Prima Secundae
237. Summa I-II q.100 a.5: Why These Ten Commandments? Duties to God and to Neighbour, Love of Self, and the Four Causes (C-A-T)
Class of 2015-10-07
https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/11-prima-secundae/237-summa-i-ii-q-100-a-5-why-these-ten-commandments-duties-to/

[0:00] Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you, God. Thank you, guardian angels. Thank you, Thomas Aquinas. Dio gracias God, our enlightenment. Guardian angels, do enlighten our minds, or illumine our images, and arouse us to consider more correctly. Saint Thomas Aquinas, angelic doctor. Help us to understand all that you've written. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[0:34] So we're up to question 100, article 5 here. To the fifth one goes forward. Thus, it seems that unsuitably the precepts of the Decalogue are enumerated. Huh?

[0:50] For sin, as Ambrose says, is the transgression of the divine law and the divine law and in obedience of celestial commands. Huh? I was reading the sentences here. He has that. There's one, three definitions of sin, right? Of culpa, right? culpa. But sins are distinguished through this that man sins either in regard to God or in regard to his neighbor or in regard also to himself.

[1:24] Since, therefore, in the precepts of the Decalogue, there are not laid down any precepts ordering man to himself, but only ordering him to God, like the first three, or to his neighbor, like the last seven. It seems that insufficient is enumeration of the precepts of the Decalogue. I ask that to your parish priests. Yeah, that's really kind of a thunderbolt, right?

[1:51] You know, it's a beautiful objection, though, isn't it? Huh? So how the hell is Thomas going to untie that knot? Huh? Moreover, just as to the worship of God pertains the observation of the Sabbath, so also the observation of the other solemnities, huh? And the offering of what sacrifices? But among the precepts of the Decalogue is one pertaining to the observation of the Sabbath. Therefore, there ought to be others, right, pertaining to other solemnities and to the right of what sacrifices?

[2:29] Huh? Okay. That's maybe that's hard to answer, you know, because you could say one is because of the preeminence, right? But the third one now, it's getting really tight up. This the third one. Moreover, just as against God to sin by what perjury, right? Huh? So also by blaspheming, I would think even more so, right? Or by what lying against the divine what teaching, but there's laid down one precept prohibiting perjury when it is said, thou shalt not what take the name of God in vain, swear by God, right?

[3:14] Therefore, the sin of blasphemy and false teaching ought to be prohibited by some precept of the what Decalogue, right? We especially we professors, you know, that they shouldn't should have a command there to stop them from all the false teaching that they. Yeah, yeah.

[3:38] Moreover, the fourth objection: just as man has natural what love towards his what parents, so also we have natural love towards our children and our grandchildren.

[3:54] But the command right of charity extends to all our neighbours and our proximals, those close to us. But the The precepts of the Decalogue are ordered to charity, according to that of Saint Paul and 1 Timothy. The end of the command or precept is charity.

[4:14] Therefore, just as there's laid down some precept pertaining to parents, like honour your father and mother, so also ought to be some laid down pertaining to sons and so on, like bring your children up well and so on. Okay.

[4:32] Moreover, in any genus of sin, it happens that one can sin by what one's heart and by one's deed, right? But in some kinds of sins, to wit, in theft and adultery, apart from other things, it's prohibited the sin of the doing, right? You shall not commit adultery. You shall not what commit theft, huh? And apart from that, the sin of what the heart, you shall not desire the thing of your neighbour, right?

[5:06] And you should not desire the wife of your neighbour. Therefore, also, not to what be placed something one should not desire to kill your neighbour, and have a desire for false testimony, right? Huh? Beautiful, beautiful objections. He's making a mess of the, you know, Tom is making a mess of the Decalogue. He took pleasure in this Yes. Writing is easy. Now the sixth one. Moreover, just as it happens that sin comes about from the disorder of the concupiscible appetite, so also from the disorder of the irascible.

[5:45] There was a in the paper the other day. There, the guy was driving, and he didn't like the guy in front of him was driving too slow, right? Finally, the guy in front realized he wanted to get by on this guy behind him, so he pulled over to the side of the road, right? Rather than go on, you know, and pass it on, he pulled over the road, going out, pulled the guy out of the car, and started beating him up, you know.

[6:06] Of course, yeah, yeah. Wow. Well, they they arrested him, and of course, the question was whether you know you are going to be released while you are waiting your trial, you know. And he was decided he was a dangerous man to the community. Yeah. So I mean, this is this is the irascible, right? Huh? Because I'll say, you know, I remember one winter time, Rosie was driving, you know, and it was really a slippery road, right?

[6:30] So she was, you know, she doesn't, you know, go along slowly just for, but because of the road, and of course this guy was so finally shot by her, and of course he slid right off the road like that and into a tree, right? Huh? So she stopped to see if he was hurt. So he wasn't really hurt, you know, but she wasn't going to have a conversation with this guy, you know.

