Prima Secundae
99. Aquinas on Sadness: Whether Sorrow Can Be Good, Honorable, or Useful, and Whether Pain Is the Greatest Evil (ST I-II q.39)
Class of 2013-01-10
https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/11-prima-secundae/099-aquinas-on-sadness-whether-sorrow-can-be-good-honorable-or/

[0:00] The Father, the Son, Holy Spirit, Amen. God, our enlightenment. Guardian angels strengthen the lights of our minds, order and illumine our images, and arouse us to consider more correctly. Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelic Doctor. help us to understand all that you have written. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen.

[0:28] So he's got a question on the goodness and badness of sadness, huh? Or pain, huh? Then we're not to consider about the goodness and badness, he says, of pain or sadness, and about this four things are asked: whether all sadness is bad, huh?

[0:55] Second, whether it can be a bonum honestum right? How do you divide the good into the what useful, the pleasant, and the honorable bonum honestum the honorable good. Third, whether it can be a bonum utile, huh?

[1:16] It's obviously not one of them to take time of the huh? He's not even going to ask. Like, it's useful, right? And then whether the pain of the body is the summum malum, right? Which the moderns tend to think, right? Huh?

[1:35] To the first, then one goes forward. Thus, it seems that all sadness is bad. For Gregory Nyssen it's Nemesius my footnote says, huh? Check his sources. But this this shows that the fallacy of equivocation, right? Historically, you know these names. I was reading, re-reading the life of Columbus there by my friend Washington Irving, right, and all the Columbos there that are being mixed up with him sometimes, huh?

[2:08] And he had you know uncle named Columbo and of course a nephew and you know and the all kinds of confusions the historians got into because of that, huh? So we'll figure that out.

[2:24] It's like that with genealogies in scripture. But notice the Pope was saying, I guess, that the name David in Hebrew, have you heard this? It it uh it uh adds up to fourteen, huh? You know the letters. The letters, yeah, and therefore the the fourteen, fourteen, fourteen, and Matthew, right, emphasizes in the connection to David, right. Of course, David is is king, right? And Matthew does emphasize the kingship of Christ, right?

[2:54] So I don't see Thomas talking about the the quantity of the name David, you know. I don't think he knew about that, maybe, but.

[3:06] That's an interesting little thing there. I'm sure he had some other thing for fourteen, ten, and four, and so on. But anyway, for Gregory, something other says that all sadness is bad, right, by its very what nature.

[3:28] So there won't be any sadness in heaven, apparently, huh? All tears be wiped away. Yeah, yeah. So it seems that you know, if you have every good there, this can't be among the goods, right?

[3:47] But what is naturally bad, huh? Is always and everywhere bad, huh? Therefore, every sadness is what bad, huh? I was thinking, you know, about the way Shakespeare sees that nature's being tied up with the good, right, and what is against nature is being bad. And it's interesting now that in the the in the play Hamlet there, where he has the exhortation to use reason, right, and he talks about looking before and after, right, and that when he talks about the nature of the play, like Hamlet does in the play, But, or stiff not the modesty of nature, for anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, which both in the beginning and now is and was to hold the mirror up to nature, to

[4:42] show virtue's own face, scorn's own image, and the very age and body that time is form and measure. Well, there's an order there, right? To put the mirror up to nature, right? Because nature's the measure. Then what comes second? Virtue and scorn, right? And scorn, of course, is what the effect of pride, which is the queen of vices. So he's avoiding being pedantic, right? He's a virtual vice, right?

[5:07] He's a virtual scorn. And then the age is judged by the vices or virtues that predominate in that age, huh? So it's perfectly ordered, right? And and then in those famous lines in in

[5:23] Romeo and Juliet, right? For not so vile that on the earth doth live, but to the earth some special good doth give. Nor not so good, but strained from that fair use, revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse. Well, of course, birth is the original meaning of nature, right? So to revolt from true birth is to revolt from your very what nature, right? And of course, in the exhortation to use reason, which is also an introduction to what happiness is, right, is tying up man's chief good and market of his time with what it is to be a man, right.

