Tertia Pars
37. Christ's Power over His Body and His Will (ST III q.13 a.3–4), with Digressions on 'the Way, the Truth, and the Life' and God as the End of Understanding Creatures
Class of 2009-04-02
https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/13-tertia-pars/037-christs-power-over-his-body-and-his-will-st-iii-q-13-a-3/

[0:00] The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. God our enlightenment. Guardian angels strengthen the lights of our minds, ward and illumine our images, and arouse us to consider more correctly. Saint Thomas Aquinas, angelic doctor, help us to understand all that you've

[0:20] written. I was reading the Catena Aurea there in John. You may be aware of the fact that both Augustine, St. Augustine, and Saint Thomas say that there can be more than one sense of the letter in Scripture. And so I come to these words of Christ: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." And usually, explanation I give is the one from Thomas. It fits the context.

[0:59] You know where you're going and how you're going to get there, right? And so Thomas will say, "Well, as God, He's truth itself and life itself, and that's the end or the goal. As man, He's the way to Himself as God, and therefore, as man, He's the road. He quotes that in the beginning of the Tertia Pars, right? About Christ, who, as man, is the Via, the road, the way attending to God.

[1:27] But as I say, I've seen those same words understood in other ways too. And so I remember, for example, in the Catena Aurea Thomas quotes Theophylact, Theophylactus, huh, and he says, "Well,

[1:45] the way refers to the practical life, the active life, you could say, and truth, the contemplative life, right? Of course, life is what's common to these two, right? So I got thinking about about these words, huh? And

[2:04] could you tap these words of Christ there with the end of the Gospel of Matthew? He sends the apostles forward, right? And he says, "Make disciples or students of all nations, " and that refers to what faith, right? Baptizing them the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and then teaching them whatever I commanded you, right? Okay. Well, thought a little bit what Theophylactus says there.

[2:33] You'd say, "Well, he says I am the road. " He's referring to that third part of what is at the end of Matthew. Well, he says truth. Well, you want truth in the church, you go primarily to the creed, and so that's the first part, disciples of all nations, huh? But if you want life, see, it seems the church would go most of all to the sacraments, right?

[2:58] And especially baptism and the Eucharist, and but if you've got moral sin, you might go to confession and get back some life and so on. So you think of life in terms of sacraments, huh? So it fits those those three, huh?

[3:19] You know, in the catechism of the Catholic Church, first came out. We had that. I forget his name now, but the Monsignor there from New York who's very much into it. I forget his name, but very nice man. Manuel Ram. Yeah, yeah. Did he just die? He might have. Yeah. But he was there at Assumption, right? And so and so, I was there, and I was in a group and had asked some questions.

[3:43] So I said, my usual visit about three and four, right? Why don't they follow? You know what Augustine does, and then Catechism of Trent and Thomas and the catechetical instructions. Faith opens charity. Why do you have these four instead of three, right? I have thought about this before, anyway. I had tried to do various things. So he thought for a while, and he says, "He says, I don't know."

[4:07] So I invited him to say that. But here you could tie up the first three. The first three parts of the catechism are exactly the order of the end of John's, I mean, of Matthew's Gospel, right? You have the creed, right, the first part. Then you have the sacraments, the second part. liturgy. and the third part you have, but call it call moral theology. You know, the end of man, but virtuous and vicious, and so on.

[4:37] So you have exactly those three, which you could tie up with "I am the way, the truth, and the life," although the order is different, right? And then you might divide against those three the way prayer is given fourth and last, right? Because you pray in order to believe, huh? I believe, help my unbelief, you know. And you pray in order to what, like we do here, to understand better what you believe.

[5:01] And obviously, you pray in preparation for the sacraments and and after them, and so on. And you obviously pray to get God's help to do His will. And so you could divide that fourth part against the other three, but the distinction of the three according to the end of Matthew's Gospel, right? But he's not here to talk with Manuel Ram, so so pass on. But beautiful text in there.

