Prima Secundae
276. The Cause of Grace: God Alone Deifies, with Christ's Humanity and the Sacraments as His Instruments (Summa I-II, Q.112, Article 1)
Class of 2016-03-31
https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/11-prima-secundae/276-the-cause-of-grace-god-alone-deifies-with-christs-humanity/

[0:00] I was glancing ahead at the premium there to the effects of grace, right? And getting question one thirteen, huh? Was tied up with those two kinds of graces I was talking about the beginning of class there about the operating grace and cooperating grace. He says the beginning of one thirteen. Then we're not to consider about the effects of grace, and first about the justification of the impious, which is an effect of grace operantis, huh?

[0:34] Secondly, about merit, which is an effect of what? Yeah, that's beautiful, isn't it? Okay, but we're just back at the start now of the causes, right?

[0:53] If you remember, you know the the way back the first premium, you know, for the whole treatise on grace here. In one o nine, we have the just to recall that just so we know where we are. Consequently, we're not to consider about the exterior beginning of human acts, to wit, about God, in so far as we are what aided by Him through grace to act rightly, huh?

[1:26] And then is divided into two or three. It's got to be one of the either two or three, right? And first, we're not to consider about grace, the grace of God. Secondly, about its cause, and third, about its what effects? Okay, so where are we?

[1:47] Yeah, so we finished the first part, right? And now we the first part was divided into three parts, right? First, we consider about the necessity of grace. Secondly, about grace as regards its very essence, and then we're just finishing the third part about its what division, right? So now we're going to the second part. Okay, treatise on grace, huh? The cause of grace, huh? Okay.

[2:26] That's not the way theology as a whole is divided, right? You consider it's got three parts, right? You consider God in Himself, then God is the Alpha, beginning of things, right? And then God is the what? The end of things, right? That's the first three books of the Summa Contra Gentiles, right? That's the way the the last three books are divided. The last book is divided to the fourth book, okay.

[2:55] Well, Thomas does in the Summa Contra Gentiles is he divides the four books have to be divided into three or two. They're divided into what, two? And the first three books are about these things about God that can be known by natural reason as well as by faith. And the second part, which is book four, is the what? It's the same thing. It's the thing that can be known only by faith, right?

[3:21] Huh? Okay. But then that first part is divided into the first, second, and third book, which are God in Himself, God as the beginning of things, and God as the end of things. And then you have the same three things again: God in Himself, like the Trinity, you know, and then God as what, beginning of things that we don't Aristotle didn't know about, and the end, right?

[3:45] He didn't know about. So it's divided into those same three, right? Huh? So you divide the Summa Contra Gentiles really into two parts. Now the the editorial division is into what, four? Yeah, but you gotta you gotta careful that way.

[4:07] The New Testament is divided into what? How many parts? Editorially. See, it's quite a few, right? Twenty-eight. Yeah, but but but but does Thomas divide the New Testament into three or two?

[4:24] Three. Yeah, yeah. So he divides it into the the origin of grace, which is the four Gospels, right? And then the what nature of grace, right, which is the epistles of Saint Paul, and then the effect of grace, which is the Acts of the Apostles and the canonical epistles and the what? Yeah, because it the effect of the grace is as a whole is the church, right?

[4:53] So the beginning of the church in the Acts of the Apostles and its growth is seen in the canonical epistles, where Saint Jude talks about building up the church, right? And that's kind of that. And then the final stage in the what? So he divides the New Testament into three, right? Now he's divided the Old Testament into three or two.

[5:17] Two I think Yeah, usually two, yeah, because the Old Testament is divided on the basis of law, right? And it's divided into the law of the king, which is in the Pentateuch and the prophets, right, where encouraging people to follow the law, and then the sapiential books, you might say, right, which are the law of the father, right, and so the the author of those texts say, you know, my son, my son, do this, and my son do that, right?

