Prima Secundae
277. Summa I-II q.112 a.2–4: Preparing for Grace, Whether Grace Must Follow, and Why Grace Is Unequal
Class of 2016-04-07
https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/11-prima-secundae/277-summa-i-ii-q-112-a-2-4-preparing-for-grace-whether-grace/

[0:00] In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you, God. God, our enlightenment, guardian angels, strengthen the lights of 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 have written.

[0:31] So up in the second article, I guess, in question 112. We've seen that God is the principal cause, right? The grace and so on.

[0:42] To second one goes forward. Thus, it seems that there is not required any preparation or disposition for grace on the side of what man, huh?

[0:55] You see, on the side of right, and you see it's part of part of man. Because, as the apostle says in Romans chapter four, to the one who does, an award, right, is not what imputed to him according to grace, but according to what debt. He's owed. Yeah. But the preparation of man by free judgment, free will, is not except through some operation. Therefore, it takes away the notion of what grace, huh?

[1:39] Okay, so Thomas replies. That's what the reply. To the first, therefore, should be said that the preparation of man for having grace is what, together with the pouring in of grace, huh? And such an operation is meritorious, but not of the grace which already is had, but of the glory which is not yet had.

[2:10] Now there is, however, another preparation for grace imperfect, right? Which sometimes comes before the gift of grace, making one what acceptable, which nevertheless is from God moving us.

[2:31] But this does not suffice for merit, for a man not yet justified by grace, because a man is not yet justified by grace, because no merit can be except from grace, as will be said what Below. Thomas is answering that objection. I don't know if I understand the first part of that

[3:11] Well, here he's talking about the the preparation for that that is preparing the way for what glory, right? Huh? You've already received grace, right? Huh? Okay.

[3:24] And then his idea in some way of a reward, right? Huh? Not altogether gratuitous, huh? I've noticed in a check I was showing you from Jude there, right? Huh? He took the word mercy in there, right? Even though you've put yourself up by faith, hope, and charity, huh? That's a text I was talking about, verse twenty, in in Saint Jude's epistle, right? The canonical epistle. It's a short, very short epistle.

[3:54] Doesn't have a division of chapters, right? It's just twenty-five verses, so it's the twentieth verse, I think, it is, in the in the text. And he says, beloved, you know, building yourself up, right? And he then he speaks of what faith first, right? Most holy faith, and then praying, right, which is what hope leads you to do, right? And then he mentions charity, right? And then he speaks of what the mercy of God, and then eternal life.

[4:21] So even there, there's some mercy, right? Huh? Rather than what just justice, right? Huh? There's some element of reward, huh? For good acts done, but from grace, right? Okay. But before you had any grace, you couldn't what merit that grace, right? Huh? And you'd be moved by God, right? Huh? Okay.

[4:45] Now, moreover, the second objection: the one who progresses what in sin does not prepare himself for having grace, but to some progressing in sin, there is given grace, huh? This is clear in the example of Paul, who obtained grace, right? Huh? When he was breathing what threats and blows, I guess, on the disciples of the Lord, as is said in Acts nine eleven.

[5:23] Therefore, no preparation for grace is required on the part of what man. That's a nice objection, huh? To second, it should be said that since man is what not able to prepare himself for grace except by God going before and moving him to the what good, it makes no difference whether subito, huh? So they're saying when they wanted John Paul II made a can I subito? With a subito or paulatum, bit by bit, someone arrives at a perfect what preparation.

[6:08] For as it said in Ecclesiasticus, right? I guess with the Ix, with Ecclesiasticus, I don't know. I get mixed up. I used to know that thing, and I, I get kind of

[6:21] Ecclesiastes, yeah, yeah, yeah. That it is easy in the eyes of God, subito, right? To what? honestare, to make honest the poor. What? Step by step.

[6:43] This is subito, right? The quote from Ecclesiasticus, right? Oh, this one says, "honestare can mean to honor or adorn, or in this sense, to make graceful. Yeah, yeah.

[7:03] For it happens sometimes that God moves man to some good, but not, however, what a perfect one, right? And such a preparation precedes grace. Maybe it's before in time, right? But sometimes, stop him at once, huh? Perfectly, he moves him to good, right? Huh? And immediately, right? Suddenly, the the man receives what grace, huh? So at the same time, he's being disposed, right? And receiving grace, right?

[7:42] According to that of John chapter six, everyone who hears from the or listens to the Father, right, hears from the Father and learns, comes to me, right? As if they are what together, right? And thus it happens to thus it happens to what Paul? Because suddenly, when he was in the what progress of sin, he was perfectly moved, right? His core by God, right? Huh? Both in what hearing, right?

