Prima Secundae
267. Aquinas on the Necessity of Grace (ST I-II q.109 a.4–7): Keeping the Law, Earning Eternal Life, Preparing for Grace and Rising from Sin
Class of 2016-02-25
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[0:00] Name of the Father, the Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you, God. Thank you, Guardian angels. Thank you, Thomas Aquinas. Deo gratias God, our enlightenment. Help us, God, to know and love you. Guardians, strengthen the lights of our minds, or to illumine our images, and arouse us to consider more correctly. Saint Thomas Aquinas, angelic doctor. Pray for us. Help us to understand what you've written.

[0:34] Since you're interested in the accomplishments of my grandchildren? I thought I'd give you a little bit for Claire, right? She's six years old now, right?

[0:45] Claire played outstanding soccer season in the spring and fall, scoring between four and ten goals every game. Oh my goodness. She is in first grade and is excited to do her schoolwork every day. She absolutely loves ballet, and continues to dress up and dance at home often.

[1:12] Claire loves to play with Nicholas, that's the little baby, and with her dollies. and she just learned how to ride a bike. No, last thing is the one I got the greatest attention. Claire was listening to Mozart's Ave Verum CD, right? Mama, it is so so beautiful. At the end, Mama asked her how she liked the the song. She said, "Oh, Mama, it was heaven singing on earth."

[1:43] Oh. Six years old. Yeah, it was heaven singing on earth. That's that. Could I could. John Paul II called you know the Ave Verum Corpus to the incomparable right, motet there you know and I had it for our wedding you know had it for the communion service you know and Warren Murray had it for his in his wedding too you know and so that's pretty good that she sees that heaven singing on earth that that's what struck me that that phrase.

[2:14] Okay, let's look at the objections here. Article four. For the apostle says in the epistle to the Romans that the nations, the Gentiles, who do not have the law, they do naturally those things which are of the law. But that which man naturally does, he can do through himself or by himself, without what grace. Therefore, man can do the precepts of the law, observe them without what grace.

[2:51] To the first, therefore, it should be said that, as Augustine says in the book on Spirit and the Letter. It should not move us that naturally he says those things which are the law they do. For this is something that the spirit of grace does, that the image of God in which we are naturally made, he established in us. So he's saying that

[3:19] he's going to make distinctions in the body article, right? But if they perform in some way the laws because of the nature God what gave them, right? Huh? We'll see the distinctions he makes in the body article.

[3:35] Moreover, Jerome says in the exposition of the Catholic faith that those are maledicendos huh? And to be cursed? Yes. The thing in the mass this morning was from was it the prophets there? Jeremiah was it two of them? But he's saying you know cursed is the man who puts his trust in man, right? Huh? Rather than God, right? I could see the woman's up there doing the reading today.

[4:17] There, she looked hesitant to say cursed at all. But it's impossible for man what he's not able to do through himself, right? By himself. Therefore, man is not able to fulfill all the precepts of the law by himself. What Thomas implies That which we're able to do with the help of God, right, is not altogether impossible for us.

[4:52] According to that of the philosopher in Aletheia quotes Aristotle in the third book of the Ethics that the things we're able to do through our friends, right, in some way able to do through ourselves, right. Of course, charity is a kind of friendship with God, right?

[5:12] Whence Jerome there confesses that our what? Our free judgment. Yeah. So we say, huh? We can always what? We always need. Unless we confess that our what free judgment is, our judgment is free, right? That we do not say, right? That we say nevertheless the same time that we always need the what help of God in some way, right?

[5:44] Moreover, among all the precepts of the law, the greatest is that you shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart. But man can fulfill this command from his natural powers alone by loving God above all things, as was said above, right? Therefore, all commands of the law a man can fulfill without grace.

[6:12] To the third, he said it should be said that the precept about the love of God a man cannot fulfill from purely natural powers, according as it is fulfilled from what charity, right? He said before you know the part naturally loves the whole, right? And subordinates itself to the whole. And so God is a natural source of things you can do this by your natural what powers, huh?

[6:37] But to love Him as a source of eternal life, right? Requires what charity and so on. But now Thomas seems to in in the body of the article, as he does, with the said contra here to proceed mainly by what authority, right? Because the authority here is that the condemn condemnation of this heresy, right? But against this is what Augustine says in the book on heresies that this pertains to the heresy of the Pelagians, huh?

