Prima Pars
91. Aquinas on Predestination (ST I, Q.23, Arts. 7–8) and the Book of Life (Q.24, Art. 1): How Many Are Predestined, Whether Prayer Helps, and What the Book of Life Is
Class of 2007-06-07
https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/10-prima-pars/091-aquinas-on-predestination-st-i-q-23-arts-7-8-and-the-book/

[0:00] Now we come to whether the number of the predestined is certain. And we're not going to tell you what the number is, by the way. So don't get your hopes up. We already know that Jehovah's Witnesses told us. Do they have an actual number? 144, 000. Oh yeah. Okay. Okay.

[0:23] To the seventh one proceeds thus. It seems that the number of the predestined is not certain or sure. I guess certain is the Latin word, and what? Sure is the English word, huh?

[0:43] Be sure of that. It's usually better to use the native word if you can. Occasionally, it's too difficult. But I'm sure about that. Now then, a number to which an addition can be made is not certain or sure.

[1:12] But addition can be made to the number of the predestined, so it seems. For it says in Deuteronomy, chapter one, that the Lord, our God, added to this number many what? Thousands, right? That is defined before God, who knows who are His. Therefore, the number of the predestined is not what? Certain.

[1:45] Second objection. Moreover, one cannot assign a reason wherefore more in this number than in that one. God, foreordained. Men to salvation. But nothing by God without reason is disposed. Therefore, the number of the saved, there's not a certain number of those saved preordained by or foreordained or foreordained by God.

[2:18] Moreover, the operation of God is more perfect than the operation of nature. But in the works of nature, good is found for the most part. Defect and bad. Rarely, huh? The fewer, which yours. If therefore by God was instituted the number of those saved, more would be saved than those damned.

[2:48] Of which the contrary is shown in Matthew chapter seven, where it is said, "Wide and spacious is the way which leads to perdition." And many there are who enter into it. Narrow is the gate, and straight the way, which leads to life. And few there are who find it. It says in the sapiential books." a number of fools is what infinite.

[3:18] Therefore, obviously, God is not foreordained with the number of those saved. Naturally. But against this is what the great Augustine says. He's quite a guy, Augustine, isn't he? He's the most quoted guy in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, even more than Thomas himself.

[3:44] But against this is what Augustine says in the book on correcting, I guess, in grace. Certain is the number of those predestined, which can neither be increased nor what diminished.

[4:02] Thomas says, "I answer. It should be said that the number of those predestined is certain. But now some say that it is certain formally, but not materially. Now, what does that mean?

[4:21] There's not an exact number that are saved, but the idea formally. No, it means that the number is certain, but who are so numbered might not be right. Oh, that's me. Okay.

[4:36] Okay. It's like there's so many thrones in heaven, but who's in it? Yeah. Yeah. It's like if I have to say, get three of you guys to help me, so I'm going to select three of you guys now. So the number is thing, but who the three are is not maybe yet certain, right? Okay. Okay.

[4:59] I'm going to be president, you know, and then it's like my cabinet, right? Well, maybe there's ten positions in the cabinet, right? So the number of ministers is determined, right? But who those ten will be is not.

[5:14] But some say that this is is certain or sure formally, but not materially. As if we were to say that it's certain that a hundred or a thousand will be saved, right? But not over these or those, right? Okay. But this takes away the certitude of predestination, Thomas says, about which we have already spoken, right?

[5:39] And therefore, it is necessary that the number of those predestined is certain to God, not only formally, but also what? Formally. Yeah. Materially. But it should be known that the number of the predestined is certain to God, not only by reason of knowledge. Because he knows how many are to be saved, right? For thus also to God is certain the number of the drops of rain, right, and the sands of the sea, right.

[6:15] But also by reason of his choice, right, and his definition of each. Now, to the knowledge of this, or the evidence of this, it should be known that every agent intends to make something limited,

[6:35] as appears from what was said above about the infinite. Now, it goes back to the discussion of infinity of God, right? Of course, infinite—the word itself is what contradicts finition.

[6:57] I mean, in a sense, the word "infinite" is saying endless, right? So Aristotle says there's an opposition between something being endless and being an end. As something is endless, there's no end there. So every agent that acts for an end, as every agent does, especially those of mind, then God's going to be aiming at something, yeah, something limited, something has an end to it.

[7:27] So to the knowledge of this, or the evidence of this, it should be known that every agent intends to do something limited, something ended, as is clear from what has been said above about infinite. But whoever intends some determined measure in its effect thinks out some number in its essential what parts, which are as such required for the perfection of the whole. But it does not, as such, choose some number in those things which are not chiefly required, but only in account of what another.

[8:14] But he takes such a number of these sort as is necessary in account of another. Thus, the house builder thinks out a determined measure of the house. That's been my experience of house builders, and also a determined number of mansions or rooms, huh? Which he wishes to make in the house, and a determined number of measures of the wall and of the what?