[8:18] At learning and coming, right? The three words are in that text from John six, right? Audivit a Patre et didicit venit ad me, right? So it as were simultaneous, right? Huh? He was what perfectly moved his heart by God in hearing and learning and coming, and therefore suddenly be what? Yeah, as if they're almost what? Hama together, right? Huh? Another case when he moves the the the the heart more what?

[8:56] Slowly, right? Huh? It doesn't. It's being disposed in some way, but a more remote way, right? It's not such a way as to see grace, huh?

[9:10] Okay. Now, the third objection. Moreover, an agent of infinite power does not require a disposition in matter, because it does not even require matter, just as appears in creation,

[9:38] to which the bestow of grace is compared. whence it is said to be a new creature. When you come out of confession, you are a nova creatura, a new creature.

[9:53] Funny how that becomes kind of a bad word, creature. Now, creature. You hear that this kind of a way, of I don't know how it got started that way.

[10:09] But said to be a new creature in the Epistle to the Galatians. But God alone, who is of infinite power, causes grace, as has been said. Therefore, no preparation is required on the part of man for what? Yeah, that sounds pretty convincing to this dumb dumbo over here, right? Yeah, that's my nickname, yeah.

[10:40] Now Thomas subtly says, "To the third, therefore, it should be said that an agent of infinite power does not need matter or the disposition of matter, as were something presupposed from the action of another. But yeah, from the action of another cause. But nevertheless, is necessary according to the condition of the thing. What? Cause that it causes in that thing both the matter and a disposition that is suitable for that what form.

[11:18] And likewise, in order that God might what pour grace into the soul, no preparation is needed, which he himself does not make. Right? That's not the same thing as to say that but there's no preparation there. There's no disposition, right?

[11:37] Now they have a problem here. Sometimes you know, is the fertilized egg right? Does that have the rational soul in there? I don't think the church has ever said that definitively, right? Huh? And sometimes you know the pro-life people want to say that the soul is there to make even more obvious the the evil of the act, right? Huh? But maybe it's not what the matter is not yet prepared, right, for to be the subject of a rational soul, right?

[12:09] Huh? And when we define the soul as the first act of a natural body composed of tools, right? Huh? But if these tools are not formed in some way, maybe the body is not yet the proper subject to receive this, right? In which case, the disposition of the matter would take some time before it receives the form, right? Huh? I imagine in in Christ,

[12:35] his soul was joined to his body. I imagine that the body was disposed. What? Yeah, yeah. Because don't they usually say you know that

[12:48] that at the Annunciation, right, the Feast of Annunciation or something, that when Mary said yes, right, then he the Word was made flesh, right? And that meant that his what his soul was created at that time, right? Huh? And therefore, there was a body that was properly disposed to receive the human soul, right? But it might have been suddenly, right, that the matter was disposed, right? Huh?

[13:16] Not by another cause, you know. Maybe, maybe there's an analogy there maybe there's an ad. Yeah, yeah, Because sometimes they argue from the Incarnation, you know, you know, to all of us, and you've got to be careful about that, I think, You know. Sometimes I like to argue it on, say, you know, how well, to accept the

[13:59] golden rule, right? Huh? Do unto others as you have them do unto you. Of course, they're gonna have to say yes. I mean, that's gonna look pretty bad. They say, now, would you have wanted to have been aborted, right? See, of course, they're gonna have

[14:12] to say no, right? Well, then, what are you aborting somebody else, right? Huh? And then you avoid the question of when the soul is in there, right? When it's actually what human being, right? Huh? Yeah. Okay. Let's go to the body of the article now. I kind of cheated and get the answers. You know. But let's

[14:41] this encounter first here, huh? But against this is what is said in the Prophet Amos four, right? Prepare yourself for the what? Meet the Lord. your God Israel, right? And even more clearly in First Book of Kings chapter seven verse three, prepare your hearts to the Lord, huh? Okay.

[15:10] Now Thomas says, "I am sure it should be said that as has been said above, grace is said in two ways, huh? " What distinctions are you talking about here? Sometimes it is a habitual gift of God, right? Huh? Sometimes it's the aid of God moving the soul to what good. What did I compare that to in Aristotle's distinction of the causes, huh?

[15:40] Is any formal division Well, the third kind of cause Aristotle first speaks of is the mover, right? Huh? But then he sticks in the what the maker, right? Huh? So both the mover and the maker is the cause of acting another, right? But in the case of the mover, the act is what motion. It's not a what form. And the case of the maker, the act that he gives to something is a a form, right?