[7:12] Who believe that without grace man is able to do all the divine what? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Now Thomas makes some distinctions here in the body of the article, but basically he's proceeding for authority, I think here. I answer it should be said that to fulfill the commandments of the law can happen in two ways. In one way, as regards the very substance of the deeds, huh? In so far as a man can do just things and brave things, right?

[7:48] And other what works of virtue. And in this way, now he's making another distinction here, though. And in this way, man in the state of integral nature, right? Would be able to what fulfill all Fulfill all the commands of the law. Otherwise, in that state, he would not be able to what? Sin. Not not not sin, right? Not sin. Since this is nothing other, not there since nothing other than transgress the divine commands, huh?

[8:24] But now in the state of corrupt nature, right? One cannot what man cannot fulfill all the divine commandments without grace healing him, huh? Okay. They didn't seem to give me a reason for that, right? Here, but he's proceeding by authority, right? Huh? In the this edition, of course, you have the things of Pius the fifth, you know, not a naph about sin and so on. So I mean, there's no question about being you know authority, right?

[8:57] Huh? And that's as regards the substance of the work, right? And even that he can't in the state of what fallen nature, right? In another way, one can fulfill the commands of the law not only as regards the substance of the doing, but also as regards the way of doing it, that they come about from what charity, huh? And in this sense, neither in the state of what integral nature, right?

[9:33] Nor in the state of what corrupt nature, can a man fulfill without grace the commands of the law. Once, when August, once Augustine says in the book on what correction, huh? Yeah. When it said that without grace, man can do nothing. What? Good, Not only is showing what should be done. As knowing right, but also as what, giving him that he would do with love what he knows right now.

[10:11] Okay. Now, apart from this, huh? In the sense which even Aristotle would know this, he needs a, in addition to what this in both states, right, the aid of God moving him to fulfilling the commands, right. Okay. See, even Aristotle knew that, right? Yeah, this is Aristotle that quote there from Aristotle, you know, the Eudemian Ethics, huh? Kind of amazing Aristotle said to see that, right? Aristotle is somebody's, the guy said.

[10:47] Okay, so he's seen the applied objections. Okay. Now, Article Five. To the fifth, one goes forward thus: it seems that man is able to merit eternal life without grace.

[11:12] Boy that's a game changer For the Lord says in Matthew nineteen, "If you wish to enter into life, observe the commands." Right. From which it seems that to enter into eternal life is something constituted in the the will of man.

[11:37] But that which is in our will, constituted in our will, established in our will, we are able to do through ourselves. Therefore, it seems that a man to himself is able to merit what eternal life.

[11:54] To the first, therefore, it should be said that man by his own will can what do works meritorious of eternal life. But as Augustine says in the same book, right? In order to do so, the will of man must be prepared by God through what grace.

[12:31] Okay. Do you follow that? Do you follow that reply Yes I think so I could say you can do through your will, right? Something meritorious, right? Yeah, not your will alone.

[12:47] Moreover, eternal life is a reward, um, premium of mercy. Yeah, synonyms, huh? More or less. Reward or prize. Yeah. Which is rendered to men by God, huh? According to that of Matthew five, your reward is much in heaven, right?

[13:14] But the reward is rendered by God to man according to his works, huh? According to that of Psalm sixty-one, he will render to each one according to his works, right? Since therefore man is lord of his works, huh? It seems that's in his constituted in his power to arrive at what eternal life, huh? To second, should be said that as the gloss says, huh?

[13:48] May reference to Augustine here, but anyway, here he just identifies the gloss in Romans six. By the grace of God, eternal life. It is certain that eternal life, by good works, right, is rendered. But these works, by which it is rendered, pertain to what? Grace of God.

[14:15] Since also above it has been said that for fulfilling the commandments of the law, according to the suitable way, right, through which their fulfilling is meritorious, requires what? Grace. Grace.

[14:37] Okay. Now the third argument. Moreover, eternal life is the last end of human life. But each natural thing, to its own natural powers, can achieve its its end. Therefore, much more man, who is of higher nature, through his natural powers can arrive at eternal life without some grace, right? Yeah. But it's eternal life, the natural end of man, right? To the

[15:10] third, it should be said that that objection goes forward about the natural end of man, right? Now, human nature, from this that is more noble, can be led to a higher end, right? Huh? At least by the aid of grace. An end to which inferior or lower natures, in no way, are what? Yeah. What's the word there? Inferiora right? Where's it come from?