[5:33] Beautiful text in Augustine there, you know. Why there's no envy in heaven? Beautiful in the Catena Aurea but in terms primarily perfection of charity, right? So I rejoice for the clarity which you see things, right? And you see it more clearly than me, right? You know, I rejoice in the clarity of your vision because I love you so much. And it's so different from this, you know, world where we're so used to to to envy, huh?

[6:01] I was reading the Catholic World report there, you know, and I guess they're correcting this Jesuit again. What's his name? Hite? Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. He seems to be on everything. He's got problems, but even the title was book, you know, Jesus, symbol of God. That sounds awfully, awfully fishy, right? But he was the head of the Catholic Theological Society at one time, huh? So you wonder what's going on out there sometimes.

[6:29] It's an absurdity. Yeah, yeah, precisely. It's a crazy section in San Francisco, Hite Ashbury. Oh yeah. I couldn't help it. It makes me read this article and seeing something about the drug thing there in Haight Ashbury. But anyway, well, I guess we're up to Article Three here, Question Thirteen: Whether the soul of Christ had omnipotence with regard to his own what body, right, huh?

[7:02] To the third, he go one goes forward. Thus, it seems that the soul of Christ would have omnipotence with regard to his own what body.

[7:15] For Damascene says in the third book that all natural things were for Christ what voluntary things. For willing he what was hungry, willing he was what thirsty, willing he feared, willing he died, right?

[7:36] But from this, God is said to be omnipotent; that everything he wants, he does, huh? Therefore, it seems that the soul of Christ had omnipotence with regard to the natural doings of his own what body, huh?

[7:57] Moreover, in Christ more perfectly was human nature than was in Adam. In whom, according to original justice, that he had instead of innocence, his body was entirely subject to his soul, so that nothing could happen in his body against the will of his soul. Therefore, much more did the soul of Christ have omnipotence in respect to his own body, huh?

[8:30] And third, moreover, to or as result of the imagining of the soul, naturally the body is what changed, huh? And the more, the more the soul is of strong imagination, as has been had in the first part, as has been spoken about. But the soul of Christ had the most perfect power, both as regards imagination and as the other powers. Therefore, the soul of Christ was omnipotent with respect to his own body.

[9:07] Can I tell you about that mountain in Wales? I was reading a little thing about Wales, and there are a lot of different legends about the mountains in Wales. You know, things where the evil spirits gather to elect their leader, and so on. But there's one mountain where, if you sleep on this mountain at night time, you'll wake up in one of three conditions: either you'll be blind, or you'll be mad, or you'll be a poet.

[9:44] I was struck by that, right? Between the extremes. Yeah. Yeah. Because we speak of the lover as being what blind, because he works out his imagination rather than his senses, and Homer represents the poet as being blind. And the legend is that Homer himself was blind, but I don't think that necessarily meant that he really was blind, but because he's not the eyewitness of the Trojan War, but it's all in his what imagination.

[10:16] And then the madman, of course, is working out his imagination. So Shakespeare, you know, says in the middle of the Summer Night's Dream, you know, the what lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact, and see that likeness there. huh? My notes at home I got from one of the novelists, so she says strictly speaking, the novelist is mad, right? When he's writing, and she's writing.

[10:45] So, so the imagination can actually what affect the what the body, and something horrible you can almost shiver, right? But against this is what is said in Hebrew two verse seventeen that he ought to be likened in all things to his what brothers, right? And especially in those things which belong to the condition of human nature. But to the condition of human nature it belongs that the well-being of the body and its nourishment and growth are not subject to the command of reason or the will.

[11:33] Does Christ say, "Well, if you want to add a cubit, you know. Yeah, you can't. You can't do it. Yeah, that was before hair coloring.

[11:46] Because natural things are subject only to God, who is the what author of nature, right? Therefore, neither should they be what subject to Christ and his will reason his will, reason. Therefore, the soul of Christ is not omnipotent with respect to his own body.

[12:13] I answer it should be said, Thomas says, but as has been said. Uh I I got a student who's who's actually teaching down in Texas now, but he writes me asking me philosophical questions, right? And he addressed me as Brother Thomas. Then he sent me another email. said Excuse me so for calling Brother Thomas, but it was kind of funny. I had these two emails, you know, the same the same question.