[6:00] And what is a man if his chief good and market of his time be but to steep and feed a beast no more? Right. See the connection between nature and and these things. So what is naturally bad is semper et ubique. Always everywhere. Moreover, that which every one flees, huh? Even the virtuous flee, right? Is bad, right? Just as the good is what all want, right? But all flee sadness, even the virtuous.

[6:35] For as is said in the seventh book of Nicomachean Ethics, that although the prudent man does not always intend to be what pleased, nevertheless does not intend to be what Sad, right? Huh? Therefore, sadness is bad.

[6:55] Moreover, just as what the bodily evil is an object and cause of bodily pain, so the spiritual evil is the object and cause of spiritual what sadness. But every pain of the body is an evil for the body, right? Therefore, every spiritual sadness is an evil of the soul, right? They use the word dolor for the body and tristitia for the the soul, right? Because sadness is a little more spiritual than pain, right?

[7:35] But against this, sadness about the what bad is contrary to pleasure about the what. Yeah. But pleasure about the bad is bad. Whence, in detestation of some, it is said in the book of the Proverbs, chapter two, that they rejoiced when they did what Encouraged evil.

[8:02] Therefore, sadness about the evil is what good. It's good that you're sad about what you did. Okay. Well, what is Tom's going to say to this? He's got himself into a hallway, right? Tie himself up, but like Houdini now he's got to untie himself, right?

[8:27] I answer it should be said that something to be good or bad can be said in two ways. In one way, simply and as such or by itself, right? And thus, every sadness is some what something bad.

[8:50] For this, that the appetite of man, desiring power, to be anxious about the present evil, right, has the notion of something what bad, huh? So sadness or pain or is for present evil, right?

[9:10] For from this there is impeded the rest of the desiring power in the good, right? So simply and secundum se, right? Almost the same thing those two, but a little difference.

[9:29] In other way, something is said to be good or bad from the supposition of what? Another, right? As what? Shame. Shame is said to be good from the supposition of something ugly, right? Committed, right? As is said in the fourth book of the what? Ethics.

[9:58] Thus, therefore, supposing. That something worthy of being saddened over or painful pertains to the what good that someone what be sad or pained over the present what evil right

[10:26] for that something that is one is not what saddened or does not feel pain could not be except because either one does not sense right or because one does not regard it as being something repugnant to himself right

[10:45] the election you should be sad right yeah and I heard people talking about how many days it took to get over the election yeah see or when a friend dies or something like that or a parent or something a child dies then there should be what sadness right so even our Lord there wept at the death of what Lazarus he was going to bring him back to life right you know but he still what gives this example right of he wept over the city of Jerusalem didn't he yeah maybe other times too but

[11:22] um and therefore to goodness it pertains belongs to goodness that supposing the presence of something evil there would follow what sadness or what pain

[11:43] and this is what Augustine says in the eighth book on Genesis to the letter still it is good that one what is sorrow the lost good right

[11:58] for unless something good remained in nature of no good lost would there be what Sorrow and pain or punishment. Yeah. and because moral sermons huh are in what Singular. singular things huh of which there are doings or operations

[12:28] that which is from supposition good ought to be judged what Good. Good huh Just as what is from what supposition voluntary is judged what voluntary as is said in the third book of the ethics so there's a you know that's the example the merchant throwing his goods off the boat because otherwise the boat is going to go down too and it's and even worse right

[12:59] That's that's the same example he uses when he takes up the question whether something bad happens to us does it make our guardian angel sad and uses that example. One way is, one way no. What's the question? You know, and they think that the terrorists have taken over an airplane. Just they shoot it down. Well, you don't shoot the airplane down and kill people who are innocent on the airplane, but maybe if that continued to go, it's going to cause you more harm.

[13:26] Yeah, yeah. Hard. Hard to estimate that one. Yeah, yeah. Because sometimes these airplanes, you know, they they didn't signal right something like that to the neighbor. They almost gave the command, you know, for them to be shot down, and they they could have been.