[5:50] So he's divided the Old Testament into three, you know, to separate the prophets and the Pentateuch, yeah. That's how the Jews have it Yeah, And Christ's sentence refers to that, you know. The law and the prophets and the psalms. He'll say, so he touches upon those three that Thomas has, right? So sometimes Thomas divides it into three. So I always give the rule, you know, the rule of two or three or both, right?

[6:15] My friend Aristotle, one of my best teachers, in fact, teacher by written word, can't by spoken word, but I divide my teachings into those who taught me by their spoken word, like Syriac and Dacanic and Dion and Boule and so on, and those who taught me by their written word, right? And it's a difference. Well, Aristotle divided what the plot into both two and three, right? Which is beginning, middle, and end, right?

[6:51] And then he divides it into tying the knot or knots and untying the knots, right? And so we can do that, folks, right? And

[7:04] you know, as soon as you divide the family into the father, the mother, and the children, right? But sometimes into the parents and the children, you know, it makes sense to do this, you know.

[7:22] Actually, try to explain the difference between the the father and the mother in terms of the child, right? And it seemed to me the difference was this: that the father sees the child more as continuation of himself, and the mother sees the child as a kind of fulfillment of herself. It's kind of interesting, right? That's why sometimes you know a man will make the mistake, you know, he's got to have a male child, right?

[7:51] You know, like with the eighth and all, and and why the woman doesn't see it that way, you know, huh? Because she's what sees the child as its fulfillment of herself, right? But the man sees the child more as continuation of himself than he wants a son, right? Huh? Only you can get carried too far, as the eighth did, you know.

[8:19] I was at a funeral this this morning, and uh and the priest was giving a kind of eulogy, you know, talking about it. I guess I guess the woman there, her husband, they had five boys, right? And then five, the sixth one was a girl, you know. That was kind of funny, you know, huh? And I guess the priest himself had come from a family of five boys and one girl, right?

[8:49] Oh, really? So he's making little joking about how the boys are always in trouble, while the one girl was always good, you know. He's just he's kind of kidding, you know. Mercy, who's the one girl, this daughter of the woman who died. And you've written this, you know, because he thought he's giving a she's giving a better, you know, description of the girl than the way she behaved in the boys, you know.

[9:17] It's kind of funny. The priest had come from the same kind of a family. Five boys, one girl. Kind of a good joke. Yeah, marvelous, marvelous, marvelous woman. Yeah. Okay.

[9:36] Then we're not to consider about the cause of grace. Now this little part here we call this a what? Premium, right? Huh? You have to divide the thing. About this five things are asked, right? First, whether God alone is the efficient cause of what grace, huh? Second, whether there is required some disposition for grace

[10:10] on the part of the one what receiving it, some disposition by an act of his what free will, right? That's interesting, right? Kind of always wonder about the way they use the word Latin word "odd that we'd say the word "for" rather than "to," right? But how does that sense?

[10:37] Third, whether such a disposition is able to be necessitating, right? Necessitate to grace, huh? Okay, That's that's very important, right? Huh? So he he's going to probably answer in the second article that there is required some disposition on the part.

[11:03] Again, like Augustine says, that God who created you without you, right? Not saving without you, without your thing. Now, is there is there a necessitas to grace when you have the disposition? huh Or is that or is that Well those guys. I call those guys on grace, that aren't too good.

[11:25] What's that? What is it, Augustine? Pelagian? Yeah, yeah. I wonder if this is kind of kind of watch out, huh? See if you've got any heretics here. you know, about grace, huh? when the Pope said huh, that Augustine on grace is a church on grace, That's really strong, you know, huh? Yeah, just he's a great guy, that Augustine.

[11:54] Where did he come from, Hippo? was it come from horse or something? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I don't know why they call it that. I know that's the word for hippopotamus. Hippopotamus is, a river horse. Yeah, that's what the word means. Hippopotamus is the word for hippo. is the word for horse? River horse. That's what they had. Fourth, whether grace is equal in what all.