[6:50] Yeah. You know. I went to Quebec one time, Rosie and I. It used to be Thanksgiving time. We have a few days off, you know. I went up to Warren's place, and it was starting to snow, right? And Warren said, "Now, if you don't think you can make it, come on back to the house, right? " So we were being careful, right? And finally got behind a plow truck, you know.

[7:13] But these crazy French drivers, you know, they're going over the speed limit for the conditions, right? And off the road, off the road. It was just it was ridiculous, and Rosie could see it. I mean, they just just no common sense. You know, you have to be a philosopher to know that you slow down in the winter time, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The other other most dramatic thing was the the company hill there where I where I stayed in Quebec, you know, and it'd be slippery there, you know, and they'd spin out,

[7:49] making the worst noise, you know, and they'd tell the train to to stop. You miss, Sir Thomas, making a mess of the decalogue, right? Come on, sir.

[8:03] I say you miss Thomas making a mess of the decalogue here in the objections. I apologize. We have some late breaking developments on an important meeting.

[8:16] So we're at the sixth objection here, huh? But there are certain precepts prohibiting disorder of concupiscible sins, as you shall not desire your neighbor's wife, and so on. Therefore, there ought to also be precepts in the decalogue that prohibit the disorder of the irascible, right? Because that even leads to to murder. I mean, you know, Thomas murdered that guy. Okay. Therefore, it does not seem that sufficiently are the ten precepts of the decalogue enumerated, huh?

[8:44] Okay. But against this is what is said in Deuteronomy four, verse thirteen: "I have shown you a what? Act that commands what you should do, right? " In ten words, huh? Which I wrote into stone, what tablets, right? Three and seven, okay.

[9:11] Well, see what Thomas says, huh? Interesting way he proceeds here, right? It's in likeness to human law, right, huh? It's tied up with the the city and the community, right? I answer: Should be said that as has been said above, just as the precepts of human law order man to the human what community, so the precepts of the divine law order men to a certain what community or republic, huh?

[9:46] Of men under what God, huh? That's very interesting. It takes as a starting point, huh? Beginning is half of all, right? Now, in order that someone can might dwell well, in some community, in some community, right? Huh. Two things are required, huh? Of which the first is that he has himself well to the one who presides over the community. Don't get the cook angry. Don't get the cook angry.

[10:24] Yeah. Another that, as a man, he has himself well to the other what? Common socio consociosa and partakers, right, of the community, huh? Okay.

[10:43] It is necessary, therefore, that in the divine law, first there be given certain precepts ordering man to God, right? Huh? Because he's the ruler. The Lord is King in splendor, robed is the Lord in strength, and so precepts

[11:03] interesting. The priest today was talking about how, you know, God is our Father, right? Huh? And so on. But you kind of emphasize this more in the New Testament, right? Although in the Old Testament you had the law of the King and the law of the what Father, right? And even in our our Father, you have that kingdom comes, so you're implying that he's not only a Father but also he's still a King too, right?

[11:26] And Thomas is using that aspect of his being a King, right? Huh? But you find in these Psalms that they'll suddenly touch upon one or the other, right? So it suddenly befits the holiness of God's house, right? Huh? That's more like the fatherly thing, huh? You call it a house, but you call it kingdom. You think of well, he's a king, right? He's kind of proceeding here from the idea of God having a kingdom here.

[11:56] It is necessary, therefore, that in the divine law, first there be brought forth certain precepts ordering man to God, then other precepts ordering man to other what neighbors living together with him under God, huh? Okay. Now it's beautiful what he does here to the prince, right, of the community to the ruler to the ruler. Man owes what three things? I didn't know that, huh? I didn't know either Two and three, right?

[12:27] Is Thomas is caught with that, huh? He's consistent. Yeah. First, faithfulness, right? Secondly, irreverence, huh? And third, service, huh? Now, what does this mean? Well, fidelity to the Lord consists in this that the honor of the prince is not what. Given to somebody else. Yeah. it's not given. Yeah. It's interesting, huh? Okay.

[13:02] So this this piece of music you hail to the chief, and I was paid only for the president, right? Huh? And a certain number of what cannons go off, you know? A few different one. Certain number of shells, right? I probably wouldn't get even one, but but get a certain number. You get one by one.

[13:21] Yeah, yeah. There's certain things, huh? So you don't give the honor of the prince to another one, right? It reminds me when Obama was campaigning first time before he became president. He had a speech someplace and he made up a little podium with a little plaque that looked a lot like the presidential coat of arms. Yeah. And he was criticized for that. Yeah. He kind of made a public apology.

[13:45] He didn't mean to presume anything by this image. And so but that's kind of that's maybe related to this president You mentioned Obama first line of the words, "Thou shalt not have strange gods."

[14:01] Yeah. That was in Harvard. I told you when the bishop came out to the trivium, you know, one time for graduation, you know, and so on, and kind of before we're downstairs before we marched up and so on, you know. Doctor Schmidt was giving this to this little thing, you know. I mean, you receive diplomas, you have to, you know, kiss the bishop's ring. He said, "Why not?