[8:49] But he does not choose a determined number of stones. He takes as many as as are enough to fill up the whole measure of the wall.

[9:03] This, therefore, should be considered in God, with respect to the whole universe, which is his effect. He foreorders in what measure ought the whole universe be, and what number would be suitable to its essential parts, which has some order to its perpetuity. How many spheres are how many stars? Right. How many elements? How many species of things? But corruptible individuals are not ordered to the good universe, chiefly, but secondarily, in so far as in them is saved the good of the what The good of the species.

[9:48] Whence, although God knows the number of all individuals, not however the what number of the cattle or the what the what. Yeah, kulikul It's not as such, or per se, preordained by God, right? Okay. So God knows how many ants there are, right? But He doesn't, as such, order this number of ants to be, right? But a sufficient number to preserve the ants as a species of things.

[10:37] But tot that many from of these sort, divine providence produces that are sufficient for the conservation of that species. But we're got a very noble place, though. Among all creatures, chiefly are rational creatures ordered to the good universe, which, as such, are incorruptible. right? That's a sign; that we're not just there for the species.

[11:09] And most powerfully, they, those ones among them who what achieve beatitude, who immediately attain to the last end, which is God Himself. Whence certain to God is the number predestined, not only by way of knowledge, but also by way of what is chiefly what. Precise or definite. The limit. Yeah. Defined.

[11:41] But is not thus entirely true about the number of the what reprobates, huh? Why? Because they seem to be preordained by God for the good of the elect, huh? For whom all things cooperate in the good. huh? So, again, he makes that distinction between the two, right?

[12:05] Now, the last paragraph is going to discuss a little bit about what is that number, right? And Thomas is going to give a few opinions there, but he's not going to say that it's known except to God, right?

[12:19] About the number of all the predestined men, what it is, some say that that many of men are saved as angels fell. So we're going to be enough to fill up the ranks, right? That's pretty well established that we're going to fill up the ranks. So I mean, that's a very probable opinion, it seems to me, among these opinions. Some say that as many of men will be saved as angels that remain.

[12:47] I don't know if that's for friendship or a couple of us off you know like with that guardian angels more democratic equality. Yeah, yeah. But that seems as probable, as, the first one, right?

[13:01] Some say as many of men will be saved as angels fell, and above this, as many as there are angels created. I don't see what the reason for that is, huh? But it's even better to say that to God alone is known the number of the elect to be located in the happiness above, right? Supernal.

[13:28] So we didn't get the number at all. One forty-four thousand. Actually, it's in the footnote number four in the text. One hundred forty-four. Yeah. What's number four? I don't know. Unless you want to be. Oh, it's in the five to the third. Yeah, yeah. That's like you know the one hundred fifty-three fish that are saved there and they come up on the shore of eternity in the last chapter of John, right?

[13:57] Was one hundred fifty-three or one hundred forty-four thousand, or to understand these numbers in some symbolic way? We talked about how Augustine explains one fifty-three, right? One forty-four thousand is tied up with the the twelve, right? The twelve tribes, the twelve apostles. So it doesn't mean. Yes. It should be taken. Mm-hmm. From the 6 billion. Like your friends there. Right. More than 6 billion. 6 billion are the only ones that are alive now.

[14:25] That doesn't cover all history before. This is what Chesterton talked about. He believes in the democracy of the dead because we don't judge things and decide the truth about them just because we vote among those who happen to be alive. We should look and see what our forebears did and what they did and all of that. That's called the democracy of the dead. taking larger consideration.

[14:52] Okay. Now the first objection was talking about this text in Deuteronomy, right? Thomas distinguishes again like he did before, previous article. To the first, therefore, it should be said that that word of Deuteronomy should be understood of those who are noted beforehand, right, by God with respect to present what justice, right? For the number of these is increased and diminished, right, and not the number of what predestined, right?

[15:26] Second, you might say those the number of people in churches increases and decreases, right? Yeah. And but it's not the same as the number of predestined, right? So he's

[15:46] saying that number to which something is added or subtracted is not the number of predestined, the number of those called to present justice. Okay. Now, second objection, saying. Can't find a reason more for one number than another, right? To the second, it should be said that the reason for the quantity of some part should be taken from its proportion or ratio, or from the proportion or ratio of that part to the whole.

[16:28] For thus, before God, there is a reason why He made so many stars, or so many species of things, and wherefore so many predestined from the ratio of the chief what parts to the good universe. I hope there's some ratio of me to the good universe. That's quite a quite a thing, if that's the way He's got it done.

[17:05] So in that sense, I mean, it makes a lot of sense to say that the that the there's a connection between the perfection of the church, right, and the number of those who are going to be what predestined.