[12:39] You know, the first one was addressed to me as Brother Thomas. So I should make some joke about it. I mean, quite a compliment to be called Brother Thomas. It's always getting his Brother Thomas for me, so. I answer it should be said, as has been said, that the soul of Christ can be considered in two ways. In one way, according to its own what power in nature, and in this way, just as he was not able to change outside bodies from the course and order of nature, so he was not able to what change his own body from its natural disposition,

[13:34] because the soul, by its own nature, has a what determined ratio to its own what body. Thomas used the word proportion for what ratio, right? We'll forgive him for that.

[13:55] But that's kind of common in modern speech. In another way, one can consider the soul of Christ according as it is a tool united to the Word of God in person,

[14:12] and thus to His power wholly is subject every disposition of His own body, because the virtue of action is not properly attributed to the tool, but to the chief what agent. So it's chiefly Michelangelo made the Pietà and, not his hammer and chisel. But he had something to do with it,

[14:43] so that such omnipotence is attributed more to the Word of God than to the what soul of Christ. So that's a distinction that Brother Thomas sees.

[15:03] What? Any chances that filled down No, no, I think it was. I remember the guy came. One of the guys. I remember the guy in Rome. There was one guy originally from Rome. One guy from Texas. Came Texas as a student. One of my former students. I mean, the son of one of my former students. Yeah. So that's kind of interesting. Small world, they say. Yeah. Um.

[15:29] Now the first objection was based on the text from Damascene, right? And to the first, therefore it should be said, excuse the word will there, that the word Damascene should be understood as regards the divine will of Christ. Huh. So Christ had what two wills, right? One in His human nature and one in His divine nature.

[15:57] Because as. For as he himself said in the foregoing chapter, right, he was permitted to the what pleasing of the divine will, that is what flesh suffer and undergo things that were what Proper to all, right. So doesn't scripture speak sometimes in the gospel there of Christ as disturbing himself, right, letting himself feel this anxiety about his coming death and so on? Yeah, yeah. Was kind of permission of his divine will.

[16:41] Now the second objection is taken from the power that Adam had over his body, right. So Thomas is going to talk about that, and he says this does not belong to original justice that Adam had in state of innocence, that the soul of man had the power of changing one's own body in any form whatsoever, right. But that he would be able to conserve it without what harm, and this power Christ was also able to assume if he what wanted to do.

[17:21] But since there are three statuses of man, of innocence of what guilt, and of glory, just as it belongs to the state of glory that one takes on what comprehension, and of the state of innocence immunity from sin, so in the state of guilt, one assumes the necessity of undergoing the penal things of this life, huh? Okay.

[17:53] Now the third objection is taken from the power of the imagination. To the third, therefore, it should be said that the imagination, if it were, it would be strong, naturally the body obeys as regards what some things, huh? For example, Damascene tells us this thing, example, the guy walking on the stick, right?

[18:25] Falling off a limb or something, right, or or placed on high, right, huh? So it was right down the ground. You could do it, right, without anything, but up high you probably fall off, being scared. Because imagination is apt to be the beginning or source of change of place, huh? Locomotion, As is said in the third book about the soul. Likewise, as regards the alteration of the body according to heat and what cold, huh, and other things falling upon that, in that from the imagination.

[19:05] They are naturally apt to follow the passions of the soul, according to which the heart is moved. So there's actually a Connection between the poet and the imagination, right? And thus, through the commotion of the spirits, the whole body is what altered.

[19:27] Now, spirits there doesn't mean spirit, as opposed to body, right? But the very fine things I could say, electricity and so on. First, I want Thomas to talk about that.

[19:41] But other dispositions of the body that do not have a natural order to imagination are not changed by imagination, no matter how strong it might be. As, example, the shape of the hand or the foot, right, or something similar, right. Thomas will argue. You know, he's talking about the understanding of the angels, that their understanding is above us, right? And therefore, their understanding must be above the imagination, because Aristotle points out in the third book about the soul that we don't understand in this life when our soul is in the body, right?