[13:52] Now, to the first one, he says that Gregory Nyssa spoke about sadness on the side of what the evil. That sadness. The evil that saddens somebody. Yeah. Not on the side of the one sensing and repudiating the what the bad, the bad, yeah. And from this, answering now the second objection,

[14:23] all what flee sadness, right? Insofar as they flee what the bad, right? But the what sense of the evil that do something evil there, and refutation or the refusing of it, right? They do not what flee. Okay. And that's also should be said about bodily pain, for sense and the refusal of body evil attests to the what nature. good Yeah. So even our Lord there saddened until death, right?

[15:07] Okay. Once it's clear, the response to the second and the third. So did you want to throw those goods out or not? Off the ship. That

[15:32] one is that one is at port and he's loading them on. Want to lose your investment? Yeah. If you throw them over, you're going to lose your investment. That's right. So did you want to lose your investment? No. And you didn't want to what? Don't hold them on. At that. point. Yeah, He says he says uh, in the last thing, there, right? Ceremonias morales are in singulars, right?

[15:58] So in the singular, you'd say yeah. Given those what circumstances? Circumstances, yeah. You would in the storm. You would want to get rid of your, to lose your mind.

[16:13] Same with the guardian angel. In general, no. He wants you to be saved. Absolute consideration. But if you did bad things and you didn't repent of them, you go. Now be sad about that. Yeah. So,

[16:32] interestingly, Thomas says, "What are these things now? " Because the first article was whether every what sadness is bad, right? Now, then the next one's going to be about whether it can be what. This or that kind of good, right? Huh? See, that's kind of what come up. Second thought, right? Because if all sadness is is bad, well then that's the end of it. That's that's the end of the book, right?

[17:00] Yes, yeah, that question. To the second, one goes forward. Thus, it seems that sadness does not have the aspect of a what honorable good, right? Huh?

[17:21] For that one descends to what? To hell. Yeah, is contrary to what? What is honorable? Yeah. But as Augustine says in the twelfth book on Genesis to Letter, Jacob seems to what fear this less that what by exceeding sadness, huh? He be thus what Disturbed. disturbed that he would not go to the rest of the what the blessed, but to the hell of the sinners, huh? Therefore, sadness does not have the notion of a what honest good, huh?

[18:13] Trying to think of what's the passage in Genesis about that. Yeah, it's Thomas has got answered in terms of it being excessive, you know, huh? Me, Danaan, huh? The Greek saying, seven wise men of Greece. Yeah.

[18:35] Moreover, the bonum honestum, the honorable good, has the notion of something praiseworthy and meritorious, but sadness diminishes the reason for praise and merit. For the Apostle says in the second epistle of the Corinthians that each one what Terminates is determined as he determined in his heart, not from sadness or from what necessity. Therefore, sadness is not an honest what good, huh?

[19:21] If you're sad to study, is that bad? Yeah, it's bad that you're sad. Moreover, as Augustine says in the fourteenth book about the City of God, sadness is about those things which we, not wishing to be, right, happen to us, right?

[19:52] But to not will those things which are happening or coming about for the present is to have a will repugnant to the divine ordering, right? To whose providence are subject all things which are done. Therefore, since conformity of the human will to the divine pertains to the rightness of the will, it seems that sadness is contrary to the rectitude of the will, and thus does not have the notion of something honourable.

[20:25] This is an argument when they say, "Does God let you know bad things happen to good people?" And then they answer, "Well, God doesn't let any bad things happen. If you conform to the will of God, nothing bad can happen." I'm not sure if I like that argument.

[20:45] But against this, everything, everyone that merits the award of eternal life has the notion of something what honourable, right? But sadnesses of this sort, this is clear through what is said in Matthew five five, blessed are those who weep, right, because they shall be consoled, right? Can't argue with that.

[21:09] So that's what he was talking about between that and Benedict the sixteenth there. Yeah, that's just the first book. Therefore, sadness is a what honourable. Yeah, can be honourable, right?

[21:26] So Thomas says, I answer it should be said that for that reason by which sadness can be good, right, it can be a what honourable good, right, huh? For it has been said that sadness is good according to knowledge and the refusal of evil.