[17:19] You have like seven hundred fifty thousand saints, right? Well, I don't know. There's there's so many that are canonized, but there's a lot that aren't. Well, and most of them are gonna lose their. I don't know which fool can have it. Most of the saints they lose their

[17:52] throne in heaven to angels. Yeah, it's the angels' loss. Yeah, some of the yes, they've been there a long time. Okay. Now, the third objection was the one about God being more perfect than nature, and nature achieving the good for the most part, and so on. How come then is it not so?

[18:02] To this third, it should be said that the good that is proportional to the common status of nature happens for the most part, and the defect from this good happens rarely. But the good which excels the common state of nature is found in fewer, and the defect from this good in more.

[18:33] Just as it is clear that many men there are who have a sufficient knowledge for the rule of their own life, like driving a car or something, right? Most men can drive a car,

[18:49] and there are few who lack the science, who are morons, are called stupid or morons. How they translate that, Moriones? Halfway or the other way.

[19:02] Yeah, yeah. Moriones. But there are very few, with respect to others, who attain. To having a profound knowledge of understandable things. What they say there's only three men in the world who understand the theory of relativity, and Einstein is not one of them. I don't know. Some mathematician said it. I told you the story when Heisenberg

[19:46] was first thinking of going to college, and his father took him over. He's thinking of being a mathematician, right? And his father took him over to see the mathematician at the university. And of course, the guy's kind of a strange guy, you know. So he asked, Heisenberg, you know, he's been reading, and Heisenberg reading not only books in math, but in physics. Then you're lost in math.

[20:10] Then you're lost in math. Your mind is contaminated by the material world, right? That's why you end up in physics rather than math. Turn them away from the.

[20:25] I mean, I was talking to a mathematician one time. I guess sometimes he was consulted by quantum physicists and so on, right? Who wants some help in the math dealing with these things, you know, and so on. Because I know a little bit of these things. I read, you know, these these popular books by scientists, you know. Oh, yeah, it's interesting. I wonder what they're using this stuff for.

[20:44] He says. So they don't really know it, you know. But because I fancy the physicists joking about the mathematicians, you know, they're like they do, we take this stuff and we actually apply it to the sensible world. So,

[21:03] since therefore the eternal beatitude, consisting in the seeing of God, exceeds the common states of nature, and especially according as it is destitute of grace through the corruption of what original sin, fewer there are who are what saved. But St.

[21:25] Thomas goes on to say, and in this also, most of all, the mercy of God appears. It sounds strange at first, huh? That he what holds up some of them in this salvation, right? or he draws them up into this, from which most fail on account of the common what? Yeah.

[21:48] Inclination of nature, right? Okay. Now, some days I'll go back to the fact that we're animals, right? and we tend to follow what is sensible, right, as being more known, and therefore, for the most part, we we get into trouble. So everybody knows.

[22:09] So I mean, Thomas and Augustine before him, and of course other thinkers, you know, have this opinion at least that the more are lost than are saved, right? Which is very undemocratic, huh? Cassian pointed out that only two made it through the desert into the promised land out of the five thousand or something. Yeah, and Saint Paul says that, Yeah. Now all these things were done for a figure for us, but most of them God was not pleased, right?

[22:37] So this is a figure of us, you know, the church. you know, you're saying here. but Saint Paul says explicitly, you know, this is a figure. Most of them God was not pleased with them. So fear of

[22:59] the Lord is quite quite necessary. I told you, seeing this book by Saint Anselm, Catholic Bookshop one time, meditations to gain the fear of the Lord.

[23:14] Gee whiz! I said gee whiz That's! The one that Saint Robert Bellarmine wrote a tract called on Hell and its torments. He said that's a good meditation. How about that other one? What will hell be like?

[23:30] Who reads that? You know. Basically, a common thing in you know the parish missions, right? You talk about the four last things, right? Death, judgment, you know, heaven, hell and so on. You know, one time in the parish there, back home. I guess right after the sermon, somebody dropped dead steps of the church coming out, and there was no kids around to come back. Preacher had you never know.

[23:56] You never know when your time is coming. You never know when your time is coming. You know. I mean So we were reading about Ananias and Sapphira this morning. I said. Who was it? Someone Saint Augustine was talking about. And Saint Paul made that magician. I think must have made him blind on the spot. They said that the apostles had this kind of power. Saint Paul said he must have.

[24:25] It was in some other work, and not only the apostles had it, but really they say, according to office, any of the prelates of the church have that. power to do that, but not often exercised. obviously Except maybe in the case of Julian, but, yeah. When I was in grade school, you know, I was taught by the Saint Joseph's sisters there in Saint Paul. They're in Timothy Grade School, and they'd tell you stories.