[16:12] So this is a little bit like this distinction that Thomas is giving here about what the habitual donum, right, the habitual gift, which is a form, right, of the soul, and the what grace is more like a movement, right, Christ, right, God moving the soul, right. Nice distinction, right? huh? See how philosophy helps you, you know. Understand that, huh? So he says grace is said in two ways.

[16:56] Sometimes a habitual gift of God, and that's like a form, right? Sometimes the aid of God moving the soul to the good, right? Now, in the first way of taking grace, that's an habitual gift. There is presupposed, huh? Pre-required for grace, some what preparation of the grace, huh? For the general reason that no form can be except in a matter what disposed for it.

[17:31] That's why I say it's like the like the maker, right? But if we speak of grace according as it signifies the aid of God moving us to the good, right? Thus, no preparation is required on the side of man, as it were, going before what the divine what aid, huh? He can move us without first what disposing us so we can be moved by him. Okay, because moving doesn't require that what disposition, right?

[18:03] So that's that's a very important what distinction here, right? But rather, whatever preparation in man there must be is from the aid of God moving the soul to the good, right? That's kind of objection he had from to Peter. I mean, to Saint Paul, right?

[18:30] And according to this, the good motion of our free will, right? Oh, he seems funny to say our free judgment, by which someone is prepared for receiving the gift of grace, right? Is an act of the free will moved by what God, huh? And as regards this, man is said to prepare himself. According to that of Proverbs chapter sixteen verse one, it belongs to man to prepare his soul, right?

[19:08] But it's as a result of the soul being moved by God, huh? And it is chiefly from by God moving free will. And according to this, it is said, right, from God the will of man to be prepared, right? As is said in Proverbs chapter eight, and from the Lord the steps of man, I guess, to be what directed, huh? Okay.

[19:49] So what's the answer to this then? If you're talking about grace in the sense of a form habitual gift, right? There must be disposition in the soul, right? Where it's a suitable subject for that gift, huh? But if it's a what? It's the that's the habit. But if it's the what? Moving, then the moving brings with it the disposition, right? It's not giving a disposition already there before God can move you.

[20:22] God can move you whenever He wants to move you, right? And then you have a certain what disposition, right? It's not really giving you a disposition to be moved by God, that sense, huh? Okay, Thomas, we'll let you get away with that. Let's see if I pull you out of it, huh? Okay.

[20:52] So let's go to Article Three now. That necessarily grace is given to the one preparing himself for grace or doing what is in himself, right?

[21:06] Thomas going to say here. Sometimes we hear that said, yeah, that, God gives grace to those who do it in their own. see, now he seems to be saying the opposite, right? God helps those who help themselves. Yeah, yeah.

[21:20] Yeah, yeah, gotta take the bull by the horn. Self-made man. To the third one proceeds thus. It seems that of necessity grace is given to the one preparing for grace, right? Or doing what is in himself, right? What is in his own power, right?

[21:44] Because upon that of Romans chapter five verse one, justified, right, by faith, right, we have peace, right, et cetera. The gloss said, "God receives the one who flees, right? "

[22:02] Otherwise, there would be in him iniquity, not to. It can't be iniquity in God, so he's gotta, he's gotta, he's gotta take in the guy who home is where they gotta let you in him.

[22:16] Heard that saying, haven't you? They have to let you in when you go there. They wouldn't open the door for us. To the first, therefore, should be said that that gloss speaks of the one who flees to God by a meritorious act of free will, already what? Already informed by grace, right? Which, if he did not receive, would be against the what? Justice, which he himself has established, huh?

[23:01] Or if it refers to the motion of free will before grace, right? The gloss is speaking according to that what flight, or I mean flight towards man to God through what a divine movement of the soul, right? Which it is just for him not to what, yeah? If God is moving you towards Himself, then He should reward Himself, so to speak, right?

[23:35] More Anselm says in the book on the fall of the devil. Must be an interesting book. You ever seen that one? Yeah. Learn more about that.

[23:51] That this is the reason, or this is the cause, wherefore God does not concede to the devil what grace, huh? Because he does not wish to receive it, nor is he prepared. But the cause being removed is necessary for the effect to be removed. Therefore, if someone wishes to accept grace. Is necessary that it be given to him.

[24:20] So I go and pray, God. I want some grace. Give me some grace. Yeah, He's got to give it to me, right? Give it to me next week, not this week. That's a guess thing, right?

[24:34] You don't get it. To the second should be said, huh? That the defect of grace, huh? The failure of failure of grace grace, right? The first cause is from us.

