Prima Secundae
155. Aquinas, Summa I-II Q.65, Arts. 4–5 and Q.66, Art. 1: Faith, Hope and Charity as Friendship with God; Can Virtues Be Greater or Lesser?
Class of 2014-02-06
https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/11-prima-secundae/155-aquinas-summa-i-ii-q-65-arts-4-5-and-q-66-art-1-faith-hope/

[0:00] Okay. So notice he does then in four and five, what he did in two and three, right? He looked both ways, right? But now it's going to be the same, in both ways, or just one way. To the fourth one goes forward. Does. It seems that faith, or belief, and hope are never what. Without charity, right?

[0:36] For since they are theological virtues, these three, and God Himself is their object, they seem to be of more worth than the what moral virtues, right? Even the moral worth than the what infused, right?

[0:59] But the infused moral virtues cannot be without charity, right? Therefore, neither can belief and hope be without charity. Moreover, as the great Augustine says upon the Gospel Saint John, no one believes except what willing, right?

[1:25] So in the act of belief, the reason is moved by the what will to believe, not by its own object, the evidence of it, right?

[1:38] But charity is in the will, as its what perfection, right? Therefore, belief or faith cannot be without charity, right? Moreover, Augustine, huh? Who is this Augustine? He's always quoting. Moreover, Augustine says the Enchiridion that's Enchiridion, I guess, in faith, hope, and charity, right? You read that at all? But kind of a educated layman, you know, asked Augustine for kind of a summary of of our faith and so on, right?

[2:15] And he gave him this Enchiridion on faith, hope, and charity, right? And Thomas does that in his catechetical instructions, the Naples ones. So Augustine says in Enchiridion that hope without love, not able to be, right? So the second argument is trying to say that belief cannot be without charity, right? Because no one believes except he wills, right? And now he's saying that hope, according to Augustine, there cannot be without love, right?

[2:55] And the love is charity he's speaking about in that place in the Enchiridion. Therefore, hope cannot be without what? Charity. Yeah. But against this is what is said in Matthew chapter one verse two. It says in the gloss that belief generates hope, and hope generates what charity. Huh? That's kind of spiritual meaning of Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, right? You know, Abraham faith begat hope, and hope begat what love, huh?

[3:35] That's quoted kind of statement about that effect, not because that text. had the one from Augustine there at the end of the famous what? proemium to the Word of God, right? To the Vatican II. document, the one on Revelation.

[3:54] So in terms of what Shakespeare says, there look before and after, right? When Saint Paul says, you know, there remains these three: belief, hope, charity. But the greatest of these is charity, right? Huh? But it kind of indicates more than one order there, right? Of those three, because charity is before hope and belief in the fourth sense of before, which is better, right? Okay. But in the second sense, in the first sense.

[4:29] Time. Yeah, in time, in order of generations in time, right? Then belief is before hope, and hope is before love, and he gives them that order, right? See. And perhaps now we have to see what he says in these two articles, right? But if you can have belief and hope without charity, right?

[4:53] In some way, but you can't have charity without belief and what? Hope and belief and hope are before charity, also in the second sense of before, which is before in being, right? Aristotle's example: one is before two, right? One can be without two, but two cannot be without one, because you need two ones to have two, right? And it's like we say bricks are before a brick wall, right?

[5:21] In that second sense, huh? Because the letter C is before the word cat. The letter C can be without the word cat, but the word cat can be without the letter C, right? And unless you spell the C, that's not correct. So it might be that when he gives them the order faith, hope, and charity, he's giving them in the first and second, and even in the what?

[5:48] Third sense, right? The third sense is the order of the discourse of reason, right? Well, both Augustine and Enchiridion on faith, hope, and charity, he takes up faith first, then hope, and then charity. And Thomas in the Catechetical Instructions does the same thing.

[6:07] So it might be that faith and hope are before charity in the first three senses. But then Augustine, and that's the order in which he gives the three. But then he adds, but the charity is better, right? than it is. so it's before in the fourth sense, right? So you got to know those senses.

[6:34] Of before Aristotle, right? Twelfth chapter, the categories, where he distinguishes in order those four senses, in order of imposition. How was it in the third sense? The third sense is in the discourse of reason, right? Why would it be? Well, I'm just saying that if Thomas in the catechetical instructions and Augustine in the Enchiridion right, and he's going to explain the whole teaching, right, he he first takes up the Creed, which is according to faith, and then the Our Father, which which is according to hope, and then the two commandments of love, and the Ten Commandments according to charity, right?

[7:16] That's the order in which you learn those things, and you have to kind of learn them, right? You have to kind of know what God is before you can hope in God, right, and love Him, and so.