[24:49] I don't know if they're really true or not, you know. But I remember there was one thing the sisters taught us. One time, I guess there was in this small town that she knew, where the priest had a drinking problem, right? And people were saying things about him and everything and so on. So he came over to church, I guess, on some big feast and put a curse on the people, right?

[25:10] And she said, "I was talking to somebody from the town. I said it's Surprising how many people are dying. " So that as a little kid, you know, in terms of being respectful for a priest to even see something, it kind of I don't know if this is true, the story or not. They tell these stories, as a little kids. Peri of ours had another sermon, especially like for instance, parents never to curse their children.

[25:33] He was talking about the power of curses, just in general, and especially then I think then it would be if those who have authority over someone, just warning them that you know he was to take

[25:55] the fact. Other story was some some kid, you know, receiving communion, you know, and taking the host and putting it into his handkerchief, you know, and he took it out again, of course, the handkerchief was all red, it was blood red. Oh, that. Some stories. There's some interesting miracles. The one at Santarém in Portugal, a woman was going to practice superstitions, took the host out of her mouth, and she was bleeding profusely, just wouldn't stop.

[26:22] She was terrified, didn't know what to do, and that's the Eucharistic miracle. was Yeah. Okay, so we take a little break now. and we'll... Whether predestination is able to be aided by the prayers of the saints.

[26:43] Now, to the eighth that he proceeds, thus it seems that predestination cannot be aided by the prayers of the saints. That's like the question of whether, but the more general question of the prayers can affect foresight or providence.

[27:04] Well, the first objection: nothing eternal is preceded by something temporal. That's pretty clear, right? And consequently, the temporal is not able to aid that which is eternal. But predestination is eternal. Since, therefore, the prayers of the saints, that take place in time, they cannot possibly aid, right, that someone be predestined. Therefore, predestination is not aided by the prayers of saints.

[27:46] Moreover, nothing, just as nothing needs counsel except on account of some defect. knowledge, so nothing needs aid except in some except on account of some defect of power, right? But neither of these things belongs to God predestined. Whence it is said, Romans eleven, who aids the spirit of the what Lord?

[28:18] Or who is his counselor, right? Therefore, predestination is not aided by the prayers of saints. It reminds me there when he says Spiritum Domini, right? Thomas is arguing about the Holy Spirit being God and so on. At one point, he has to stop and show that one text he uses for Holy Spirit is not called the Holy Spirit, but the Spiritus Dei Yeah, But these are the same.

[28:46] He shows from the text of St. Paul that they're the same. That's kind of interesting, huh? Because we call the second person of the Blessed Trinity the Son of God, right? And you don't find too often the Holy Spirit called the Spirit of God, right? But he is in Scripture called the Spirit of God. Here he's called the Spirit of the Lord, and so

[29:08] it's not one of the names of the Holy Spirit that he considers in the in the treatise on the Trinity here, but it is one that you find in Scripture, and it seems to be analogous to the Son of God, the Spirit of God, that he's speaking.

[29:28] Therefore, predestination is not aided by the prayers of the saints. God does need our help there, does he? No. Moreover, it belongs to the same to aid and to impede. But predestination cannot be impeded by anybody; therefore, another can be aided by anybody.

[29:55] Interesting statement, has some probability at least. But against this is what is said in Genesis twenty-five. But Isaac asked the Lord for Rebecca, his what wife, huh? And he gave what? Yeah. And from that concept, one conceived is born Jacob, right? Who was predestined, huh? Some people sit down, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, right? He's predestined. But that predestination would not have been fulfilled if he was not born.

[30:48] Therefore, predestination is aided by the prayers of the saints, huh? Thank you. The reading this morning at Mass was from the Book of Tobit, you know? And I guess Sarah's married seven men, and they've all been eliminated on wedding night. And then so,

[31:18] Toby gets out of bed and says, "Let's pray." The guy, so on. I was thinking, you know, you know, people get married. The way they usually do it is, they can select the readings, you know, for the the wedding, and there's a number of readings from which you you choose, right? But they should add this. it seems to me to the choices. You might throw people up a bit.

[31:47] Twice we had that. I think one reading is mandatory; as this one, and the other one you can choose from. The answer should be said about this question that diverse errors came about.

[32:10] For some, noting the certitude of divine predestination, said that prayers were what superfluous, huh? Or whatever else was done to achieving what eternal salvation, huh?

[32:31] Because these things done are not done. The predestined would would achieve their or reach their goal, and the reprobate would not. But against this, he says, are all the admonitions of sacred scripture, exhorting one to prayer and to other good what works.

[32:57] So there is something wrong with that opinion, I guess. Others say that through prayers, divine predestination is changed, and this is said to have been the opinion of the Egyptians, who laid down that the divine ordering, which they called fate,

[33:19] could be impeded by some sacrifices and prayers. That's kind of the other extreme error, right? You might see in this matter. But against this also is the same authority of sacred scripture, for it is said in the first book of Kings.