[24:57] But of the granting of grace, the first cause is from what God. According to that of one of my favorite prophets, O O Israel, your perdition, Israel. It's your perdition, right? It's from you, Israel. Only from me is your help. So what's

[25:27] like we say before? You're supposed to thank God for the good you've done. Complain yourself for the evil you've done. It sounds what unjust to the modern American man, I suppose, right? Self-pity man. Yeah. If you hold me responsible for the evil I've done, then you ought to hold me responsible, not yourself, God, for the good I've done, right?

[25:56] Well, God can't be the Per se, beginning of something bad, Even the beginning, of the prodigal right? No good comes except from God, whose goodness itself. I've been a man who was very angry and angry at God and doing his own thing, and he said, "I don't need God. I don't need God. If I do good, it's from me. If I do bad, it's from me. It's just all about me."

[26:34] That's apparently the way the argument is going, right? The argument he's attacking, right, saying, "Well, you're responsible for their not receiving grace because of your closed heart or whatever it is, your stony heart." Was Christ actually scripture being kind of angry with the because the hardness of their hearts, right? So if you're responsible for the hardness of your heart,

[26:59] then you're responsible for the softness of your heart. Not completely. Yeah, yeah. It's hard for people to see, though, right? Huh? Seems it's it's it's a probable argument, right? I mean, some some some probability. People anyway.

[27:23] Moreover, good is communicativum sui, famous thing that Dionysius so much emphasized. This is clear through Dionysius in the fourth chapter of the Divine Names. Thomas goes back to that and argues that God is good, right? That's one way you argue that God is good. Communicative of the good, he must be good, huh?

[27:46] But the good of grace is better than the good of what? Nature. Okay. Since therefore a natural form of necessity arises when the matter is disposed, right? So you hit up the what? Paper too much, it's going to burst into flame, right? It's just natural.

[28:08] It seems, therefore, much more will be grace of necessity be given to the one preparing himself to grace. Thomas doesn't argue here from by saying that grace is, you know, something above nature, right? It seems to argue as if you don't is denying the premise, huh? To the third, it should be said that even in natural things, the disposition of matter does not of necessity what form unless through the what power of the agent who what.

[28:45] causes the disposition. Yeah. Okay. So the the cause that disposes the matter is not the one that gives the form, right? Huh? He's not denying maybe that that the. at the agent might in some cases at least always act, right? huh?

[29:09] Airstell is talking about the difference between a natural power and and a rational power, right? Huh? Well, the rational power can act or not act when the thing is present, right? Huh? If you bring the paper to the fire, you know the fire is going to automatically burn up the paper, right? Got sufficient power. Yeah. Give me the old tax forms, right? Seven years.

[29:40] The lawyer says me statute limitations, seven years. So, some people every every time they felt their taxes, then they had to go back seven years and throw out the old things that are just taking up room now. Of course he's not denying that it's a necessity. He says, "Non ex necessitate consequitur forma, " except through the power. Right? It is not necessarily right. He says, "Except through the what?

[30:20] " Part of the agent, right? See? He's not denying that the agent might have to act necessarily, right? Huh? Aristotle says that the natural agent here is determined to one, right? And in the presence of its object, it necessarily does this, right? Huh? You know, if I put the butter in the icebox, it's going to get it's going to get chilled, right? Hard enough, and it can't not do that, right?

[30:49] Okay. Well, the irrational power doesn't have to do that, right? The doctor doesn't have to cure me. Maybe he can't, but maybe he could. He doesn't have enough power. Yeah, yeah. Teach doesn't necessarily teach. He doesn't have enough power to cure the head. Get a bigger hammer.

[31:17] But against this is that man is compared to God as clay to the what? The potter, yeah. According to that of Jeremiah eighteen verse six, as clay I guess in the hand of the. potter. So you in my hand, right? Huh? But the clay does not, of necessity, receive a form from the potter, no matter how much it is prepared. Okay. A glauser doesn't have to chip the ice away, right?

[31:51] I mean, the marble way. Therefore, neither does man receive of necessity grace from God, no matter how much he prepares himself, huh? Let's see what the master says. I want a little more clarification of this matter here.

[32:12] Hence, it should be said, this has been said above. The preparation for the grace of man from God is from God as from one what? Moving the soul, right? Huh? And as from free will, as from the what? Moved, huh? Okay.

[32:35] Therefore, the preparation can be considered in two ways, huh? In one way, according as it is from what? Free will. And according to this, it has no necessity for the what? Obtaining grace, because the gift of grace exceeds any preparation of the what human power, right?

[33:02] In another way, it can be considered according as it is from God moving, and then it has a necessity to that to which what it is ordered by God, not one of what, but of infallibility, right, unfailingness, huh? Because the intention of God is not able to what fail, according as Augustine says in the book on the predestination of saints, that to the benefits of God most certainly certissime are liberated, whoever are freed, huh?