[12:31] Fifth, whether someone can know whether he has grace, huh? Okay. John of Arc was asked that question. Can a man know whether he's worthy of love or hate? Right. This is scripture. Okay. Now, what about a division into five here? What do you think about that? If you divide these five into two or three, what would you do? Would you divide into two or three?

[13:05] I heard that divide the first one against the others. No. No. I divide the first three against the fourth and one and the fifth one. I divide into three probably because the first three are talking about the cause of grace, right? And the main thing there is, with God, is the efficient cause, right? Whether God owns the efficient cause of grace, but then whether this disposition is in some way a cause, right, and whether it's a cause that necessitates, right?

[13:35] So the first three are about the kind of the cause of grace, right? The fourth one is not really about a cause so much, but whether the grace that you receive is going to be equal, right? You know, with your democratic view. we all, have a equal amount of grace, huh? And then the third one, I mean, the fifth one, is something entirely different, right? Talking about whether you can know yourself whether you have grace, right?

[14:07] What would the Greeks say? Know thyself, right? But can you know yourself in this case? huh In some way maybe See Sometimes I think I'm rotten to the core, you know. Sometimes I take a more benign view of myself. I guess I don't really know. See, I don't really know. So I would, I would put the the first three together, right? And then the second part would be the fourth article.

[14:40] And then the third part would be the fifth one, right? And the first three can be divided into two, right? With the first one against the other two, you know, which are dealing with this disposition, this character.

[15:00] But Thomas doesn't bother to be so pedantic, right? Like Burke was telling you You end up with something like the commentary on the sentences, that says a distinction in so many articles and some distinctions other articles.

[15:20] That's all the Bible Okay the first, then one goes forward. Thus, it seems that none solus, not alone, is God the cause of grace, huh? For it said in John chapter one verse seventeen, grace and truth through Jesus Christ was made, right? Huh? See, Thomas takes that text. I guess the whole text says, "And the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

[15:49] And then Thomas takes that as a what kind of a hint that the Old Testament is about law. And sometimes Christ refers the Old Testament as a law, right? Even though it may include the Psalms and so on, right? And then the New Testament is about grace, right? And kind of interesting that he saw that, right?

[16:10] Okay. So grace and truth through Jesus Christ is made, but in the name of Jesus Christ is understood not only the divine nature, assuming, but also the created nature assumed.

[16:28] Because Christ means anointed one. Is God anointed? I don't think so. That that's a human nature that's assumed that is anointed, huh? Okay. And therefore, some creature can be a cause of grace, huh? Okay. The human nature of Christ is not something divine, is it? Okay.

[16:54] Moreover, this difference is laid down between the sacraments of the new law and of the old, that the sacraments of the new law cause grace, which the sacraments of the old law only signify.

[17:13] I don't notice that the thing we're talking about before, huh? Now he talks about the what? Old law and the new law, right? How does that fit with Thomas's division of the Old Testament about law, the new one about grace? That's what he said, though. that the grace of the Holy Spirit is the new law. Yeah. but also here you could say you know that that the fact that the new sacraments of the new law give grace gives the excellence they have over the sacraments of the old law.

[17:48] So he said the new thing is about grace, and we'll keep the law for the Old Testament, right? Yeah, a little bit like that.

[17:58] So if the sacraments of new law cause grace, right? But the sacraments of new law are certain visible elements, right? Therefore, not only God is the cause of grace, huh? Okay.

[18:14] Moreover, according to Dionysius in the book on the celestial hierarchy, which Albert the Great commented on, like Thomas commented on the divine names by Dionysius, the angels purge, right, and enlighten and perfect both the lower angels and also men.

[18:37] But the rational creature is purged, illuminated, and perfected by grace. Therefore, not only God is the cause of grace, huh? How would an unfallen lesser angel be cleansed? Would be cleansed of its ignorance or? Yeah. Yeah. Not of his mistakes, Because they're not, you know, not rash as fire, right? They're not rash like fire, like we are, you know, where we jump to conclusion, you know. You know, when people are out there, you know, voting, not knowing what they're voting for, you know, and they're actually voting in many cases for what is going to harm them, you know.