[20:43] Without turning to the what images, huh? So, when you think about what a man is, we imagine a man. We think about what a triangle is, we imagine a triangle, right? And therefore, it's hard to think about the soul or think about an angel or God because you can't imagine these things.

[21:11] Okay. So we'll go on to Article Four here. Whether the soul of Christ had omnipotence in regard to the what carrying out of its own will, right? To the fourth, one goes forward. Thus, it seems that the soul of Christ did not have omnipotence with respect to the what execution of

[21:45] its own will. Yeah, not like the carrying out, right? Forget that terrible word execution. Carrying out the sentence, huh? For he said in Gospel Saint Mark chapter seven that what, having entered the house, he wished no one to what know, but is not able to what right. Therefore, he is not able to carry out in all things the proposal of his will.

[22:29] Moreover, precept or command is a sign of the will, as is said in the first part. But the Lord commanded some things to be done, of which the contrary is what happened, huh? For he said in Matthew nine that he warned those what blind that had been enlightened by him, see that what knows, but they going out spread. His fame through the whole land. It happened several times in the Gospel right?

[23:03] I wonder whether he meant, really to be. None ergo, not therefore, in all things was he able to what carry out the proposal of his own will.

[23:18] Moreover, that which someone is not able, one is able to do, one does not ask for from another. But the Lord asked from the Father in praying, that which He wished to come about. For it said in Luke six that He went in up into the mountain to pray, and He was what praying all the night.

[23:41] Therefore, there could not be carried out in all things the proposal of His what will. But against this is what Augustine says in the book of Questions of the New and Old Testament. huh?

[23:59] These guys say with the scriptures, huh? It is impossible that the will of the Savior not be what fulfilled. Nor is it able for him to will something that he knows ought not to what come about.

[24:22] Well, Thomas is doing this now. He really gets himself into a lot of trouble, seems to me. It's like some kids always getting into trouble. Thomas is always getting into some difficulty that he's got to resolve. I answer it should be said that the soul of Christ is able or willed something in what two ways, right? In one way, as being to to be fulfilled to himself, huh?

[24:54] They say. And thus it should be said that whatever he willed, he was what able to do. For it would not be suitable to his wisdom that he wished something to do by himself that was not subject to his what will, huh? Another way he willed something to be fulfilled by divine power, as the what resuscitation of his own body. Another miraculous works of this sort, which he was not able to do by his own what power, but according as it was a tool of his what divinity.

[25:44] I think in the Tenorium they speak of the body of Christ, right? Taking on the soul again after his death, huh? In resurrection, but in so far as it's a tool of the what divinity, huh?

[26:03] Yeah, because sometimes it says he rose, sometimes it says he was raised. Yeah, yeah. I mean, did the soul grab the body and take it to itself again, or did the body? Always interesting. Yeah, I don't know. I see another way of speaking. You know,

[26:22] whichever took on whichever one, or both, or was he as a tool of the divinity? Both are tools. What? Both are tools. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They both mean united to the person.

[26:44] Now we got this text from Mark seven. I guess got to go to Augustine. It's a good move. This is Ambrosiaster, isn't one of them actually awesome?

[27:06] Okay, to the first, therefore, it should be said. As Augustine says in the book about the questions of the New and Old Testament, that what was done, one should say that Christ what, willed it. huh?

[27:31] It should be noted, however, that what in the end was done with the Gentiles, right, to whom there was not yet the time of what preaching to them,

[27:50] but further not to receive those coming to the faith would be of what envy. From his own, therefore, he did not what preached, but he what. did he saw saw.

[28:13] And thus it was done. That's very obscure, isn't it? Or it can be said that this will of Christ was not about that which was to be done through him, but about that which was to be done through others. Whence in the epistle of Agathon, which was received in the sixth what synod, I guess my text says the Council of Constantinople number three.

[28:49] Therefore, the what maker of all things and the Redeemer, wishing to hide in the earth, he was not able. Unless this to the what to his human will right.

