Prima Secundae
Lecture 288: Grace, Sin, and the Three Effects of Corruption

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Article 5, article 6, what? To 6, one goes forward thus. It seems that man is able to repair himself for grace through himself or by himself, without the exterior aid of grace. For nothing is placed upon man that is impossible for him, right? As has been said. But Zachary 1, 3, it says, Be converted to me, and I will convert to you. This is nothing other than to prepare oneself for grace, the one who converts to God, right? Therefore, it seems that man, through himself or by himself, can prepare himself for grace without the aid of grace. Now, that's the way Thomas answers this. To the first, therefore, it should be said that the conversion of man to God comes about through free will, right? And according to that fact, right, is commanded to man that he, what? Convert himself to God, right? But free will can be converted to God, cannot be converted to God, except by God, what? Converting it to himself. According to that in Jeremiah 31, Convert me, and I will be what? Convert me. Yeah. And in the Lamentations, I guess, last chapter, Convert us, Lord, to you, and we will be converted to God. He said, God, my soul, without my will, my grace, without us. Yeah. Yeah, Thomas, they always quote Augustine, God who created us without us, will not. Moreover, man prepares himself for grace by doing what is in his own power, right? Or in himself. Because if man does what is in his own power, in himself, God will not deny to him, what? Grace. For it is said in Matthew 7, 11, that God gives the good spirit to those, what? Asking him. But that is said to be in us, that is in our power. Therefore, it seems that in our power is constituted that we prepare ourselves for, what? Grace, huh? To second should be said, huh? That man is able to do nothing unless he be moved by, what? God. According to that of John, chapter 15. He's up in chapter 13 now. Maybe. John. It's pitiful in some sense, you know. Judas, isn't it? You know, I mean, just, yeah. It's a mystery, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what, Chris has a great rebuke for everybody. Yeah. He says, here he was. You know, we sit back and think, how could somebody be so easily corrupted by money? And he said, but Judas heard Christ. He saw the miracles. And he's still trapped by this money or whatever else it was. And he said, man, you people, you don't see Christ. You don't hear us. You've got to be even more careful about money. And so you'll be more easily trapped by it than he was. And yet you're shocked that he went off the deep end. So you've got to be even more careful. I remember years ago, they were reading some account of one of those exorcisms, you know. And Judas was supposed to be involved in it there, you know. One of the devils, I guess. Oh, really? Yeah. I don't know what that is. Without me, you can do nothing, right? And therefore, man is said to do what is in himself. And therefore, when it is said that man is to do what is in himself, it's said to be in the power of man according as it is moved by God, right? Okay. Now, I like this third objection. Moreover, if man needs grace in order that he prepare himself for grace, for like reason, he needs grace, he might be prepared for that grace. And this is a proceeding for infinitum, which is inconvenient. Therefore, he wants to end in the first to say that a man without grace can prepare himself for grace, huh? Well, he says that objection proceeds about what? Habitual grace, huh? For which is required some what? Preparation. Because every form requires something to be suitably disposed, right? To receive. But this, that man is moved by God, does not presuppose some other motion, right? Since God is the first, what? Mover. Mover, right? Once it's not necessary to go infinitum, huh? That reminds me, I got suckered into buying this. The Velcro wears out eventually, they won't hold the sandpaper anymore. So, what they do is, you buy them a new pad that has a Velcro on it, and then they sell you another thinner pad to save that Velcro. Yeah. And I said, well, we're sure there's another bad, that Velcro, or some other bads at that Velcro. I'll just go stack a Velcro like this. Okay, you've got the third objection now. Go back to the third objection. Okay, the fourth objection, yeah. Moreover, in Proverbs 16, it is said, it belongs to a man to prepare his, what? Soul. But that is said to be of man, which he's able to do, what? To himself. Therefore, it seems that a man, to himself, is able to prepare himself for grace. To the fourth, it should be said that it's of man to prepare the soul, because he does this through his free will, right? But nevertheless, he cannot do this without the aid of God moving him and drawing him to himself, huh? That has been said, huh? Well, in the gospel, doesn't he say something about no one can come to me unless my father draw him, you know? Hey, that's what's been quoted here in this country. My goodness. No, I didn't. I did that on my own. I'm rereading the gospel of John. I told you that. I really didn't look it up. I want the glory. I'm anticipating what Thomas is going to say, right? Okay, well, let me have my glory. But against us is what is said in John chapter 6. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me, huh? Draws him, huh? If however a man would be able to prepare himself, it would not be necessary that he be drawn by another, right? And therefore, man cannot prepare himself for grace without the aid of grace. I think it was our reading today in John there that, you know, if I lifted up, I would draw men to myself. Well, I use the word drawing, right? Because the drawing of us to God is an act really common to the Trinity, huh? The same power. The same power. The same power. The same power. let's see what the master says now in the body article I answered should be said that twofold is a preparation of the will of man the human will to the what good I didn't know that he always sees a distinction in this guy that I had not seen where the mark used to say why could I have thought of that myself one by which is prepared for doing well right and for what enjoying God and such a preparation of the will cannot come about without a what grace which is the beginning or source of a meritorious work or doing as has been said in another way can be understood the preparation of the will of man for achieving the gift of what habitual grace now in order that he might prepare himself for the reception of such a gift it is not necessary to presuppose some other habitual gift right that's that objection we saw about infinitum there in the soul because thus one would as objection has said proceed infinitum but it's necessary to presuppose some gratuitous aid of God inwardly moving the what soul or inspiring right the good proposed for in these two ways we need the divine help okay this has been said above now that for this we need the aid of God moving us it is manifest for it is necessary since every agent acts in account of an end that every clause convert his effects to his own what end and therefore since according to the order of agents or movers is also the order of ends Thomas Henry's argues in that God's end being himself right because that's the only in this proportion it is necessary that to the last end a man be converted through the motion of the first right mover to the proximate or near end through the motion of one of the what inferior movers just as the soul of the soldier is converted to seeking victory from the movement of the leader of the army but to what yeah of some what but some part of the army right from the motion of the tribune yeah thus since God is the first mover some picture without any qualification just like you see he's the first mover the first maker he's the first cause from his motion from his moving other things that all things are converted to himself right according to the common intention of the good to which each thing aims to submit itself to God in its own what way when Starnisius says in the book about the divine names that God converts all to himself but he converts just men right to himself as to a special end which they intend and to which they wish to adhere as to their own what good according to that of Psalm 72 it's good for me to adhere to what yeah it's good good for me and therefore that a man be converted to God cannot be except God converting him now Aristotle talks about this order of movers and ends there in the beginning of the Nicomachean Ethics there right but this is to prepare himself for grace as a word to be what converted to God just as the man the one who has an eye turned away from the light of the sun through this prepares himself for receiving the light of the sun when he converts his eyes towards the what sun once it is clear that man is not able to prepare himself for receiving the light of grace except through the gratuitous aid of God moving him inwardly God Thomas often makes use of that comparison of the order of ends and the order of movers kind of correspond right you can argue from one to the other right so God is the first mover he must be the first end right and there it's proper to the mover called God to move things towards the end which is God right and therefore you can't as it were be the first mover of yourself towards God right because then you know yeah there's a proportion there right now St. Bonaventure has this way of joining these things succinctly he says if God is the first if God is the end of all things therefore he's the first because if he does anything there's no other reason to do it except for himself therefore I remember as a kid there you know playing in a team there some guy has kind of you know has authority right you know you run out there and I throw the ball to you over there you know and you oh you oh you you buck out you had that experience so it's you want some exciting part of the play right but there's one guy who's what in a sense you tried to score or something whatever it is and he's got that end in mind right and you're going to be something kind of secondary right that's going to continue to the end but he's the one who's really responsible for successful play right now I don't know if the quarterback does it all the time or not he calls the play whoever designs the play yeah yeah I remember a couple times watching a game you know where it's very close and they have one play where they kind of score you know and they go over and they have a call and they go over and talk to the thing and in fact it really is a sneaky play you know and kind