[21:50] How do they translate "kuzak sionam" in your English text there? Refusal. It has been said about that sorrow is good according as it denotes perception and rejection of evil. Yeah, yeah. In these terms all the time now, you know, judges are recusing themselves. Oh yeah. They have a word like. Which

[22:15] two things in bodily pain attest to the goodness of what nature, right? From which it follows that the sense senses this thing, right, and nature refuses, rejects the thing that is injurious, right, that causes the what pain, right? So when you get your finger in the fire, right, or in the door or whatever, you sense it, yeah, you move it as quick as you can, right, from the fire.

[22:48] In the interior or inward sadness, right, it's more spiritual. The knowledge of the bad is sometimes through the right judgment of what reason. And the refusal of the bad is through a will well disposed detesting the what evil.

[23:12] For every bonum honestum, every animal good, goes forward from these two, proceeds from these two, to wit, from the rightness of reason and of the will. Whence it is manifest that sadness can have the notion of a what.

[23:38] So what about what about pity? It's a kind of sadness. What? Pity is good. Yeah, could be good, right? Seems only. Wouldn't say that about envy or.

[24:11] After the first objection, there it is said that all passions of soul ought to be ruled according to the rule of what? Reason. Reason, which is the root, the root of the honest good, huh?

[24:28] Which, immoderate sadness, what transcends, huh? About which Augustine speaks, and therefore it recedes from the notion of the honorable what? Good. Good, huh? So Jacob is trying to avoid this, huh? Accusing Hamlet of being too sad over the loss of his father, right? This is the course of nature, right? Why seem so particular with you, right?

[24:59] Because his mother is married and the other things. Pope John the twenty third used to refer to Paul the sixth before he was pope. I used to refer to him as Amleto Hamlet. He used to call him Hamlet because he was so old and interior and. Yeah. Yeah. I guess he just got approved though for having venerable life. Yeah, yeah. You call it venerable now? Venerable, Paul the sixth.

[25:24] Yeah. Now you got to wait for a miracle to happen, huh? If they haven't already got one, yeah. But it's kind of interesting if you think of John the twenty third and then Paul the sixth and then John Paul the second, now Benedict, right? Well, John the twenty third and John Paul the second were more

[25:44] appreciated by the outside world, right, huh? You know, and and these guys are more scholarly or more withdrawn or not quite as outgoing, shall we say, right? As John Paul the second was and John the twenty third, right? It's kind of the way the alternate. Interesting, yeah. So the next question, another another rock star. Yeah. They always, you know, according to St. John's Gospel, there was a man sent from God named John.

[26:11] You know, they're applying it to John the Twenty-Third. Yeah, that's what they've done that more than once with probably John Harden too. Yeah, yeah. There was a man sent from God named John. So the second one here. To the second should be said that sadness over something bad, that just a sadness over something bad proceeds from a what will and right reason which detests evil. So sadness over the good proceeds from reason and will. That are perverse, right?

[27:07] Which detests the good, right? And therefore, such a sadness impedes the praise or merit of the honorable good, just as when someone with sadness gives alms. I don't want to give this to you. I want to keep the bottle of wine. I don't want to give it to you. Warren tells me about one of his relatives there. I guess you know the priest said he had not given enough money, you know, and he publicly rebuked him with the church.

[27:39] And of course, the guy stopped going to church, right? And for years, it went on, you know, and finally, finally, he came back, I guess. But he was so angry at the, you know, public rebuke of the church, and I think it was a good idea for the priest to do that, yeah. Wow. Yeah. I can think of other things to rebuke people publicly, but yeah, yeah, yeah.

[28:02] Okay. To three, it should be said, huh? Some things come about what Present present, which should not come about by God willing them, right? But by God what Doing them. as sins, right?

[28:32] Whence a will repugnant to sin existing either in oneself or in another is not discordant from the will of God, right? That's interesting, huh?

[28:46] But penal punishment, punishing evils, right, that happen presently, also God what willing, right? They happen to God also willing them. But nevertheless, it is not required for the rectitude of the will that man wills those things what as such, right?

[29:15] Which is not contrary to the order of divine justice, right? What's he saying? It's like I guess like that shooting in Connecticut, and if I repudiate that, I'm not contrary to God's will because it let it happen. Yeah. Because because it couldn't have saved someone,

[29:37] right? Yeah. But but when these these punishments, right, because the criminal gets put in jail, I think he's saying I don't have to will necessarily somebody to be punished in jail, but but God can will the wicked to be punished. Yeah, but is is is a prisoner making things worse by being displeased by being in jail?

