Prima Secundae 175. Comparing Sins II: Opposed Virtues and Carnal vs. Spiritual Sins (ST I-II q.73 aa.4-5) Class of 2014-09-11 https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/11-prima-secundae/175-comparing-sins-ii-opposed-virtues-and-carnal-vs-spiritual/ [0:00] The fourth one goes forward. Thus, it seems that the gravity of sins does not differ according to the worth of the virtues to which the sins are opposed. That to a greater virtue a greater sin is opposed. Because, as is said in Proverbs fifteen, in abundant justice there is great virtue. But as the Lord says, in Matthew five, an abundant justice restrains anger, Which is a less sin than homicide, which a lesser justice prevents. [0:46] Therefore, to the greater virtue is opposed a lesser what sin? Moreover, it's said in the second book of the ethics that virtue is about the difficult and the good. [1:02] From which it seems that a greater virtue is about something more difficult. But it is less a sin if man fails in something more difficult, and if he fails in something less difficult. Therefore, to a greater virtue a lesser sin is opposed. These guys are making these objections should be persecuted, right? They're exercising your mind. They should be rewarded. Moreover, more of a charity is a greater virtue than faith and hope. [1:42] But hate, which is opposed to charity, is a lesser sin than infidelity or desperation, which are opposed to faith and hope. Therefore, to a greater virtue is opposed a lesser what sin? But against this is what the philosopher says in the eighth book of the ethics that to the pessimum, the worst, the best is what Contra. contrary. [2:12] So that's a famous principle, right? So what's the opposite of knowledge? Ignorance. What's the opposite of wisdom? Foolishness. Yeah, which is worse? Foolishness is worse, right? Goes to the great good to the wisdom, right? [2:41] But the best in morals is the greatest virtue. The pessimum, the worst, is the most great sin. Therefore, to the greater virtue is opposed to the greater sin. sin? I used to say to students, you know, which is worse, to be deaf or to be blind? Is [3:10] worse than to be blind? No, I don't think so. Most students will say that to be blind is worse than to be deaf, right? Well, then then to see must be better than to hear, right? [3:24] Most people agree with, but the one young lady who very much played the organ thought she'd rather be blind than deaf. Okay, I answer should be said that to a virtue is opposed some sin in one way, chiefly and what directly, because it is about the same object. For contraries are about the same thing, right? And in this way, it is necessary that to a greater virtue is opposed a more grave sin. [4:07] For just as on the part of the object is observed the greater gravity of the sin, so also the greater dignity of the what virtue. For both get their species from the object, as has been said above. Hence, it is necessary that to the greatest virtue directly is contrary the greatest sin, as it were, most of all being distant from it in the same genus. That's a definition of contraries, right? [4:41] Things that are furthest apart in the same genus, right? So the contrary of white is not yellow or blue, but what black? Yeah, furthest apart. [4:56] In another way, one can consider the opposition of virtue to sin according to a certain extension of virtue, prohibiting or restraining one from sin, huh? And the more what a virtue is greater, the more it what removes the man or distances the man, yeah, from the sin contrary to it, huh? Thus, then not only that sin, but also the things that lead to that sin, it what restrains, yeah. [5:29] And thus it is manifest that the more a virtue is what greater, so the smaller the sins that it what prohibits, yeah. Just as health, which is greater, even minor distempers excludes, right? And in this way, a what to a greater virtue a lesser sin is opposed on the part of the effects. You see, the saints say they want to avoid even venial sin, right? [6:04] That pass about too much, too much concern, right? But the saints, even you know, small. So the first, it should be said, that that argument proceeds about the opposition, which is to be noted according to the restraining from sin. For thus it an abundant justice also what? Yeah, less. That directly opposed to that. The first one, first one. We get an distinction of Thomas Caesar. [6:38] To second, it should be said that to a greater virtue, which is about a good or difficult, is contrary directly the sin which is about an evil, which is more difficult. When both there is found a certain eminence from this that the will is more inclined to the good than to the bad, right? From this that it is not conquered by what difficulty. To the [7:15] third, it should be said that charity is not just any love, right, but the love of God. Whence it is not opposed to just not just any hate is opposed to directly, huh? But the hate of what God, God, which is gravissimum peccatorum. It's interesting, hate God is the gravissimum peccatorum. Most people they don't see that hurting someone is worse than missing mass