of really outwitted the other time you know but you know kind of the brains behind it all right you know and they have a lot of 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He was a guy to figure out how to do it. And he'd teach other guys how to do it, right? And then once they picked it up, then he'd move on to the next thing, right? My father was always looking for a guy to raise this guy sorry all the time because he was, you know? I mean, he was the guy who was... He was the brain. Yeah. Now, Article 7. To the seventh one proceeds thus, it seems that a man is able to rise from sin without the aid of grace, huh? That sounds rather... You figured after six no's, they'd learn about the argument. For that which is presupposed, right? We need it beforehand for grace comes to be without grace, huh? But to rise up from sin is presupposed to the illumination of grace. For it is said in the Epistle to the Ephesians, rise up from the dead, right? You're from dead things and Christ will lighten you, right? Therefore man is able to rise up from sin without grace. Well, that convinces me. This dummy over here. You dummies are convinced too? Yeah. Worth saving, man. First, it's all right. The first, therefore, it should be said that that is what for man that pertains to the act of what? Free will, which is required in this that a man rise up from what? Sin, right? And therefore when it is said, rise up and Christ will illuminate you, it should not be understood that the whole rising up, I guess, from sin precedes the illumination of grace. But when, what? Man, by free will, moved by God, attempts to rise up from sin, then he receives the light of the grace that in fact justifies him. Don't they say that's something about confession too, you know, that how sometimes when a man is trying to confess his sins, then he gets grace in the sacrament itself, you know, to go all the way, so to speak, right? Rise up. He gets that particular thing. Okay. Moreover, sin is opposed to virtue just as sickness to health, as has been said above. But man, through the power of nature, can rise up from sickness to health without the aid of some exterior medicine. on account of this, that there remains within him a source of life from which the natural operation proceeds, right? So grace is just to make it easier to rise up, huh? Not that you really need it. Therefore, it seems that, for a similar reason, man is able to be repaired to himself by returning from the state of sin to the state of justice without the aid of exterior grace. They just make it easier, you know? It's like adding oil to the thing, you know? I could still move it out the oil, but it's a little more difficult to move. I answer, to the second it should be said, that natural reason is not a sufficient beginning of this health which is in man through grace justifying him. but the beginning of this, the source of this, is grace which is taken away, what? By sin. And therefore, a man is not able to be repaired by himself, but he needs, newly, you might say, for the light of grace to be poured into him, right? Just as if a, what? Dead body rising up, right? Newly, a soul is, what? Poured in. Yeah. From itself. Number three. Moreover, any natural thing is able to return to an act suitable to its nature. Just as water being heated to itself, not being heated by itself, but to itself it returns, right? To natural frigidity taught that now. Okay. And a stone thrown up to itself returns to its natural motion eventually, right? Doesn't keep on going up forever. But the sins that soon enact against nature has this clear through Danicene in the second book of his work in the Orthodox faith, right? Therefore, it seems that God, a man, is able through himself to return from sin to the state of justice. Now, that convinces this dummy over here. I don't know. To third, it should be said that when nature is integral or complete to itself is able to repair, right, itself to that which is suitable to it and proportion to it, right? But to that which exceeds its proportion, it cannot repair itself without some outside aid, right? Thus, therefore, human nature flowing down, I guess, through the act of sin because it does not remain integral but is corrupted, it cannot through itself repair or even right, right, to the good which is natural to it, and much less to the good of supernatural justice. Now, against this is what the apostle says in Galatians, if there is given a law which can, what, justify, then Christ gratis died without cause. First, Augustine speaks about how the influence that St. Paul had upon him is thinking, you know. I think it must have been especially about grace, you know, that he found Paul a very necessary help, you know. It's more explicit in some ways in Paul than in the Gospels, you know. When Thomas devised the New Testament on the basis of grace, then he divides it into what, I think, three parts, doesn't he? And the Gospels deeming with the origin of grace, right? And then in the epistles of St. Paul, with the nature of grace itself. And then in the Acts of the Apostles and the canonical epistles and the Apocalypse, the effect of grace, right? Which is mainly, in one word, the church, right? And it's beginning in the Acts of the Apostles its progress as seen in the epistles of the canonical epistles. And then