[7:29] Let's see what the Master says here, though. I can hardly wait to see what the Master's gonna say. Used to have this professor. I was a freshman in college, you know, and he's talking about the play, you know, Shakespeare, something like that. Oh, I can't read any longer, you know. He stops his explanation of the play because I didn't know the play. So it's kind of funny, but I kind of enjoy it.

[7:56] I like the proper attitudes, you know. If I just, you know, you know, I always tell the story, you know, of De Koninck teaching a course on Plato, you know, and I was standing in the hall before class in the hall there. and De Koninck comes down and he stops in front of me and he says, "Isn't this wonderful?" He says, "You know, I could see more wonder than anybody else in the whole class."

[8:18] You know, he's been teaching this, you know, since you know the 1930s, right? And just just just a full wonder about it, seeing this text. He says, "Never go through this, you know, without seeing something I didn't see before, right?"

[8:42] Now Thomas again is a guy who can see distinctions, right? That's what the mind has to see first. I answer it should be said that faith or belief and hope, just as what the moral virtues are, able to be considered in two ways, right? In one way, according to a certain what beginning, you might say, right? Another way, according to the perfect being of what virtue, huh?

[9:20] For since virtue is ordered to what doing a good work, right? A virtue is perfect is said to be perfect from this that it can it's able to or is able to go to a work that is perfectly what good, right? Which is when not only is it good what comes about, but also it comes about what well, right?

[9:52] Otherwise, if it is good that comes to be, but does not come to be well, it will not be a what perfectly a good, huh?

[10:06] So if I pay my what my debts, but I regret doing it, doing something good, right? But am I doing it well? No. And sometimes people do something, you know, so begrudgingly, right? That it's not what virtue. It's not perfect virtue. I'm, you know, material. You know, I mean, I mean, I mean, suppose you're taking care of somebody who's ill or something, right? Huh? And you're making soup for them, or you're doing other things for them, right?

[10:41] Huh? But you know, just you know, very irritable about, right? Or you're doing something good, but it's not perfect because it's not you're not doing it well, right? You're coming in, you're you know they can tell you don't want to be there and taking care of them, you know, or changing their whatever else has to be changed, and so.

[11:10] I won't go into how Saint Catherine of Siena, you know, or come any reluctance in me, but she's she's a tough gal, man. If you don't do it well, is it even virtue? Well, there's something what's in Latin, inchoatio, he says, right? Kind of a a beginning, right? Huh?

[11:34] I mean, some I mean it's it's good, you know, to do it even that way, but not to do it all, right? And which you should enjoy doing what's good, right? Huh? Quite your way. So I

[12:00] owe you some money, you know, and I can obviously don't want to give it up now, and it's that that's not perfect virtue, is it? But can still say I'm just a concern, so I might put in show that that I pay you what I owe you, right? What's to

[12:24] shake hands after the game, right? Even if you lost. You can do it more graciously, or more. Otherwise, if it be good that comes about, but it does not come about well, right? It will not be perfectly good, right? Huh? Whence neither does the habit, which is the beginning of such a work, have perfectly the notion of what virtue, virtue, yeah.

[13:13] What's example our Lord does, doesn't he? The two sons there, and the father tells one of them to go out and jumps and tries to do it, right? And the one first doesn't, and the other one comes and does it, right? Some reluctance, right? But he's more he's got the beginning of virtue there, right?

[13:32] Just as if someone does just things, he does a good thing, right? Huh? But this will not be a what a work of perfect virtue unless he does this what well right that is according to right choice right which is through what prudence right and therefore justice without prudence is not able to be a what perfect virtue right

[14:04] thus therefore belief and hope without charity are able aliqualiter in some way to be right but they cannot have perfectly the notion of what virtue without what charity huh

[14:29] for the work of what faith is to what now to believe is to assent by one's own will to something right huh if he does not will this in a suitable way it will not be a perfect work of what yeah

[15:07] Yeah. I was reading this biography of Cardo Luminum and you kind of see is you know hesitating to become a Catholic you know but you have to opus perfectum but that he wills it in a suitable way right this is through what charity huh because that perfects the will right and every correct motion of the will proceeds from right love there's some truth in that first objection right huh or second objection was it yeah St Augustine says in the fourteenth book about the city of God

[15:53] thus therefore belief without charity there is therefore belief without charity but not a perfect what virtue huh just as temperance or fortitude without what prudence huh

[16:17] you know it's the thing that George Washington you know a young man there first being out in battle you know and writing his letter back home you know saying that you know the boatship is thing and

[16:36] And they asked him later on in life, you know. But he thought of that. He says, "Well, I was young then." He said that, you know. It was kind of without prudence, right? Huh? You know, he was kind of excited there. I have a feeling.

