ing upon God, but a true possession and enjoyment of Him. We have
seen, moreover, that the Beatific Vision implies a most intimate
union with God, in which the soul is made a partaker of the "Divine
Nature," in a far higher degree than is attainable in this world.

But we must be careful not to confound this union of the soul with
God, which is a moral union, with a personal union, such as exists
between the humanity and the divinity in Jesus Christ. For, in Him,
though these two natures are distinct, they are not separable. The
human nature is so intimately united to the divine, that it receives
its personality from the eternal Son of God. Hence, we cannot say
that Jesus Christ is one Person as man, and another Person as God,
thus asserting two distinct Persons in Christ. This would be a
heresy, long since condemned by the church. In Him, therefore, there
is but one Person, and that Person is the eternal Son of God, in whom
the human nature has not a distinct personality of its own. This is
called a personal or hypostatic union, which belongs to Jesus Christ
alone, and constitutes Him the Lord of lords, the King of kings, and
the Judge of the living and the dead. No other creature, not even the
Blessed Virgin, can ever aspire to such a union with God. When,
therefore, we speak of our intimate union with God in the Beatific
Vision, we understand a moral union, and not a physical or a personal
one. Hence, however intimate our union with God may be, we shall
always retain our personality, and never be merged into God.

In this world, how intimate soever may be the union which exists
between friend and friend, parent and child, husband and wife, these
persons all retain their respective personalities. So shall it be in
heaven. We shall see and possess God; we shall be united to Him in an
intimate manner, but we shall ever retain our distinct personality
and individuality. When a drop of water falls into the ocean, it is
absorbed and completely lost in that immense volume of water. This is
no type of our union with God. But the drop of oil is such a type;
for while it floats on the bosom of the deep, it does not mingle with
the water, nor lose its individuality. It remains a drop of oil.

Not only shall we thus retain our personality, when united to God in
the Beatific Vision, but we shall, moreover, retain all that belongs
to the reality of human nature. For, as St. Thomas teaches, "the
glory of heaven does not destroy n