Prima Secundae
178. Summa I-II q.74, Part 1: Two Ways the Mind Stumbles; Can Sin Be in the Will? (Arts. 1–2); Virtue, Prayer and Friendship
Class of 2014-10-02
https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/11-prima-secundae/178-summa-i-ii-q-74-part-1-two-ways-the-mind-stumbles-can-sin/

[0:00] And again, I guess huh In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the, Holy Spirit. Amen. God, our enlightenment, guardian angel, strengthen the lights of our minds, or to illumine our images, and arouse us to consider more correctly. Saint Thomas Aquinas, angelic doctor. Praise God. Help us to understand what you've written. Son, and the Holy Spirit. amen.

[0:29] Well, Thomas, I guess Augustine too, huh? They say that more s uh angels received than lost, huh? Because of the natural what inclination is to the good, right? So more of them were saved than lost. But evil in the human race, for the most part, Augustine and Thomas say. What's the reason for that, huh? Why, why the human race is there evil for the most part, and why the angels, is good for the most part, huh?

[1:00] That's why we're wasting all these sins, and that's why we have to study these things, huh? But why is that so, huh? Maybe because um since we begin with our senses, we're more easily deceived. Yeah, Yeah. Because we're our senses and our emotions, right, kind of dominate us as a child, right? And they're often, you know, leads to something unreasonable, right? So that's the reason Thomas gives why we have evil in us for the most part, huh?

[1:30] So watch out for those senses and those emotions, right, huh? But that's why we have got to study all these things about sin, you know. You know, teaching the circuit, always quote Thomas: malum in specie humana ut in pluribus! One guy in the seminary said he used to tell me, you know, the floor of hell is paved with the heads of priests. You know. Yeah. Put the fear of God in you, yeah.

[2:09] I was thinking of these, you know, beautiful words of Friar Lawrence. there, right? There's two things he says about stumbling, right? And one is that wisely and slow, he says, they stumble that run fast.

[2:30] And then later on, he says, he speaks of those who revolt from true birth, huh? Stumbling on abuse. I was thinking, you know, of how those two cover something, right?

[2:48] Now, if you go back to the first one, wisely and slow, they stumble that run fast. The first meaning of run of course, is with the legs, right? And so your mother running up the stairs with the laundry or something. She stumbles, right, huh? Okay, but then the second meaning is in action, right? Like it says in the Constitution or in the Declaration, when in the course of human events, right?

[3:17] But course comes from running, right? That's applied to what poor little Romeo, right? In particular, right? Okay. And then the third meaning, of course, is the discourse of reason, right? So when you jump to a conclusion, right, your mind obviously what often stumbles, right? But then he says later on, huh? For not so what?

[3:47] Not so fair? No, for not so what? You don't know this? For not so vile that on the earth doth live, but to the earth some special good doth give, right? That the rhyme in these lines. For not so what good, but strained from that fair use, revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse, huh? Revolts from what's natural, right? Huh?

[4:18] Well, when we talk about the third kind of discourse, there, third kind of running, the the mind, right? Huh? What are the two ways that the mind is deceived?

[4:35] Yeah. Yeah. But sometimes it it runs from something that is what true, but it runs too fast, and something doesn't follow, right? Like when you jump to the conclusion, right, you might have seen something, right, but you're too quick to draw your what conclusion, so it doesn't really follow from what you had, right? Not that what you began with was bad, right? But then when you revolt from true birth, stumbling on abuse, what's the cause of error in that case?

[5:13] Bad morals. Well, it's the fact that you have what? No. The fact that you have what something natural has been corrupted, right? And since nature is what is first in a thing, it's the beginning that is corrupt, right? That's much more serious, right? So nothing's more serious than a mistake about the beginning. And if it's a real beginning, it's something natural, and therefore there's a corruption of nature.

[5:46] So you're revolt from true what birth, stumbling on abuse, huh? If you go to a play like say Hamlet, right, huh? And you think of Hamlet's uncle, right? Now he's poured poison in the ear of his what brother, right? You're supposed to love your brother, and he's what got the throne and and the wife of the his brother, right? So which difficulty is he particularly suffering from?