[16:50] And likewise, it should be said about hope. For the act of hope is to expect future beatitude from God. That's interesting what he's saying there about hope. Huh? The act of hope is to expect yeah future beatitude from God. Huh? You trust that God will give you beatitude.

[17:15] Which act he says is perfect if it is from the merits which one has. Okay. And you cannot have merits without what charity, right? So you can't perfectly hope in beatitude from God without what charity. Charity, yeah. Because you can only have merit by charity What? Because you can only merit through charity. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[17:49] And why would God unite Himself to someone who doesn't love Him, right? If, however, one expects this from merits which does not yet have, he's expecting death-bed intentions or something. But he proposes to acquire the future, right? Huh? It would be an imperfect act, right? And this can be without what charity, huh? So this is the sinner might can have hope, right? Huh? But imperfectly, right?

[18:25] And some penitents, you know, like Judas there, they despair, right? Huh? And therefore, belief and hope are able to be without charity, but without charity, speaking properly, they are not what virtues, huh? They're full notion of virtue. Because it pertains to the notion of virtue that not only according to it one does something good, but also he does it what well, right? As is said in the second book of the what ethics, huh?

[19:06] So a lot of people, you know, they think that they can live just about any kind of a life, and God will still what love them. Yeah, unconditional love. You hear all the talk about unconditional love, right? And so they have a hope of what? Yeah. Yeah. But it's kind of imperfect sort of thing, right? It's not really a virtue in the full sense, huh? because they don't have maybe charity.

[19:41] God's a good guy, you know. he'll take care. of me. Is it a virtue at all if they have no intention to seek help in perfecting themselves so that they are they merit? In other words, if they're you know thinking you know God with His unconditional love I can just follow whatever I want along. Yeah, yeah. That's kind of a false. That's maybe not even a virtue at all, right?

[20:07] Yeah. Presumption. When the Falstaff is dying, you know, and and he's starting to you know a few ejaculations and so on, you know, and and the landlady there, you know, says, "I told him it wasn't time for that yet, you know. you know, but he wasn't going quite yet. He still has time, you know." Before he has to get down.

[20:48] let's look at the objections here. huh To the first, therefore, it, should be said that the moral virtues depend upon what Prudence Prudence or foresight.

[21:05] But infused foresight, infused prudence, neither is able to have the notion of foresight without charity. Whence, failing the suitable relation to the first beginning, which is the last end, it is lacking in the proper relation to the first beginning, which is the ultimate end. But belief and hope, according to their what reasons, neither depend upon prudence nor upon what charity, right? And therefore, without charity, they are able to be.

[21:49] Although they are not virtues without charity, as has been said, right? That's a very subtle thing he's saying there. See, prudence is about what the means to the end. You got to be well disposed towards the end to have prudence, right? But you can believe God and even hope in God without what loving Him, right? Huh? But you're believing in Him and hoping Him to not have the notion of a perfect what virtue without loving God.

[22:43] That's true from that Sed contra there. If belief generates hope, right? In time, and hope, charity. Well, then, in some way, they come before, right? Huh? And can be, uh virtue, strictly speaking.

[23:00] belief there first, right? Must in some way believe before you can hope. How would you hope in God to beatitude unless you believe there was a God and there's such a thing as beatitude and so on?

[23:25] Now, to the second, it should be said that that argument proceeds about faith, which has the perfect notion of what. Virtue, therefore, it's got to have the will be perfect too, right? So the will more perfectly moves reason to assent once it's perfected by charity. But there still can be a willing to believe, right, without having charity.

[23:55] But it's not going to be a perfect willing because the willing is not is always perfected by what? By love, huh? Now that hope cannot be without love, and that's the third objection. Augustine speaks there about hope according as one expects future beatitude through the merits which he already has, which would not be without what? Charity.

[24:33] So he's admitting that hope and belief can be without charity, but they don't have the full what character of virtue, right? Okay. But now, can there be charity without hope and faith? That's the thing he's going to do. Should we take a little break here? Now the last article five. Okay.

[25:02] To the fifth, one goes forward. Thus, it seems that charity can be without belief and hope, for charity is the love of God. But God is able to be loved by us naturally, right? Even not presupposing faith or the hope of future beatitude. Therefore, charity is able to be without what belief and hope. So I have to see what he says about that natural loving of God.