[30:15] The person in jail, well, The one in jail should accept that's rule. Right. The one in jail should accept God's will for him instead. To be punished. To be punished. He said, but he he doesn't have the will, I guess. Yeah. So

[30:36] the penance that the priest gives gives the sinner there in the confessional is that penance supposed to make him sad? So he should. But is he supposed to experience sadness though in fulfilling his his uh? Not over the penance. What? Not over the penance. Over his sins, yes, but not over the penance. I don't know.

[31:04] I I'm just trying to figure out what he what how that would come in when he says it. What was what was it part of the purpose of the penance? Is that he would experience some what repugnancy to what he undergoes as penance, right? Yeah, that's so. So he would hesitate to commit that thing again, right? That's part of the medicine, yeah. Yeah. That's what St. Bonaventure says.

[31:25] If if sin is a willful pleasure, then penance is a willful affliction. It's a kind of a willful. pleasure Yeah, yeah. So it's mostly it's mostly getting paid, right? Yeah. In in his in his denial where it is, right? Or it's giving money now. Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm just trying to figure this out. What he says is, is not required for uprightness of will that as such a man will it.

[31:46] Yeah. Does that apply to the criminal in prison then? That he doesn't have to will being punished as such. I'm trying to figure this out in terms of that. That's what that's what that means. I don't know. He's

[31:58] saying that not as such, but as willfully not that he has to be punished. That is his own will. If he truly wants something, if he truly wants something. He said, "It is

[32:15] not required for rectitude of will that a man wills these things as such, right? Yeah. But only that they have to contrary to the order of divine justice. Huh. That's what he has to will. Yeah, he's willing to put up with it. Yeah. Okay. All right. Because that's the divine justice requires. Right. He doesn't have to like being in jail. Yeah, yeah. I think so. He doesn't have to like the food, the

[32:42] company. Yeah, sometimes it's worse. Article three: This being castled upon this, whether sadness can be a useful good? To the third one proceeds thus: It seems that sadness cannot be a useful good, For it is said in Ecclesiasticus, chapter thirty, sadness kills what many, Many, huh? and there is no utility in them, right?

[33:21] Moreover, choice is about that which is useful to some end, but sadness is not what worthy of being chosen, right? For rather the same thing without sadness than with sadness is more to be chosen, as is said in the third book of places. Therefore, sadness is not a what useful good.

[33:55] Moreover, everything is for the sake of its own operation, as is said in the second book about the universe. But sadness and peace operation, as is said in the tenth book of the Ethics. Therefore, sadness does not have the notion of a useful what good, huh?

[34:15] But against all this, the wise man, sapientia, does not seek except things that are what useful, right? But it is said in Ecclesiastes seven, chapter five, the heart of the wise is where there is what sadness, huh? It's amazing, huh? And the heart of fools is where there's joy, yeah, party. Party,

[34:48] it's like earth, yeah. Therefore, sadness is what useful, right? That's an interesting text, right? Okay. Answer: It should be said that from a bad thing that is present, right, there arises a twofold repetitive motion.

[35:19] One is by which the appetite is contrary to the present what evil, right? And from this part of this side, in this way, sadness does not have usefulness, right? Because that which is present is not able not to be present.

[35:56] The second motion that arises in the appetite is to what flee Flee, or to repel the bad thing that is saddened. And as far as this is concerned, sadness has what usefulness, right? If it be about something that should be fled, right?

[36:22] Now something should be fled in two ways, huh? Something is really being fled, right? Two ways. In one way, on account of itself, from its contrariety that it has to the good, as, for example, sin, right?

[36:43] And therefore, sadness about sin is useful for this, that a man might flee what sin. As the apostle says, Second Corinthians is the famous text here. Second Corinthians, I rejoice not because you are what sad, but because you are saddened as far as to penance, yeah. And he rejoices, on that. Yeah, He's happy about that. Happy that you're sad. Not as if all, right? Per se, right?