[6:21] The second, yeah, He, revolts from true birth, right? And the brotherly love that is natural, right? But if you take what was it Laertes huh later on, he comes back and his father has been stabbed to death, right? His sister has been driven mad and drowned, right? And so he's moved to what as a noble young man to avenge the death of his what father and his sister, right?

[6:51] And of course the uncle, you know, quickly talks him into this plan to get Hamlet, right? Hamlet's responsible for it, right? Well, he's more rushing to what conclusions about Hamlet, right? And why Hamlet is guilty of killing his father and driving his sister mad, right? That's opposed to wisely and slow. They stumble and run fast, huh? But that's the two things we say in reasoning when you teach logic, right?

[7:22] How does the mind make the mistake, right? Well, sometimes it because it proceeds from a beginning that is what false. Other times it begins from something that is good, but the conclusion doesn't what follow. The form of the argument is is bad, right? But in other case the matter is bad, right? It's kind of amazing the way Shakespeare uses those two uses the word stumbling, right? Goes back to the the legs originally, right, in this meaning, but then it's applied to even the running of the mind, right?

[7:54] It's an amazing amazing thing. But as part of the problem there, you know, man is he's got this kind of a double nature, right? And the sense nature of man, right, his senses and his emotions are more strong to begin with, right? And he tends to follow them, right?

[8:22] And that's the mystery, so you have evil for the most part, huh? No, We can go back and study our sins here now. Okay, on the subject of sins, we're up to question seventy what four, right?

[8:43] Then we're not to consider it should be considered about the subject of vices or of what sins, huh? And about this, ten things are asked. First, whether the will is able to be the subject of sin. This is a good place to start.

[9:15] Second, whether the will alone is the subject of sin. Third, whether sensuality—that's now what, referring to the passions, emotions—can be the subject of what sin?

[9:38] And four, whether it's able to be the subject, not only of venial sin but of what mortal sin? Then he goes to reason, right, in the fifth article. Notice the order there. Whether reason is able to be the subject of sin? And six, whether delictatio morosa, morosa I guess is what, kind of a dwelling,

[10:16] or non morosa is in what, as in a subject. And seven, whether the sin of consent in act, is in superior reason as in a subject. Well, Augustine introduced this distinction of lower and higher reason now.

[10:38] And eight, whether inferior or lower reason, is able to be the subject of mortal sin. And then, whether superior reason, is able to be the subject of venial sin. And ten, whether in superior reason there can be a venial sin about its own what, object. Well, these articles in there,

[11:07] those would be more difficult. So we're carrying out the advice of the seven wise men of Greece. Know thyself. Yeah, part of knowing thyself is to study the soul and know what you are, right? Then, what you are in particular, the study of the virtues and vices, and then you know yourself, right? Yeah. Doesn't Saint Paul always? What about looking in the mirror? You see how awful person you are, and you walk away.

[11:43] You forget how awful you are. The woman who comes to mass, their daily mass sometimes, and she's got about eight children, you know, and they're really innocence here. I say, my God, it's nice to see that innocence and the little ones, you know. And the one little girl, she was kind of, you know, genuflecting, but she wasn't, you know, facing the tabernacle. And her little, little older sister, not much bigger than her, you know, no, turn around.

[12:17] And she genuflected again, right towards the tabernacle. He said, "What's this? Wonderful, wonderful little ones." Wish that little girl would teach some adults. Yeah. To the first one goes forward. Thus, it seems that the will is not able to be the subject of sin. How the hell is going to argue against that, right?

[12:54] For Dionysius, and that's a great man, right? In the fourth chapter about the divine names, he says that malum, evil, the bad. Is what apart from the will and intention? I mean, Dionysius is a good beginning, isn't it?

[13:17] But sin has the ratio of what? Therefore, sin cannot be in the will. It solves a lot of problems Now, did I, assuming that this is going to be stumbling in this article, did I stumble by running too fast? Did I stumble by by going against nature?

[13:42] I wouldn't suspect so, right? Because Dionysius is a pretty solid character, right? And so it's not a bad beginning, right? Moreover, the will is of the good or of the apparent good,

[14:08] but from this that the will wills the good, one does not sin, and that it wills the apparent good, which is not truly good, more seems to pertain to the defect of the grasping power, which is the way Thomas calls the knowing power, right? Because that's the first act. Then to the defect of the will, therefore sin in no way can be in the will.