[25:41] Moreover, charity is the root of all the virtues, according to that of Ephesians chapter three verse seventeen. Rooted and founded in what charity, huh? Kind of marries there, huh? Because radicati kind of comes from what nature, right? That word and fundati is more like you know foundational building, right? So charity, is, rooted in charity and founded in it. But the root sometimes is without the what branches, isn't it?

[26:16] Ramis branches. Therefore, charity is able to be sometimes without what. Yeah. And the other virtues. The virtues, right? They kind of you know spring up from it, right? It's the root of them, right? Okay. My wife plants

[26:39] those roots and those you know sprout them. Moreover, in Christ there was perfect charity, right? But God, but he did not have what faith and hope, because he was a perfect what comprehensor, right? He saw God as he was. Therefore, charity is able to be without faith and hope, right?

[27:17] So Christ is said to be a comprehensor, right, in his mind, but in his body he's on the way, right? His body is not yet glorified, huh?

[27:30] But against this is what the apostle says, huh? What figure of speech is that? The apostolos Antonomasia Yeah. It's the same Paul and Peter called apostles.

[27:54] But again, this is what the apostle says in Hebrews chapter eleven, verse six: "Without belief, it is impossible to please God," which most of all pertains to charity, as is clear according to that of Proverbs eight: "I will love those who are loving me."

[28:16] But hope also it is that leads one into charity, as has been said above. Therefore, charity cannot be had without belief and hope. I answer, Thomas says that charity not only signifies the love of God,

[28:42] but also a certain friendship towards Him. Now, friendship adds above love that there is a what mutual loving back one for the other, with a certain common what mutual communication, as is said in the eighth book of the Ethics, where Aristotle devotes two books to what friendship period to eight and nine.

[29:17] Aristotle regards friendship as a very important important topic, right? And this pertains to what charity, huh? As is clear through what is said in the first epistle of the Apostle Saint John, chapter four, verse sixteen: "Who remains in charity remains in God, in God, in Him."

[29:52] And in one two Corinthians chapter one, first epistle of the Corinthians chapter one, verse nine, you said God is what faithful. I got the word fidelis right? Does God believe? Through whom we are called in the society of His what son.

[30:17] Now this society of man to God, this association of man with God, which is a familiar what conversation, right? As well, living together with him, is begun in the present through grace, right? But will be perfected in the future through glory. huh?

[30:47] Both of whom are what held by faith and hope. Whence, just as someone is not able to have friendship with someone if he does not what believe him, right? Huh? Or he despairs that he could have some what society, yeah, familiar conversation with them, right? So, someone is not able to have friendship with God, which is what charity is. I call you no longer servants, but friends, Lord.

[31:27] Christ said, he sometimes quotes that particular passage, right, to say it's friendship and not just love, unless he has what belief, right? Through which or by which he believes such a what society and conversation of man with what.

[31:51] Yeah, and he hopes what to pertain to this what society, right? And thus, charity without belief and hope in no way is able to be.

[32:14] It's just kids there when you're talking about human friendship, you know. Can you be a a friend with someone that you don't trust? What would you say, Joshua?

[32:30] You can't believe what he says. You don't trust him. So how could you have friendship with God here if you didn't believe him and what trust him, right?

[32:51] Huh? Know what he's saying here a little bit? Yeah, yeah. Can you have an imperfect friendship with them as you build up that trust? Yeah, but you know if if you go to

[33:07] who's the guy wrote the thing on? Saint Bernard Clairvaux wrote the thing on love of God. He distinguished four stages, right? Huh? Of our love. The first stage, we love ourselves for our own sake, right? Don't love God at all. But then we run into trouble, and we need God's help, so we turn to God, right? And then we begin to what

[33:35] love God for our own good, right? We see Him as useful, right? So we turn to God in our need, right? That's not really charity yet, huh? Because you're not loving God for His own sake, right? But you see, God is being useful to getting you out of the jam you're in, and so you're kind of hoping that He will help you right now. So you kind of have hope there right now.

[34:03] But then, as you get to know God and become familiar, when you turn to Him in prayer, right, which is what hope is, as an act of hope, then you realize that He's a nice guy, huh? And He's He's worth beginning to love Him for His own sake, right? And not just because of what He can do for you, right? And then that's kind of like starting friendship there, right, huh?

[34:30] And then the last stage is the perfection of this, where you love yourself just for the sake of God, right, huh? And He says that's hardly ever realized in this life, right? You know, that's kind of the ultimate stage there. But just go to the second of the third stage there, right? You can say you you turn to this person because you what? Yeah, and and you hope that He can, you know. You trust that he can help you, you know.