[33:42] They call it now the first book of Samuel. I guess they call that first. I think Thomas in his prologue or prologue to Scripture, you know, he says that the books of Kings are primarily to narrate the lives of the great prophets, right? So in a sense, it is just named "calling the Kings," although we we we do it from that, huh?

[34:07] I kind of discovered from studying history, you know, that it makes sense to some extent to put political and military history together, and then social and economic history together, right? And of course, I think it makes sense to study first political military history because the dates are very much more sharp, right? Or in the case of social and economic history, you know, you say, when did the car replace the automobile, or replace the horse or something?

[34:36] You know, well, gradually, some are doing some are not. So, it's not a precise thing, right? Well, in political military, you know, that was one date. That was the end of Napoleon, right? So and so was elected, and so and so was defeated. That's the end of his political career or something, you know.

[34:56] Okay, but against this is authority of sacred scripture, for it is said in the first book of Kings. That's why I was thinking about here, because it's called Kings because the the dates of the kings are more accurate. Yeah, but it's make that the most important point. But the what the triumphal one, right? Israel does not what repent. It's not bent, huh? By what repentance?

[35:28] And in Romans eleven twenty nine, it is said that without penance are the gifts of God in His what calling. No regrets. No regrets in God's calling us in His gifts.

[35:44] So now Thomas has to what sail between Scylla and Charybdis right? He's got to sail between these two areas, right? The one who says that we can change God's what predestination and change His providence by our prayers. The other is that you know it's all fixed, all set. So we pray or not makes no difference, right? Yep. Okay. So it's time to sail between these two rocks,

[36:18] and therefore it ought to be said otherwise that in predestination there are two things to be considered. On the one hand, the preordering, the divine preordering itself, right, And it's effect, right, As regards the... First of these, in no way, he says, can predestination be aided by the prayers of saints,

[36:45] for it does not come about by the prayers of the saints that someone is predestined by God. But as regards the second thing, predestination is said to be aided by the prayers of saints and also by other good works, because providence, of which predestination is a part, does not subtract or eliminate the second causes, but just as it provides for effects, so also for the order of the second causes comes under providence.

[37:27] Thus, therefore, thus are provided natural effects that also natural causes are ordered to those natural effects, without which those effects would not come about. So also, there are predestined by God the salvation of someone, that also under the very ordered providence falls whatever promotes a man to salvation, moves along to salvation, either his own prayers, right, or the prayers of others, or other good things, or whatever of this sort, right, without which someone would not what obtain salvation.

[38:19] Yeah. Whence to those predestined, we are not to try to what do well, right, and to pray, because through these things, right, the effect of predestination is fulfilled with certitude.

[38:47] An account of this is said in the second epistle of Peter. Strive so that through good works you make certain your vocation election. So I say, what about Monica's prayer? Let's say for Augustine, that's kind of a well-known example, right?

[39:11] Is Augustine predestined to eternal life because of the prayers of his mother Monica? Would you say yes or no? No, no. But because God had predestined right

[39:27] Augustine to eternal life in his plan of predestination. Was that he would what receive the graces necessary for his conversion, et cetera, through the prayers of his mother Monica, right? Like the bishops say the prayers of such a woman, right, cannot be in vain, right? Are the prayers and the tears and so on, you know? So

[39:58] the prayers of Monica were not the cause of divine predestination, but they were part of the predestination and the plan of predestination for this great son there. Guessing we've been quoting all all the way through here, huh? It's just

[40:17] let's say an application of that part of what God for orders by His providence. Some things have have a contingent. So if by her choice she was moved by grace, she chose by her. That the Augustine salvation took place through her free choice. to pray

[40:43] So that's the distinction that Thomas uses to sail between those two extreme positions, right? Who is it the the Epicureans? You know, so you can't change fate, necessity, right? So you know, no matter what you do, it's going to take place. But that's this understanding and not realizing that God is what

[41:12] God's providence extends even to the order as He says here as secondary causes. And since I suppose since we don't know who God actually predestined, we wouldn't let's say you sort of make that Pascal's wager. Well, it would be better for us to pray for ourselves and others because that would be kind of so St. Monica is a sign of predestination if you pray if you have devotion to the Blessed mother.

[41:39] It's a sign of predestination. In Saint Gertrude the Great, if you ever read Saint Gertrude the Great, but she seems to have and there you get a very good understanding of how prayers never really wasted, you know. And even if someone is resisting, say you pray for someone who's getting a disorder of life or something like that, you know the prayers are lining up there, you know, and eventually and they push this person in the right direction, huh?

[42:10] Or even I guess I suppose if you pray for someone who's lost, I suppose the prayers are not wasted on. Could help somebody. Now the first objection

[42:26] that the eternal cannot be affected by the temporal, right? What Thomas says that's true about the predestination itself, right? Okay. To the first, therefore, it should be said that that reason shows that predestination is not aided by the prayers of saints as regards the preordering itself.