[14:40] Now again, was the beginning there the good? The wills of the good or the apparent good? Is that the bad beginning? So if somebody stumbled here, did he stumble from going against nature, or did he stumble by running too fast? From it seems like a very good beginning to me, right? Exhausting the possibilities, right?

[15:09] Just like every number is odd or even, or every number is prime or composite, the will is always of the good or the apparent good, right? In the one case, it's not a sin, obviously. Other case, it seems to be more in that knowing power, right?

[15:35] Now the third argument is taken from the philosopher, right? Moreover, there cannot be the same subject of sin and what the efficient cause. These are two different causes, right?

[15:53] Because the efficient cause and the material cause do not what come together, right? As is said in the second book of Natural Hearing, the Physicorum, right?

[16:06] But the will is the efficient cause of what sin. For the first cause of sinning is the will, as Augustine says in the book about the two souls, right? Therefore, it can't be the subject of sin. That's what the article is about. It can be the subject, right?

[16:32] Now you remember there's four kinds of causes, right? And you can't obviously understand distinction of four, right? So how do you divide those four?

[16:57] Sometimes into two and two, right? So you say the inside causes are what matter and form. The outside causes are the mover or maker and the end. Okay. But it's interesting another division there. If you take what's a very universal distinction, right? When Aristotle takes a being which is about as what large as you can get, right? Because it covers everything that is in any way whatsoever.

[17:28] And the most universal distinction of being seems to be into act and what? Yeah. And then when you divide the causes according to act and ability, taking ability now in the passive sense, supposed to act. What do you divide the four causes into?

[17:46] What? One and three. Yeah, because matter is the ability to be formed and so on to be moved. And the other three causes, form, mover, and end, are based upon what actuality. And therefore, you talk about God, right? And you say God is the first cause, but what sense is he a cause? Which of these two divisions would you use? The one of two and two, or the one of one and three?

[18:16] Yeah. Because God is a cause has an exemplar, right? Which is an extrinsic form, but it's in the genus of form, as Aristotle says. And then he's the first mover and maker. That's the third kind of cause. And then he's the end, right? But God is pure act, right?

[18:35] When I was first studying, you know, the substance of God, you know, and they could say, hey, you can use pure act as almost a middle term for showing all five elements of the substance of God, right? That's simplicity. and there's a, Yeah, brevity is a soul of wit and so on. But it's a beautiful middle term, right? So you really get the idea that pure act, right, is something that it's not a definition of God, but it's.

[19:00] Really fundamental to understanding him, but to understanding the kind of cause that God can be, right, and the kind of cause He cannot be.

[19:11] But here's a very interesting thing, right? The Aristotle is pointing out that the efficient cause and the material cause do not what come together, right?

[19:22] But the will is the efficient cause, therefore it can't be the what material cause or subject of sin. It's got to be somewhere else, right? Again, it's the beginning here, bad from the great philosopher. But how do we get into this mistake, right? Why is the slow? They stumble, run fast. Always see that at conventions, you know. You probably heard me saying that, I'm sure.

[19:56] But against this is what Augustine says in the Book of Attractions, huh? The will is that by which one sins and by which one lives rightly.

[20:14] Well, Thomas says I answer it should be said that sin is a certain what act, as has been said above. Now he sees a what distinction of acts, the one that Aristotle, of course, has in the ninth book of wisdom. Right, we talks about act and ability. Of acts, some go over into a outside what or exterior matter, as to what burn and to cut. Okay, Now you're doing that sign there for the thing, and that's the kind of act you were engaged in, right?

[20:56] In case you didn't know that, it should pass over from you to the wood, right? And acts of this sort have for their matter and subject that in which the action what passes over, right? As the philosopher says in the third book of the physics, where he takes up motion, right? That motion is the act of the movable, right? From the what mover, but it's the act of the movable, right?

[21:28] Okay. So if I kick you, my kicking is where? It's in the movable. It's in you, yeah. Yeah. Okay. But some acts are not what going out into exterior matter, right? But remaining in the agent, just as to desire and what to know, right?