[15:41] Lower. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Just as man is more what? Exposed to health, who by some aids of medicine can attain health, right? Than the one who can in no way, as the philosopher introduces us in the second book on the heavens. He often quotes that passage in there, right? Okay.

[16:27] But against this is what the apostle says in the epistles to the Romans. Gratia Dei vita aeterna. Eternal life by the grace of God, right? So it's by that.

[16:45] Which therefore should be under. What therefore should be said is a gloss, is there? That we understand God, right, to lead us to eternal life by His what? Mercy. Here, mercy, I guess.

[17:07] Well, Thomas says, "Answer should be said that acts leading to an end must be what proportion to that end. Now, no act exceeds the proportion of its active source,

[17:26] and therefore we see in natural things that no thing can perfect an effect to its operation which exceeds its active power, but it can only produce, right, to its operation an effect that is proportioned to its power. Now, eternal life is an end exceeding the proportion of human nature, as is clear from the things said above.

[18:03] And therefore, man, through his natural powers, is not able to produce works meritorious or proportion. He can't produce meritorious works that are proportioned to eternal life, but for this is required a higher power, which is the power of what grace. And therefore, without grace, man is not able to merit eternal life. He can, however, do works leading to something can actually be good for man, right? As he can labor in the field, right?

[18:39] He can drink, he can eat, he can have a friend, and others of these sort, as Augustine says in his third response against the what Pelagians. huh? I haven't read Gus a long time and he's saying, my cousin used to have a volume of works of Gussin. I'd go over his house and read these things, you know. So I got the positions down pretty clear, but but.

[19:13] I was saying last time there, you know, Thomas is very clear that Plato and Aristotle are the chief philosophers. I always say Augustine and Thomas are the chief theologians, huh?

[19:29] Okay. Article five. We get to Article six. What? Semi-collages. To six, one goes forward. Thus, it seems that man is able to prepare himself for grace to himself or by himself, without the exterior aid of grace. For nothing is placed upon man that is impossible for him, right?

[20:02] As has been said. But Zachary one three, he says, "Be converted to me, and I'll convert to you." This is nothing other than to prepare oneself from grace. The one who converts to God, right? Therefore, it seems that man to himself or by himself can prepare himself for grace without the aid of grace.

[20:32] Now, notice the way Thomas. Answers this. To the first, therefore, should be said that the conversion of man to God comes about through free will, right? And according to that fact, right, is commanded to man that he what convert himself to God, right? But free will can be converted to God cannot be converted to God except by God what converting it to himself. According to that of Jeremiah's thirty one,

[21:11] convert me, and I will be what. Convert me. Yeah. And in the Lamentations, I guess, last chapter, convert us, Lord, to you, and we will be converted. That's why I know we said.

[21:36] Sin is cast out from the soul, not by our choice, not by our will, by grace, not out of. Yeah, Thomas. They always quote Augustine: "God who created us without us will not."

[22:04] Moreover, man prepares himself for grace by doing what is in his own power, right, or in himself. Because if man does what is in his his own power, in himself, God will not deny to him what grace. For it is said in Matthew seven eleven. That God gives the good spirit to those what asking him, but that is said to be in us that is in our power.

[22:38] Therefore, it seems that in our power is constituted that we prepare ourselves for what grace. To second should be said that man is able to do nothing unless he be moved by what God. According to that of John chapter fifteen, I am just up in chapter thirteen now. Maybe John. Ah, it's quite pitiful in some sense, you know. Judas, isn't it? You know, I mean, just yeah, yeah.

[23:18] Freiting to say. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what Christism has a great rebuke for everybody. Yeah. Here he was. Here he was. You know, we sit back and think, how could somebody be so easily corrupted by money and so forth? And he said, but Judas heard Christ. He saw the miracles, and he's still trapped by his money or whatever else it was. And he said, "And you people, you don't see Christ, you don't hear him, so you've got to be even more careful about money and so forth, because you'll be more easily trapped by it than he was.

[23:53] And if you are shocked that he went off the deep end, you've got to be even more cautious. Remember, years ago, they were reading some account of one of those exorcisms, you know, and and Judas is supposed to be involved in it. There, you know, one of the devils, I guess. Yeah, I don't know whether, but that's what is. It was. It was a historical exorcism. It was.