finally it's what? Yeah. In the Apocalypse, right? It's the final stage, right? Okay. That's kind of interesting, right? So I mean, it's the epistles of St. Paul, in that division, as being what? About the very nature of grace, right? The Gospels are about the origin of grace, which is Christ, huh? But it kind of fits in with Augustine being the great opponent of the Pelagians and so on, right? And that he had a special debt, you might say, huh? And speaks about the help he got from reading St. Paul, you know? Yeah. People draw out of those readings. When you look at what St. Augustine learned from it, in high reading, it's like water over the bridge, right? Yeah. Yeah. When Thomas devised up the epistle of St. Paul, you know, on the basis of the way he's talking about grace, right? Grace is in, you know, you know, church or graces, it's in the principal members of the church or graces, it's in the sacraments, you know, I mean, he's got all these different distinctions, but it's all, it's grace-filled, you know. I have a grandchild named Grace, by the way, too. You'll miss the, I was talking about my grandchild, Claire, right? And she's listening to Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus, and she says, and Mother asks her, what do you think of that? She says, Mama, it was heaven singing on earth. She's only six years old, and I says, that's just kind of a beautiful way that she had of expressing herself, huh? You know, it surprises me sometimes that they come up with these little ones. I have to ask the graceful one what grace is. Okay. Okay, so we're up to buy the article now, Article 7, right? Answer, it should be said, that man in no way is able to rise up from sin by himself without the aid of what? Grace, huh? For when a what? The sin passes an act, right? It remains in what? Guilt, right, huh? As has been said above. So it's not the same thing, to rise up from sin and to cease from the act of sin, huh? That would make it kind of nice, you know? Come in adultery, and then it's gone. It's gone. Yeah, it's gone. The act is no longer there, right? But to rise up from sin is to what? Repair man to those things which he lost by sinning. Now, a man runs into a threefold detriment by sinning. I didn't know that. I knew there was some bad effect of it, but to wit, the what? A stain that is a corruption of what? A stain, a corruption of natural good and the debt of punishment, yeah. Now, the stain he incurs insofar as he is deprived of the beauty of what? Grace from the deformity of what? Sin, huh? Nice way of saying what sin does to you, right? Makes you kind of an ugly thing, huh? So Judas has kind of come ugly there, right? The good of nature is corrupted, right? Insofar as in nature is disordered, right? By the will of man not being subject to what? God. For this order being taken taken away, it follows that the whole nature of man sinning remains what? Disordered, huh? And the guilt or the obligation, you might say, to punishment is through this that man by sinning merits, by sinning mortally, I should say, merits eternal damnation, huh? That sounds pretty bad, all of that, huh? Even one of those would be bad enough. I have all three of those, three of those. Give a real fire sermon on this. You know what the effect of mortally sinning is? What is it? Makes you deformity, makes you an ugly soul, right? Yeah, yeah. And makes you what else? Guilty of this eternal punishment? I mean, subject to this? Disorder. Yeah. Disorder in everything. Yeah, yeah. Doesn't Augustine say somewhere that a disordered soul is a punishment to itself, huh? All kinds of talk now about people getting over-drugged, you know, and so is, I guess. Yeah, yeah. And it's really in a number of the states there, you know, they're talking. It's a crisis. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When you consider it out here, the states, there's a heroin problem in the high school kids. Really sick. I just drink wine, I don't know what to do. Well, you've got to try some of these wine and your candy, it's crazy. Broaden your horizons, that's perfect. I mean, my motto is in vino veritas, you know. But in drugs disorder, in drugs, I... That's what my friend said. They call it dope for a reason. Yeah, I should talk to the students there about being, you know, out of order, right? See, when they hang up in the machine down there, out of order, a little sign says out of order, it's not working right anymore. But especially when it's working, it's not working right now. You put in your money and nothing comes out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't like that. Yeah. We expect order. I mean, sitting puts you out of order. That's what he's saying. That's one of the three effects. Amazing how many times three shows up, right? Pretty, pretty good. You have to do all three of these things, right? To see the whole picture, right? To complete them. Aristaldi, you know, there's that example there. When he's talking in the De'Chela, right? That was quoted there earlier. You know, where he says, you know, there's only three dimensions, right? And he kind of takes this popular thing, you know, that three is the first number about which we say all. If you and I are going to the movies, we're both going. But if all three of us are going, then we're all going, yeah. And, of