidently on the side of those against whom he argues. For to the hist the Jew was to St. Paul "the root, the first fruits, the original and proper heirs". The echoes of this conflict die away in later writings: as instinctively Christ is felt to be the Lord of all, the scope of the promise is universalized.

Spontaneity on the part of the promiser is among the primar)' conditions on which the promise is ful- filled (e. g. Acts, ii, 39). As the promise is of grace, St. Paul shows that it is subject to no pre-existing merit on the part of the Mosaic law, or of works of the law. The promise was given to Abraham and to his faith four hundred and thirty years before the law was heard of. It is fulfilled not in works of law, but in a living faith in Jesus Christ together with the love and works that are the fruits of such a faith. Having God's promise to go upon, it is part of the function of faith to maintain a strong conviction that the promi.se objectively is "the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not" (Ueb., xi, 1). But if the first grace leading to the fulfilment of the promise is gratuitous, a superiuitunil gift bestowed without regard to merit in the natural order, c<i-opiTa- tion with this and ulterior graces is required for the