[22:07] And such acts are all what moral acts, huh? Whether they be acts of virtues or of what sins, huh? Whence it is necessary that the proper subject of the act of sin be a power which is a beginning of some what act. Now, since it's proper to moral acts that they be what voluntary, huh? It follows that the will, which is the beginning of voluntary acts, whether they be good or bad, right?

[22:46] Which are sins, be the beginning of what sins. And therefore it follows that sin is in the will, is in a subject, right? That was easy. So distinction between those two kinds of acts, right? I think we point out the other distinction Thomas is often pointing out between the two acts, and you can see him looking before and after because

[23:14] in an act that goes out to something outside of me, the act is between the what actor and the object, right? So my kicking is between me and you, right? Okay. But in the case of what knowing and loving, what is the order?

[23:38] Well, the object is in some way joined to the what power, and then the act proceeds from that, right? Okay. Because the woman made an impression upon my heart, right? Or because that piece of Mozart made an impression upon my heart, right? Then I start to like that piece. I start to like that woman, right? Okay.

[24:04] Hence, because color or sound has acted upon my ear, that I see the painting or I hear the music, right? So the object is what joined to the power, and then the act proceeds from that, right? But in the case of kicking or pounding or something, right? Then the pounding or the kicking is between the kicker and the kicked. So the order is what different, huh? And Thomas, what following Aristotle, sees the before and after of those three, right, huh?

[24:42] Okay. I tried to avoid this three stuff, you know, but I was studying a little bit of the creation there, right, huh? And Thomas, of course, is contrasting Augustine with what he says, right? He interprets a little bit differently, right, than the other church fathers. But the other church fathers, they have this three again and again, right? You have the the the heavens and the water and the what earth, and then you have the what distinction of the three in the first, second, and third day, and then the the adorning of them on the fourth, fifth, and sixth one.

[25:15] So it's three, right? And Thomas quotes, you know, Pythagoras, right? Says, you know, beginning middle, and end, right? That's that's all, right? And he quotes it from I think the the Heavens was of Aristotle, right? Where Aristotle refers to it. He's talking about there's only three dimensions. Can't be any more. And three is all there is, right?

[25:42] Okay. No, the um in a moral act, like if I'm going to kill you with a knife, um, seems the moral act also involves an exterior act, you know. Yeah. So he's going to take it up in the next article, right? But you're anticipating the master.

[26:07] But always asking this one here is whether the will is a subject of sin, right? He's not asking with anything else is a subject of sin, right? They'll get their their their opportunity to be sinful too. But it seems like distinguishing these two kinds of acts, the one that passes into exterior matter. Yeah. But it seems that moral acts often have a dimension in which they're passing into exterior.

[26:31] Yeah. I mean, in other words, my my killing you isn't simply a matter of the interior. I mean, obviously it has to come from the intellect and the will, but it also passes into matter exteriorly. Yeah. If it didn't, you know. Yeah. But there's a difference there between there's a difference between the emotions, let's say, and the hand, right? Because the hand is kind of like a slave of the mind, right?

[26:54] You know. And so if I you know use my hand to kill you, I guess that's a bad act, right? But the hand itself is kind of a slave. Not meant to kill. You see. But if it's my emotions, right? Huh? You know. Then they have kind of a life of their own, right? Huh? And they can you know share more in sinfulness, right? Huh? Okay. So the emotion I have when I when I strike at this crazy guy chopping off somebody's head off.

[27:21] And fun way of speaking, I say you know, terrorists and abortionists, I said, they both have no respect for human life, huh? And the you know the one cuts heads off, the other pulls babies apart in the womb. So they're both horrible people, you know. So in some way, the abortionist does more destruction than the guy who just cuts his head off.

[27:48] Yeah. Yeah. He just cuts his head off. Yeah. He tears every limb and. Yeah. Yeah. Terrible. Make a good use of these cases here, you know, to stuff in a little bit of the truth about abortion. Yeah. Okay.

[28:04] Now, how does Thomas reply to the objections? Huh? To the first, therefore, should be said that bad is said to be praeter voluntatem, right, apart from the will, because the will does not tend in it under the ratio of something bad, right? Huh?

[28:28] But because something bad is an apparent good, therefore the will what? Sometimes, right? Many times. Desires something what? Bad, huh? And according to this, sin is in the what? Will, right? Okay. Some might say, "That's how beautifully ordered the objections are." But some might say, "Yeah, but isn't that then in the reason that is telling the will this is good, when it's only apparent good, right? Huh?