[29:08] It reduced to his human will, which in time he was what? Yeah. What is he talking about? Then is he saying that when Christ could not be seen by his enemies, this was done through his what? Divine power, rather than through his own what? Human will.

[29:37] Hmm. It sounds like when he couldn't hide, that was because it was under his human will, right? Yeah, but but his human will would not be able to do this without being a tool of his divine will.

[29:58] Although I read, you know, that in the next slide. Life we're supposed to be able to hide from others if we want to, to be seen or not be seen, by others, right? But, uh...

[30:13] Of course, the way the re- the the, the, uh, on the road to Emmaus there, you know, they don't recognize him, and Mary Magdalene doesn't recognize him at first, right?

[30:25] What power does he make himself unrecognizable? So when the crowd wanted to throw him off the cliff, he always he can elude. Who passed through them? Yeah. The crowd that can he makes himself invisible, right?

[30:43] No, Sherlock Holmes had disguised himself, right, and goes someplace, and all of a sudden, you know, Watson's, looking around for him and else, all of a sudden he realizes that there's some word that. makes them worried that this is really Sherlock Holmes. Just like Saint Athanasius, the heretics were looking for him, sailing up the Nile to get away from him, and they were sailing down the Nile looking for him, and they hollered over, "Have you seen that heretic Athanasius?

[31:13] I hold the opinion that he's not far away." Oh, they went. What about these people he cured that didn't obey his injunction to keep quiet about it?

[31:45] To the second, it should be said, that as Gregory says in the nineteenth book of the morals, through this that the Lord commanded for them to be silent about his powers, huh?

[32:04] He gave an example to his servants following him. That the that they what should desire to what hide their own powers, right? And nevertheless, that others might profit from their example, right? He what? I guess that they'd be handed on or told about, even though unwillingly.

[32:34] Yeah. Thus, therefore, that precept or command designates the will of him by which he refused human glory, according to that of John eight. I do not seek my glory.

[32:54] He wished, however, absolutely, especially according to his divine will. That the miracle done might be what published on account of the utility or usefulness of this to others.

[33:12] So, his divine will wished something, and his human will wished something else. You got to be careful about that. Or maybe one is ordered to the other. Yeah, but the human will was wanting to what not pursue human glory, right? Well, maybe he didn't. His human will he didn't necessarily wish that it not be known, but that he didn't seek for himself to look for glory. Yeah.

[33:43] So, so not necessarily contrary. Yeah, I want to give this example to us, those who follow him. Right, be kind of careful, though. You don't have the two wills in opposition here.

[33:57] Okay. The third, it should be said, that Christ prayed for those things which are to be done through his what divine power, right? And for those also which were to be done by his what human will, because the power and operation of the soul of Christ depended upon God, who does in all willing and what perfecting, right? It's said in Philippians 2.

[34:42] Without me, you can do nothing. Grace says elsewhere. Now, there's a little break here between thirteen and fourteen, so I'm making a little pause here right now, because now he's going to take up the what defects, right? So we go back here to the division here.

[35:29] Go back to the proemium there at the beginning of question seven, right? After showing what Christ has taken on the human body and the human soul, right? Then he considers about the-assumptis, right? Taken on with, so to speak, right? By the Son of God in human nature, huh? And then the division into two, and first about those things which belong to perfection, right? Secondly, about those things which belong to what defect?

[36:06] So he took on with the human body and human soul certain imperfections of grace and what knowledge and power. We just completed about power in this question here, that threefold division, right? And now he's going to take on the what defects that he took on, right?

[36:26] But just look at the proemium before we take a little break here. Then when I consider about the defects which Christ took on human nature, and first about the defects of the body, that of course we all have in mind, right? But secondly about the defects of the soul, It was shocking He should have that as well as the body.

[36:50] Yeah, it was at one time, wasn't it? China. Yeah, I notice he's got ten articles in that question fifteen about the defects of the soul. Only four here about the body, so that's a shocking, shocking revelation.