[14:21] " He would have been very awkward to have me try to kiss the bishop's ring, you know, but he's kind of explaining, you know, what the liberals were. He said, "Why not? " Well, he's not giving him the the honor that's owed to the bishop, right? Huh?

[14:39] So as regards this fidelity, huh? Is the first precept when it says you shall not have what alien gods before me, right? Huh? Then you would not be faithful to God, right? And God is often complaining that to get these statements from the prophets, right? Huh?

[15:02] Reverence to what the Lord? is required that nothing injurious is committed in him, right? As regards this, is taking the second precepts. we shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in what Vain, huh? Okay. This would be not observing the reverence due to him, huh? Okay.

[15:28] And service, huh? So to the Lord in recompense for the benefits which the ones under him receive from him, right? And to this pertains the third precept about the sanctifying of the Sabbath in memory of the creation of what things, huh? Okay. That's very interesting. He does those three, huh?

[16:00] Okay, to one's neighbors proximos, huh? someone has himself well, both in special ways and in general ways. Especially as regards those of whom one is a debtor, that he rendered to them one's what debt. As regards this, has taken the what

[16:22] precept of the honoring of parents. That's the only one that's what really affirmative, right? So it kind of stands out. Yeah, the first one among the seven, right? And it's the only affirmative. Yeah. Okay.

[16:42] So Cicero, Cicero's name is quoted now. The son is always in debt to his father. The mother too, we could add, but I mean, gotta be careful these days. But I think that's really true, you know. You know, it's always in debt to your mother and father. Okay.

[17:11] Generally, however, as regards all, right, that to know should one infer any harm, right? Huh? Neither in deed nor in what word, yeah. Door. Nor in what heart. huh? Desire. Okay. One of the other definitions of sin was in terms of a thing desired, or said, or done contrary. deed, yeah. Yeah.

[17:40] Now, by deed is infer one should not infer an occurrent or harm to one's neighbor in his own person. As regards the consistency of that person, He's not chopped off his head like they've been doing there in the east. And this is prohibited. The what is said: you shall not what kill. Shouldn't chop off an arm or either, right. Yeah.

[18:09] Okay. Sometimes in reference to one's what. Something. Joint person, yeah. As regards the propagation of offspring, and this is prohibited when it is said, you shall not commit what. Yeah. And sometimes in the thing possessed, which is ordered to what? Yeah. And as regards this, one should not what commit theft, right? Huh? But harm of voice or word prohibited when it is said, you shall not give false testimony, right?

[18:47] Speak false testimony against your neighbor, huh? And the harm of the heart is prohibited when it is said, you shall not what lust and the curse is two of those, right? Okay.

[19:06] According to this threefold difference, one can also distinguish the three precepts that we spoke about before, ordering us in God, right? Which the first refers to what? An opus of work. When he said, "You shall not make a what?" Idol, I guess we could say. Yeah, sculpted idol. Secondly, to the what? Mouth. You shall not take the name of God, your God, in vain. Third, to the heart, which is in the sanctification of the Sabbath according as it is a moral precept, there is commanded rest of the heart in God.

[19:49] I was talking to a nun one time, and she says, "And Sunday is set aside." She says, "For resting in the Lord." She said, "That was very good." Yeah. I thought Yeah yeah Yeah, yeah. We saw you can see she's delighted in the fact that that day was set aside to rest in the Lord, and that's all you did on that day, really. You know, is to rest in the Lord, huh?

[20:10] That's just your heart, huh? Okay. Now you get the third explanation, right? Huh? Of the three commandments, huh? The first three commandments. Thomas says more explicit here about the first three, or according to Augustine, right? And the reference in my footnote is in this commentary in the Psalm. Excuse me, I got the right part here. Yeah, in It says he has sermon on the psalm Yeah, Psalm thirty-two.

[20:47] Yeah, Sermon 1, number six. Okay. That to the first precept we reverence the unity of the first beginning, right? It's only one God, huh? To the second, the divine what truth, and to the third, his goodness, huh? By which we are made what holy, and in which we rest as in a what end. That's really beautiful. The Augustine there. He's a smart guy. That Augustine, you know.

[21:21] Even though he's an African there, right? From hippo, you know. Ever heard of hippo? It's beautiful, huh? Now let's see if he can untie these knots, huh? Or he's going to drown there. The end. The end of Thomas Aquinas. He's drowned in his own objections. We went through all of this just to crash here.

[22:03] Now, as we recall, the first objection was saying that sins, right, huh, are distinguished by this: that a man sins either in reference to God, in reference to his neighbor, or in in reference to himself, huh? Okay. And you have the first two commandments in reference to God. The last seven in reference to your neighbor, but who are the ones to yourself, huh? Okay. Now this is a trilogy thing here.