[29:01] " See, well, ad secundum, though, right? Okay. You know, Thomas he talks about dialectic. He says dialectic comes in a thinker before he knows the truth, and after he knows the truth, right? But he says after he knows the truth, he can order the dialectic better, or succinctly, and so on, to the what truth, right? Huh? And if you compare the the dialectic, say, of Plato and Aristotle, right?

[29:41] Huh? That of Plato in the dialogues, you know, at least, where we have Socrates proceeding dialectically at times, he's kind of a man searching for the truth, right? Huh? And it's not as orderly as the dialectic is. Aristotle, he's come to truth, and now he's coming back and using the dialectic to help the. student. along, right? But he's sees, you know, that that was a dead end. Wouldn't even bother absorbing your mind at that.

[30:08] And the way Thomas says this thing's ordered, right? Just kind of naturally, first objection leads into the second one, you know, because Thomas has found the truth and he's now coming back and ordering the dialectic, right? Huh?

[30:23] To the second, it should be said that if the defect of the grasping power, and notice that we're grasping there is taken from what the hand, right? But it's taken as a way of speaking of the knowing power, right? Because the thing known must be in the knower, right? You have to get a hold of it, huh? And so the first act of reason is called simple grasping, right?

[30:46] Simple apprehension. That the defect of the grasping power, the knowing power, if in no way that defect was what subject to the will, there would not be a sin either in the will or in the what? Grasping. Just as is clear in those who have invincible ignorance, huh? I guess there's a lot of that around today too, huh? A lot of crass ignorance too. Yeah.

[31:17] And therefore it remains that also the defect, huh, of the grasping power, in so far as it's what subject to the will, is what regarded as a what? As a sin, right? Okay. So we have to study that a little bit, you know, later on, you know, how the what the will.

[31:38] I mean, in a sense, to apply your mind, right, and to look at all the circumstances and so on, that depends upon your will, right? And you know, a lot of times we like to make judgments out of taking the whole picture, right?

[31:57] And therefore something can seem good that is not, but it's kind of a a willful ignorance, right? Yeah. same San Alfonso called it. Willful inadvertence. Yeah. I. I don't want to see what's over here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[32:21] Okay. And the third objection, taken from Aristotle in the Physics, right? That argument goes forward in efficient causes whose actions what transit, huh? They pass over to an exterior matter, and which do not what move themselves but other things. But the contrary of this is in the what will, whence the argument does not follow.

[32:48] Okay. Tell the story, you know, of some young students, you know, objecting what Thomas is saying, and Thomas, you know, very sat down. He led the guy through, you know, a number of steps, and finally saw it, you know. But he was also scandalized at this young student.

[33:08] It's like it's like I remember reading at the time, the first time Heisenberg met Niels Bohr, you know, and Niels Bohr came through Germany, you know, giving lectures on the atom, and this was called the Bohr Festival, you know, later on by the German scientists because this is the man who knows more about the atom than anybody else, right? And so on. And so, in the question period there, Heisenberg used to have a young student, you know.

[33:31] He posed an objection, right? And Bohr gave some kind of an answer to it, you know. But he kept on looking over at him, you know. Who is this guy, you know? And then after after lecture, you know, to Niels or to Heisenberg, he says, "Let's go for a walk," he said. And they walked you know, up in the mountains, and in a couple of hours, you know, and Heisenberg said, "it influenced all the time he was thinking about the atom," you know, but Bohr kind of realized he had to read the answer quite fully Heisenberg's objections, so That's the way Thomas was about this young student who was apparently getting out of line, you know.

[34:08] But shocking that you object to what the master says. But Thomas, this is a opportunity, right, to to enlighten a student. Okay, so it's a beautiful those two objections.

[34:31] Now to the second. One goes forward. Thus, it seems that the will alone is the subject of sin. For Augustine says in the book about the two souls that it is not except by the will that one sins. Non nisi voluntate peccator.

[34:58] But sin is as in a subject in the power by which one what sins. Therefore, the will alone is the subject of what. Again, is the beginning good here? It seems to me it is. So, if I'm not running too fast, I mean this would be a good argument.