[37:18] I couldn't say, but because you are saddened to the point of what repentance. In another way, something should be fled, not because it is as such bad, right? But because it is an occasion of evil, right? As either a man too much adheres to something through love, right?

[37:51] Or even, or also from this that he is what falls down into something bad. As is clear in temporal what goods, huh? And in this way, sadness about temporal goods can be useful, right? Just as it is said in Ecclesiasticus. I don't know Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes, yeah. It is better to go to the house of what mourning, mourning, than to the house of the living. Alpha, the Elio.

[38:30] For in that one, the end of all things, a man is what mourned. Yeah. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of peace, for in that we are put in mind of the end of all. Yeah. That's what one of the Desert Fathers he says. Abraham was promised the land, yeah, and his whole life he never got any of it, except at the very end he bought the grave for his wife.

[39:12] He paid for it, yeah, and then they say so he got the promised land, but he entered it as a place of mourning. Yeah, that's how he got in. Yeah, a place of mourning. Oh, that's very wise. That's how he got in. So, priest, is it better to officiate a funeral than a wedding? Always, yeah. Probably get some more selling to read certain. Yeah, You could hope.

[39:41] but nowadays everybody's getting canonized right out of the box. Poof! Hey, bring a birthday cake down here. Poof! Heaven. Ralph Martin has a new book on that. It's interesting. Doctor Ralph Martin teaches at the seminary in Detroit. Will many be saved? Yeah, I saw it. You saw it. Yeah, I'm reading it now. It's very well done. It's a commentary on a particular passage in the Vatican II that has largely been mistranslated.

[40:10] So, very interesting. Therefore, sadness in everything that should be fled, right? Is useful, right? Because it doubles, you say. Looks like yeah. Jimmy, not there, huh? Because of what fleeing, right, huh?

[40:47] For the evil as such should be fled, right, huh? But the sadness as such all flee, right, huh? Just as also all desire what The good the good and pleasure over the good, right, huh?

[41:08] Just therefore as pleasure over the good makes one seek the good with greater avidity and with greater desire, eagerness. Yeah. So sadness over the bad makes one more vehemently flee. Yeah, yeah. One flees it because not even better because one's sad about it. Okay,

[41:36] that's what that's these two forms of avidius and vehementius are the comparative forms of the adjective or adverb here, whatever, and that's the passage in Vatican II that's often mistranslated. It says how it's possible for pagans or even atheists to be saved, yeah, and then it says, "ut saepius But more often is compared to form, but they generally translate as either frequently or very frequently. But then they would say more often or more frequently.

[42:07] There's only one translation I know that translates it correctly, and why? I don't know. Now the authority in Ecclesiasticus, the eye of this. What do they call that now? They call that the Book of Sirach, isn't it? No, no, this is Ecclesiastes. I think. Hang on, wait a minute. Which one? This is first objection. Oh, yeah, that is Ecclesiasticus. They call that Cyrac now. Yeah. Ecclesiasticus. To the first, therefore, it should be said that that authority is to be understood about immoderate sadness, right? Which absorbs the what soul right?

[42:54] Sometimes you use those words, you know, for the excess, right? Right? You know, a little kid, told that anger is one of the sins, right? Our Lord was angry sometimes, right? So it's not anger, but you mean excessive anger, right? Uncalled for anger.

[43:17] Now the excessive sadness immobility immobilitates the soul, right? It immobilizes the soul, right? And impedes the flight from what? Evil. Oh yeah, that's my mother had that experience. Not unlike women, I guess when they're very, very frightened, she spoke one time of a man who seemed to be threatening her in a situation she had no, she couldn't escape. And she said she froze, she just froze, she couldn't even speak, nothing.

[43:47] Yeah. And fortunately, she had the dog on the line, and the dog sensed her fear. Yeah. The dog came flying through the air at this man, and he took off. really fast Dog saved her life because the dog sensed her fear. But she said he she said he could have just taken me by the hand and walked away with me. Yeah. Couldn't do anything. It could be fear too, immobilizing you too, maybe, huh?

[44:10] Sure. That's Charlie Brown. He's in the painting. Charlie Brown. Big Irish, a big English bloodhound. Well, you see that in Pericles there in Shakespeare's play, right now. He's immobilized by this. Which one? Sadness. Pericles Oh, he's immobilized by sadness. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just finished reading that. That's that's great, frankly. Oh yeah. That's true. It's true.

