Speculating speculative speculations… Oh, mother.
Let me tell you that the thought of Saint Thomas, because it is based on the Bible, Tradition and Magisterium, as well as on the realism of the philosophy of being, is expressed in a language very clear and precise, which communicates to us the veritatis splendor.
To conclude this great question, I will briefly examine it in the doctrine of some saints.
Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-74) was born to a noble family in the castle of Roccasecca, in the province of Naples, in the kingdom of Sicily. Educated as a Benedictine Oblate (1230-1239), he entered the Order of Preachers and studied in Naples, Paris and Cologne, where he had Saint Albert the Great as a teacher. He was above all a religious saint, of the highest contemplative prayer. And always starting from Scripture, the Fathers and the Councils, he achieved, with the help of Aristotelian philosophy, conveniently evangelized, a wonderful philosophical and theological synthesis.
For centuries the Popes have recommended adhering to their magisterium. This is also what the council ordered Vatican II (O.T. 16). And in 1983 the Code of Canon Law He ordered that dogmatic theology, founded on the Bible and Tradition, be studied “mainly having Saint Thomas as a teacher” (c.252,3). That’s why he’s called the Doctor. common, because it extends its light to all Catholic schools of thought. The iconography of the Doctor angelic He usually places the sun of the Eucharist on his chest, the center of his doctrine and devotion. Canonized in 1323, he was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1567, and Patron of Catholic universities and study centers in 1880.
God’s Universal Causation, “in whom we live, move and exist” (Acts 17:28) both in the natural and supernatural order, it is undoubtedly one of the most important truths of reason and faith, and one of the most ignored by Christians today (Catechism318). He moves the stars in their orbits, makes plants grow, gives life and movement to animals, and, of course, gives being, life and movement to men, his most precious creatures in the visible world.
Saint Thomas: «God is properly in all things the cause of being itself as such, which is in them the most intimate of everything, and therefore God works in the most intimate of all things” (Summa TheologiaeI,105,5). «In any kind of causes, the first cause is more of a cause than the second, since the second cause is not a cause but moved by the first cause… Therefore, the supreme Agent acts all the actions of the lower agents, moving them all to their own actions» (Contra Gentiles 3,17). Thus, “we not only receive from God the virtue of willing [free will], but also the operation. God is therefore the cause in us not only of the will, but also of its willing» (ib. 3,84). It seems evident that that which “does not have by itself the being, nor does it have on its own the power to act» (In Sent. d.37, q.2 ad 2). And if this is obvious on the natural level, a fortiori It is on the supernatural plane.
God saves us with habitual grace and always assists us with his actual graces. In no way do men, in our free acts, exclude ourselves from the causality of God, which is universal.
«To live rightly, man needs a double help [from God]. On the one hand, a habitual gift [grace sanctifying] by which the fallen nature is restored and, thus restored [healed and elevated], is capable of doing meritorious works of eternal life, which exceed the possibilities of nature. And on the other hand, it needs the help of grace [actual] to be moved by God to act…since no created being can produce any act except by the virtue of divine motion» (STh I,109,9). Therefore, “the action of the Holy Spirit, through which he moves and protects us, is not limited to the effect of the habitual gift [sanctifying grace, virtues and gifts], but also moves us and protects together with the Father and the Son” (I,105,5 ad 2m). This doctrine expresses the teaching of the Bible and the Councils, as we already saw (61 and 68), in which it is stated that It is God who always works in us and with us to will and to do good., and that it is grace that causes the obedience of our will (Phil 2:13; Indiculus, c. 6; Orange II, c. 6;Trent sess. 6,16). Molina’s teaching, therefore, does not seem compatible with this teaching, according to which, once instilled in the habit of grace, “the general help of God is sufficient to carry out supernatural acts of faith”, hope and charity (Concordia q.14, a.13, resp.8).
The motion of God does not suppress the freedom of man, but rather causes and activates it.. Sin is possible, resistance to grace, to the extent that God allows it. And man’s docility to grace is a free and meritorious act assisted by grace. Therefore, as Trent teaches, “it cannot be said that the man himself does nothing at all when receiving that inspiration, since you can also reject it; but nor without the grace of God can it move, by his free will, to be righteous before Him” (ses.6, 5). Saint Thomas says: «God does not justify us without us, because through the movement of freedom, while we are justified, we consent to the justice of God. However, that movement is not the cause of grace, but its effect. And therefore the entire operation belongs to grace” (I-II,111, 2 ad 2m).
And here he explains it further: «Free will is the cause of its own movement, since man moves himself to act by his free will. Now, freedom does not necessarily require that the free subject be the first cause of itself; nor is it required for one cause to be the cause of another that it be its first cause. God is the first cause that moves both natural causes [not free], as to voluntary causes [free]. And just as moving natural causes does not prevent their acts from being natural, so moving voluntary causes does not prevent their actions from being voluntary [that is, free], but rather makes them so, since He works in each creature according to its own way of being» (I,83,1 ad 3m).
Grace is efficacious by itself, intrinsically. The shift from traditional, biblical Christian theocentrism to modern anthropocentrism leaves most Christians ignorant of this great truth. How many times do believers, psychologically, perceive themselves today as if they were the cause of their being, or as if they were at least the cause of their own actions.
This is what Leonardo Leys, S.J., Lessius (1554-1623), professor in Leuven, a pure Molinist, thought, for whom the yes or no of the will to grace “is born from the choice alone of freedom, and not from the diversity of the “prevenient help” of grace (“ex sola libertate illud discrimen oritur, ita ut non ex diversitate auxilii prævenientis») (De gratia efficaci). If this were the case, human freedom is what would make divine grace effective.