[34:56] So the kind of hope is there, disposing you to turn to him, and and then you become what? Eventually, becomes familiar to you, and then you begin to love him for his what? For his own sake. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Isn't that somewhat true even among human beings, right? That we become friends and we turn to somebody, you know, because we need their help or something, right? And he brings over his, you know, snow blower, you know, sometimes.

[35:34] Okay, well. Oh, I see. Yeah, yeah. So you get to know, you know, get talking to him or something, you know, and. Or you do something. Yeah, yeah. Hope, hope we bring it over, you know, because the snow is so deep and heavy. Well, I'm not loving him for his own sake yet, right? You know, that's where you get to know him, right?

[35:57] My father used to go to the baseball games with the guy who sold paint to his company, right? What brought these two guys together? Well, I was this guy wanted to sell paint. My father needed paint for all the farm wagons he made and so on, right? Still got to know each other, right? It was it was a friendship of utility, you might say. Well, not not really friendship in full sense, but then they got to know each other and got to like each other's company, so they go out to the ball games together or something, you know.

[36:23] And that's what happens, right? Huh? People come together because they need somebody, right? Think of another person, and they begin to like them for their their own qualities, right? Huh? And it's hope, kind of what, disposing for for love, right? Huh?

[36:44] Okay. Now, what about this loving God? Huh? God is able to be loved naturally by us, right? To the first therefore, it should be said that charity is not just any love of God, right? Huh?

[37:06] But the love of God by which he is loved as the object of what? Beatitude, huh? To which we are ordered through what? Faith and hope, huh? What's the definition of faith here that you have in the epistle to Hebrews, huh?

[37:32] Yeah. The substance. of things hoped for, right? The conviction of what is not seen, right? And substance, you know, there doesn't mean substance sense of the essence. because then you'd already have your beatitude, right? But it's kind of like your foundation, right? So in a sense, you believe the things that you will see, right? Trinity and the incarnate Son, right? And so you are being what?

[38:07] It's a foundation of your beatitude, there, right? Okay. So you see a connection there between faith and hope and beatitude, huh? So you're loving God as the object of what? Beatitude, huh?

[38:30] Now, what about charity being the root of faith and hope, right? Well, now I was telling the professor there the other day. There, in the dialogue of Plato called the Sophist,

[38:52] um, he says that likeness is a most slippery thing. So when you try to grasp likeness, it can escape from you, right? Or you might grasp the likeness improperly, right? Not seeing exactly what way these things are what alike, right?

[39:24] And when Aristotle begins the book on Sophistical Reputations, he says likeness is the cause of deception, right? It's that's why something a mistake that is like the truth is more dangerous than one that is unlike it, huh? And in the four tools of dialectic, right? The tool of difference is put before the tool of likeness, huh? And the tool of difference is to find a difference, the ability to find a difference.

[39:58] But the tool of like is not the ability to find a likeness, but the ability to consider a likeness, right? And that is to see in what way they are what alike, huh? So the mind is deceived

[40:16] very often by likeness, huh? Because it doesn't see exactly which two things are alike, huh? So you got to be careful here at the the idea of root, there, right, huh?

[40:30] To second, it should be said that charity is the root of belief and hope. Insofar as it gives them the perfection of virtue, right, huh? Okay.

[40:46] But. They're not what it's not before them in every way, right? In the way the root is, but belief and hope, according to their proper definition, are presupposed to charity, as has been said above, and thus charity is not able to be what without them, right?

[41:18] Can geometry and natural philosophy be without wisdom? Yeah, yeah. When Andronicus of Rhodes, he called the fourteen books of wisdom the Metaphysica right. They come after the books in natural philosophy, right? They come meta ta mathematica too, and they come after what logic, logica,

[41:50] but wisdom is going to perfect all the what? All the lesser sciences, right? So if you look at Thomas's commentary on the De Trinitate of Boethius, right, huh? Where, he distinguishes mathematics and natural philosophy and wisdom, right, and he shows how each of them proceeds and so on, right? He's perfecting, right, these other what sciences, huh?

[42:25] But yet they can exist in a way before it, right? Unless you learn those first, you wouldn't be able to what acquire wisdom, right? But then when you acquire wisdom, it perfects the lower sciences, huh? But so, but like charity, right, huh? You can't acquire charity without first having belief and hope in God, but then once you acquire the love of God, right, in the sense of charity, then that perfects that belief that you already have and that what hope, right?

[42:59] Because you know we hope most of all for good things from our friends, you know, in human things. So until we have this friendship with God, which you have by charity, it's not just love; it's a mutual love. It's a kind of friendship. You don't have what perfection of hope, right?