[19:19] Ah, they don't know. A friend of my brother-in-law's, you know, worked in one of the congressional, one of the gubernatorial candidates, you know, in a number of years ago, and he's all over the state of Massachusetts, you know, and and it's it's amazing how ignorant people were. He found, you know, they don't even know what the candidate stands for, and the candidate who's actually stands for things that's opposed to their interest, they're supporting it without even knowing this.

[19:44] He's just kind of dumbfounded by the ignorance, you know. But the angels aren't jumping like that, you know, to things. some of the presidential campaigns, the media, the New York Times specifically made out the last-minute deciders who couldn't be bothered. To follow the issues up to the point of the election, and was lionizing them, you know, as being just very prudent thinkers on the one hand, on the other hand, but

[20:15] let's look at the answer to the objections here now. To the first, therefore, it should be said that the humanity of Christ, which is something other than God, right? Is like a certain what tool of his divinity,

[20:34] as Damascene says in the third book. Thomas often thinks about this. But a tool does not act by the what? Power. Bring forth the action of the principal agent by its own power. Yeah, but by the power of the principal agent.

[20:59] So did Michelangelo or his or his chisel and hammer make the Pietas? But is but as a tool his, uh, he had to have that you know probably couldn't do it with his fingers you know he'd be fingernails would be gone.

[21:19] And therefore, the humanity of Christ does not cause grace by its own what power, but by the power of the divinity joined to it. From which the actions of the humanity of Christ are. Yeah,

[21:39] yeah, okay. So is the humanity of Christ the cause of grace? Yeah. So the distinction, though, between the principal cause and the instrumental cause, right?

[22:08] Does the teacher's words and structure teach you something? Or does the teacher teach you? Did Koninck teach me and and and Dionne and Roman Kasurik Did these guys teach me, or do their words teach me? They taught you Did Thomas? Yeah, you know, is Thomas's words or Thomas teaching me? Thomas and words. of the instrumentality Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So the words of Thomas are a cause of my learning as a what instrument of of my teacher who's really Thomas, right?

[22:54] So Jesus Christ taught you how to pray by means of words. Yeah. Yeah. So the humanity of Christ is a cause of grace as a tool, right? That's a real causality, right? It's not as if it doesn't have any causality at all, right? When Thomas explained the third kind of cause, which Aristotle calls the mover or the maker, right? Then he often quotes a text about a son, where he distinguishes between the principal cause and the, you know, and the instrument, right?

[23:26] But also he'll talk about the one that disposes, right? We'll have them up in this other other article, right? Okay. So I told you about this guy who studied Dominicans. He had some teacher says, "Never affirm, seldom deny, always distinguish." You see? So yeah, humanity of Christ is a cause of grace, but as a tool of his what divinity, yeah, yeah.

[24:00] That's interesting. Okay, now the second objection was talking about the fact that the sacraments of the New Testament are causes of grace, right? Okay.

[24:22] To second, it should be said that just as in the person of Christ, right, in the person of Christ, humanity causes our salvation through grace, right, which the divine power is chiefly, right, making or operating. So also in the sacraments of New Law, which are derived from Christ, they cause grace, what? Yeah.

[24:53] Through the sacraments, but chiefly, right, through the power of the Holy Spirit operating in sacraments. I'm not suggesting that he he says, isn't there? Because sometimes we speak of the sacraments as instituted by Christ to give grace, right? But here he speaks of the Holy Spirit, huh? Operating in the what sacraments, huh? According to that, John three five. I've read that book a little bit. Three five.

[25:23] I was listening to you know you know Mother Angelica died, you know that, and so they had you know a lot of her previous little things being replayed there on on EWTN, which is the spoon that I was at the funeral of. She was very attached to it, right? They had gone down to the place and so on. She used to listen to, I guess, Mother Angelica and her nuns.