[24:31] And maybe it's not, but I remember seeing one book. It was. It was a some exorcism, and they would state like who was who was the one possessed. Who who was and in one several cases they said yeah well sometimes demons tell lies to us yeah yeah okay

[24:56] um without me you can do nothing right huh and therefore man is said to do what is in himself and therefore when it is said that man is to what

[25:18] to do what is in himself is said to be in the power of man according as it is is moved by God right okay

[25:28] now. I like this third objection. Moreover, if man needs grace in order that he prepare himself for grace, for like reason he needs grace to be prepared for that grace, and this is a proceeding for infinitum, which is inconvenient.

[25:48] Therefore, we want to stand to the first to say that a man without grace can prepare himself for grace. He says that objection proceeds about what habitual grace, huh? For which is required some what preparation, because every form requires a something to be suitably disposed, right? Do we see it? But this that man is moved by God does not presuppose some other motion, right? Since God is the first what mover, right?

[26:27] Whence is not necessary to go infinity, huh? Yeah. Yeah. And if you put the little sandpaper things on them, it's like Velcro underneath. Yeah. And I I got stuckered in buying this. So the Velcro wears out eventually. Yeah. It won't hold the sandpaper anymore. So so they do is you buy the new pad that has Velcro on it. Yeah. And then they sell you another thinner pad to take that off.

[26:58] Yeah. I said, should I need another pad? That Velcro, another pad for that part? I'm just gonna stack the Velcro like this. Okay. Good. The third objection, huh? Go back to the third objection. It'll be fourth objection, yeah. Moreover, in Proverbs 16 it is said it belongs to a man to prepare his what soul. But that is said to be a man which is able to do what to himself.

[27:42] Therefore, it seems that a man to himself is able to prepare himself for grace. To the fourth, it should be said that it's of man to prepare the soul, because he does this through his free will, right? But nevertheless, he cannot do this without the aid of God moving him and drawing him to himself, huh? So has been said, huh? In the Gospel, doesn't he say something about no one can come to me unless my Father draw him?

[28:15] You know. Okay. Hey, that's what's been quoted here in this country. My goodness! No, I didn't. I I did that on my own. I'm reading the Gospel of John. I told you that.

[28:36] I'm really just looking. I want the glory. I'm anticipating what Thomas is going to say, right? Okay, well, let me have my glory. But against this is what is said in John chapter six: No one can come to me unless the Father, who sent me, draws him.

[29:00] If, however, a man would be able to prepare himself, it would not be necessary that he be drawn by another, right? Therefore, that man cannot prepare himself for grace without the aid of grace. I think it was our reading today in John there that, you know, if I lifted up, I would draw men to myself. Well, I use the word drawing, right? Because the drawing of us to God is an act very common to the Trinity, huh?

[29:29] Same power. Okay, let's see what the master says now in the body article. A answer should be said that twofold is the preparation of the will of man, the human will, to the what good? Huh? I didn't know that. Huh? He always sees a distinction. This guy that I had not seen. Brother Mark used to say, "but you! could! Why could I have thought of that?" There. Hey, myself, did not.

[30:11] Because the light isn't strong enough. One by which is prepared for doing well, right, and for what? enjoying God. And such a preparation of the will cannot come about without a what? Gift, habitual grace, which is the beginning or source of a meritorious work or doing. Huh? As has been said. In another way, it can be understood the preparation of the will of man for achieving the gift of what habitual grace.

[30:55] Now, in order that he might prepare himself for the reception of such a gift, it is not necessary to presuppose some other habitual gift, right? That's that objection we saw about. in infinitum there in the soul, huh? Because thus one would, as that objection said, proceed in infinitum. But it's necessary to presuppose some gratuitous aid of God, inwardly moving the what soul, or inspiring, right, the good proposed.

[31:32] Huh? For in these two ways we need the divine help. Okay, as has been said above, huh? Now that for this we need the aid of God moving us, it is manifest, huh? For it's necessary, since every agent acts in account of an end, that every cause convert his effects to his own what end. And therefore, since according to the order of agents, huh, or movers, is also the order of ends, huh?

[32:17] Thomas Thomas argues from that unto God's very being being Himself, right? Huh? Because that's the only that's proportioned to Him. It is necessary that to the last end a man be converted through the motion of the first, right. Mover to the proximate or nearer end through the motion of one of the what inferior movers,

[32:45] just as the soul of the soldier is converted to seeking victory from the movement of the leader of the army, but to what? Following the standard. Yeah, of some what? as that has to do with the standard too, but I can't remember what it means,

[33:12] but some part of the army right now. From the motion of the tribune. Battle line. Yeah, yeah. Thus, since God is the first mover, so put it there without any qualification, huh? Just like we see, He's the first mover, the first maker, He's the first cause, huh?