or something like that, blaspheming God. [7:46] That's big deal. You might think of the devil or something. You know, you know, the hate of God is in the devil. It seems to me. They're guilty of the most grave sins, you might say, right? What I was to [8:00] is from the angelic realm. would there be other sins beyond which humans might commit? In that the incredible gravity of the sin that the demons committed that caused their fall, which was unforgivable, and would there be a whole other realm of sort of sin above mere human sin? There's ways, but it's distinguished between carnal sins and spiritual sins, right? And the angels don't have you know, you know, carnal sins, right? [8:35] Yeah, carnality and, that sort of thing, right? Fornication, so. But so he's going to argue that the spiritual sins are what worse, right? Right. So the devils, you know, with their pride, you know, most of all, and they have. So there wouldn't necessarily be a set of angelic sins that are specifically for purely spiritual creatures as well. Well, they would have that genus of sin, right? The spiritual sins rather than the carnal sins. [9:03] You know, a lazy angel, right? Well, was it somewhere. I don't remember. I think I've heard this said, but maybe you mentioned it. That even though the Saint Thomas says somewhere that even though the demons incite men to carnal sins, but the angels angels are nonetheless disgusted with us when we commit them. They're so they're so far above that kind of thing. They just even though when they incite us because they know it's easy bait for us, we're inclined to that kind, but they're disgusted with it too. [9:40] And even Adam and Eve you know, he's got kind of a spiritual similarity to keep them going, you know. Yeah, so the fruit was attractive. Yeah. So here we are. what you're talking about. [10:06] Thomas always anticipates you. huh? That's nice. Not only is he thinking about what you're thinking about, but something you overlooked. To the fifth, one goes forward. Thus, it seems that carnal sins are not of less what guilt than spiritual sins. [10:32] For adultery is a more grave sin than theft. It is said in Proverbs six, not what a greater guilt when someone steals huh? but the one who is an adulterer, on account of his what poverty of heart. Poverty of heart. He loses his soul. [10:58] But theft pertains to avarice, which is a spiritual sin. Adultery, however, to luxury. So watch out for the luxurious life. You don't know what that meant Which is a carnal sin. Therefore, carnal sins are more what greater guilt. More Augustine says, "on the book of Levi I guess Vinicus, that the devil maxime most of all rejoices about the sin of what lust and idolatry. Idolatry, huh? But about greater guilt, he more rejoices. [11:44] Therefore, since luxury is a carnal sin, it seems that carnal sins are of greater what greater guilt. Yeah. More, when the philosopher proves in the seventh book of the Ethics that the man who is incontinent and concupiscence is more what ugly, right? More shameful, you might say, than the man who is incontinent and angry, right? [12:17] Thomas always says that the irascible appetite is closer to reason than the concupiscible right? So what did Mozart do there with his last symphony? [12:33] What are you doing in the thirty-sixth symphony and the forty-first symphony, both in C major? Magnanimity. Magnanimity, yeah. Which is the great virtue and what the irascible, and then of course, the 40th symphony and the thirty-eight symphony were what dealing with fortitude, which is in the irascible. right? And he was doing that. Mozart, right? Mm-hmm. I was saying to Martin, Martin on the phone there, I was saying, "just listen to Handel's in Opus 3, you know, and Opus Three and Opus Six." [13:10] I said, "he's a tremendous composer, Handel?" I was telling you earlier about Samuel Johnson, you know this guy praising him. You know, the only time I know that that uh his biographer there, uh Boswell passed up a time to be with him was when he could go hear a concert of Handel. He's a pretty good judge of what was really good in the way music and pieces. [13:43] But anger is a spiritual sin, according to Gregory, right? The great work, the Moralia, the first book, Moralia. But concupiscent sins pertains to the carnal sins. Therefore, carnal sin is more grave than spiritual sin. [14:03] But against this, that Saint Gregory says, right? And it's from the Moralia, right? huh? That's? Book thirty-three. It says in my footnote here, as opposed to thirty-one, right? Didn't read far enough. [14:19] The way to become wise is to be a man of one book. He says that carnal sins are of less guilt and of greater infamy, right? Okay. You need to party more at some sense of reason, right? I answer: Should be said that spiritual sins are greater guilt than carnal sins, huh? [14:56] Which not, which should not be understood as as if every spiritual sin, right, is of greater guilt than any what carnal sin, right? But because considering this difference alone, spirituality and carnality, huh? [15:16] I see this this wine has come into the grocery store. as their carnivore. So they have the wine, you know, and it's it's it's, you know it's a fruity something. It's a dry red wine, you know, to be eat with flesh. Oh, that's a thing. Yeah, yeah, carnivore, Yeah, I don't know why else they would call the wine carnivore. Yeah, I see it. You know, grocery stores. [15:40] I haven't tried it yet. You know, it's a Cabernet Sauvignon actually, and it was very good with steak. Yeah, and I see the vegans picketing outside. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I can think of carnality, carnivore. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. He says, considering just this difference of spirituality and carnality, more grave than other sins, other things being equal, right? Of which a threefold reason can be assigned. [16:16] First, on the side of the what subject, right? For spiritual sins pertain to the spirit of man, right? That's why they're called spiritual sins, right? To which it belongs to what? To be either converted towards God or to be turned away from God. [16:44] But carnal sins are consummated in the pleasure of what bodily appetite. To which principally pertains to be turned towards the body, and therefore carnal sin, right, as such, has more what of conversion conversion inquantum which is of greater what cleaving, cleaving, yeah. But the spiritual sin has more of aversion. from which proceeds the ratio guilt. [17:24] And therefore, spiritual sin, as such, is a greater what Guilt Or fault. Hmm. There's one psalm there, you know, where he asked God to be [17:43] suffering from the pride of others, right? I said, when I think of that psalm, I say, I don't think it's so much thinking about people having contempt for you or having scorn for you. Oh yeah, yeah. I thought it was painful, but more that they're what habits towards God, right? You have to put up with these terrible blasphemies and so on, right? [18:09] Do you realize what you're doing there? But doesn't pride more, you know, directly, you're, what, turning away from God with pride? You are turning towards something. Yeah, yeah. Why in gluttony or something or or, you know, Yeah. The flesh, that you're turning towards is pleasing to the senses, right? Yeah. It's kind of per accidens you turn away from God, right? Let's see something. The second reason can be taken as part of that in whom, or to whom, or against whom one sins, right? [18:45] For the carnal sin, as such, is in one's own what body, Body, right? huh? So one kind of sin against one's own body, right? Which is less to be loved, right? According to the order of charity, than God and even one's neighbor, right? [19:05] Supposed to love your neighbor more than your own body, right? Mm-hmm. So you can, you know, die for the neighbor, right? Mm-hmm. Then God and one's neighbor, in whom one sins through, spiritual sins, and therefore spiritual sins, as such, right, are greater what? Greater guilt [19:34] Third reason can be taken from the part of the what that moves one, because the more grave is the what thing pushing one towards sin, you, might say, right? Mm-hmm. More the man sins less, as has been said, huh? But the carnal sins have a more vehement what impulse, right? That is the concupiscence of the flesh. In eating us, right? [20:05] And therefore, the spiritual sins, as such, are greater guilt. So, accept those three reasons, as such. Currently, it says ipsum concupiscensiam carnis nobis inatum, right? Yeah. Inborn, right? Mm-hmm. Which basically, you know, the flesh gets the spirit, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. [20:50] I was looking at the treatise there in the in the Prima Pars there. You know, he's talking about the bad, you know, and is the bad frequent or rare, right? Well, it's rare except in human race. Human race is for the most part. This thing just sort of stopped me, but that's how it says, right? And it's because we're following our senses rather than our reason, right? [21:19] But the senses, what kind of dominates you, especially as a child, right? So there is more, you know, temptation, so to speak, right? So men are, you know, sins of the flesh, for the most part, kind of dominates the human race, right? Weighs you down. Yeah. That's rash, and most of the young [21:47] people dying from overdoses of the drugs, you know, and holding conferences, you know. That's what we do about this. Yeah, yeah. But people just they're weighed down. Yeah, that that's kind of clarifies. I know we've discussed it before, and I remember reading it in moral theology about the voluntary. The more something is pleasing, the more voluntary it is. But then this this sort puts a little balance to that and say, but we're more inclined this way. [22:18] So that might say less grave in terms of the guilt. As Falstaff said I have more flesh than another man For excuse. Yeah. Shakespeare's very wise. Yeah, yeah. He talks about this in the Psalms too. I mean, Psalms and the Song of Songs you know. Songs. But is it more wrong to misuse your mind or your body? I think more wrong to misuse your mind. Yeah, because your mind is a greater thing than your