[43:34] To the third, should be said that belief and hope were lacking, right, to Christ on account of that which is of imperfection in them, right. Because the idea of belief is that you don't have what you don't see and understand what you believe, right?

[43:56] But in place of belief, he had what a per visionem, right? He saw God as He is, even in His human what soul, right? And in place of hope, right, he had full comprehension because he had God in his soul, right?

[44:18] And thus there was perfect charity in him, right? So you see God as He is face to face. You will love God more than you love God on this earth. I used to wonder about the passage in Scripture, you know, where he talks about no one being greater than born of woman than John the Baptist, right? Yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater.

[44:43] This doesn't make sense at first sight, right? But maybe he's talking about even he who is lowest in the kingdom of heaven, right, sees God as He is face to face. Face right, and knowledge is after the good, the cause of love, right? So he's going to love God maybe more than John the Baptist did when he was on this earth, right? But John the Baptist will get, you know, a greater vision of God, and therefore love more when he gets to heaven, right?

[45:13] than this lowest person in the kingdom of heaven, right? That's the way I can understand that, you know. You know, it makes sense, right? I have somebody tell you, she's a beautiful girl, you know. Maybe you like her, you know, but until you see her, you're not going to love her as much as you do, you know. And you just believe, you know, this nice girl. you're gonna meet.

[45:44] You know, the comparison I made there to Romeo and Juliet, right? You know, that the he's in love with Rosalind, right, to begin the play. He really is, right? And but once he sees Juliet, he, just forgets entirely about Rosalind. So I say, once he sees God, he's going to forget even about Juliet, right?

[46:09] So your love's going to be much more perfect, right? So belief will pass away. Belief is when you don't see something as it is, right, face to face, and hope. Now you've already reached your goal, right? You know this will last forever, right? This vision, so there won't be any hope, right? It was not to say, you know, in hell there is abandon all hope you enter here.

[46:44] But in heaven, you give up hope too, in a sense, right? At least as far as yourself are concerned, right? Maybe there's something you know when you're praying for others, but purgatorial,

[46:58] yeah. I was thinking, I was thinking, you know, which is more apt to be heard when you're praying for yourself or you're praying for a friend? What would you say? For the friend. Yeah, yeah. Why? Because selfless act. What?

[47:20] It's more self. It's more. Yes, it's more selfless. Yeah, yeah. And what about when you're praying now for an enemy? Even more selfless. Yeah, yeah, Because a friend is another self, right? Right. So that doesn't mean necessarily the prayer for the enemy or even the prayer for the friend is more heard by God than the prayer for yourself because. There might be in your friend or in your enemy an impediment to receiving the grace of God, right?

[47:56] You know, so even though you pray for him, he's not going to be what? He's not going to profit from it, right? When you pray for yourself, you can maybe be open, right, to receiving what God will choose to give you, right?

[48:17] But if you just consider, you know, the fact that you're praying for yourself, you're praying for it. So it's kind of important that we pray for each other, right? And even for our enemies, right? And then we're apt to have our prayers heard and profit more, right? And it's by nature, social animals, Aristotle says, political animal

[48:44] Okay. So should we stop there, or should we just try to go into the next question? Hmm. At least to the premium. Probably at least to the premium.

[49:01] Okay, look at the premium. Do the first article. Then we're now to consider about the equality of what? Virtues, huh? And about this, six things are asked. First, whether a virtue is able to be more or less.

[49:33] Secondly, whether all virtues existing together in the same are what equal, right? I'm more courageous than I am temperate, or more temperate than I am courageous? Or more just than? I am. Third, about the comparison of moral virtues to the intellectual virtues, huh?

[50:05] Fourth, about the comparison of moral virtues to each other. And fifth, about the comparison of intellectual virtues to each other. And then sixth, about the comparison of theological virtues to each other, right? So he he he breaks things down, Thomas, son, and considers them from every angle, right?

[50:35] To the first, one proceeds thus: It seems that virtue is not able to be what more or less, huh? For it said in the book of the Apocalypse, chapter twenty-one, verse sixteen, that the sides of the city of Jerusalem are equal, huh? But to this are signified the virtues, as the gloss says, right?

[51:05] Therefore, all virtues are what equal, huh? There's not equal, therefore, to be one virtue greater than another, right? The square, right? They're? All equal sides, right? The virtues match like a square, right? Solid in a cube, you know. It's not like a sphere thing that's running away from you. They're solid, huh? Moreover, everything whose definition consists in the most, right, is not able to be more or less.