The teaching of Scripture and the Councils, already recalled (61 and 68), assures us that it is not the autonomous act of freedom that gives efficacy to grace, but, as it says Trent, is “Christ Jesus, as head over the members, who continuously (iugiter) influences his virtue [grace] on the justified, a virtue that always precedes his good works, accompanies them and follows them” (Sess. 6,16). Otherwise the divine Cause, first and universal, would not also be the first cause of the free act of man, would not produce all being and all the differences of being. And the free human act, the most precious thing in the created universe, would be removed from it, and would only have its cause in man. Which is a very serious philosophical and theological error.
I quote two Doctors of the Church. Saint Robert Bellarmine, S. J. (1542-1621), as we already saw (62), condemns as a great error to think that “the effectiveness of grace is constituted by human assent and cooperation.” And Saint Alphonsus Mary Liguori (1696-1787) also affirms the existence of “the intrinsically efficacious grace with which we infallibly, though freely, do good… It cannot be denied that Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas have taught the doctrine of the efficacy of grace by itself and by its own nature” (Treatise on Prayer…II p., cp. IV).
The Dominican Billuart (1685-1757), points out the various theological explanations of this reality, and concludes: “but that grace is efficacious by itself and intrinsically, we Thomists teach it as a theological dogma closely connected with the principles of faith…, and with us all the schools, with the exception of the Molinist one” (De Deo, dis. VIII, a.5). Father Ch. Baumgartner, S. J.: “whenever we act well, the ultimate reason is not human choice, but divine election and predilection… If the grace of God is effective, the ultimate reason for this effectiveness cannot come from the consent of man, but from the will and love of God” (The grace of Christ, Herder, Barcelona 1968, 371, 396).
Only God can infallibly move and change human freedom without violating it.. “The heart of the king, like a stream of water, is in the hands of God, who can direct it wherever he wants” (Prov 21:1). Scripture, the Councils, the Liturgy teach this truth with great frequency, specifically in prayers of petition.
However, “some, who do not understand how God can cause the motion of the will in us without injuring the freedom of the will, misinterpret [these teachings of Scripture], understanding that God causes in us to will and to act insofar as he causes in us the virtue of willing [virtutem volendi, the will], but not insofar as makes us want that or the other… These evidently resist the teaching of the Holy Scriptures. Isaiah says: “You work in us, Lord, everything that we do” (26:12). Therefore, not only do we have from God the virtue of the will, but also the will” (Contra Gentiles 3,84). «God, without a doubt, moves the will immutably, by the effectiveness of his motor force; but by the nature of the moved will, which is open to various actions, a necessity is not imposed on it, but remains free” (De malo 6 ad 3m).
This causal action of God in human freedom is unique. “Only God can move the will as an agent without violating it” (Contra Gentiles 3,88); «only God can bend the will, changing it from this to that, according to his will” (De veritate 22,9). That is why when we ask in the liturgy, “move, Lord, the hearts of your children” (Sun. 34, Ord. Time), we do not beseech him to violate our personal freedom, but by his grace to free it from its captivities, and in this way “we may freely carry out his will” (ib. 32).
God does not love all men equally. And if someone is holier, it is because they have been more loved by God.. It is evident that creatures exist because God loves them: “You love everything that exists, and you hate nothing that you have done, for you did nothing out of hatred” (Wis 11:25). It is also evident that among created beings, specifically among men, there are some better than others, there are some who have more goods than others. And where does it come from that some people are so much better than others? Of the love of God. God does not love all men equally. And if one is more good, it is because he has been more loved by God..
I remember a previous beginning. The love of God is very different from the love of creatures. Their love is caused by the goods of the loved object: “the will of man is moved [to love] by the good that exists in things” or people. On the contrary, “from any act of God’s love follows a good caused to the creature” (STh I-II,110, 1).
God’s love is infinitely free, it is a love that diffuses his own goodness: God loves because He is good. Thus light illuminates by its own luminous nature, not by the condition of the illuminated objects. And God loving creatures, causes in them all the good that may be in them. Consequently, if all men to some extent have received goods from God, those who have received more and greater goods owe them all to a greater love of God towards them.
The saints, in their autobiographies, frequently give grateful testimony of this great truth, and to God they attribute all the good that they have, which is certainly much greater than that of other men. “The Lord has done wonders for me” (Luke 1:49). «Who is it that makes you preferable? What do you have that you have not received?… Thank God I am what I am” (1 Cor 4:7; 15:10).
Therefore, God does not love a person more because he or she is more perfect and holy, but this person is more holy and perfect because he or she has been more loved by God.. This truth is constantly proclaimed in Scripture. In it shines the special love of God for his chosen people, Israel, “the least” of all peoples (Dt 7,6-8); for Mary, making her immaculate before she was born; by Christians, “chosen of God, holy, beloved” (Col 3:12); by “the beloved disciple”, etc. That is why Saint Thomas teaches that,
«by the act of willGod does not love some things more than others, because he loves everything with a single and simple act of will, which never varies. But on the part of the good that is wanted for what is loved, in this sense we love more the one for whom we want greater good, even if the intensity of the love is the same… Thus, it is necessary to say that God loves some things more than others, because as his love is the cause of the goodness of beings, there would not be some better than others if God had not wanted greater goods for the first than for the second” (SThI,20, 3). This is a fundamental theological principle, which the holy Doctor applies to the mystery of predestination (I,23, 4-5) and to his entire theology of grace (I-II,109-114).
There are many Christians who today ignore these great truths, since they are almost never preached to them. And that’s why they are disconcerted when they hear them. But a Christian who barely knows them knows poorly, very poorly, the mystery of God and his grace. He barely understands the supernatural wonder of the Christian life.
Author: Fr. José María Iraburu