body, right? [23:13] So, in the sins of the flesh, you are misusing your what? Mind. Yeah. When you have somebody misusing his mind, it's I've seen a lot of that in the world. [23:26] Make a whole career out of that. You know, you see Karl Marx and other people. You know, in my day, of course, Karl. You know, in the for the Soviet Empire collapsed, there, you know, there was much more teaching of Marx because people were interested in Marx and so on. You know, you realize the kind of pride of these guys, the kind of misusing their mind. [23:56] Is it worse to watch TV too much than to eat too much? The two seem to go together. Yeah Watching TV too much is misusing your mind, right? You're applying to these silly things. Listening to rock and roll instead of Mozart, then. So, misusing your ears, right? But in a sense, you know that the the eye and the ear are kind of higher higher senses, you know than the tongue and the. [24:35] But it's kind of under the second argument here. It seems to me right. He's taking the thing there, you know, uh the vitium carnale est in corpus proprium on one's own body, right? And he talks about something against God or your neighbor, you know. It seems to be the same thing he said about the the soul. It was to love by charity your soul more than your body, right? [24:56] Right, yeah. Love your body by charity too, right? Mhm. You know. Now that one Psalm it was 62 there, I think the correct number, right? O God, you are my God, whom I seek. You, my flesh, pines; my soul thirsts. Like the earth parched, like it's not water. Thus, I gaze toward you in heaven, see your power and your glory. Well, I mean, he talks about both the flesh and, you know, Mm. [25:23] Actually mentions flesh first, and then it says to see your power and your glory, as I was mentioning once before, when Christ connects the or or, you know, corrects the Sadducees, was it, who didn't believe in the resurrection of the body and so on, and he says, "You err," you know, not knowing the power of God, right? So, to tell you the power of God, the resurrection. [25:50] Yeah, yeah. Didn't believe the resurrection, and so body as well as the soul, but the soul is supposed to love more by by charity, right? So, to misuse your your mind or reason is worse than even to. Corrupts optimi pessima Yeah. [26:14] So, use my reason to deceive you, you know. That's maybe worse than to use my thing to hit you, right? Which is worse for me to, you know, the [26:29] they had that Ward Churchill. I know this guy crazy guy professor. And they had him on uh, on the phone that they interviewed, you know. He's still as crazy as if it was, you know. Sometimes I can't understand the way he does hair, you know, twisted around and tied down. So, but he's putting all these crazy ideas, you know. So I mean, who's doing more harm? I mean, who's who's doing something worse, right? [26:57] The man who uses his mind to deceive you, you know, or uses his hand to hit you, right? You know, You might think, you know, this is more obvious. you know, you do the thing you should be doing, but something is really worse, you know. [27:14] Because you're corrupting another soul. If you're, say, an academic, and you're misleading your students, as opposed to just damaging your body. But again, you know, if you just as an individual don't apply your mind to the greater things, you know, aren't you misusing your mind in a sense? Now, remember my my old teacher, my first grade teacher, there at Missouri, undergraduate. But he had translated the Thomas's commentary in the first two books of physics, right? [27:43] But then he put a little some little passage, a little passage from Albert the Great, right? And uh, I, uh, the little passage there says, "whoever, you know studies doesn't study these lower things to view to stepping up to know the greater things to knowing God ultimately has a perverted attitude towards knowing, right? " [28:13] So if you if you don't you know direct your your your your studies now to ultimately knowing God, you're kind of what misusing your mind, right? Mhm. Most people don't realize that, you know. It says unless [28:30] you be forced to it by necessity, right? That you have to do something practical, you know, to survive or to live, take care of your family. But I mean, if you just you know able to apply your mind to the greater things, and if you apply it to lesser things to view to going on to higher things, right? Just like my teacher, De Koninck, you know, he teaches a course on time here in the fourth book of the physics, and at the end he'd talk about eternity, right? [29:02] Because you can't understand what eternity is or understand Boethius' great definition of eternity unless you first understand what time, Time, is. And so. um, we studied time, which is worth studying. but ultimately, study time so you can understand eternity. [29:24] I was reading Thomas, this morning, there he's talking about how the angels don't know the future right And it's because they're in a kind of time, a different kind of time, you know, than we have, right? Discrete time, that's not continuous time. They're