[51:45] But the notion of virtue consists in the maximum, huh? For virtue is the what ultimate of power, huh? As the philosopher says in the first book of the universe, De Caelo et Mundo. And Augustine says also in second book on free will that the virtues are maxima bona, right? Most good, maxima bona, which no one is able to use badly, right? Therefore, it seems that virtues not able to be more nor less, right?

[52:29] Why does he always argue against what he thinks? It's exercising our minds, huh? Yeah. Moreover, the quantity of the effect is what weighed according to the power of the agent. But the perfect virtues, which are the infused virtues, are from God, right? Whose power is uniform and infinite, huh? Therefore, it seems that virtues not able to be what greater than another, right?

[53:13] But against this, wherever there is growth and superabundance, there can be inequality. But in the virtues, there's found what superabundance and growth. For it said in Matthew chapter five, unless your justice abounds more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. And in Proverbs fifteen is said, in the what abundant justice, there is what greatest virtue. Greatest virtue. Therefore, it seems that virtue can be more or less, huh?

[53:56] Going to get the medal of honor for courage, right? Isn't it because more, not less? But I thought they all grow, all grow together. What's he going to answer? Well, that's

[54:18] what Thomas says, huh? I answer it should be said that when is asked whether one virtue is able to be more than another, this question can be understood in two ways, huh?

[54:35] In one way, in virtues that differ in what species or kind, and thus it is manifest that one virtue is greater than another, huh?

[54:50] For always, the cause is more potent than the effect, right? And in effects, something is that way more potent that is what nearer to the cause, right?

[55:07] Now it is manifest from the thing said that the cause and the root—don't see these words easier. Cause and root of human good is something called reason, right? That's what Shakespeare says there, right? Excitation to use reason, and therefore prudence or foresight, as we say in English, which perfects reason, is preferred in goodness or is better in goodness than the other what? Moral virtues, huh? Because they are good because they are what reasonable, right?

[55:49] Huh? So love good, as they ask the students, is love good? Well, it's a reasonable love, right? So it seems that prudence, which is in reason there, right? Huh? It's going to be greater than moral virtues, right? They're insofar as they partake of reason, right? They are good. So what partakes of it is less so than what is essentially so.

[56:32] The moral virtues, which are perfecting the desiring power, right? Insofar as it partakes of reason, huh? And in these also, one is better than another the more it what accedes to reason, huh? Whence justice, which is in the will, is preferred to the other what? Moral virtues, huh? That's interesting. You know how when Aristotle takes up the the virtues, huh? He takes up justice last, right? But in the because other ones are more known to us in some ways and so on.

[57:19] But in this Secunda Secundae, right? Thomas takes up what foresight before justice and justice before fortitude and fortitude before temperance, right? But in God you have foresight and you have what justice? You have fortitude, metaphorically speaking, but not. Properly speaking, and temperance you don't even have metaphorically, you know.

[57:56] Once justice, which is in the will, which is closer, right, it's in the rational part of the soul, is preferred to the other moral virtues, and fortitude, which is in the irascible, is preferred to what temperance, which is in the concupiscible, which partakes of reason less, right?

[58:18] So one of my first insights in Mozart was the piano concertos that excels them, right? And that's dealing with what the irascible to some extent, right?

[58:35] This is clear in the seventh book of the ethics. Another way one can understand the question in virtue of the same what species, right? So if you and I are both courageous, can one of us be more courageous, or one of us more temperate, right? Or One of us more just, are both just?

[59:01] And thus, according to those things which have been said above, when we treated of the what intensities of the habits, right? Virtue is able to be said in two ways, more or less, right?

[59:19] In one way, in itself or by itself. In another way, on the side of the what subject partaking in that, right? If therefore one considers it by itself, the magnitude or smallness of it is attended according to those things to which it extends.

[59:50] You might have geometry more than I do, right? Because your geometrical knowledge extends to more what? Yeah, more conclusions than mine does, right? Okay.

[1:00:05] And what's his name there? Euclid, you know, his extends to even more, maybe than you do. He's too right. He's quite, quite, yeah, quite sensitive.

[1:00:20] Whoever, however, has some virtue, as example, temperance, has it as far as all the things to which temperance extends, huh? So, am I temperate if I drink wine moderately, but I don't drink my beer moderately, or I don't drink my whiskey moderately? It's got to go to all these, right? Huh? You know, or if I eat chicken in moderation but not steak, or.

[1:00:49] That's understandable. Or eat cake in moderation but not candy, and. But this does not happen about what science and art, huh? For not everyone who is a grammarian knows all the things which pertain to what grammar, right?