[33:48] Whence, if from the intention of God moving, it is that the man whose heart is moved will achieve grace, infallibly he will what achieve it, huh? According to that of John chapter six verse forty-five, everyone who hears the Father and learns, huh? Augustine.

[34:14] Yeah, he comes comes to me, right, huh? He hears he learns and he comes? So it's again from God moving, right, and from my being moved, huh?

[34:42] It's not by my being moved by God that I what receive grace, or it's by God's moving me. It's by my being moved. It's by my free will. So far it's by my free will.

[35:04] That'll be allowed Yeah Okay Okay Now I've got the great question here for democracy on the next article here. Okay. Okay. To the fourth one proceeds thus: It seems that grace is not greater in one than in what another, huh? Yeah Just like the trees of the forest after they're all knocked down Equal?

[35:39] For grace is caused in us from the divine love, huh? But in Wisdom chapter six verse eight it is said, the what little one I guess and the great one, right? He made them right, and equalliter, equally, is his care, right, about all. Therefore, all equally receive grace from him. That's right from Sapientia six. Well, it's equal that they receive it from him. Yes, they don't necessarily receive the same thing.

[36:15] What's the reply here? You're breaking the objections Let's look through? To the first, therefore, it should be said that the divine care—I guess—do they translate correct by care?

[36:37] Can be considered in two ways: seldom affirmed, never affirmed, seldom denied, always distinguished. Just annoying, maybe. When somebody told me that his his Dominican teacher had taught him that, but there's some truth to what he's saying, you know.

[37:01] Talking about about distinction there. I was reading Thomas in the Summa Contra Gentiles. He's talking about all these objections to God knowing things in particular, right? And the one objection is to his knowing bad things, right? And we'll go into all of it. But does God know the bad, right?

[37:24] And Thomas argues from God knowing things distinctly, right, and not just in general. Now, how does he argue from that that God knows badness?

[37:45] I was saying to my student there on Tuesday, I'm going to get those monks there on Thursday. See, and say, you're plotting. Yeah, yeah. And say, how can you reason from Shakespeare's definition, right, of reason, to reason being able to know what is bad, right? Yeah. Well, if you can, if you know how things ought to be, if you know the order, you know disorder. Yeah. Cause and effect.

[38:24] Yeah, that's what that's what he argues. Yeah, but but in this case, he argues from distinction, right? So if reason is able to look before and after, reason can look for distinctions, right? And he's arguing from that God knows things in particular. He must be able to distinguish between a dog and a cat, let's say, right? But then he says, what is what things are distinct? Well, things are distinct when one is not the other.

[38:52] So, when the idea of distinction is what negation. Now, what is the bad? Well, it's negation of it. Yeah, yeah. Kind of visible, right? So that's why reason is able to know the bad, right? Because it knows what distinction, right? With the definition of reason, you have to look before and after to understand it, right? And so, including the ability to look before and after is the ability to look for distinction, just as an ability for a large discourse is included, understood the ability for a small discourse, right?

[39:30] So if you can know distinction, you can know that this is not that, and therefore you know negation. And the bad is really a kind of negation. It's really the lack, right? It's an unbeing or something that you could have but don't have and should have, right?

[39:53] Yeah, that's another argument. is that God know you know, one opposite from the other, right? Yeah, that's that's a. Another. That's directly the definition of reason.

[40:07] Okay. So I said, I'll get those guys. That's beautiful about Thomas, though. When he's arguing, he helps you to understand the things, right? On you, he realizes.

[40:22] I'm sure he would have liked. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, another argument he gives for God knowing the bad is that that the good of the reason is is the truth, right? Well, it's true that the bad is bad, just as if the good is good, right? And so God is perfect, right? So he must have all truth. Therefore, he must know the bad too. It's beautiful the way he argues, you know, huh?

[40:44] He just that's just a my favorite book, you know. I mean, after the Bible, I only have two copies of it. They put on a nice edition, you know, of the of the Summa Contra Gentiles after the the Leonine Edition that came out of it, you know, and it's got a bigger print than than than the the usual uh Marietti, you know. So it's nice. Different from the Leonine edition?

[41:16] No, no. but I mean, I mean, this comes out in a smaller print, you know. They when they did it, they put on a little bigger print. I don't know why, but but so so he asked, "What's your favorite book?" And Thomas said, "I say Summa Contra Gentiles." And he said, "Why? Because of the bigger print," I said. They know I don't mean that, you know, but but they.

[41:36] Might as well tell you the cover. Yeah, yeah. I told the medical girl they're out. Do you see? You know. It makes the discourse larger. Yeah.