[33:35] From His motion, huh? From His moving, other things that all things are converted to Himself, right? According to the common intention of the good, through which each thing aims to submit itself to God in its own what way, huh?

[34:01] Whence Dionysius says in the book about the divine names that God converts all to Himself, huh? But He converts just men, right, to Himself as to a special end which they intend and to which they wish to adhere, as to their own what good, according to that of Psalm seventy-two. It's good for me to adhere to what? Yeah, it's good. Good for me.

[34:43] And therefore, that a man be converted to God cannot be except God converting him. Aristotle talks about this order of movers and ends there in the beginning of the Nicomachean Ethics, there, right?

[35:02] But this is to prepare himself for grace as a word to be what converted to God, just as the man, the one who has an eye turned away from the light of the sun, through this prepares himself for receiving the light of the sun when he converts his eyes towards the what sun, huh? Whence it is clear that man is not able to prepare himself for receiving the light of grace except through the gratuitous aid of God.

[35:35] Moving him, but inwardly, huh? But. Thomas often makes use of that comparison of the order of ends and the order of movers, huh? Kind of correspond, right? And you can argue from one to the other, right?

[36:19] So if God is the first mover; he must be the first end, right, huh? Now it's proper to the mover called God to move things towards the end which is God, right, huh? And therefore, you can't, as it were, be the first mover of yourself towards God, right? Because then, you know. And you're your own cause. Yeah, but there's but there's there's a proportion there, right?

[36:52] That's what I know. Saint Bonaventure has this way of joining these things. Yeah. Succinctly, he says, "If God is the first, he says, 'If God is the end of all things, therefore he's the first. ' Because if he does anything, there's no other reason for doing it except for himself. Therefore, I remember as a kid there, you know, playing on a team there, and some guy is kind of, you know, assumed or has the authority, right?

[37:19] You know, okay, you're running out there, and I throw the ball to you over there, you know, and you, you, oh, you, you back out. Did you have that experience? So you want some exciting part of the play, right? But there's one guy who's what, in a sense, huh? You tried to score or something, whatever it is, and he's got that end in mind, right? And you're going to be something kind of secondary, right?

[37:46] That it's going to contribute to the end, but he's the one who's really, you know, responsible for successful play, right? Huh? I don't know if the quarterback does it all the time or not. He calls the play. What's going to be?

[38:02] Yeah, yeah. Remember a couple times watching a game, you know, where it's very close, and and they have one play, really, to kind of score, you know, and they they go over and have a call and they go talk to the thing and in fact, really a sneaky play, you know, and kind of really outwitted the the the other, you know, but you know, kind of the the brains behind it all, right?

[38:26] Huh? That one I saw when I was in the waiting room with that other guy there. It was. I don't think it was planned this way. At the end of the game, it was like close score, and the team that was down, something happened where they either dropped the ball, but it was still the play was going on, and they they actually continued to do in the course of the play.

[38:48] They clock ran out, but the play was still going. In the course of the play, they did seven lateral passes. Yeah. Nothing illegal. Yeah. Seven lateral passes and scored and won the game. Yeah. But the play went on for like five minutes. It was fumbled this ball and thrown it to this guy, and they kicked the ball in. It was really exciting for the team that won because it was it was so unplanned, but yet at the same time, the element of the surprise—that's where I was thinking of.

[39:18] When you try to plan something, it's unexpected. Yeah. Special strategy. Yeah. Used to be one guy down in my father's factory, you know. who. When they started a new procedure, right? He's the guy to figure out how to do it, and he teaches other guys how to do it, right? And then, then once they they picked it up, then he move on to next thing, right? My father's always looking for a guy to to raise this guy, sorry, all the time, because he was, you know.

[39:47] Yeah. I mean, he he was the guy who was. Yeah. Now, Article Seven. Right. To the seventh, one proceeds thus. It seems that a man is able to rise from sin without the aid of grace. That sounds rather. You figure after six, no, it's a word. For that which is presupposed, right? We need beforehand for grace comes to be without grace.

[40:34] But to rise up from sin is presupposed to the illumination of grace. For it is said in the Epistle to the Ephesians, "Rise up from the dead," right? From dead things, and Christ will enlighten you, right? Therefore, man is able to rise up from sin without grace. Well, that convinces me. This dummy over here. You dummy, sir? Convinced too? Yeah. What they do now?