[22:35] To the first, therefore, one can respond in two ways, huh? First, because the precepts, the Decalogue, referred to the precepts of what love, love of neighbor, and of God. There was given a precept to man about the love of God and of what neighbor.

[22:59] Because as regards this, the natural law was obscured on account of what sin. But not as regards the love of oneself, because as regards this, the natural law was still vigorous, right? Okay.

[23:18] That's an interesting way he does, right? As if this is because of the defective man, right? In other words, you know, in the first stage, a man has left himself, right? He doesn't even know fully the law, right? And then later on, he learns the law, but then he doesn't have the grace to, you know. But then that next stage, it's not that people are ignorant that they should love themselves, but that they should love their neighbor and they should love God.

[23:45] That's but the ignorance of, right? So the first three are to the love of God, and and the last seven to the love of your neighbor. That's one way of seeing it, right? Okay.

[24:02] Or and this is the second one. It's very interesting too, because also the love of oneself is included in the love of God and one's neighbor. Now, how is that? In this, that man truly loves himself when he orders himself to God,

[24:22] and therefore also in the precepts of the dialogue are laid down only precepts pertaining to one's neighbor and to God. So in a way, they conclude oneself. I was thinking, you know, if you had to answer this question, what is a bad will? Right? You want to go just just a bit beyond saying a will that wills something bad. You know, be a little more precise. What is a bad will?

[24:47] What would you say? Would it be the wills not in harmony with the order of reason? I was thinking that you might say this: that a bad will is a will whose end or purpose, huh, is something other than God.

[25:09] So it might be the the pleasure of eating, right? Huh? My friend was interested in fine food, so he joined the gourmet society. Who does like? He went to the first annual banquet of the gourmet society. All you can eat? No, no, no. We got sitting down to a member of the society, and we were the society who was telling him of the problems they'd run in, you know, in getting all their delicacies, you know, flown in and everything.

[25:38] And he could see that the man was was rather, you know, disturbed and worried that they've almost not gotten this or that delicacy flown in, right? I mean, like his life would be ruined, you know, about this. He said he quit the society after that.

[25:58] I mean, here's a man whose end might be to eat well, right? Now. And and you wonder maybe there are some of these cooks you see on TV you know

[26:10] they seem to enjoy eating you know or then you have Don Giovanni who's interested in sex right the sexual pleasure and he's made that his end and that's not good right or someone else might have money you know or for Christ's sake might be power right huh or it might just be you know the glorification of oneself in some way you know by preeminence in society and so on so really what a bad will is is a will whose end or purpose is something other than God right okay so when you love God and make God your end or purpose then you're really loving yourself is the way you you should right

[26:56] so in a sense in being taught the three commandments you know the three commandments right which order you to God in particular or in general then you really are being taught how to love yourself right or how to be well disposed yeah yeah I make myself the center of my world but I really love myself. He says he said that in the sentences about the distinction between justice towards God and between between yourself and then he raises the objection you don't have to be total of yourself or sin against yourself we naturally love ourselves yeah that's what he says when we have this disorder yeah he says we love ourselves in our affections in our feelings and desires myself but in fact we hate ourselves

[27:49] because we because the disorder we're destroying ourselves yeah yeah yeah now I guess a third thing can be said right huh that the precepts of the Decalogue are those which immediately the people receive from what God huh whence is said in Deuteronomy chapter ten verse four huh I have spoken to you in the what tables right according to what was written before ten words right there is pretty clear there's ten commandments right ten verbum which the Lord spoke to what you huh okay whence is necessary that the precepts of the Decalogue be such that can fall at once into the mind of the what people right now this same principle is given sometimes in the account of what of creation there right huh certain things

[28:49] are not said explicitly right because people couldn't understand it right now a precept has the idea of a debt huh. Now that man of necessity owes something to God or to his neighbor, this easily falls into conception of man, and especially the faithful man. But that something of necessity is owed to the man, although he is obtained to himself and not to another, this does not appear right away.

[29:24] That I owe myself something, right? Yeah, they owe God something. They owe my parents something, right? My neighbor something, right? You know, but they owe myself something, you know.

[29:37] Aristotle speaks as if there's not justice towards oneself. Justice is towards what? Another, right? Can't owe yourself something, you know. I owe myself a vacation. I owe myself.

[29:51] Yeah, yeah, yeah. It seems, at first aspect, that someone is free in regard to those things which pertain to himself, right? Okay, I can go to bed when I should, and I don't get my sleep that I need.

[30:15] Somebody speak, you know, of a sleep debt or something, you know. Sleep debt. Yeah. Yeah. But you owe yourself your body. You owe your body some sleep, right? Okay. And therefore, precepts by which are prohibited the disorders of man to himself, come to the what? People by means of the instruction of the wise. Whence is not pertain to the Decalogue, right? That's interesting. So all these three answers are interesting, huh?

[30:46] Mm-hmm. And the first and the third kind of go together a little bit, you know. The second one is kind of more subtle, you know. Okay. So, we'll give Thomas a pass on that. That's pretty good. That's pretty smart. Yeah.