[42:49] Okay. Now the second one here is about well, God doesn't need our help. Okay. To the second, it should be said that someone is said to be aided by another in two ways. In one way, in so far as he gets from him some power, right? And thus to be aided is of the infirm, right? Whence it does not belong to God to be aided in this way.

[43:18] And thus is to be understood those words, "Who aids the Spirit of the Lord?" In another way, one is said to be aided through another, through whom he carries out his operation, as a Lord through his servant minister. And in this way, God is aided by us in so far as we carry out his very ordering.

[43:46] According to that of the first epistle to the Corinthians, we are the what? Thomas has scripture. Memorize, Tom? They say he is locked up in the tower there, you know. And Mr. Ray, he memorizes the whole scripture. I don't know. Some of these people had good memories.

[44:10] I I knew in high school we had a student who had photographic memory, right? Oh. And they could give him you know these long poems, three or four pages like that. Look look at it just once, close it, say the whole thing. Wow. And we had a had a professor in college too who was like that. It's a difficult thing. You have to look at it twice, he said.

[44:31] I think that look at it twice. So you had an English department, but I read Aristotle in Greek with them, you know, my brother and I did. We we did the Nicomachean Ethics and the Frederican Greek and so on. And my brother did Dante and Italian with the guy, and Chaucer and Middle English. Another guy who was doing Arabic with. Uh huh. Of course, he knew German, French, all those those things like that.

[45:07] They say he knew mathematical physics. I don't know, but they say he knew that. And one year, you know, at Christmas time, we were a big shot parish, and we had the organist up there. And the organist got sick, you know, and we had big clergy and so on. So he came over to play the organ. I I couldn't see the mistakes at the end of that note.

[45:24] No, about it, but there's any false notes here. So. But see, you went over there, Thomas or Augustine, you know the way they quote this. Huh? You go through the Augustine's work, you know, or Thomas of that matter, he's proving the Trinity you know, the Scripture, you know. So many things. So, like Ron McCarthy says, you go through the the Trinity talk to Augustine, you're really convinced this is what Scripture is saying, you know.

[45:51] But he's he's quoting, you know, passages here and there, you know, and just pulling them out, you know. So, so it's a nice thing. Dei adjutores sumus, right? What are we giving him? power? Yeah, we're not giving him. We're carrying out his order, right? We're not giving him some power. Nor is this an account of the defect of divine power, but because he uses what middle causes that the beauty of order, right, might be served in things, and also that the what dignity of causality might be.

[46:34] communicated. Communicated to what? creatures, right? Thomas says elsewhere, you know, that the causes are superior to effects, so the order of causes is even better than the order of what effects, right? But also, God's end is to what? Let the creature partake of his goodness, right, of his own excellence, and God is not only good in Himself, but He's the cause of all the things, right? So He wants to give creatures a share of His goodness, but also a share in His causality.

[47:12] So it's not because He Himself is insufficient in His causality or what He can do, because He wants us to be like Him in some way, right? And like Him even insofar as He is a what? Cause.

[47:35] So, so Monsignor Dionne used to speak, you know, even teaches many order among teachers, right now. As I was saying, I mean, I got a text of Rostal there, and I look at it. Yeah. What's he saying? And then I pick up Thomas and say, oh no, so that's to unfold, you know, huh? No. But sometimes you need somebody to unfold Thomas too for you, you know, and and so he had this beautiful order of teachers, right now.

[48:03] And with Thomas, you'll find the kind of guy who could really fully understand Aristotle. I know. I read sometimes the Greek commentators in Aristotle, you know, and the most part they can only kind of paraphrase Aristotle, and they can't even paraphrase him too correctly sometimes. And so you realize how it takes to this, you know, sin, right? So the kind of he'd lecture on Thomas, and say, I'm, "Just here to teach how to read Thomas."

[48:37] Isn't that what some of the heathen paragons are? A very kind of paraphrases of scripture But that's when you have the church fathers there, you know. And one time in a parish there, I was giving a little course there on the parables, right? My wife, being you know, grade school, high school teacher, a little bit, she says, "Now, don't come in there and tell them what it's all about.

[49:08] Let them look at the parable and sit around the table and discuss what the parable means." And and then after they, you know, argue back and forth and mess up the text and so on, then come and explain what it means. So I try that philosophically. So I remember them sitting around the table, and I'm kind of sitting, you know, off in the back in the table, and they're talking about the parable about the man who comes out the wedding garment.

[49:35] Of course, as far as conversation goes, you know. it was kind of mean of him to throw him out just because he didn't have the right clothing on, and so on. Bad, bad luck. Of course, if you read the church fathers, right, who proportion the text to you, the wedding gown is charity, right? And so God comes in there, and this guy doesn't have any charity. What are you doing here?