[41:06] You see, deathbed conversions are common. The first, therefore, it should be said, huh? That that is what. Indicated for man, that pertains to the act of what free will, which is required in this that a man rise up from what sin, right? And therefore, when it is said to rise up and Christ to illuminate you, it should not be understood that the whole rising up, I guess, huh?

[41:44] From sin precedes illumination of grace, but when what man by free will, moved by God, huh? Rise attempts to rise up from sin. Then he receives the light of the grace that, in fact, justifies him.

[42:15] Don't they say that's something about confession too? You know that how sometimes when a man is is trying to confess his sins, then he gets grace in sacrament self, you know, to to go all the way, so to speak, right? Rise up. He has got that particular thing. Okay.

[42:40] Moreover, sin is opposed to virtue, just as sickness to health, as has been said above. But man, through the power of nature, can rise up from sickness to health, without the aid of some exterior medicine. On account of this, that there remains within him a source of life from which the natural operation proceeds, right? So grace is just to make it easier to rise up, huh? Not that you really need it, yeah.

[43:12] So. Therefore, it seems that for a similar reason, man is able to be repaired through himself by returning from the state of sin to the state of justice, without the aid of exterior grace. I mean, just to make it make it easier, you know, it's like adding oil to the the thing, yeah. Like it's still moving without the oil, but it's a little more difficult to to move.

[43:43] I answer to second. It should be said that natural reason is not a sufficient beginning of this health, which is in man through grace justifying him.

[43:58] But the beginning of this, the source of this, is grace, which is taken away what by sin. And therefore, a man is not able to be repaired by himself, but he needs newly, you might say, huh, for the light of grace to be poured into him, right? Just as if a what dead body rising up, right, newly, a soul is what poured in, yeah, can't from itself.

[44:39] Number three. Moreover, any natural thing is able to return to an act suitable to its nature. Just as water, being heated through itself, not being heated by itself, but through itself it returns, right, to natural frigidity Now, okay. Any stone thrown up through itself returns to its natural motion eventually, right? Doesn't keep on going up forever. But the sin is a certain act against nature, as is clear through Damascene in the second book of his famous work.

[45:20] Okay, the Orthodox faith, right? Therefore, it seems that God and man is able through himself to return. From sin to the state of justice. Now that that convinces this dummy over here. I don't know. Okay. To third, it should be said that when nature is integral or complete, to itself is able to repair, right? Itself to that which is suitable to it and proportion to it, right?

[45:55] But to that which exceeds its proportion, it cannot repair itself without some outside aid, right? Thus, therefore, human nature, flowing down, I guess, through the act of sin, because it does not remain integral but is corrupted, it cannot, to itself, repair, or even what, right? To the good which is connatural to it, huh?

[46:30] And much less to the good, the good of supernatural justice. Now, against this is what the apostle says in Galatians: If there is given a law which can what justify, then Christ gratis died, huh? That was necessary, without cause. Where is Augustine speak about how the influence that Saint Paul had upon his thinking? You know, I think must have been especially about grace. You know that that he was found Paul very necessary help.

[47:19] You know. That's uh very much all Paul does but Yeah. It's more explicit in some ways in Paul than in the Gospels. You know.

[47:32] Yeah. When Thomas divides the New Testament on the basis of grace, then he divides it into what I think three parts, doesn't he? And the Gospels deal with the origin of grace, right? And then in the epistles of Saint Paul, with the what nature of grace itself, and then in the Acts of the Apostles, and the canonical epistles, and the Apocalypse, the effect of grace, right, which is mainly in one word, the Church, right?

[48:12] And its beginning in the Acts of the Apostles, its progress is seen in the epistles of the canonical epistles, and then finally, its what? Consummation. Yeah. In the Apocalypse, right, final stage, right. Okay. That's kind of interesting, right? So I mean, he sees the epistle Saint Paul in that division as being what about the very nature of grace, right? The gospels are about the origin of grace, which is Christ.

[48:42] But it kind of fits, you know, with Augustine being the great opponent of the Pelagians and so on, right? And that he had a special debt, you might say, and speaks about the help he got from from reading Saint Paul, you know. Yeah, it's amazing what what we don't, people draw out of those readings when we look at what Saint Augustine learned from it. Yeah, and in Irene it's like water over the bridge and it's colour, yeah, yeah.