[44:38] Truth can never be confirmed enough, though doubts do ever sleep. That's a line I like to hear. Truth can never be confirmed enough. Okay. The

[44:55] second should be said that everything choosable becomes less choosable on account of sadness, huh? So something to be fled from is rendered more what? Pleasurable. Yeah. On account of sadness, right? Huh? And as as far as this sadness is useful, useful, right? Huh?

[45:23] To the third should be said that sadness about some operation impedes that operation, right? Huh? But sadness about the ceasing of operation makes one operate more what? Evil. Yeah. So if you get caught on the TV, says something like that, and don't you know operate the way you should, then your sadness makes you want to guffin. Yeah. Okay, we've got time for another article here before that break.

[46:03] Whether the sadness of the or the pain of the body is the summum malum, right? Huh? How many times I've asked people, what's the worst thing going to happen? Oh, they'd be killed. That's the first thing they say. He's talking about the pain, though, right? Okay. To the fourth, one proceeds thus: It seems that sadness is the greatest evil. That would be what the English philosophers would say, right?

[46:32] Yeah. I suppose the Epicureans too, right? Yeah, Jeremy Bentham and all the rest. To the best is opposed the the worst, right? As is said in the Eighth Book of the Ethics. But some pleasure is the best thing, or some pleasure is best. I have more pleasure, I guess. Which pertains to what? Happiness, right? Therefore, some sadness is the greatest evil, right? Huh? Moreover, beatitude is the greatest good of man, huh?

[47:13] Because it is the last end of man, right? I didn't know it's John. I mean, Bentham saying that about the beatitudes, right? Talking about maybe you guys in there, I guess.

[47:33] But beatitude consists in this: that a man has whatever he what wants and wishes nothing bad. Huh? It's kind of the famous one of Augustine, huh?

[47:45] Thomas sometimes quotes him. It's kind of a definition of. Therefore, the highest good of man is the fulfilling of his will. Now, be careful of that. But you can see that didn't say right. But sadness consists in this: that it what something happens against one's will, as is clear, to Augustine. I think would I guess before. Therefore, sadness is the greatest evil, in hell then? Now, huh?

[48:29] What is it? Is the loss of the vision? That's the greatest. It's greater than the sadness over the loss of vision, right? Say it again. The loss of the vision is greater than the sadness over the loss of the vision. Yeah, I think so.

[48:48] More of Augustine thus argues in the soliloquies, right? From two parts we are put together, right? From the soul and the body, right? Of which the worst part is the what? Body, right? Let's look in Thomas's text. There he says he's asking whether the whole soul is in each part of the body, right? And he distinguishes two senses of parts. One is the quantitative parts, right? And the other he calls the essential parts, like matter and what?

[49:27] Form, right? So it's part in this second sense that he's talking about in this text too. But the greatest good is the good of the what? Greater part. The worst evil is what? The worst of the. Or the lower part. Yeah, I don't think that's so, is it? But that is best in the soul. That is what? Wisdom, right? Wisdom. No, he didn't say love. He says wisdom.

[50:05] In the body, the worst is what? Pain. Pain. Augustine had a tooth, right? Then the Confessions there went on with him. For the greatest good of man is to what? To be wise. To savor, right? To savor. The greatest evil to be sad. That's kind of interesting text, Augustine.

[50:32] What against this? Huh? Guilt is a greater evil than what punishment, as is had in the first book, right? But sadness or pain pertains to the punishment of sin.

[50:59] Just as to enjoy for their own sake, changeable things is the evil of what? Guilt, huh? For Augustine says in the book on what true religion.

[51:16] What is the pain which is said to be of the what? Soul. Soul, except to what? Lack of changeable things. Things. I think. Which one enjoys, right? Or to hope to enjoy what?

[51:35] To be able to enjoy them. To be able to enjoy them, I guess. Yeah. And this is the whole that is said to be bad, that is sin and the punishment of sin. Therefore, sadness or pain is not the. Highest what Evil. of man right? So he's saying that sin is a greater evil right, than the sadness right, the punishment right, the pain of punishment right.