[35:24] This passed by me and I wouldn't see it. However, sin is a certain evil against what reason, and Dionysius said that right. Aristotle said that and so on. But good and bad pertaining to what reason is the object of the will alone. Therefore, the will alone is the subject of sin. That convinces me.

[36:01] Moreover, every sin is a voluntary act, because as Augustine says in the book on free will or on free judgment, sin is so much a voluntary thing, right? That if it is not voluntary, it's not a sin. Augustine expresses himself so well, doesn't he?

[36:28] But the acts of the other powers are not voluntary, except in so far as those powers are moved by the what will. But this does not suffice for this that they be the subject of sin, because according to this, even the exterior members which are moved by the will would be the subject of sin, which is clearly what false. So did my hand sin in hitting you, stabbing you, cutting your head off?

[37:03] Did my hand sin? Something before that. But against this is that sin is contrary to what virtue. They're opposites, but contraries are about the same thing. But the other what powers of the soul besides the will are the subject of virtues. This has been said above. Therefore, not only is the will the subject of what sin. That's beautiful," said Conter. Right now, okay.

[37:39] Now tomorrow we'll pass the next page, part of the article down. Yeah, yeah. We didn't think about for two weeks. Thomas says the answer it should be said. as. Is clear from the things foresaid, that everything that is a what beginning of a voluntary act is a subject of what sin, huh?

[38:18] But acts are voluntary. Are said to be voluntary, not only those which are elicited by the will itself, that are acts the will itself, right? But even those which are what commanded by the will, right? As has been said above, when one tweeted of the what voluntary, right? Whence not only is a will able to be a subject of sin, but also those powers which are able to be moved what to their own acts, right?

[38:53] Or to be what repressed, hindered from them through the will. And the same powers are the subject of what moral goods and evils, right? Because of the same thing is the act and the what habit.

[39:15] You got to understand the virtues, right, and how they're in what not just in the will, but they're in reason, right? And they're in the what emotions, right? You studied

[39:32] the Nicomachean Ethics, huh? Shakespeare describes very good what the Nicomachean Ethics is about. This is in one of the plays there. He's going to study that part of philosophy that treats of happiness by virtue, especially to be achieved. And that's really a nice concise statement of what the Nicomachean Ethics is, right?

[40:01] Because in the first book and in the what last book, the tenth book, he talks about what happiness is, right? And then the middle books he talks about what virtue. And Thomas Aquinas, with the brevity of wisdom, somebody says that wisdom is brief. He says virtue is the road to happiness, and vice is the road to what misery he says. I think that's a beautiful said, right?

[40:34] Everybody wants to be happy, don't they? Everybody wants to avoid misery. What's the road to happiness? What's the road to misery, right? If you ask the average guy, what would he say? Wine woman song. I don't know what he'd say. That's the way to happiness. But you could probably, you know, for a brief answer that is still extremely profound and can be unfolded. This is it, right?

[41:02] Virtue is the road to happiness. Vice is the road to misery, right? And that don't read the newspaper too much, but there's always, you know, a number of miserable people doing that. Yeah, yeah. And suddenly, within, and how did they how did they end up with such a miserable person, right? Well, they took that road of what vice, right? Okay.

[41:30] So that's well said, huh? Now, in Nicomachean Ethics, in the second through the fifth book, he talks about what the moral virtues, right? And then in book six, the virtues of reason itself. And why does he take up the moral virtues before the virtues of reason? Huh?

[42:11] Yeah, yeah. The two reasons Thomas gives is that the moral virtues are more known to us than the virtues of reason itself, and then the second reason he gives is that by the moral virtues you are disposed for the good ones, right? I saw a text from Gregory the Great that Thomas was quoting, you know, huh? And he says before you what, one into the fortress of contemplation, you've got to have what these moral virtues, right?

[42:42] I've talked to you before about the the ninety ninth Psalm, right? In the correct numbering. I think it's called the hundredth and other ones, but yeah, yeah. But it begins, you know. The reason why I got to know it kind of wasn't going to teach the children a little, you know, song. I said it's gotta be a cheerful song. So. and so this this one says, "Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands.