[31:11] Okay. The second one, I think, because it's difficult to handle, but anyway. Why, you know, have all these other feasts being denied? I mean, neglected there. All the solemnities of the old law were instituted in commemoration of some divine benefit, right? Or in the past commemorated, or prefigured in the future. And account of this also, all the sacrifices were what offered, right? Huh. Now, among all the benefits of God, right, these should be commemorated.

[31:48] First and especially is the benefit of what creation, which is commemorated in the sanctification of the Sabbath. Whence is said in Exodus twenty, verse eleven, for a reason of this precept is laid down: in six days God made the heaven and the earth, right? Huh.

[32:10] Now, among all the future benefits which were to be prefigured, especially and the final one is the rest of the mind in God, right? Or either in the present by grace, or in the future through what glory, right?

[32:31] Which is also figured by the observation of the Sabbath. Whence it is said in Isaiah fifty-eight, if you turn away from the what Sabbath your foot, okay. If you turn your foot away from the Sabbath to your own will on my holy day, and you call the Sabbath, and you call it a Sabbath of pleasure, then as you would today. No, no man. You don't call the Sabbath delightful?

[33:00] I'll have delightful. Yeah. He's been turning himself away from labor or something that day, right? It must be. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But to do your will is that what it says? If you turn away that foot from the Sabbath, from doing that, from doing that, oh, I see. Yeah. From doing your.

[33:37] Now these benefits first and chiefly are in the minds of men, most of all the faithful. The other solemnities celebrate on account of some particularia, some particular benefits, right? Temporarily, what? Passing. As the celebration of the phase, right? Passover, on account of the benefit of the past liberation from Egypt, right? And account of the future passion of Christ, which temporarily will pass, huh? But in leading us into the rest of a spiritual Sabbath.

[34:14] And therefore, setting aside all the other solemnities and sacrifices, about the Sabbath alone is mention made among the pieces of Decalogue. It's easy to see that this is kind of more primary, yeah, yeah. And both thanking him for the gift of creation, which is underlying every other creation, and even your individual soul is created, right? And then resting in God, right? To be getting the end, right?

[34:42] He's the Alpha and the Omega, right? The first and the last, the beginning and the end, right? So, since you're taking him in as the beginning and the end, aren't you, according to this explanation, right? So that's kind of it's got some preeminence, that thing. Okay. So you don't have to, you know. Just like you know, I mean, say I should not kill you. I shouldn't chop off your arm or your leg or something like that, right?

[35:06] Which doesn't kill you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's perjury What was Thomas More said when he was told that the king, in his mercy, decided that he wouldn't be hung or ordered that he was just going to be beheaded. And More said, "God spare my friends from the king's mercy."

[35:47] Okay. Now the third argument is saying, "Why not have the law against blasphemy?" Right? Huh? Which is even worse than what perjury, right? Okay.

[36:02] To the third, should be said that as the apostle says, men swear through something greater than themselves, right? And the end of every controversy, it's a confirmation. Confirmation of this is is the oath, right? Huh? Okay. And therefore, because the oath is common to all, on account of this, the prohibition of the disorder about the oath is especially what prohibited by precept to the Decalogue. The sin of a false teaching does not pertain except to the few, huh?

[36:42] People like me. Whence it is not necessary that to be about this a mention among the pieces of the Decalogue. huh? Although also, according to some understanding, right, when one says one ought not to take the name of God in vain, false doctrines are what prohibited. For one gloss expounds, one should not say Christ to be a what creature, huh? Okay.

[37:20] Now I go back to the body of the article. There, does that agree with what Augustine's saying? Through the first precept, we reverence the unity of the the first beginning. To the second, the divine truth, right? Yeah. See, so it harmonizes, right? Okay. In my footnotes and my text here, it just says they have reference to Isidore, right? Huh? So it's somebody other than Augustine, right? But it's in harmony with Augustine was saying, right?

[37:49] Huh? Augustine's explanation of the three, right? That's the second commandment, isn't it? Yeah. So when I start teaching about the nature of God, and if I start saying false things, right, I'm taking the name of God in in vain, huh?

[38:10] It makes sense to say that, right? Was that that was it? Jerome said, "Airy's in the 29th lines." Yeah, Airy's character. Is it that that atheist there who was saying you know that

[38:37] he's trying to kind of defend you know the the evolutionists you know who say you know that our mind you know developed over the course of time, right? Huh? And if you want to say you know that that something called God, you know that that designed this and so on, he must well have one hell of a good Brain, right? And then, how did his brain happen to come about?

[39:04] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, who designed his designer? That's his argument, right? And so, he's taking the name of God in vain, right now, because he's imagining God to be like a. He's insulting God because he does not use his own brain. Yeah, but it's kind of an anthropomorphic notion of God, right? God is is like a man with a with a huge brain, right?