[49:21] When Thomas divides up the epistle Saint Paul, you know, it's on the basis of where he's talking about grace, right? Graces it's in, you know. the The church or graces. it's in the the the principal members of the church or graces, It's in the sacraments. You know, I mean, I mean, he's got all these different distinctions, but it's all it's grace-filled, you know. I have a grandchild named Grace, by the way, too.

[49:49] You missed the talking about my grandchild Claire, right? And she's listening to Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus, and she says, and mother asks her, "What do you think of that?" She says, "Mama, it was heaven singing on earth." She's only six years old, and I says, "That's kind of beautiful way she had expressing herself." You know, it surprises you sometimes that they come up with these little ones.

[50:14] But I have to ask the graceful one, what grace is. Okay. Okay, so we're up to by the article now, article seven, right? Answer: It should be said that man in no way is able to rise up from sin by himself without the aid of what grace, huh? For when a what the sin passes an act, right? There remains in what guilt, right? As has been said above, so it's not the same thing to rise up from sin and to cease from the act of sin.

[51:13] That would make it kind of nice, you know. Commit adultery, and then it's gone. Yeah, it's gone. The act is no longer there, right?

[51:27] But to rise up from sin is to what repair man to those things which he what lost by sinning. Now a man runs into a threefold detriment by sinning. I didn't know that. I knew there was some bad effect of it, but

[51:49] to wit, the what a stain that is corruption of what a stain, corruption of natural good, and the debt of punishment, yeah. Now the stain he incurs, in so far as he is deprived of the beauty of what grace from the deformity of what sin, huh? Nice way of saying what sin does to you, right? Makes you kind of an ugly thing, huh?

[52:30] So Judas is kind of come ugly there, right, huh? That was portrayed interesting in that movie, The Passion of Christ. you know, when he was driven out by those demons, And uh I remember, um

[52:46] he started bleeding in his mouth, like because of the kiss of Betrayal. So the mouth gets all bloody, and the and these boys are like flies around these but his face change because of that blood. Yeah.

[53:07] Okay. The good of nature is corrupted, right? Insofar as the nature is disordered, right? By the will of man not being subject to what God.

[53:25] For this order being taken away, it follows that the whole nature of man sinning remains what Disorder disordered, huh? And the guilt or the obligation, you might say, to punishment is through this that man, by sinning, merits by sinning mortally, I should say, merits eternal damnation. huh? That sounds pretty bad all of that. Even one of those would be bad enough.

[54:02] Bad state for being. Have all three of those. Give me a real fire sermoness. You know what the effect of mortally sinning is? What is it? Deformity. Makes you deformity. Makes you an ugly soul, right? Yeah, yeah. And makes you what else? Guilty of this eternal punishment. I mean, subject to. this? Disorder. Yeah. Disorder in everything.

[54:43] Yeah, yeah. Doesn't Augustine say somewhere that a disordered soul is a punishment to itself? huh? All kinds of talk now about people getting over-drugged, you know, and so I guess. We got a drug rehab place opening up here in Bakersfield. Yeah, yeah. And it's really a number of the states there. You know, they're talking. It's a crisis. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When you consider out here in the sticks, yeah, there's a heroin problem with high school kids.

[55:09] Mm. What? That's really really sick. I just drink wine. I don't know what. Well, you got to try some of these wine and candy and crazy stuff. Broaden your horizons, that's for us. I got students here. I mean, my motto is "Vino Veritas," you know.

[55:36] But in drugs, disorder, drugs. That's what my friend said, who used to do drugs. He says they call it dope for a reason. Yeah, it's the doctors do this. I thought, I thought being, you know, out of order, right?

[56:00] Same when they they hang up the machine down there, out of order, a little sign says out of order, it's not working right anymore. But especially when it's working, it's not working. So you're putting your money and nothing comes out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We expect order. I mean, sitting puts you out of order. That's what he's saying. That's one of the three effects.

[56:26] Amazing how many times three shows up, right? Pretty, pretty good. You have to do all three of these things, right? To see the whole picture, right, a complete thing. Aristotle gives that example there. He's talking in the De Caelo, right was quoted there earlier. You know where he says there's only three dimensions, right? And he kind of takes this popular thing, you know, that three is the first number about which we say all.

[56:53] If you and I are going to the movies, we're both going. But if all three of us are going, then we're all we're all going, yeah. And of course Aristotle talks about how he uses the word three in praising God, right? Of course, this is where you get this proverb, Aristaldi, Trinity. she did it, you know. But I mean, there's some certain perfection in the number three, right?