[41:56] So, to the first ear, if it should be said, the divine care can be considered in two ways. In one way, as regards the divine what act, which is simple and uniform, and according to this, equally as itself is care about all things, because by one act, and a simple act, right? Huh? He dispenses greater things and what lesser things. Another way, it can be considered on the side of those things which what.

[42:29] Among creatures. Yeah. Yeah. And according to this, there is found inequality, in so far as God, by his care, to some gives greater, right? And to some he gives gifts that are what lesser. That's like the idea is God loves, um, uh,

[42:55] let's say Thomas Aquinas more than me. Well, for now, yeah. At least make this one a pretty personal question. Well, if you if you if you you make a distinction that Thomas is making here, right? You can say if you are talking about the love itself, does he have a more intense love for Thomas Aquinas than for me? See, well, if he did, you'd really have two loves, right?

[43:31] Okay, like like you know, can the temperature be you know ninety and and thirty, you know, you know? So, in that sense, he loves me as intensely as he loves, yeah, yeah. But if you talk about the mind he gave Thomas, the mind he gave me, well, he kind of shortchanged me compared to Thomas, right?

[43:56] And Thomas's memory, I think, is a hell of a lot better than mine. And etcetera, etcetera, etcetera won't go on to all my deficiencies, but you just make the same kind of distinction that Thomas is making here, right? Okay. Again, as we understand, God's care is he's equally careful of the mouse as the cat. He

[44:23] gives the cat better weapons, right? Yeah. So that's the way he he replies to that text from the six chapters of the book of wisdom. However,

[44:44] those things which are said in summa, right, the highest, right, do not receive more and less. But grace in summa is said because it what joins us to the last end, joins us to God. Therefore, does not receive more and less. Therefore, there is nothing greater in one than the other, right? So God, by grace, he unites me to as greater thing as he unites Thomas to, right?

[45:16] You know. When they would say Thomas, God's supposed to appear to Thomas, right? Christ and said, "All you have, you know." Thomas says, "Just you." Okay, so that's the greatest thing he could give Thomas is himself, right? He's going to give the greatest thing he could give to me to himself. I hope he is anyway. So,

[45:46] just as well, off as Thomas. You'll be full just like he is Well, it's going to be the solution in the from the text. You know, it's a little hard to see it right now, right? Okay.

[46:21] So if I listen to the best music, which is Mozart, and you listen to the best music, one of us might have better what ear, right? Might hear better, right? But we're both hearing the best. Nothing better than that. They're not hearing as well Yeah.

[46:42] To the second should be said that that argument proceeds according to the first way of the magnitude of grace. Well, let's see if that isn't a by-the-article. Come back to this. For it's not possible, right, for one grace to be what greater in this sense that it orders us to a what greater good, huh? Like he's ordered to God in order to the seraphim or something. Some people thought that though, right?

[47:10] Huh? That you know that the our end would be to know some what separated substance, right? But not necessarily God Himself. Yeah, find that. Okay.

[47:27] But from this, that it more or less orders us to the same good, partaking the same good more or less, right? Okay. For there can be a diversity of intensity and emission according to the partaking of the subject, both in grace itself and in the final what glory, right? Huh?

[47:52] So if we both had a chance to the most beautiful moon in the world, one of us has got poor eyesight. He's not going to enjoy the sight as much as the guy who's got the better eyesight.

[48:10] You wonder with wine or something like that. No, some men's got a more sensitive taste. You know, they can tell the wine is right away. Can't fool them very much, you know.

[48:24] They have a big wine taste down there in Cambridge. You heard about that one? And they're tasting, you know, Cabernet Sauvignon, you know, and finally they have the, you know, the the mystery wine of the night. You know, they think it's covered up and so on. They're talking about this thing. It was revealed, you know, it wasn't a Cabernet Sauvignon at all. It was a dry blueberry.

[48:45] If you were talking about this, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But there is a dry blueberry. It's pretty good, you know, huh? But I mean, but we had some. Was that blueberry? Somebody gave us a blueberry run that's local here. Yeah. I didn't taste it. It does have a little taste, a little bit like the Cabernet Sauvignon. He put all these these pseudo, you know. Well, it's just like it's like.

[49:10] Galat went to Oxford. Yeah. They they had I guess contempt for him, and he had mutual contempt. Yeah. Yeah. And he went and he described some historic battle, he's going on and he gave a whole lecture about this battle and the history. of this oh, they thought it was wonderful any questions any questions? no, no, no no questions. You sure? No questions at all. None. You fools!

