Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/540

 PROPHECY

474

PROPHECY

prophecy according to St. Thomas (Summa, II-II, Q. clxxiv, a. 1): prophecy of denunciation, of fore- knowledge, and of predestination. In the first kind God reveals future events according to the order of secondarj- causes, which may be hindered from taking effect by other causes which would require a mirac- ulous power to prevent, and these may or may not happen, though the prophets do not express it but seem to speak absolutely. Isaias spoke thus when he said to Ezechias: "Take order with thy house, for thou shalt die, and not hve" (Is., xxxviii, 1). To this kind belongs the prophecy of promise, as that men- tioned in I Kings, ii, 30: "I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father should minister in my sight, for ever", which was not fulfilled. It was a con- ditional promise made to Heli which was dependent upon other causes which prevented its fulfilment. The second kind, that of foreknowledge, takes place when God reveals future events which depend upon created free will and which He sees present from eter- nity. They have reference to life and death, to wars and dynasties, to the affairs of Church and State, as well as to the affairs of individual life. The third kind, the prophecy of predestination, takes place when God reveals what He alone will do, and what He sees present in eternity and in His absolute decree. This includes not only the secret of predestination to grace and to glory, but also those things which God has abso- lutely decreed to do by His own supreme power, and which will infallibly come to pass.

The objects of prophecy may also be viewed in respect to human knowledge: (1) when an event may be beyond the possible natural knowledge of the prophet, but may be within the range of human knowledge and known to others who witness the oc- currence, as, for instance, the result of the battle of Lepanto revealed to St. Pius V; (2) when the object surpasses the knowledge of all men, not that it is un- knowable but that the human mind cannot naturally receive the knowledge, such as the mystery of the Holy Trinity, or the mystery of predestination; (3) when the things that are beyond the power of the human mind to know are not in themselves knowable because their truth is not yet determined, such as future contingent things which depend upon free will. This is regarded as the most perfect object of prophecy, because it is the most general and embraces all events that are in themselves unknowable.

God can enhghten the human mind in any way He pleases. He often makes use of angelic ministry in prophetic communications, or He Himself may speak to the prophet and illuminate his mind. Again the supernatural light of prophecy may be conveyed to the intellect directly or through the senses or the im- agination. Prophecy may take place even when the senses are suspended as in ecstasy, but this in mystical terminology is called rapture. St. Thomas teaches that there is no suspension of the sense actiWties when anything is presented to the mind of the prophet through impressions of the senses, nor is it necessary when the mind is immediately enlightened that activ- ity of the senses should be suspended; but it is neces- sary that this should be the case when the manifesta- tion is made by imaginative forms, at least at the moment of the \'ision or of the hearing of the revela- tion, because the mind is then abstracted from external things in order to fix itself entirely on the object mani- fested to the imagination. In such a case a perfect judgment cannot be formed of the prophetic vision during the transport of the soul, because then the senses which are necessary for a right understanding of things cannot act, and it is only when a man comes to himself and aw.akens from the ecstasy that he can properly know and discern the nature of his vision.

Recipient of Prophecy. — ^The gift of prophecy is an extraordinary grac ■ bestowed by God. It has never been confined to any particular tribe, family, or class

of persons. There is no distinct faculty in human nature by which any normal or abnormal person can prophesy, neither is any special preparation required beforehand for the reception of this gift. Hence Cornely remarks: "Modern authors speak inaccu- rately of 'schools of prophets', an expression never found in the Scriptures or the Fathers" (Comp. Intro- duct, in N. T., n. 463). Neither was there ever any external rite by which the office of prophet was in- augurated ; its exercise was always extraordinary and depended on the immediate call of God. The pro- phetic light, according to St. Thomas, is in the soul of the prophet not as a permanent form or habit, but after the manner of a passion or passing impression (Summa, II-II, Q. clxxi, a. 2). Hence the ancient prophets by their prayers petitioned for this Divine light (I Kings, viii, 6; Jer., x.xxii, 16; xxiii, 2 sq.; xlii, 4 sq.), and they were liable to error if they gave an answer before invoking God (II Kings, vii, 2, 3).

Writing on the recipients of prophecy, Benedict XIV (Heroic Virtue, III, 144, 1.50) says: "The recip- ients of prophecy may be angels, devils, men, women, children, heathens, or gentiles; nor is it necessary that a man should be gifted with any particular disposi- tion in order to receive the light of prophecy provided his intellect and senses be adapted for making mani- fest the things which God reveals to him. Though moral goodness is most profitable to a prophet, yet it is not necessary in order to obtain the gift of proph- ecy." He also tells us that the angels by their own natural penetration cannot know future events which are undetermined and contingent or uncertain, neither can they know the secrets of the heart of another, whether man or angel. When therefore God reveals to an angel as the medium through which the future is made knomi to man, the angel also becomes a prophet. As to the Devil, the same author tells us that he cannot of his own natural knowledge foretell futureevents which arethe proper objects of prophecy, yet God may make use of him for this purpose. Thus we read in the Gospel of St. Luke that when the Devil saw Jesus he fell down before Him and, crying out with a loud voice, said: "What have I to do with thee, Jesus, Son of the most high God?" (Luke, viii, 28). There are instances of women and children prophesy- ing in Holy Scripture. Mary, the sister of Moses, is called a prophetess; Anna, the mother of Samuel, prophesied; Elizabeth, the mother of John the Bap- tist, by a Divine revelation recognized and confessed Mary as the Mother of God. Samuel and Daniel as boys prophesied; Balaam, a Gentile, foretold the ad- vent of the Messias and the devastation of Assyria and Palestine. St. Thomas, in order to prove that the heathens were capable of prophecy, refers to the in- stance of the Sibyls, who make clear mention of the mysteries of the Trinity, of the Incarnation of the Word, of the Life, Passion, and Resurrection of Christ. It is true that the Sibylline poems now extant became in course of time interpolated; but, as Benedict XIV remarks, this does not hinder much of them, especially what the early Fathers referred to, from being genuine and in no wise apocryphal.

That the gift of private prophecy exists in the Church is clear from Scripture and the acts of canon- ization of the saints in every age. To the question, what credence is to be given to these private proph- ecies, Cardinal Cajetan answers, as stated by Bene- dict XIV: "Human actions are of two kinds, one of which relates to pubUc duties, and especially to eccle- siastical affairs, such as preaching, celebrating Mass, pronouncing judicial decisions, and the like; with respect to these the question is settled in the canon law, where it is said that no credence is to be publicly given to him who says he has privately received a mission from God, unless he confirms it by a miracle or a special testimony of Holy Scripture. The other class of human actions consists of those of private