[49:54] You don't belong in heaven. See, it's so much more profound, you know. And you can see that that that left to ourselves, we don't really understand the scripture very well.

[50:06] Even my my mother was an educated woman; didn't go to college, nothing like that. But you come back sometimes on mass on Sunday, you know, and you say, "I wish the priest would explain that." Just kind of puzzled by something, you know, in the gospel or the epistle where it was and so on. But I know you've seen those wonderful books that the Dominicans put out there—the ones that the this is before Vatican I or Vatican II, rather, where we had kind of the same gospel year after year, you know.

[50:36] Oh yeah. And and they they gave the you know selection of the golden chain of comments, which is the church fathers, and then maybe seven or eight sermons by different church fathers on that particular gospel, you know. And I've read through sometimes you know going through the two or three years of the year with those things year with those things, and if only it was written, you know, so that even priests and ordinary priests in that parish could have something a little more to say about the thing.

[51:06] And you need the church fathers to proportion these things to you, right? And one thing always stuck my mind was when they're trying to pin down Christ, and they want to get him in trouble with the authorities, so they say, "Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar?" Right. And Christ says, "Well, show me the coin of the realm." And I said, "Whose image is that?" I said, "Well, it's Caesar's."

[51:36] Well, then give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and give to God what is God's, right? The church fathers come in on that, and they say, "Well, our Lord is giving us a proportion here, right? The likeness of ratios." But in particular, what are you giving to Caesar? What is the image of Caesar on it? The image of that coin, right? What do you give to God? What is the image of God in it?

[51:57] What is the image of God in it? Your soul, right? So you give your soul to God. Maybe you don't have charity. This is beautiful the way they develop the text, huh? Yeah. And those texts could be developed in a way that even you know people who have no philosophical training or theological training, you know, to speak of, would see more in the scripture than they saw before, right?

[52:18] Huh? I remember one time I was talking to parishioners, talking about the turning of water into wine, right, and how this, in a way, disposes us for the mystery of the Eucharist, huh? And but the thing when he changed the water into wine, he didn't keep the accidents of water, which kind of destroyed the the reason for doing it, you know this thing. But by wine having you know visible its own features, you know the miracle has taken place, right?

[52:59] So in a sense, that miracle shows something of Christ's power to transubstantiate something, right? And therefore, it makes us more disposed to believe the mystery of the Eucharist, which you have.

[53:19] But I was also making the point there that it was actually a question of Mary that he performed this miracle, right? So in a sense, you can kind of see this miracle as preparing the way for the the greater thing of the Eucharist. I mean, it's a greater thing to change wine into blood of our Lord, obviously, than water into wine, right? But you're on the way there, so to speak, right?

[53:41] And but the fact that the accidents of wines, I say, right there, shows that the miracle, a sensible evidence that the miracle had taken place, right? And So okay. So then, so you can see then that God ordered His providence there to be effected. Of course, it says in in Scripture, and and His disciples believed in him, right? You know, it's one of the things there. But it's it's also preparing for the belief that comes up in the sixth chapter of John, there.

[54:18] You know, where some people are turning away, saying, "this is hard, saying, help me give us this flesh to eat, and so on." Now the third objection belongs to the same to aid and to impede, but predestination cannot be impeded by anybody, so it can't be aided by anybody. So he says to the third, it should be said that the second causes are not able to escape the order of the first universal cause, but they carry it out, right?

[55:00] And that's the reason he says why predestination is able to be aided by creatures, but not impeded. So I can't aid him to to damn somebody, right? I can curse and swear, but it's not going to help. But my prayers can help somebody, right? This reason. Okay, now we come to the book of life, right? Strange little title right? Okay, let me begin to consider. Then we're now to consider about the book of life,

[55:51] and about these three things are asked. First of all, what is the book of life? And of what life is the book? And third, whether someone can be rubbed out of the book of life.

[56:12] Very simply, secundum quid there I have to comment. What do you mean indulgible there? But you've written in double ink there or just? To the first, one proceeds thus. It seems that the book of life is not the same thing as what predestination.

[56:40] For it is said in the book of Ecclesiasticus, right? All of these things are the what book of life. The gloss says that is the new and the what Old Testament, but this is not predestination. Therefore, the book of life is not the same thing as predestination.

[57:08] Maybe there's some multiplicity of meanings of the phrase the book of life. Moreover, Augustine says in the twentieth book of the City of God, he

[57:23] says that the book of life is a certain divine what power by which there comes about so that each thing, its good deeds or its bad deeds, are reduced to what memory, right?

[57:42] But the divine power does not seem to pertain to predestination, but more to the attribute of what power, right? It's going to come up here in the next question, right?