[49:32] I made the whole thing up. I was reading Mondavi, you know, talking about his early history, you know, and grew up in Italian family. He made wine with his father, you know, kind of these things. And then finally he went to Stanford, not a great university, right? And he says in the weekend, you know, they'd be going out, they have, you know, get drunk, you know, as they do in college.

[49:53] And but everybody they're drinking either beer or or bourbon or scotch it was like. that Nobody's drinking wine, he says, you know, and of course his guys getting horrible headaches and so on, so. And I thought Stanford's really a great place to start, and these guys don't even know how to drink.

[50:14] How you guys getting free drinks? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I know I taught in California there, and I had, you know, students who had grown up drinking wine in the with the family, you know, and they had a reasonable attitude towards drinking, you know, you don't just go get drunk, you know.

[50:33] So opera, what are you going to do? That's not the way to enjoy. Okay. Third objection, grace is the what soul, the life of the soul, right? But to live is not said according to more and less, right? Therefore, neither grace, huh? Well, I says to the third, it should be said that the natural life pertains to the what substance of man, and therefore it does not receive more and less.

[51:10] But man partakes of the what life of grace, as accidentality, right? Being as opposed to substance, not as opposed to per se. And therefore, a man is able to have it more and less. It reminds me years ago, you know, I was teaching a a night course of Assumption there, and I got talking about, you know, are all men created equal? And I said, well, I mean, some men are created, you know, more intelligent than other men, and of course they admit that.

[51:43] Some men are, you know, more strong than men, you know. And this guy in the army there, who was, you know, the guy challenged him to a fight, he beat him up, you know, and then this guy goes out, he exercises, you know, for six months, and he challenges him again, he beats him up again. So he's just you know, he wasn't doing anything.

[52:04] And and and some are more healthy than others, right? My friend Jimmy knows a golden gloves boxer, you know, he could beat the out of me. But he said, "Brook, I'm strong, but not healthy, right? " So some he was stronger than me, right? Put the gloves on me one night, give me a lesson.

[52:28] But I was more healthy than Jimmy, you know. Okay. Are all girls equally beautiful? You know, you go to the mixer, you know, and some girls, everybody wants to dance with them. Other girls are being kind of sitting there, you know, and it's kind of feel kind of sorry, you know, my my friend Jimmy was, he was a handsome guy, he was strong, and best conversationalist I ever knew in college, you know, and the girls would throw themselves at him, but he'd go and ask a very plain looking girl.

[52:57] And today I said, "He said, 'You're meant to be a giver, not a taker. '" Yeah, but it seems like you know. So I said, "What do you mean there? Is any truth to saying we're all created equal? " Well, the only way we can say they're all equal is they're all equally men, right? So one is not more a man than the other, right? One dog is not more a dog than another dog.

[53:27] One man is not more a man than another man. So it's that substantial thing, right? But in terms of the accidents, like health and beauty and strength, and and knowledge and so on—I mean, mind and so on—we're not what equal, right? So grace is the argument here is from the substance of man, right? That's why all men are born equal.

[53:51] That's so we can defend the what this is in the concept of the declaration. Now, against all this nonsense is what is said in the Epistle to the Ephesians. To Each one is given grace according to the measure of the giving of what Christ. So he measures it out, right? He measures out more to some than to what others. So my old teacher, you know, Kasurik you know, he used to have, you know,

[54:27] truculent ways. He used to say things. You know, he used to say a poet is a man with his brains kicked out. He says.

[54:36] And the guy who was the head of the English department at that time was interesting. And he says, that's the first definition of poet. I agree with you, sir.

[54:49] But another thing he used to say, and I moved from saying he said, God hates equality," he said. That's saying, what it says here to Ephesians, right? It's true, right? But now we've got to find out. Why does God hate equality, right? Or why does He love inequality, right? Because he loves diversity

[55:11] He celebrates diversity. I mean, after all, there's problems that are not all the same. I answer: It should be said. This hasn't been said above. A habit is able to have a twofold what magnitude, right? A twofold size, right? Spiritual magnitude.

[55:38] I told you how I was using that term, magnitude, there. I explained the order there in the in the Summa Contra Gentiles huh. Okay, one on the part of the end or the object, right? Huh? According as it is said that one virtue is more noble, in so far as it's ordered to a greater what good, right?

[56:06] In another, on the side of the subject, right, that more or less partakes the what habit that inheres in it, right? Exists in it. Now, according to the first magnitude, the grace that makes us what acceptable to God cannot be more or less, huh? Why? Because in this object, grace, according to its very definition, right, its very nature joins man to the what highest good which is God, right?

[56:47] But on the side of the subject, the grace can receive, right, more and less, in so far as one is more perfectly enlightened by the light of grace than what another, right?