course, Aristaldi talks about how he uses the word three in praising God, right? Of course, this is where you get this proverb, Aristaldi, Trinity, she did it, you know. But, I mean, there's a certain perfection in the number three, right? And there's complete and perfect mean almost the same thing, right? All, you know, and complete and perfect mean almost the same thing. And it's kind of amazing how often it shows up, you know. When you read about, you know, the piano concerto there, you know, and how sometimes they had two movements and sometimes they had five. But then they kind of settled the invention upon the threes, he knew the right, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, Mozart's quartets or symphonies, they have four movements because it was customary. But he has some symphonies in three movements, and they're all considered what? Complete works, right? And the early quartets are in three movements. So, the only famous symphony in two movements is Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, it's called, right? It's gone down. Father Steiner, the priest there in the parish, you know, he liked that Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, you know. But it is unfinished, right? There's something, you know, something missing, you know. It's the only famous one that has just two movements, right? There's a lot of famous symphonies, you know, that have three movements. It's, oh, sorry, three is enough, huh? We talk about, you know, the Baroque period, you know, you had to have three instruments, right? To really exhaust all the possibilities, right? You could have more, but you really need three, you know, to be complete. Okay. Now, what about these three things, huh? It is manifest about each of these three things, right? That they cannot be repaired except by God. Now, that's interesting. Since, for the, what? So, for the first time, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque period, you know, the Baroque Décor. Décor means you can turn to this beauty, right? How's your English translation said? Why do you use décor? It's just sort of great shining. Yeah, okay. But you know, like Dionysius says, he talks about the beauty of God, right, and so on. He has to explain what beauty means, right? But one aspect of beauty is that there must be light, huh? You see? And you can see that now. You have to send bright light to have beauty. And he says, since the décor of grace and the beauty of grace comes from the, what, enlightenment of the divine light, huh? The illustration of the divine light. There cannot be such a décor, such a beauty in the soul, repaired, except by God, newly what? Yeah. Once there is required an habitual, what? Gift, which is the light of, what, grace. I am the light of the world, he said, and so on. When I edit these texts, you see, I always skip a little line every point, you know. So it's easier for it to follow, right? You realize, oh, because he's skipping a line there, he means there's something entirely new or another main point to be seen, right, huh? You can't bring these together. Similarly, the order of nature cannot be repaired so that the will would be, what, subject, the will of man would be subject to God unless, what, God drawing the will of man to himself, as has been said above, right? We talked, that means, in the previous article. Likewise, the punishment of eternal pain cannot be remitted except by God to whom, in whom the offense was committed or against whom, and who is the, what, judge of man, right? And therefore, there's required the aid of grace in order that man might rise up from sin, both as regards the, what, habitual gift, as regards the interior emotion of God, huh? So you can pray, you know, God, move us, move me to love you above all other things, even myself. That's a tough one. Yeah, yeah. Grant to the merciful God that I might love you above all other things, and all other things for the sake of you, even myself. Wonderful. It's interesting, of course, order is also an aspect of beauty, too, huh? We'll keep you as a teacher. Yeah, you pass this test, we'll stop the next one. It's like, it's like, it's like a geometry where you can draw two straight lines across and those two angles equal. Well, it's like you keep going through every time where you just try to draw two more angles. Maybe, how about this one? Yeah. How about that one? Let's see, Clara was very mistaken up with the beauty there of what the Avi Verum Corpus on. Maybe it's a beautiful thing, you know? She has it. Yeah, yeah. You know what Wagner said about Mozart, huh? Mozart is above all the masters in all the arts and in all the ages. Wow. I don't think so. It's like forcing the demons to confess God, you know, wasn't it? Well, it's funny, funny, because this one guy that we count the money on Monday night now, it's at 6.30 and count the church's money and then deposit it. But, you know, one of the guys likes classical music, but he likes Wagner, right? So I said, what do you want me to say about Mozart? Oh, very much. It gave his attention. You want me to say that? Yeah, yeah. He says he's blurred on the back of Mozart's CDs. What? Put that blurb from Wagner on the back of a Mozart's CD, you know? Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Other great composers said about Mozart. Let this work.