[57:58] Moreover, reprobation is a opposed to predestination. If, therefore, the book of life were predestination, there would be found a book of death, just as the book of life.

[58:13] Okay. It's a little bit of excursion into symbolic theology, right? But against this is what is said in the gloss upon that of Psalm sixty-eight. They will be what rubbed out, deleted from the book of the living.

[58:41] And this book is the knowledge of God by which He predestines to life, whom He foreknows. Now, my little text says that the gloss is Cassiodorus but Augustine too, yeah, and I think you know it yeah. I answer: It should be said that the book of life in God is said metaphorically, right? So we are in symbolic theology here, right? A little bit, according to a likeness taken from human things.

[59:23] For it is customary among men that those who are chosen for something, right, are written down in the book, as soldiers, right, or consulars, right, who in olden times were called patres conscripti, fathers written down, right?

[59:57] Now it is clear from the things fore said that all the predestined are chosen by God to have what eternal life. Therefore, the writing down or the conscription of the predestined is called the what book of life?

[1:00:19] Now that is said metaphorically to be written in the understanding of someone, the mind of someone that is firmly held in his what memory, right? So write this down in your mind now. To use that expression a little bit. According to that, as Proverbs three: Be not forgetful of my law, right, and have your heart guard or keep my what precepts, huh?

[1:00:53] Yeah. And after a few things, it says, describe them or write them down. Describe them. The Latin is describe, so write down, right? Them in the tables of your heart.

[1:01:09] For in material books, something is written down to succor the memory, to aid the memory, right? So God's memory needs to be aided, right? Hence

[1:01:23] God's knowledge by which He firmly retains someone to be predestined to eternal life is called the what book of life? Whence, just as the what scriptures of the book is a sign of those things which ought to come about, right? So the knowledge of God is a certain sign before Him of those who are going to be led to what eternal life. According to that of the second second epistle to Timothy, the stands the firm what foundation of God, having this sign, God knows those who are His, right?

[1:02:16] So what does Saint Teresa the sister say Names written in heaven, right? Written where? Book of life. And the first objection says, well, here's a gloss, huh? Who says that the book of life is the Bible? Not bad way to speak of the Bible.

[1:02:43] To the first, therefore, it should be said that the book of life can be said in two ways, huh? In one way, the writing down of those who are chosen to life, and thus we speak now of the book of what life.

[1:03:02] In another way, that can be called the book of life, the writing down of those things which lead to life, huh? And this in two ways.

[1:03:18] Either as of things to be done, right? And thus the new and the old testament are called the book of life, huh? Or as of those things what done, huh? And thus that divine power by which it comes about that to each one in memory are reduced his deeds, right? Is called the book of life, huh? Just as the Liber Militiae, the military book, right, can be called either that in which are written down those chosen to the military life, or in which is treated the military art, huh?

[1:04:09] Or in which are recited the deeds of the soldiers, right? Also, this is going to solve the, what second objection, huh? which your professor is talking about your good or bad deeds being reduced to them, right? That's when Shakespeare talks about the book being brought out. I am going to read that book, and then I'll then I'll weep, you know, and see what I had done or haven't done that I should have done, and so on, right?

[1:04:58] So those first two objections are based upon the fallacy of equivocation, right? Taking other senses of the book of life, right, than the one we're concerned with in this particular one, right?

[1:05:19] Now to the third, what about twice in there a book of death and this book of life? To the third, it should be said that it's not customary to write down those who are what? repudiated, but those who are chosen, right? Whence to reprobation does not correspond. The book of death as to the predestination the book of what? Life That's because of that difference we saw between reprobation and predestination.

[1:06:01] Well, he's taking it from human things, see, because if he says in the body of it, right, the first sentence of the body, that the book of life in God is said metaphorically according to a likeness taken from human things, right? Yeah. So he's saying it's not customary among human things to have the book of those rejected, right? They write down those who are accepted, right? And therefore, this by that metaphor, it's more appropriate to talk about a book of life than the book of.

[1:06:29] I have an objection. Yeah. That's when our when our Lord is asked about divorce. Yeah. Moses commanded us to write a libellum of repudiation. Repudiation. How are they going to answer that? I don't know. So that was custom among the Jews, but of course he said that was because of your hearts so proud. They misunderstood something in order to write this decree. Yeah, that's good. I got to answer.

[1:07:03] I got to find that now. Now the ad quarto he says ad quarto, right? That's referring to the said contrary objection, right? Okay. He's putting out that in definition, the book of life differs from predestination, right? For it implies the knowledge of predestination, right? Just as also from the gloss induced appears, right? The Latin says, "liber hic est notitia Dei," right? Qua predestinavit ad vitam Okay, so it's name more precisely the knowledge of God.

[1:07:56] Should we stop or go on? Let's stop. Interesting question.