[52:02] Yeah, we did that once. You put that on board about. You did that once about the the virtue and the reward, and then the sin and the punishment, and which is for the sake of which, which is better and which is worse, and yeah. So Thomas says, answer. It should be said that it is impossible. It's a strong statement. For some sadness or pain to be the worst, the greatest evil of man, right?

[52:32] Huh. For every sadness or pain is either about that which is truly bad, right? Or is about something apparently bad, which is truly what good. Now, pain or sadness about that which is truly bad

[52:58] cannot be what the greatest evil. For it is about something worse. There is something worse than it, right? Either to not what judge to be bad that which truly is bad, or to not what. Rejected or something. Sadness or pain which is about the apparent evil, which is truly good, cannot be the greatest evil. Because it is what it would worse worse to be altogether separated from the true.

[53:39] Separated from the true good, huh? Hence, it is impossible that some sadness or pain be the highest or the greatest evil of what man, huh?

[54:14] Kind of subtly saying here. Yeah. Let's go over it again. Here, it is impossible, he says, for some sadness or pain to be the greatest evil of man. For every sadness or pain is either about that which is truly bad, or about some apparent what bad bad which is truly good. I think he's in separate now. The pain or sadness which is about what is truly bad.

[54:46] Cannot be the what? Supreme bad, worst bad. Yeah, or there's something worse than it, right? There's something worse than that name, I guess. Not to judge that to be bad, which is truly bad, or not to reject it. Fair is foul, and foul is fair. They're both worse than. That's worse. Yeah.

[55:13] Now, sadness or pain, which is about an apparent evil, which is truly good, cannot be the greatest evil, because it would be worse to be altogether alienated from the what, true good, right?

[55:35] Once it is impossible that some sadness or pain be the greatest good of man, huh? Alright. Get very subtle with Thomas's saying there. So to be sad about something that is truly what bad is that the worst thing that could be

[56:44] worse if you didn't know it you didn't know it yeah yeah that's what most of our culture is doing right now doesn't recognize it's really bad yeah that's what drove me nuts when I heard Obama weeping about the shooting I said more kids were killed in abortion clinics that day in Connecticut than in the classroom right and he doesn't shed tears over that right they carpet the kids who get killed with a gun you know and people get killed in abortion clinics every day more dangerous rather than putting more gun control laws they put abortion control laws sure sure I won't do that

[57:34] to the first therefore it should be said that two goods are common both to what pleasure and to what sadness and that is a true judgment about the good and the bad right Right. And In order In order. It should be of the will approving the good and refusing the bad and thus it is clear that in sadness in pain or in sadness there is some good through the privation of which it would be worse something worse yeah

[58:24] but not in every pleasure is there something bad through the removal which it could become what better huh or bad excuse me yeah whence some pleasure can be the what greatest good of man in the way that has been said above but sadness cannot be the what greatest evil of man huh that's what this that's what that gal on the plane had that that she was telling me how she Didn't like she is alienated from the church because her family made her feel so guilty about living with her boyfriend before they got married.

[59:06] I think well, guilt is a good thing. It's like it's like pain. If you put your hand in the fire and you don't feel any pain, you got a problem. Yeah. So it's actually good to feel guilty about something. Yeah. But her her knowledge her lack of knowledge lack of right judgment about it made it worse for her. Yeah. And if she's just so guilty about it,

[59:28] we we were comfortable with that. I bet you were. To second should be said that this very thing which is for the will to be repugnant to the bad right is something what good good right.

[59:51] And in count of this sadness or pain cannot be the greatest evil because it has some mixture of the good. There you go. To the third should be said that that is worse what harms something better than that which harms something what worse huh? For the bad is what is said because it harms huh? Augustine says in Critium right. Whence is a greater evil? What is evil of the soul than what is the evil of the body right?

[1:00:31] Whence is not efficacious argument, which Augustine induces, not from his own what opinion right, but from the opinion of a what of another right huh? Whoever tells us or something.

[1:00:57] That's a very very useful argument. And then take a break there between the concupiscible and the irascible right Mm hmm.