[25:48] They'd say the rosary at nine o'clock or nine thirty something like that, and she turned on. She always joined them, you know. So they they had a little bit on on Mother Angelica there in the the program for the funeral, but. Well, in fact, I was I was seeing her on the TV there a bit, and she was quoting John. She says, "Could you know it was my favorite gospel?"

[26:10] He says, "Yeah, I kind of suspect maybe Thomas's. You know, he could speak of having a favorite gospel. You know, but this is a beautiful example. Unless one be what reborn, right? Renatus, from Aqua, and that's the what instrument, right? And the Holy Spirit, but that's a principal cause. So that's beautiful text. It's called instrumentality, right? Huh? I know how you do that with the word tool in English.

[26:49] Toolishly or something, make an adverb out of it. Yeah, yeah. Okay. You know, when they speak of the human body, a living body as being an organic body, right? Huh? You know, the word organon is really a word for what tool? You know, the Aristotle's collected works in logic they called the Organon, right? Huh? It means the tool, right? Because logic is is the tool of philosophy, right?

[27:22] Now it's not the principal part of philosophy, right? Huh? That's not that's looking philosophy and and philosophy action, right? But but logic is necessary tool, right? So did

[27:39] I learn did I learn philosophy by my reason or by logic? Yeah, but principally by my reason, huh? By my ability for large discourse, looking before and after, but I couldn't do without my tool, right? Just like our friend Michelangelo couldn't make the Pietas without his chisel and hammer, yeah, yeah. So Thomas

[28:10] making a similar distinction like the one he made with the humanity of Christ, right? But it's interesting. He uses the Holy Spirit here, right? Yeah.

[28:25] I think at other places he might talk about you know the sacraments as being tools of Christ, right? But here he because the text says the Holy Spirit doesn't say say Christ, huh?

[28:40] To the third, now, read your question, right? What does this mean? To the third, should be said that the angel purges, enlightens, and perfects the angel or man, right? By way of a certain instruction, right? Huh? Purges him. Thomas says he purges Purges the angels, the more angels, of ignorance, right? Purges us of error, as well as ignorance, right? Okay.

[29:19] Okay, not however, by justifying through grace. huh? They did not be justified by grace, Okay. Once Dionysius says in the seventh chapter of the Divine Names that this purgation, illumination, perfection, is nothing other than a what? Assumption of divine knowledge, right? A taking on of divine knowledge, right? Okay.

[29:44] So we got to pray to those angels when we get together. Now, the text at contro is Psalm eighty-three, which I assume you're familiar with. Grace and glory, the Lord gives. The Lord gives grace and glory.

[30:04] Our word order is somewhat different from these other languages. This is one of the psalms that the priest says his preparation for Mass. Yeah.

[30:25] Now, what does Thomas say, huh? He starts off with the with the beginning, right? I answered, "Should be said that no thing is able to act beyond its own what kind, its own species."

[30:41] Why? Because always is it necessary that the cause be more potent than the effect? Yeah. That was a principle. Now the gift of grace exceeds every faculty of the created what nature? Why? Because it's nothing other than a certain partaking of the divine nature, and that's what we saw before, right? There was there was a text there from the Epistle Saint Paul. I mean Saint Peter. Saint Peter.

[31:19] And this divine nature which you're partaking in excels every other what nature? Interesting that we use even the word nature there, talking about God, right? Huh? You know, when you take up the word nature there in the physics there, he doesn't distinguish all the senses of nature, but he does so in the fifth book of wisdom, right? So, now I teach that I always refer it to what that text in the fifth book of wisdom, because one of the senses of nature eventually is what a thing is, right?

[31:55] And that's really the sense of nature here, right? But originally, nature means birth, huh? Poets made or born? good question. Something natural, right? Huh? Yeah. You read about Mozart's life there. You know there was the he seems to have picked up the violin just by by nature, right? Huh? And his father was who wrote a treatise on how to play the violin and so on, and he'd have friends over to you know play a quartet or something, and once or twice he wanted to play, and he said no, no, and finally he was so insistent that one of the guys said, "Well, let him play alongside me," you know, and after a little while the guy just put down his violin, Mozart take off his

[32:57] flutes, you know, his father there's tears coming down his face, you know, the description of it, you know, huh? You know, to see what it. You know, genius Mozart was, yeah, that was easy, you know.