still in some kind of time as Augustine says. Could you tell me? could you tell us what discrete time is as opposed to continuous time? [29:50] Well, let me tell you something very interesting here. Um Meno stops talking about geometry. And arithmetic, right? And geometry is about the continuous, right? And arithmetic, science of numbers, is about the discrete. And he's saying that arithmetic is more certain than geometry, and that's because it's just to be considered, right? And he compares the very first thing in geometry with the very first thing in arithmetic. What's the first thing in geometry? [30:31] It's the definition of the point. Point. Okay. The very first thing in arithmetic is the one. Now, both the one and the point are indivisible. But the point, besides being indivisible, has a position. It's either here or there, right? And so, if you have let's say three points, they can be in a straight line, or they can be, you know, in a triangular arrangement, some other arrangement, right? [30:58] But the three ones in the letter, in the word, in the number three, you know, are not a straight line, or not, they're not here or there, right? So there's something. So some people would say, you know, the point is the one with position, right? Okay. So [31:19] he starts with the indivisible in both, right? But it's a very interesting difference, though, between those two indivisibles. An indivisible in the continuous is a what? Limit. [31:39] It's not a part. But the indivisible in number is a part. So one is a part of two, part of three and four and so on. Is a point a part of a line? [32:00] Line put together from points. But it's terminated, limited. It's a limit, yeah, yeah. That goes to even for the other kinds of the continuous. I mean, a line, right, is the limit of a surface. But is the surface composed of lines? [32:21] You know the famous thing in Democritus there, you know, where they, you know, you start today, people say that a line is composed of infinity of points, right? And so then a line, a plane would be composed of infinity of what? Lines. Lines, And then a body of infinity of what? Planes. Yeah, yeah. So if you take a cylinder, right, you can say it's a stack of posts, a stack of circles, right, nothing like that, right? [32:50] Well, then when you get to what they call the cone, right? You take a triangle and you rotate around one of its things, you get a cone, right? Well, now is that a stack of circles too? Well, if you take one of those stack of circles, right, is the one immediately above it or below it is big? [33:19] Well, if it's exactly the same size as the one you have, then you stack a cylinder and not a cone, right? But if they're unequal, then it's yeah. See, while by a cone, it's pretty straight. It's a line, yeah. So you [33:39] got a problem if you're trying to imagine it to be what? Stack. A stack of these, right? Here you're thinking of the the indivisible. In this case, you know, indivisible means it's not having any depth, right? As being a part of the continuous, right? And it's not a part, but it's a what? Limit, right? So, when Thomas is is comparing the the angels there and the way they move from one place to another, right, because they apply their power here and then there, but they don't have to go through it in a continuous way, right? [34:14] And so the indivisible is a part of their what? Time or their motion, you'd call that, right? But in the case of continuous motion, the indivisible is not a part of it at all, but it's the end of it, the limit of it, right? But you can see that difference already in arithmetic and geometry, right? I thought I'd catch John tonight because he teaches Euclid, right? Don't give me hints, you know. [34:38] Garrison, on the way, you know. I mean, you got two sciences here, right? And they both begin with something indivisible. One with the point, the other with the one, right? But is the point to that, you know, the continuous in the same way that the one is to number, right? Well, in one sense they're similar because of the simplest thing, right? And geometry goes from the simple to the what? [35:11] Composed, right? But the continuous is not composed of the what? Indivisible. right Aristotle shows that you couldn't make a point out of lines because the points to form a line would have to what? Touch, right? If they touch, either what? If things touch, either part of one touches part of the other, or part of one touches the whole of the other, or the whole of one touches the whole of the other. [35:42] But since a point has no parts, that's if his definition, right? Part of one point can't touch part of the other point, and part of one can't touch the whole of the other. So the whole has to coincide with the other. In which case, two points put together give you how much length? None. As much as one point, which is no length at all, and ten or a hundred or infinity points touching, nobody can touch it to coincide. [36:08] If they coincide, they have no more length than one point. There is no way to make what length of points, you know. You want to write with the mathematician, you