[43:10] Serve the Lord with, yeah." And then it says rejoice again, right? And then it says, "Come before him with joyful song. Know what the Lord is God. He made us as we are. His people, the flock, he tends." And now, in retrospect, they say, "Hey, that's you know how I get tied up with the Summa Contra Gentiles, right? That's exactly what you do, huh? You know, you enter the presence of God, right?

[43:39] Thinking about Him, right? As He is in Himself, as He's the Maker, and as He's the End, right? Okay, His Providence, huh? But notice the order there, right? See, sing joyfuls of the Lord all your lands. Serve the Lord with I would say, that that's the moral, more right. And then he goes on, come before Him with joyful song. Know that the Lord is God. It's the first book of the Summa Contra Gentiles He made us, as we are.

[44:09] Second book, and then the third book, right? Guides us and so on. So, and then then you enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise, right? Now,

[44:28] I think in in prayer, you know, that you could kind of Using prayer kind of in the broad sense, there's really three things to talk about, right? Prayer, the sense of the Our Father, right? Asking God for suitable things, right? Avoiding some things, right? And then prayer in the sense of what? Thanking God, right? And then prayer finding the sense of what? Praising God, right?

[44:58] Now you go into the chapel, let's say, right? Sometimes you're asking God for things that you need or people that you know need, right? Other times you should be what? Thanking God, right? And then finally you should be what? Praising God, right? But to me, Thanksgiving is in the middle, right? Because you're thanking God for good things He's done and evils He's kept you from, right? Why in praising God, you're kind of forgetting about yourself entirely and what you've gotten from God and just considering the excellence of God and He's worthy of praise, you know?

[45:41] And you kind of forget yourself, right? So Thanksgiving is kind of the, yeah, yeah, I think it's really beautiful, you know. I mean, a lot of times I know it's Thomas Lee's doing the come here in the Psalms, right? He'll put Thanksgiving with praise, you know, as if they're almost the same thing, you know. Seems to be a little distinction there between Thanksgiving and praise, right? And Thanksgiving is closer to what you asked for, but now it's not as selfish, so to speak, or as asking, and it's kind of a stepping stone to praise.

[46:19] So I think when you go to church sometimes, you know, I sometimes say, "I think I should make this a Thanksgiving Mass," right? You know, and what's the first thing you should thank God for?

[46:38] That's close to the first thing, but no, you got to look before and after, right? Before, in general sense, before. What? For himself. For God, just thank him. I mean, no, I'm going to thank him for things he's done for me, right? In some sense, right? But is the first I'm going to thank God for is for creating my immortal soul? That's very close to the first, right?

[47:05] but there's something that I would thank God for before? No, no, no. See, the first thing I would thank God for is for His freely choosing me to be. When you study God's will, right? He realizes that He necessarily wills His own goodness, right? Necessarily rejoices in His own excellence, right? No. But his will respect to us is free, right? Okay. So that he freely chose me to be, right?

[47:46] Yeah, yeah. That's the first thing I should thank him for, right? I'm thinking today, you know, saying, when did he freely choose me to be? Well, of course, he's not in time, right? It's not in the past. No, he chose me to be. It's like when you see God face to face, he realized that his his life is not in time, as Boethius says, the now that stands still makes eternity, the now that flows along makes time.

[48:15] He says, the now stands still. So God is freely choosing you to be when you see him face to face, right? As well, see, okay. Then the second thing I would thank him for is for creating my immortal what soul. The third thing I would thank him for is my body, right? Huh? Which came to me through my parents, right? And then I thank him for my mother and father, what met, right?

[48:41] Because otherwise my body would not have been what made, and he would not have created soul except to fit the body that has been made, right? Okay. And then you thank him for your your brothers, your sisters, if you have them, right? Huh? And then eventually thank for your teachers and so on, right? Huh? And things of this sort. I thank him for my grandchildren, you know, especially Lady Sophia, but all all all eighteen of them, you know.

[49:07] And like it's kind of interesting to to think of all the things you you know, kind of a little order to thank God for, right? Huh? But in a sense, thanking God is what enters at least the way the transition I got of the song. I don't know, I don't know Hebrew, but enters gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise, right? His courts. It's like you're you're more inside than you were when you entered Enter his gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise.