[37:19] Question fourteen, fifteen, defects. I don't see anything about this guy. He's really thorough. I was reading question chapter twenty-five with the third book of the Summa Contra Gentiles this morning, right? And the way Thomas divides this third book, it's about Christ as the end. And so he takes up first of all, Christ is the end of all things. I mean, God is the end of all things, right?

[38:07] And then his providence, right, over all things, and his special providence over us, right. But that first part, up until about chapter twenty four, is showing that God is the end of all things, and then chapter twenty five, I was starting to read this morning, is talking about how He's the end of all what understanding creatures, right?

[38:32] So, I know what my this class is for, and I know what my classes are for, and I know what my ballpoint pen is for, and my knife and my fork and my spoon are for. What am I for? You know, and of course you find out that it's to understand God, right? But Thomas has ten arguments, right? So I was thinking gee how is he going to show us by ten different arguments?

[39:02] It's beautiful what he does, you know. But you know, when I come back to from the first part before that, you know, when Thomas explains what way God is in the universe, was not that God is in some way achieved by the universe. It's not that he gets anything from the universe, right? What sense then is he in the end of the universe, huh?

[39:33] Well, it's that everything else is trying to be like him, so far as it can, right? You have to admire those old pagans there, Plato and Aristotle, because they both say when they're talking about reproduction in the animals and in the plants, for that matter, that they're trying to be like God, to be as much like God as they can. Well, they can't be eternal or immortal like God is, as individuals, but they can get a kind of immortality, a kind of eternity by what reproducing their kind, right?

[40:13] And that's really beautiful that Plato and Aristotle saw that, and Thomas brings that out, right? That when we pursue anything that's good, it's good because in some way it's like God, whose goodness itself, so that we're ultimately pursuing what God, and so when you come back, you know, to those two reasons that Shakespeare gives using our reason, one that's godlike, right, and therefore we become like God in using our reason, but then

[40:50] the other reason that sure he who made us with such large discourse gave us not this capability and godlike reason to fust in us us and use, so God gave us reason to use, right? But now the two kind of get tied together, right? Because he wants us to use our reason, so we might be like what him, right? And Thomas, you know, in one of these arguments for the understanding God is being the in, right, man?

[41:21] He's saying, well, you're like God in having understanding or reason, huh? Like Shakespeare says, it's God-like, right? But he says you're even more like him when you actually understand something, because God actually understands, you know, and you're most of all like him when you understand God some way, huh? Because God understands everything, understands, understands Himself. So you can see, you know, how that's the end, right, to be as much like God as possible.

[41:53] Or in some way like God, we can begin to understand. Or more like them when we actually understand, and most of all when we actually understand Him. Then very much, you know, not very much, but as much as we can be, right, like Him, huh? Beautiful. I was thinking of Thomas this morning, saying, well, he sees God as he is now, right? Well, now tell me about this, Thomas.

[42:19] I said, at least pray for me that I get there. But Thomas has, you know, another argument there that our end is what we most love and desire and delight in. This is when a man knows something about God, he enjoys this and wants it more than all this other knowledge of other things, right? So this must be the end. And he's saying, well, Aristotle, you know, in Nicomachean Ethics, he's talking about how no man can live without pleasure and so on.

[43:03] But men who have never tasted the higher pleasures, right, they often go to excess in the lower pleasures. And you know, a lot of times you see even with these intermediary pleasures, like the pleasures of good music, right? This crazy stuff people listen to now—it's not really music. I don't know what it is, but they can't appreciate those higher things. So you wonder with that particular argument, Thomas, you know, to a man who has no experience of thinking about God,

[43:39] would not strike him, right? You know, he's up often in the new newest computer thing, whatever it is, right? But it counts to give it, Thomas. You know, the young student, you know, you say, you know, what is God? You know, from the very beginning, he's thinking about this, and he desired to think about this more than anything else. But even not too good a person, if you get exposed to thinking about God, say, "Hey, this is really interesting," you know, then you realize this must be the what, the end or goal, right, of our knowledge, because you enjoy thinking about God more than thinking about anything else.

[44:42] Beautiful, ten arguments, huh Beautiful. Yeah, I'll take a break here. now.