[1:01:16] And according to this, the Stoics shall say well, as Simplicius says in his commentary on the what predicamentorum, right? That's the categories of Aristotle, right? They called that the what predicamenta, in Latin. They call genus, species, difference, property and accident, the predicabilia, and they call you know substance, quantity, quality, the predicamenta right Okay, which is fine to other people other people. Um.

[1:01:49] That virtue, meaning I suppose moral virtue here, does not receive more and less as science or art does, right? In that the ratio of virtue consists in the what? Maximo, right? Okay.

[1:02:09] If, however, one considers virtue on the side of the subject partaking, thus it happens that virtue can be more or less, either according to diverse times in the same man or in what? Diverse men, right?

[1:02:30] Because to attain the the mean of virtue, the middle virtue, which is according to right reason, one is better disposed than the other, right? Either an account of being accustomed to it more, right? Or by a better disposition of what? Nature, right? Huh? Or a more what? Clearly, clear judgment of reason, right? Or also on account of a greater gift of what? Grace, huh? Because to each is given according to the measure of the giving of Christ.

[1:03:09] The Christ doesn't give the same to you and me and the apostles, right? Okay. Or to the apostles, what gave to Mary, right? And in this, the Stoics what fall short? huh? Estimating that nothing should be called virtuous except what is in the highest disposed to what? Virtue, right? Huh? For it is not necessary for the notion of virtue that it attains to right reason in the middle in something what?

[1:04:00] Indivisible, right? Like a point, as the Stoics thought. Huh? They must have been thinking mathematically, right? But it suffices to be near the middle, right? As is said in the second book of the Ethics, huh? Okay. So how many bites is too much?

[1:04:22] How many sips is too much? For the same indivisible sign, one more near and one more promptly attains another, just as in what? Archers drawing to a certain what? Sign, right? There's

[1:04:50] a little leeway there in the bullseye there, right? Now, to the first, therefore, it should be said that that equality, now that's the equality I'm talking about in the first objection there, the sides of Jerusalem there, right, in the spiritual sense there. That equality is not according to absolute quantity, but it should be understood according to a what proportion, because the virtues proportionally increase in man, as will be said what below.

[1:05:35] We'll have to be illuminated that more. That'll be an exciting focus. Now, to the second objection about it being maximum, he says that last thing that pertains to virtue can have the notion of more and less good according to the four said modes, since it is not something what last that is indivisible, right, huh? Like the point at the end of the line, right, huh?

[1:06:17] It's one more sip or half a sip or a quarter of a sip. Not that kind of accuracy, right? What about God, right, huh? He said, "Well, God, you know." To the third, it should be said that God does not act according to what necessity of nature, right, but according to the order of his wisdom, according to which or by which a diverse measure of virtue is given to men, right?

[1:06:57] So he's going to give more to the apostles because they have a somewhat more important role than you and I have in the church, right? And to Mary, right, huh? God hates it. Yeah. Yeah. But what do they say by their fruits you shall know them, right, huh? Didn't I say? We see in the prayer for the Hail Mary, you know.

[1:07:20] Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Who said? Yeah, yeah. So what's the fruit of your womb? Jesus. Yeah. So you couldn't have a greater fruit than that, could you? Yeah. So

[1:07:40] obviously she's going to be given virtue in a greater degree, right, than even the what apostles, right? But the apostles more than the rest of us, huh? Because the church is founded in them, right? We descended there. Bishops there descended from the apostles, huh? Stoic succession.

[1:08:06] So, to each one it is given grace accordingly according to the measure of the giving of Christ, huh? But the founding of religious order it has more what? More grace. More grace, huh? Sure. It's the cause of the. That's what I mean. Yeah, yeah. I mean, would any Dominican have as much grace as St Dominic?

[1:08:38] You know, didn't you Benedict have as much grace as St Benedict? Yeah, he's a father Europe, you know. These got these things. Got a little booklet there. You're at Monte Casino there, you know, about Benedict and Scholastica and so on. And it has some of these things in there, Paul VI, you know, and he declared the patron of Europe and so on, and some from John Paul II and so on.

[1:09:07] So, I mean, would any Benedict have have as much grace, you think, as Benedict? What would you say? About St Thomas versus Saint John Well as I say, would any Dominican have as much grace or as much virtue as as Dominic? Right? He's the founder of the order, right? Kind of like that.

[1:09:37] I wouldn't try to say I'm all too sure about these things, but it seems to be probable, right, that the founder of the order would have a certain excellence.

[1:09:51] A little problem there with the with the legionaries, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's why they have to be refounded. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of a strange thing. Defect there.

[1:10:11] I was getting a letter here from a friend. We'll stop there. I'll give you a little. We'll chat a little bit about this letter here.