[33:13] Yeah. Although some men, once himself, would thank God for his gifts, you know, he he had those gifts. Sometimes I hope he did a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[33:26] See, I agree with Wagner's judgment, huh? That Mozart, he says, is above all the masters in all the arts and in all the ages. I say, that's the last.

[33:42] Rosie says to me after, "That's some nice music there, you know." And he says, "How did you like the music?" She said, "I said we didn't play the Ave Verum Corpus."

[33:58] I was in high school. I got friends. He got first introduced to me to listening to Mozart. You know, and I got very excited about him. This one guy, he always calls me Mozart, Mozart, because of my enthusiasm for listening to Mozart.

[34:18] Okay. So notice how he he solves the third objection differently than the first two. The first two, he does so by the distinction, you know, of the chief cause, principal cause, and the instrumental cause, right? But the third one, he's saying, is not really giving grace; it's a subjection of what knowledge, right? Enlightening them.

[34:51] So my teachers enlightened me, huh? Gave me knowledge I didn't have. They didn't give me grace. Okay. So let's go back to the body of the article, right?

[35:09] No thing acts beyond its own what species, because always it is necessary that the cause be more potent than the effect. But now the gift of grace, huh, exceeds all a faculty, all ability of nature, right? A created nature, as they say. Why? Because it's nothing other than a certain partaking of the divine nature itself. That's extremely profound, right? And the divine nature excels every other what nature, and therefore it's impossible, huh, that some creature cause grace, huh?

[35:52] Thus, it is necessary that God alone deificet, yeah. By communicating a what consortium of the divine nature through a certain partaking of what a likeness to that, just as impossible that someone what ignite I guess yeah something except it be what fire only fire can do that right okay now there he's giving us a nice example there from simple things right okay

[36:33] of course we often use fire as a what metaphor for God right now now in the burning bush the the bush represents the humanity of Christ and the fire that doesn't consume it the divinity of Christ right and the meaning of it not consuming it is that the divine nature doesn't swallow up the human nature and destroy it right but the two natures remain distinct and they both have their their properties according to their natures

[37:07] but with the what the the fire can be a metaphor for the divine nature right the light that it gives for the divine understanding right and the the heated things for the divine love and the power of God you know the power of fire to transform things but then the fire is also metaphor for the Trinity so the fire then is what the Father right and from the Father proceeds what both light and heat both the sun and the what yeah but the the heat kind of goes through the fire through the light right and so that's the Holy Spirit right so it's really kind of beautiful beautiful fire you know I mean a beautiful metaphor fire for God right and then you see it's

[38:03] kind of really a marvelous thing that that the church fathers explain that the burning bush right that's where that's already you know you know what is this kind of thing you know well I mean you see you know people are kind of puzzled by this Jesus Christ on Earth you know because some things he says are kind of indicate that he's he's more than just a man right and that he's he's God right that's what the fellow came here and he's if he had the faith one time he doesn't have anymore but he's it's kind of in his blood from his family but uh and he said you know that Jesus sometimes he sometimes calls Son of God and what does that mean I said

[38:50] well that's the perennial question you know are you a Son of God and is he a Son of God in the same way or not What does that mean That's what Ratzinger said years ago, I read one of his things he said that was the whole early controversies of the church and the synods and councils they had Was what do we mean? Was it Jesus the Son of God just like anybody else, or is it different?

[39:13] And how do you distinguish? How do you see the distinction? Christ says the resurrection there. I'm going to go to my God and your God, right? And make the kind of distinction there, you know, the way He's His God and and our God.

[39:35] Okay, so you're convinced that God is his Son. Okay. Time for the article or not Maybe we'll stop tonight recording. Stop. Yeah. Okay.