[57:18] And as complete and perfect mean almost the same thing, right? All, you know, complete and perfect mean almost the same thing, and kind of amazing. Often it shows up, you know.

[57:35] You read about, you know, the piano concerto there, you know, and how sometimes they had two movements and sometimes they had five, but then they they kind of settled eventually upon the three seemed to be the right, right? Yeah, yeah.

[57:50] Three acts. Yeah, I mean, Mozart's quartets or symphonies he had four movements because those customary, but he has some symphonies in three movements, and and they're all considered what complete works, right? And the early quartets are in three movements, huh? The only famous symphony in two movements is Schubert's Unfinished Symphony it's called, right? It's gone down.

[58:18] Father Steiner, the priest there, in the parish, you know, he liked that Schubert's unfinished symphony, you know. But it's unfinished, right? There's something, you know, something missing, you know. Yeah, it's the only famous one that has just two movements, right? There's a lot of famous symphonies, you know, that have three movements, huh? Mozart. Three is enough.

[58:45] You talk about you know the Baroque period, you knew had to have three instruments, right, to really exhaust all the possibilities, right. You could have more, but you really need three, you know, to to be complete.

[59:04] Okay. Now, what about these three things? Huh. Is manifest about each of these three things, right, that they cannot be repaired except by God.

[59:26] Now that's interesting. Since for the what. Decor. Decor means you can turn to the beauty, right? How does your English translation say For these decor? The luster, Luster of grace, shining. Yeah. Okay. But you know, you know, like Dionysius, says and he talks about the beauty of God, right, and so on. He has to explain what beauty means, right? But one aspect of beauty is that there must be a light, huh?

[59:53] You see? And you can see that now. You have to send bright light to have beauty. And he says, since the decor of grace and the beauty of grace comes from the what enlightenment, the divine light, huh? The illustration of the divine light. There cannot be such a decor, such a beauty in the soul repaired, except by God, newly what? Light. Yeah. Once there is required an habitual what gift, which is the light of what grace.

[1:00:32] I am the light of the world, he said, and so on. Okay. Unedited these texts, he always skips a little line there each point, you know, so it's easier for it to follow, right? And you realize, say, oh, because he's skipping a line there, he means there's something entirely new or another main point to be seen, right? Huh? You can't bring these together. Similarly, the order of nature cannot be repaired, so that the will would be what subject.

[1:01:02] The will of man would be subject to God, unless what God drawing the will of man to Himself, as has been said above, right? We talked that we said in the previous article.

[1:01:18] Likewise, the punishment of of eternal pain cannot be remitted, except by God, to whom, in whom, the offense was committed against whom, and who is the what judge of man, right?

[1:01:39] And therefore, there is required the aid of grace in order that man might rise up from sin, both as regards the what habitual gift, as regards the interior motion of God, huh?

[1:01:55] So you can pray, you know, God, move us, move me to love you above all other things, even myself. That's a tough one. Yeah. yeah. Grant, to the merciful God, that I might love you above all other things, and all other things, for, the sake of you, even myself. It's wonderful.

[1:02:28] It's interesting, of course. Order is also an aspect of beauty, too, huh? Okay, that's wonderful, Thomas. We'll keep you as a teacher. Yeah. you pass this test, we'll stop the next one.

[1:02:50] It's like it's like it's like a geometry where you can draw two straight lines across and, those two angles equal. Well, it's like we keep going through every time. We're just going to draw two more angles. Maybe how about this one? Yeah. Let's

[1:03:06] see. Clara is very mistaken up with the beauty there of what the Ave Verum Corpus sound maybe is a beautiful thing, you know. She has ears to hear. Yeah, yeah. You know what Wagner said about Mozart? Mozart is above all the masters in all the arts and in all the ages. Wow. I like the chord. It's like forcing the demons to confess God, you know. Well, it's funny funny because because this one guy that that we count the money on Monday night now, so six thirty we count the church's money and then deposit it.

[1:03:47] But you know, one of the guys likes classical music, but he likes Wagner, right? So I said, "Wagner's set up on Mozart." Give us a ten. And read what your granddaughter said. Yeah. Peter Pan kids. Put that blurb from Wagner on the back of the Mozart CDs. What? Put that blurb from Wagner on the back of the Mozart CDs. Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. Other great composers said about Mozart.

[1:04:20] What others are saying? What others are saying about this work? Okay. So.