[57:09] Now, the reason for this diversity, huh, is somewhat on the side of the what person preparing himself for grace, huh? Because the man who more prepares himself for grace receives a what fuller grace, huh? I see him talking about, you know, we're talking about the Eucharist, you know, and someone saying, you know, why do the saints get more out of their Eucharist than we, you know, young souls?

[57:42] Yeah, yeah. They prepare themselves more for the to receive it, right? But he says, on this side, one cannot take nevertheless the first reason of this what diversity, right?

[58:00] Because the preparation for grace is not in man, except in so far as his free will is prepared by what God. Whence the first cause, on the prima causa. Thomas is looking for the order of what cause, yeah, yeah. Whence the first cause of this diversity should be taken on the side of God Himself, who, in diverse ways, right, dispenses the gifts of His grace. Why, in order that from these diverse what grades, the beauty and perfection of the Church might what arise.

[58:44] Just as also He what instituted diverse grades of things that the universe might be what perfect, huh? Yeah. Whence the apostle in the epistle to the Ephesians, huh? In chapter four, after he had said, "To each one is given grace according to the measure of the giving of Christ." That's the thing he was quoted and said sed contra. Having enumerated the diverse graces, adds to the consummation of the saints in the building up of the body of what Christ.

[59:24] Just as you compare it to the human body, right, where the eye might have a better what than the ear, right, you know. Sometimes you know you're looking at somebody's eyes and they're really interesting eyes, right? You know, you don't know if the ear is interesting. The ear is not as interesting, you know. And the different parts of the body, right? Huh? Some have more excellence than the others, right?

[59:49] If the body was all the same, it would just a whole bunch of eyes. It would be it would be horrible to look at, right? huh? Now, it's interesting, how? In which Thomas, you know, points out how the higher creatures, you know, help to perfect the lower creatures, right? And this is to share in what a likeness to God, right? Huh? If we're all equal, right? Huh? And I couldn't learn from you, and you couldn't learn from me.

[1:00:37] We all equally knew just as much, right? Neither one of us knew more than the other. Then we couldn't what? Couldn't be like God, right? See? Couldn't so it'd be perfection missing in the universe, right?

[1:01:00] That's what Father Hardin says that's why there's different religious communities. Yeah. Different perfections, for example. Yeah. So it's interesting, huh? I know. Sir Thomas was take was talking about the beauty of the universe as being an effect of the divine wisdom. You know, the altitude of creatures by his power, but the beauty of it by his wisdom. It's interesting, right? Huh? The beauty is tied up more with what orders is is an aspect of beauty, right?

[1:01:35] Huh? A well arranged thing is beautiful, right? Composition of a painting, or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know these paintings. Remember, at the whole painting was dark, and the whole painting was light. Right? It would not be as beautiful, right? Yeah. Beam of light, you know, flashing to help it or something, you know. Yeah, it looks interesting, right? You know, they say that just even making furniture sometimes they'll you make just a little bit of a line down the edge, and they'll say this way it'll catch light.

[1:02:18] It'll make it more interesting. It'll catch your eye. Yeah. Detail So God hates equalities. Kasurik says, huh? Here we go. It's weird. Describing things. If they had ever made him a bishop. That would be his model. Yeah.

[1:02:50] But you know, these girls are not equally beautiful, right? And the poor girl is not very good looking, you know. Nobody's asking her to dance, and she's bored and she's hurt. She's got a better heart. Yeah, yeah, I know, I know, but I mean, you know.

[1:03:06] It's not fair, you know. You just can't can't. All's fair in love and war. Yeah, yeah. I wonder about some of these guys. People aren't, you know, very good at learning, you know, and it's often frustrating to go through school. You know, they just can't get it. You know,

[1:03:29] and only that's one of her sons. It's got a lot of trouble at school. You know, she got him through a pretty high quality school, and that suggests, well, maybe he's better with his hands than what he wants to do. And she says, "Yeah, he talks about he wants to build this and build this. "

[1:03:47] Remember, my father told me about one of his business friends. You know, had all these hopes for his son. You know, and he got him into from Minnesota. He got him into Amherst, which is kind of prestigious, you know, school. You know, and so, well, of course, he flunked out of Amherst, right? He wasn't suitable at Amherst. He wasn't suitable for college at all, right? So he comes back, and you know, semi-disgraced, so to speak.

[1:04:07] And I said, "What do you really want? " He wanted a filling station, you know, gasoline station, right? Okay, so his father was a wealthy man, so of a filling station. Now he's, yeah, happy. Yeah, I mean, yeah.

[1:04:26] Yeah. So God, is not very democratic, it seems to me. No, No He's not a Democrat Okay Now