[39:32] One hell of a big brain. And he must. And how do you get that brain? You know, because that that would be even harder to have. His parents like. Yeah, how could evolution produce a mind like that, right? If it couldn't produce, you know, human mind by by evolution, huh? So he's taking the name of God in vain, but anyway.

[39:57] Is the uh the atheist's uh. Platform today, predominantly based on uh is it indeterminate indeterminism that everything is just random, or do they have a more sophisticated sort of foundation for their arguments that not everything is necessarily just random accumulations of matter or atoms.

[40:24] Yeah, they're basically materialists, I would think. You know, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's kind of because if they're anything more than materialists, they're going to be walking towards God.

[40:40] Yeah. Yeah. But if they're materialists, does that mean they hold that the ancient Greek notion that everything that matter is the universe has eternally existed It was supposed to have been disproven back in the twenties with the Big Bang theory. If it's indeed been proven. Yeah, but even the Big Bang, you're starting with something there, right? Right. You know, it's going to explode. Yeah. But the thing is, I was wondering if there is inconsistency in the foundation of their thinking.

[41:10] Speaking of atheists, if they're if they generally assume that universe is eternally big, there's no real beginning. But the matter is a kind of cause that's most known to us, right? So now, now, taking the four causes, students, I would be very simple, right? And I come into class and I put on the board C A T. I printed, you know. I say, what's the most obvious and undeniable dependence that the word cat there in the board has?

[41:46] What does it depend upon for being? Isn't it the letters C A and T? You know. Now, if you think it doesn't, if you assume it doesn't depend upon C A and T, raise the C, take away the C, take away the A, take away the T. Now, where's the word cat? there? See, how can you deny that it depends upon the letters C A and T?

[42:08] Okay. That dependence we call dependence upon the kind of cause called matter, right? Because that's the parts out of which it is made, right? Okay. Now, does it depend upon besides C A T? That's the most obvious dependence, isn't it? Okay. Well, then I write the word cat back on the board, right? And all we know at this point is it depends upon C A and T, and then I write next to it A C T, right?

[42:34] I say now, what does that depend upon? Word. Yeah, but why the very same letters though? See, okay. But is the word act the same as the word cat? So I'm talking about my favorite animal. I'd say the word cat. Okay, but then they're forced to say something else, right? That it depends upon what the letters and the order of the letters, right? That's a different kind of cause, right?

[43:02] Okay. You see, if you have a wooden table and a wooden chair, right? They obviously depend upon wood. You take all the wood out of the chair, there's not no wooden chair left. But this table is made out of wood as well as a chair, maybe not, but you know what this stuff is these days. But you have a wooden chair and a wooden table. They depend upon the shape, right?

[43:24] So that's like the order. That's the second kind of cause. The order, the form of a thing, right? Okay. Now you got a question. How do the same letters get into a different order? Here's Berquist the writer the mover you see the maker the writer, the mover, you see, the maker. Okay. So Berquist put them in the order C A T. In one case, in that case, he put in the order A C T, right?

[43:50] He could also put them in the order T A C if he wanted to, right? I'm really, really a marvelously inventive man. But why did I put them in the order C A T rather than the word A C T? Was I wanted to talk about my favorite animal, the cat? I had a pet cat. I had about two pet cats in my my life. My daughter had two, and yeah, went out there now.

[44:15] And if I wanted to teach metaphysics and talk about act and ability, I would have spelled it A C T, right? And if I wanted to talk about my daughter, they refer to Thomas Aquinas College as T A C all the time. I would have put T A C. And they always refer to you know, did you go to T A C too? And so my ability to arrange letters doesn't explain why I put them in the order the order C A T.

[44:43] It was my purpose was to talk about my favorite animal, right? Or I used A C T because I'm teaching metaphysics now, right? I'm teaching that act is something before ability and so on, right? Not that the cat is something before.

[44:59] And so now you get all four kinds of causes, right? Now, but notice how I begin with the cause that is most known, which is the matter out of which something is made, right? The word cat is made out of C A T, and that's you know more obvious, right? It's not until I put the word act, you know, that the whole light dawns upon you. You know, there's something else here involved besides, you know.

[45:24] So I mean, the moderns are kind of stuck with the idea of the early Greeks, right? With the most known cause, right? And so they want to explain everything by matter, right? And therefore they have to come up with something like you know whatever, come up with something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So all these things can get mixed together and fall together, and you know, and you know, even the cell, you know, they say it's just too complicated, too grand to accept that, right?

[45:58] Hmm. Hmm. They're very primitive thinkers in some ways. In some ways, the ones that don't want God is a different thing. If they don't want it, then that's why they they kind of limited their mind to this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you look at Marx's thesis, his premium or his introduction to his thesis, you know, You can see really there's a pride there, you know. He doesn't want to accept anything that doesn't accept our mind as the highest divinity, you know.

[46:31] He's really, really perverse. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Monkey, read the fourth objection, right? Huh. Yeah. Okay. To the fourth, it should be said that at once natural reason of man or dictates to man that one should do no injury to anybody, right? And therefore the precepts prohibiting harm extend themselves to all, right? Huh.