know, talk this teacher something there about this, you know, because no one has seen that the lines can be composed of infinity points, right? And you get all kinds of problems. [36:31] I think that's interesting difference between the two indivisibles, right? That the one is a limit of the line and so on, and the other is a part, right? And this Thomas used that to illustrate the difference between the the angelic time, which is discrete, if composed of indivisibles, and the angelic time, which is continuous, right? And therefore, is not composed of indivisibles, but the indivisible is a limit and isn't that right? [37:09] You know, teacher, Mister said, "In time, going monster, angels again." You know, I mean, you know, you'd like to talk about the angels too. They're really wonderful things. Yeah. And [37:28] you have to, you know, come to know the angels through our own mind, get them to our mind first, but then finally have to engage in the differences, you know, between our mind and the angelic mind. You know, guess quite mind that. You know, I was thinking about guardian angel. I was, you know, asking to help in my studies, you know, but he probably is amused, you know. [37:52] Me? I can't understand. After all these years, and that's all you can come up with. Yeah. So it's kind of amusing. I was trying to understand what an angel is, right? Yeah. Beautiful treat is there. The sukti roja, the person. You know, teacher, Mister said, when your body leaves your your soul leaves your body, and you probably you know start to worship your guardian angel. This is God. [38:28] No, no, no, I'm not God. I mean, it's a wonderful creature, you know. Oh, this must be God. I mean, how can be better than this, you know? And then, no, no, I'm not the perfect God. No, no. But you actually made your first reaction. Saint John did it twice in the Apocalypse. He was he was corrected twice. First time to worship an angel. If that was true, Saint John, the rest of us. [38:56] Same experience. Blessed was Mary who believed the angel. right? Mm-hmm. So we saw the three reasons here, right? Part of the subject, right? Part of the one in whom one sins, and then part of the motive, right? The first therefore it should be said. It's very interesting. These objections here that adultery not only pertains to the sin of what, Luxuria, right? But also pertains to the sin of what, injustice. [39:46] And as regards this, it pertains is able to be what reduced to average right? now? As the gloss says and the gloss is It's wrong It's wrong [40:07] on the passage in Ephesians every fornicator or one unclean or avarice interesting yeah and then is more grave adultery than theft in so far as to a man is more dear his wife than his possession yeah [40:37] see that not thought right now it's interesting to second should be said that the devil is said to most of all rejoice about the sin of what luxuria which is maximae adhaerentiae because of our animal nature right now and it's difficult to be what for a man to be taken out of it I guess yeah For insatiable is the desire of the pleasant as the philosopher says in the third book of the ethics Look at our society you can see that right staining your face right now yeah [41:34] so rejoice it not because it's the worst sin but because it's the one that is most We get stuck in the most common and most hard to get out overcome right To the third it should be said that the philosopher huh I like to read texts because they capitalize philosopher right that's what you should do with what antonomasia right what is someone yeah just like you said the Bible which means the book right? [42:11] if you say the book you should capitalize the B right I mean, the book the book, I mean. But they seem to have some of these texts there, they always capitalize angel now that shouldn't be capitalized. Angel That's not a I should say, the messenger But I don't think that's so much. that might refer to Christ right is the angel of great counsel yeah then you might capitalize it yeah [42:44] so the philosopher says that more what shameful infamous is the incontinent man of concupiscence than the incontinent of anger because partakes less of what reason reason right [43:03] You kind of see that in the great tragedies, right? The great man sometimes has this great anger, like Achilles and Coriolanus and so on, right? And well Falstaff is he's laughable. yeah. and on account of this also is said in the third book of the Ethics that the sins of intemperance are maxime exprobrabilia right? Blameworthy, I guess. Yeah, because they are about those pleasures which are common to us and to the beasts, right? [43:37] Now, whence, in a certain way, through these sins, a man is made brutal, beast-like, beastial. And hence it is, as Gregory says, they have more what? Shame. Yeah. But doesn't mean that they're actually worse than the others. [44:03] but there's interesting objections, right? because the devil in a sense is rejoicing more in these sins because they're more common and men, you know seem to be stuck in them. They're easier bait. Yeah. Yeah. [44:19] So better stop here.