[49:36] That to me seemed like that was this kind of a way of getting to praise, right? Huh? And you're kind of stopped asking for things and you just you know thanking him for what he's given you, and finally you make this transition to say, let's forget about me, I received and just think about God and and you become completely but absorbed in him, right? Huh? You know how was it?

[50:00] Was it Teresa of Avila says, you know, heaven, you know, spare us, you know, sad saints, you know. This is beautiful about the song, you know. It says sing joyfully, right? You know, come and then it says, you know, come before him the joyful song, know that the Lord, and coming before him is being closer to him even than what singing joyfully to him, right? So you're not as close to him you're singing joyfully to him as when you come before him, contemplating his substance, his operations, the Trinity, and so on, you know.

[50:30] Beautiful, beautiful song, you know. Beautiful song. Was kind of attractive, I said. I said, "What was he going to teach him a song?" I don't know if they still know it or not, but I mean, this was seemed like it was kind of you know, you know, uplifting song, you know. But the more I think about that song, the more innocent is right. But anyway, when I come back to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, right,

[50:58] that the moral virtues are taken up before the virtues of reason, right, where you find the ultimate happiness of man in in you know natural happiness, the kind of wisdom we call first philosophy, right, huh? Aristotle determines the tenth book, you know, that consists most of all in contemplating God, right, and so far as you can, right, huh? And he doesn't know about the division, right, but he he realizes that this first philosophy is the first sense of what the last sense of before, right, better than all the rest, right, huh?

[51:39] But you have to see more than you have in the psalm there, right, leading up there. And what's he doing seven, eight, and nine Nicomachean Ethics? Huh? He does all the virtues in two through six, right, and as Shakespeare says on that part of philosophy, the treats of happiness by virtue is supposed to be achieved. And in the beginning, he he is more what general about what happiness is, but you see that it depends upon virtue, you know, and then you have to look at the virtue to see more distinctly what it is, and that's he determines in the tenth book.

[52:14] What was he doing in seven, eight, and nine then, right? Well, in seven, he deals with things that are more or less than a virtue, more or less than a vice, right? He deals with heroic virtue, right, and with bestial place, right, huh? You know, these ISIS people are almost bestial, you know, the way they they do these things. Um, and and Thomas will come back to that text when he talks about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, right?

[52:47] Aristotle has some idea that there might be you know something higher, you know, than the human virtues, right, huh? But though he doesn't know too much about them, you know, and but then you have the eighth and the ninth book, which are about what friendship, right? And it seems to me they had a connection with virtues because he says the highest friendship is based upon virtue, but they also what contribute to happiness, right, huh?

[53:12] You know, but for us, of course, happiness. I mean, friendship is what when Thomas takes up charity, he has an article there where the charity is a form of what friendship, yeah. So it's like you know Aristotle realizes the importance of friendship, right, and what is the most noble kind of friendship, you know, that you know about, you know, and we go further than that, right, with even more noble kind of friendship.

[53:36] But it's really something, you know. The friendship of the Greek polis, at least Aristotle, if I remember correctly, was looking at friendship as the bond that would enable civil discourse through conversation, seeking the truth, and would unify a political body. Yeah. Yeah. But our increasingly utilitarian view of human relationships in Western philosophy over the centuries is sort of a destruction of that concept of political friendship, which was important for the health of our body politic.

[54:16] Yeah. We've been losing that. Yeah. See, our country is so big, you know, that you tend to get separated from your friends, right? Because of employment and so on. Somebody goes to this state and so on, you know. And why, if you were in, you know, grew up and lived all your life in Athens, you would see your friends that you knew as a child, right? And you tend to make friends at an earlier age, you know.

[54:39] My best friends I made in high school or in college, you know. And and you, but you know, employment and other things separates us, you know, from distance, you know. My brother Mark ended up teaching in the West Coast, I was teaching on the East Coast, and my brother Richard teaching in the Midwest. So so we say we divide up the country among us, you know. I mean, but we would have that problem if we were all teaching in Athens or something, you know.

[55:14] But in that sense, that the big country might be better for for commerce or something, you know, and for and military strength and so on, right? But in terms of friendship, you know, which is really more fundamental, you'd say there's no problem here, you know. People have kind of interchangeable friends, right? But they don't really have friends in the in the deepest sense, and you realize how important friendship is, huh?

[55:42] Okay.