[47:14] But natural reason does not at once dictate that something should be done for another, right? Huh. Except the man who owes something to someone, right?

[47:26] Now this is just when the argument was in terms of why not, you know, sons fathers look after your sons, right? Huh. Okay. Now the debt of the son to the father is so manifest that by no what twisting around can it be what denied, right? In that the father is the beginning of the generation and the being of the what son, and above that of his education and doctrine, and not to mention his feeding and so on, right?

[47:58] And therefore it's not laid down under a precept of the decalogue that some what benefit or service is what, except to parents, huh? That's where we have this this greatest load, right? Huh. Okay. Just like we said, the third commandment, right, takes the kind of the greatest thing God did, and so on. These are beginning and end.

[48:25] Okay. But parents do not seem to be debtors to their son, huh, on account of some benefits received from them, right? But rather the what reverse, huh? For the son is something of the father, huh?

[48:43] And fathers love their sons as something of themselves. Okay. So Shakespeare says, "This were to be new made when thou art old, and see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold, For thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee calls back the lovely April of her prime."

[49:06] Little girl comes comes next door there you know with her mother and she's selling selling something for Girl Scout there candy or something you know her name is Victoria you know so I said I know her name so I said oh hi Victoria you know you're Victoria and she says yes I says I said Queen Victoria no no just Victoria which is a beautiful little girl you know very striking you know I was going to ask her mother did you look this way when you were that age too she said where are you my wife my mother was coming down what grade are you in fourth grade she says you know but she's really really a knockout little thing but so I

[49:54] had to buy these two things from her so the son is something of the Father, right? Okay. You're kind of immortalizing yourself, right? And your children, huh? Okay.

[50:13] Now I've often said, you know, this kind of this Christian idea of marriage is two in one flesh, right? Huh? But the husband-wife are more two in one flesh of their child than they are in the the marriage act, right? Because the marriage act is transitory, right? But the husband-wife are joined in the one flesh of the child, right? And even if they should separate or get divorced, I can't take my flesh, you know, you know.

[50:43] So I mean, you're very much—that's really something of yourself again, right? You know, your child, right? So he says you naturally what love your child just as you naturally love yourself, huh? And Shakespeare has even these villains, you know, like what's his name, Aaron there in the

[51:05] one of the earlier plays, who still after his he's still looking after his little boy, you know, even though he's doing terrible things, you know, too.

[51:17] His enemies, right? Huh? Okay. They had a review there in one of the latest national reviews. There, you know, somebody wrote what was the name of the book? Children of Monsters, right? But he's studying, you know, the children of not Hitler but Stalin and all these different tyrants, right? And what happened to them, you know? And some of them, of course, try to continue what their fathers were doing, like the like the ones in North Korea there and and Assad there, you know, and so on.

[51:49] But some of them, you know, turned against, you know, as finally saw that. You know, but you have to live by lies, you know, if you want to. as Sotsinetskin said, I guess, if you want to, you know, still accept your parents, right? What? Did Fidel have any kids? Yeah, I guess I guess one of his daughters came to the United States, and she wrote a book and and talked about how awful it was to be in that country the way it is—a police state.

[52:19] Cross or what? No, the Pope gave to Fidel because he met Fidel. Yeah, yeah. Pictures of Fidel. He met with Fidel and gave him I think some CDs or something, recordings of either sermons or something lectures or something of a priest who taught him when he went to Berlin. And the priest is an old old man. He's in Miami now, and he and he said publicly, anytime Fidel wants to come over and hear his confession, and but he makes it clear that Fidel has to do public penance first because his sins are not private.

[52:50] Yeah. And that's what the Pope gave him: the sermons of this priest. Yeah. That's what the Pope gave him. Think about this whole thing, Jesus. Yeah. Huh? Yeah. And find out where I read it. Is it in the Wanderer? Where do I go to the Wanderer? I mention this right now because even these, you know, tyrants, you know, horrible as they are, you know, have some love with their own children, right?

[53:12] Huh? And they want to make their children to, you know, succeed them, you know, in their their crimes, yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. I suppose the mafia is like that too, a little bit, huh? Oh yeah. Yeah. It's family, yeah. You know. Yeah. That's it. There's a CFR, a friar, who's an Englishman, originally American, born into a mafia family. His father was part of the mafia. They had to flee to England, I guess.

[53:44] And so he grew up there, had a terrible life, a life of petty crime and stuff like that, till this moment of conversion. And that was an exceptionally fine friar with the CFR, his brother, Charles Group. Just a fascinating example of a child, heir of his parents' ways. Great story. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We went to Italian restaurant, the Loeben, in Worcester there, and the the owner of it, you know, was a student of Rosalys, you know, and she was teaching sixth grade.

[54:19] And she talked about how when she knew him as a student, he was always smiling, you know, and he's still so smiling, you know. But there was some, you know, tradition of the mafia and the family there, you know. And she was always the teacher worried about him, you know, being led astray, you know, by the the family, but.

[54:38] Yeah. Okay. So the son is something of the father, and fathers love their sons as something of themselves, huh? As the philosopher himself says in the eighth book of the Ethics, huh?

[54:57] Whence, for the same reason, there are not laid down any precepts in the Decalogue pertaining to the love of one's sons, just as neither any ordering men to himself.

[55:22] It's interesting, huh? But it's the same thing for loving your your wife or something like that, huh? You know. When when when when Father here is not here, but he was being, you know, ordained there, right? Huh? Rosalyn came, you know, and and the the abbot comes, you know, he says, "I see about your better half," he says. But your

[55:42] your better half is it's like we say yourself, right? Huh? Kind of natural, right? Flesh of your flesh, bone of your bone, as Adam said, right? Some of the cardinal family,

[55:57] servant, sometime a while back. You should know the difference between inlaws and outlaws. Outlaws are wanted. Well, so we said with something we say, you know, about marriage. There, he says, you know, the benefit of marriage is you don't have to argue with your neighbor, with strangers. I mean, you don't have to argue with strangers. Kind of cynical, you know.

[56:28] Yeah. That's interesting. Huh? He sees a connection there, right? Huh? There not being commandments about explicitly, except more hidden. You know, there wasn't about loving God, right? But. That and that one was particularly good Yeah, yeah. And it's like that way you don't have to have a command to love your child, right? You can't actually do that.

[56:58] Now, the fifth one, right? Saying, well, here you have a command not to desire your neighbor's wife, right? Not to desire your neighbor's possessions, right? Well, then why not have a command? I mean, to not desire your neighbor's wife, you know.

[57:22] He says, to the fifth, it should be said that the pleasure of adultery and the usefulness of what wealth are, on account of themselves, desirable, right? Huh? In so far as they have the ratio of a good that is delightful or what useful. Remember in high school there, you know, the Catholic high school, and they used to have a home home room at the college, you know, and give a little father advice sometimes from from the teacher.

[57:53] Of course, our teacher was the brother of the bishop, you know, and so on. So he's talking about money's not everything, you know, and so on. This one kid says, "You know, but what it isn't, it'll buy." So it's very desirable, right? You know, what it isn't, it'll buy. And since you have money, you've got it all, right? You know, I mean, not really, but it kind of seems that way, right?

[58:14] So he says, wealth and and and the the woman and so on, delectable. They are what? propter seipsa petibilia kind of themselves desirable. An account of this is necessary in them to prohibit not only the what the doing of it, but also the concupiscence. But what murder, homicide, and false witness, and so on, right? Are in themselves horrible, right? Huh? Okay. Because one's neighbor and truth are naturally what loved, huh?

[58:53] And they are not so. So that's contrary to lying about them or or killing them, right? And they are not desired to what? That means not them, but the killing of them, right? Or bearing false witness are not desired except on account of something else. Yeah. So I'm ready you to you know to take over your position, right? Or something, you know. You know it happens all the time in Stalin.

[59:20] And therefore, it's not necessary about the sin of homicide and false testimony to prohibit the sin of the heart, but only of the work. Got the deed, yeah. That makes some sense, doesn't it? I was like Saint Augustine's comment: Everyone naturally loves the truth. If somebody doubts whether he really loves the truth, ask him if he likes to be deceived. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[59:51] Now, what about the sixth objection, which says, if you're preventing what bad desire, why don't you prevent bad anger too, right? The irascible? one Tell that to the guy in the newspaper. Yeah, uh the guy who you gotta be really, really deeply disturbed, dude. Yeah. yeah. But they they have articles on road rage, or from time to time, you know. I guess there's a certain amount of this road rage going on, right?

[1:00:20] And people don't just. He pulled off. Yeah, I can understand if he pulled around and bumped the car or something. Yeah. Did he stop and get out and pull it out and beat him up? Yeah. Yeah. He's got one angry guy To the sixth, it should be said that, as has been said, all the passions of the irascible are derived from the passions of the what? Yeah.

[1:00:47] And therefore, in the precepts of the Decalogue, which are certain prima, first elements of the law, not all the elements of the law, but the first elements. There's no mention made of the passions irascible, but only of the ones from which they arise, namely the passion of the concupiscible right

[1:01:08] That was interesting. when he started about how the law orders us to live both, with might say, towards God and others who live with us under God. And then right away, I thought of the Pledge of Allegiance One nation under God. So that's sort of the natural laws built in, even in our Pledge of Allegiance And. You know, Thomas is always quoting in this regard. You know, he says the animals fight over food and sex, right?

[1:01:37] So the irascible arises from the concupiscible It's kind of the defender of the concupiscible right, Or helping the irascible get what it wants, you know.

[1:01:51] Okay. So we'll go on to Article Six now. or you want a break after this We'll take a break. A little break. I love it

[1:02:01] To